It's April and this is finally, my first book blogpost for the year (oh my gosh, that was long.). And my current blog background were inspired from the books I'm gonna talk about...

And guess which books kicked start to 2013 on my blog?! It's none other than the beautiful series about Revenants - Die for Me, Until I Die & the recent book 2.5 novella Die for Her by Amy Plum! (Spoilers warned on Die for Me, Until I Die & Die for Her.)

Revenant. 1. One that returns after a lengthy absence. 2. One who returns after death. [French, from present participle of revenir, to return]

Started and completed these 3 reads over the past 1.5 months, and let me say, I surely did not expect myself to be SO crazy over it and love it THAT much. Now that I'm done with the 3 reads, all I can do is to sit and wait patiently for If I Should Die - finale coming out in a couple of weeks, to which its been feeling like a year's wait.

The series tells the story about an ordinary girl, Kate Mercier, moving to Paris with her sister, Georgia, after the death of their parents in a car accident. And that is where she met Vincent, the male lead of the series along with others of his kind - meaning to say the revenants, the undead.

First of all, I'll start off by commenting on the books' setting in Paris, France. When I first saw that this book is gonna be set in Paris, the City of Light, I thought that mmm, it definitely is going to have its fresh take. Indeed, Amy Plum's description of the setting, all the different parts and places, and the way she incorporated the story, characters and everything with it is totally beautiful. While Paris always has it romantic touch, who would have imagine that it could have a dark side, that the undead(s) are residing there for centuries? If you think about it, it would have made you feel that Paris creepier than you thought. But for readers who adore the series, I'm sure everyone just love Paris even more after what Amy Plum does to it, because I do. ;)

The storyline and plot of this revenants series particularly drawn me in deep. This is the 3rd "undead" series that I've read, and by far, this is the one that had the storyline pulling and attracting me a lot more than the characters. I'm usually the "characters first, story later" person. But when it comes to the series this time around, the storyline was what attracted me most first. I can't comment enough on how awesome and great the story was - the history, the introduction, how Kate discovers the revenants, how she slowly got to learn more and more about it and meeting the revenants' world of dangers, the rivalry and action between the bardia and numa, it was all very well paced and developed throughout Die for Me to Until I Die. Every time you flip a page, new theories about the revenants are presented to you, and I have to stop myself from gasping as every mystery and doubt I have on my mind when I first started reading got resolved, and I slowly get thrown into that world too. All the revenants' theories are so in depth, so well-explained and so fitting, and I'm really impressed with the way Amy Plum presented them - especially the fact about the compulsion that all revenants have to sacrifice themselves over and over again to save humans' life, and about their re-animation. There was a really well mix of doubts, romance, theories, humour and actions. Not forgetting the plot twists - thrown in right at the exact point and caught me by surprise of what happened in there, in both book 1 and 2 but especially Until I Die. By the end of book 2, there were still SO many doubts and questions unanswered and of course that one MAJOR cliffhanger that totally keeps me pinning away for the 3rd book. I just can't stop thinking about and guessing what would happen in If I Should Die - which I'm sure Amy would have me caught by surprise a lot again. But it was all really well-planned for the trilogy, as Die for Me and Until I Die is just the ideal way you would want the first 2 books in a series to be.

Even though the storyline attracted me first than its characters, I've came to love the characters and their relationships in the book so much. They're just so realistic - with the mix of their own strengths and weaknesses. Kate - this girl is just one natural heroine in my opinion. Having just lost her parents, she hides herself in her own protective circle, being traumatize by death. When she met Vincent, though, everything changes. While she was still her protective self at first, she was slowly able to open up and really live again, as she spent more and more time with Vincent. For this I'm thankful to Vincent, as we got to see how awesome and brave Kate really is. She has finally came to the firm standing that she will not lose anyone she love again, and she'll do anything to protect her loved ones, and we really see how Kate actioned all these in Until I Die. She was so brave, searching on solutions for Vincent on her own because she doesn't want him to suffer from restraining to sacrifice and die, putting herself through possible dangers. And when she lost Vincent, she was still so strong and firm that she has to get him back, and to run back to Vincent's kindreds as shown in Die for Her. I really admire her strength, both physically and mentally, as well as her bravery, one true heroine. Vincent - an all time hero, having waiting a long time to meet Kate, I love how he's always putting Kate right infront of his priorities, always being so protective and caring. Whatever he does and whatever he goes through, he just wants to make sure that Kate is safe. The love was so so strong between them, more than his life itself.

Another character really worth mentioning, that I have to mention, is JULES. He is just sooooooo charming! Tell me now, who could resist his charm!? He was the first character I liked, despite his rudeness during the start of Die for Me. But when he started getting all proper and caring and nice to Kate, he really got me there. :) I suspected along both books that while Jules is the flirty him, he seemed to really have a thing and is different around Kate. And I was prove right when I read Die for Her, a novella that narrates book 1 and 2 from Jules' point of view. I just love Amy Plum for this novella! The development of how Jules slowly fall in love with Kate is just so so so well written. But at the same time, we see how Jules struggles to hide his feelings while maintaining his loyalty to his best friend, Vincent. He gets tired of hiding sometimes, but he never once intend to snatch Kate away. He wants the best for his best friend even if it meant himself hurting.

"He is her true love. She will never feel for me the way she does for him. But I will never stop loving her. And I have to learn to live with that."

It torn me apart to see Jules like that, finding the love of his life, but will not ever have her. He has to deserve so much better. The way Die for Her ends, when Jules had said about knowing what Vincent would want him to do... "Kate is my responsibility now. I must guard her with my life." I really can't wait to see how Jules would be in If I Should Die and how things are gonna play out for him!

And not forgetting Ambrose and Georgia. Ambrose is always so humourous and so ready to take on anyone, and not forgetting his big brother caring side for Kate, just so sweet! As for Georgia, she's really the best sister anyone could ever ask for. Despite Kate turning her down for events oftenly, she's still always there and ready to accept anything from her little sister. Being so able to accept the fact about the revenants, and so courageous to help Kate in investigating solutions and even fighting the revenants, she's just so supportive and loving. Of course, there're other characters like papy, mamie, and all the other revenants - charlotte, jean-baptise, gaspard, arthur are also all amazing in their own ways, really great characters! Love them all ;)

But if I were to go on, I will NEVER finish writing. SO I'm gonna stop! 1.5 hours on this blog post, that's insane. But I'm glad I've finally wrote out exactly how I felt so far about the series, and I'm literally counting down the days to IF I SHOULD DIE. Love everything in the previous 3 books, awesome storyline, great characters... enough to make me go crazy over them. Great job to Amy Plum! Really can't wait to see how amazing the finale would be - although I really can't bear for it to end. It is definitely gonna be a blast of an ending. Despite only starting this series 1.5 months ago, it felt like I've been through a lot with these characters and grew so attached to the revenants world. Even though I did not start the series together with Amy Plum and other supporters of the series, I'm glad and looking forward to being able to complete this series with everyone else!!! Let's anticipate! :)

xoxo