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| Die For Me / Revenants #1 / May 10, 2011 / 341 Pages / Goodreads / Amazon / B&N Until I Die / Revenants #2 / May 8, 2012 / 353 Pages / Goodreads / Amazon / B&N Die For Her / Revenants #2.5 / April 2, 2013 / 60 Pages / Goodreads / Amazon / B&N If I Should Die / Revenants #3 / May 7, 2013 / 405 Pages / Goodreads / Amazon / B&N |
I read the first book in this series ages ago and liked it, but I never got around to picking the other books back up. Since the series is now complete and since my library carries them all on audiobook as well as digitally, I decided that I would read them/listen to them as I unpacked my house after my recent move. I started over with Die For Me as a reread and followed with the rest of the series back-to-back.
It didn’t take me long at all to remember what I liked about Die For Me once I began reading it. I liked the interesting take on zombie lore in the form of Revenants. I liked the backstory of main character Kate – why is she a young American living in France with her American sister and French grandparents? I LOVED the setting and how vivid it is – reading this series, set in Paris, felt realistic and sensory even as the book is a paranormal romance with urban fantasy undertones.
I think I liked Die For Me a little better the second time, but I find this is often a case with an audiobook reread.
When I got to Until I Die, things were a little different. The lore was established for the most part – as was the romance – but it didn’t feel to me like it built too much from there in the lore department. There was probably a little more in the way of the history of the Revenants and the politics of the groups, but for the most part this book felt like a slower book of events. Things happened – particularly toward the end – but it was just a little on the slower side. The romance was a bit better as Kate and Vincent became more comfortable around each other – loved that. ALSO! the last part of the book left me feeling a little bit like WHAT and OH MY and WOW I’M GLAD I WAITED UNTIL THE SERIES IS COMPLETE. I like it when an author isn’t afraid of taking risks and apparently this author is one of those!
I don’t really know if I would call Until I Die a book that suffers from a second-book slump, but it is certainly different from the first book and then WHAM! that ending. Ahem.
Finally, If I Should Die was a bit more on the fast-paced side as everything from the previous books begins to come together. Main character Kate is more confident about her place within the group: she understands how things work within the international rankings of Revenants and she understands the dangers that lie with having that much power. There were a few things that I felt were predictable but there were also some things that I would have never predicted. I was surprised as some characters stepped up into different and pretty impressive roles, and I was surprised to see that some really great characters didn’t survive the series. (Again, the author takes risks! Love that.) I think the series ended in an okay place although there are one or two characters that I would have liked to know a little more about because they filled my secondary-character-loving heart to capacity (looking at you, Jules and Georgia).
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Ultimately, this series is a lot of fun. I’m glad that I pushed through and read/listened to it. Is it my favorite series? No, but I really can’t remember a time that I have read one back-to-back, all three full-length novels + the novella, within a period of a few days either, so that must count for something, right? I was captivated enough by the Revenants lore to want to know more, I liked the romance plenty, and I could have stayed in that setting for a really long time. Plus, there must be some sort of pretty-cover award for these books because I could stare at them for days. Actually, the covers are what caught my attention the first time I read Die For Me years ago, and the covers have continued to stop me in the library every time I’ve walked by them for the past few years. I will probably always love girl-in-pretty-dress covers.
I understand why the big fans of this series love it so much.
**Regarding Die For Her, the novella: This is a little story that is written from Jules’ point of view. Because it is numbered #2.5, it would fit between the second and third book technically, but I read it after I completed the series and that didn’t affect anything at all. In fact, TO ME, I think I liked that quite a bit. WHY? Because I didn’t feel a love triangle at all while reading the full-length novels BUT the Die For Her novella expands on Jules’ crush enough that it makes me feel like if it were any longer or if Jules’ POV were written into the books, it could potentially be considered a love triangle by some of my die-hard anti-love-triangle friends. Because I felt so happy with the relationship between Kate and Vincent, and because they were true to each other throughout the series, I’m thrilled that I didn’t add any more of Jules’ feelings until after I had completed the trilogy. Don’t get me wrong — Jules is one of my favorite characters (along with Kate’s sister, Georgia), but one of my favorite things about him was his ability to have a small crush on Kate without letting it affect him or his relationship with Kate and Vincent. Die For Her gives a short glimpse of exactly how hard this was for him, and it made me a little sad. Great novella, but I am glad that I read it after completing the trilogy, and since it does not really contain anything essential to the plot of the trilogy, this was perfect for me.
Audiobook Notes: The audiobook formats of Die For Me, Until I Die, and If I Should Die by Amy Plum are published by HarperAudio and are 9 hours and 20 minutes, 9 hours 50 minutes, and 11 hours 7 minutes Unabridged (respectively). They are all narrated by Julia Whelan who is fantastic and a favorite of mine. She has voiced popular audiobooks such as Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn as well as books by Dan Wells, Jandy Nelson, Nora Roberts, and Cate Tiernan AMONG OTHERS. I recommend these audiobooks as first reads or rereads because this voice actor is awesome.
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The Revenants Series will appeal to fans of:
Paranormal Romance with a slight Urban Fantasy feel
as the series progressed
Strong Characterization
Strong Characterization
Romance: No triangle. Not too steamy but more kisses and such
as the series progressed
FANTASTIC use of Setting: Paris
Completed Series with Novella
The Revenants Series by Amy Plum
is currently available for purchase.
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Have you read this series or any of these books?
Don’t you love these covers?
About Asheley
Asheley is a Southern girl. She loves Carolina blue skies, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and NC craft beer. She loves all things history but prefers books over everything.
You can find her somewhere in North Carolina, daydreaming about the ocean.
Find Asheley on Litsy @intothehallofbooks!
Love this series review format! It's so rare that we reviewers get to read a series back to back like that, and I think it makes for such a great reading experience. I'm not such a zombie fan, so I stopped this series after the first book, but when you mention that the author takes risks, that gets me interested…
Thanks so much for stopping by! Jen @ YA Romantics
Thanks Jen! I can't I read a series all the way from beginning to end, so this just made sense to me instead of three or four different blog posts (: I agree, I loved the reading experience.
I kept forgetting these Revenants were zombies because they were so atypical for the norm, and I think that's one of the reasons I liked them. Interestingly, the further into the series you get, the less the zombie-ish it gets and the more it becomes laced with the dynamics and politics behind the different groups around the world. There is a lot of movement and shifting of characters and some flat-out go away! So the first book is more unique than the rest of the series, which was a shock to me. I liked this series. I'm glad I finished it. Not a top favorite, but I did enjoy it especially via audiobook because I love the voice actor so much.
I have been meaning to read this series. I have read the first book and I remember liking it well enough! I loved that it was set in France. I think I want to give these all a try now that they are all out.
Super proud of you finishing a series, by the way. 😉
Thanks about finishing a series! I hardly EVER do that and I'm kind of proud of myself too (:
YES, the French setting is carried through and stays wonderful and one of my favorite parts of the series. I would say go for it with this series – it's fun and easy and you can blow through them relatively quickly. Plus the lore is different and the romance is sweet. And the covers are beautiful.
I love that you reviewed the whole series without including any spoilers! I read the first book in this series a few months ago and immediately ordered the next two. But then they took forever and a day to actually get to me, and by the time they arrived I had kind of moved on to other books. I did really enjoy the first one though so I need to make time for the rest. I completely love the way zombies are handled here.