Written by: Amy Plum
Released: May 5, 2011 by HarperTeen
Summary: My life had always been blissfully, wonderfully normal. But it only took one moment to change everything.
Suddenly, my sister, Georgia, and I were orphans. We put our lives into storage and moved to Paris to live with my grandparents. And I knew my shattered heart, my shattered life, would never feel normal again. Then I met Vincent.
Mysterious, sexy, and unnervingly charming, Vincent Delacroix appeared out of nowhere and swept me off my feet. Just like that, I was in danger of losing my heart all over again. But I was ready to let it happen.
Of course, nothing is ever that easy. Because Vincent is no normal human. He has a terrifying destiny, one that puts his life at risk every day. He also has enemies . . . immortal, murderous enemies who are determined to destroy him and all of his kind.
While I'm fighting to piece together the remnants of my life, can I risk putting my heart—as well as my life and my family's—in jeopardy for a chance at love?
Ok, before I even start this review I’m going to warn you that there are going to be spoilers for the novel. So if you don’t want some of the story ruined, close this window and go here. The reason that I would be unable to write this without spoiling anything is that it would be so hard to write about the novel in general without bringing in details.
Let’s just dive right into the supernatural bit of this book. It’s different, I’ll give you that, and it strangely falls into the new zombie craze but with a twist. I thought that it was interesting how Plum combined the idea of ghost and zombie to create the “revenants” and the “numas” (the good and evil fractions of the same idea) and the explanations as to why they exist is new and rather genius. I mean, the combination of bodily regeneration and ability to move outside of the body while the person is essentially dead while “sleeping” is different and fascinating to read. I’m poorly describing it, but it’s cool.
I didn’t care for Kate as character. Actually, I wasn’t taken with any of the characters aside from Kate grandparents; they were just the type of older couple that I would want to be in when I’m a grandparent. I thought that Kate was clingy and whiney, her sister Georgia was stupid – not unintelligent but stupid (see the difference?) – and Vincent was creepy. I just wasn’t taken with any of them and my dislike almost made me stop reading.
The plot was interesting but not enough to keep my attention for long periods of time until later when the action really picks up. The story encompassing the death of Kate’s parents and the emotions that accompanied it was well written, but at some point I just wanted to flip the pages until it stopped focusing on how hermit-like Kate was and how all she did was go to museums and read in cafes. Even the introduction of Vincent and his crew didn’t speed things up until the second half of the novel. Sure, I was a little intrigued as to what was going on, but once that bit was established the story dragged back and forth for a while.
I guess in the end, the idea was fantastic but the execution wasn’t as great as it could be. In the end I did enjoy reading the novel and I do want to read the next one, but at the same time I’m pretty sure that it won’t be a huge travesty if I don’t. But this is a debut novel, and I would recommend giving it a try because I do think that a lot of people will like it more than I did. Overall I’m giving it a 5.5/10.
My thanks to netGalley and HarperTeen for allowing me the opportunity to read this e-ARC.
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