TGIF: Book Disappointments

Y'all! It is currently 53 degrees in New York!

53!!!!!

*happy dances* *prepares to bake many pumpkin-flavored things this weekend*

 Anyway, for this very cool Friday, Ginger at GReadsBooks has asked:

 Have you ever come across a book you were so stoked to read, but it failed miserably in your eyes?

Oh boy.

Well, the answer is very much yes. But, just because I didn't like it doesn't mean that it isn't someone else's favorite book in the whole entire universe and they think it's brilliant and awesome and perfect. So, keep that part in mind. And if I mention a book that you ADORE, feel free to berate me and/or defend the book in comments. :)

Die for Me by Amy Plum 
This book was very meh for me. I didn't love the main character OR her love interest and was far more interested in the supporting characters. However, if you are a Francophile, read this book for Plum's scene setting skills.But only do it if you have enough money to buy a spur-of-the-moment flight to Paris.

Wings by Aprilynne Pike
This is the book that taught me faeries are NOT my thing.

I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
If you ever want to hear/see me lose my ever-loving mind, ask me about James Frey. That being said, I read this book ANYWAY because my curiosity got the best of me. And while the story is compelling, I felt that there was far too much filler and that the story could have been cut down about a hundred pages or so.

The last four Pretty Little Liars books by Sara Shepard
WHYYYYY did they contract for eight books?! WHY?! They should have done it in six. Because there were definitely two whole books where all I could think was "I really don't care about any of this, just tell me WHO THE EFF A IS!!!!!" And now Shepard's writing four more. I really have no idea what they will be about. But TWELVE books is about six too many for a series. SRSLY.

The Carrie Diaries by Candance Bushnell
Like every other woman on the planet, I adored Sex and the City the TV series. And I really like Candace Bushnell's writing. So when I heard about the YA prequels Bushnell was writing, I FREAKED OUT. Because that was the part of the story I'd always wanted—how did these four very different women meet and become friends? But the first book was all about Carrie in high school and for the most part is was really really really REALLY boring. But it ended well. So I'm kind of curious to pick up the second book.

All right, those are the books I'm going to rag on. I hope everyone has plans to have a lovely lovely weekend! And if you're going to be at Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday, let me know on the Twitters! @bethanyelarson

TGIF is a weekly meme hosted by Ginger at GReadsBooks.

Review: Die for Me

Title: Die for Me
Author: Amy Plum
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 341
Release Date: May 10, 2011
Format: eGalley via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

In the City of Lights, two star-crossed lovers battle a fate that is destined to tear them apart again and again for eternity.

When Kate Mercier's parents die in a tragic car accident, she leaves her life—and memories—behind to live with her grandparents in Paris. For Kate, the only way to survive her pain is escaping into the world of books and Parisian art. Until she meets Vincent.

Mysterious, charming, and devastatingly handsome, Vincent threatens to melt the ice around Kate's guarded heart with just his smile. As she begins to fall in love with Vincent, Kate discovers that he's a revenant—an undead being whose fate forces him to sacrifice himself over and over again to save the lives of others. Vincent and those like him are bound in a centuries-old war against a group of evil revenants who exist only to murder and betray. Kate soon realizes that if she follows her heart, she may never be safe again.—Goodreads


Everything about this book is romantic: the setting (Paris), the boy (Vincent), and even the concept of revenants (people who died saving someone else and now spend their undead lives continually saving other people) is deeply, desperately romantic.

Unfortunately, I'm not a very romantic kind of girl. 

While author Amy Plum does a fantastic job of setting scenes and tone—so much so that I was sitting there thinking OMG SEND ME TO PARIS NOW NOW NOW (There's a scene involving a tarte tatin that had me looking up the nearest French patisserie/boulangerie to me. Thank God I live in NYC.)—I wasn't really in love with her characters. The main character, Kate, is a bit of an emotional mess. It makes sense—girl lost both of her parents and then was whisked away to Paris to live with her grandparents—but she honestly spends the majority of the book crying, and not just because she is grieving her parents. I really tried to be sympathetic. I even tried being empathetic. Neither worked. I mostly just wanted to shake her and tell her to stop crying. (Lesson of the day: I am a heartless bitch.)


The love interest in the story, Vincent, isn't much better. Yes, he's romantic, and yes, he's all kinds of paranormal-sexy, and really sweet to Kate, but the instalove is super intense. Like. Twilight intense. And he does that Edward Cullen thing where instead of letting Kate into his life and explaining the dark, complicated parts to her, Vincent tries to keep her on the outside because that is "going to protect her." That got on my nerves too.

But! Not everything about this book annoyed me! There are three things I really enjoyed, other than the Parisian setting:

1. I really loved Kate's relationship with her sister, Georgia. Although Georgia isn't necessarily in the book all that much, her scenes brought a much needed life and energy and sisterly understanding/handling of Kate to the story.

2. Ambrose. He's another minor character, but...he's Southern! So I like him on principle.

3. There is a whole bunch of fencing in this book. FENCING!!!

Overall, I wish this book had had less crying, more fencing, and had allowed a little more time for the relationship between Kate and Vincent to grow. Plum obviously has the writing chops and ability to create intriguing, richly detailed, beautiful stories and I loved reading her descriptions of Paris (and the desserts.). I just wish I had loved the characters as much as I loved the setting.