Review of The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead

Razorbill

The Indigo Spell (Bloodlines #3)
by Richelle Mead
5 Scribbles

The female students at Amberwood Prep are in trouble. There’s a murderer in town, killing the youngest and prettiest of girls. Mrs. Terwilliger suspects it’s a witch intent on absorbing the girls’ youth, power and beauty, but because she has personal connections to the witch in question she must rely on Sydney’s help to find the killer. Can Sydney overcome her aversion to magic long enough to come to Terwilliger’s aid and put a stop to the killings?

As a die-hard Mead fan, I hesitate to review Mead’s work because it’s always so engaging and the plotting is so well done! Truthfully the main conflict above only scratches the surface of the massive amounts of action that occurs throughout. And the character development taking place in this book is superb. The conflict between Sydney and Adrian that began at the conclusion of The Golden Lily is set aside in the wake of the murders, and the two return to their established friendship to try and catch a killer. Or do they? The romantic tension between these two is palpable—will Sydney finally grow a backbone and realize that the doubts she has about the Alchemists and the intolerance she has been taught is not the whole truth? Will she realize that magic may have a place in the world, and that not all vampires are evil? And more importantly, will playboy Adrian finally abandon his partying ways and stick to his new-found chivalrous ways? While markedly different from the romance between Dimitri and Rose in the Vampire Academy series, this potential romance packs just as much heat—in fact, it’s probably a relationship that many of us find we can relate to more easily, because the protagonists are, for the most part, everyday people. Yes, they may be witches and vampires, but neither has any real super-skills or can fight like a ninja! The difference from our reality is that Sydney risks everything and everyone she has ever known and trusted to grow that backbone and “have” Adrian. For many of us, such loss would not be worth it. Additionally, a new little romance is blossoming—will Eddie and Angeline stay together or will Jill take the plunge and reveal herself to Eddie? And just when you thought it was all being worked out, a new character is added to the mix that will shake up Amberwood, and Sydney, in a way the reader never anticipated! I’ve already pre-ordered The Fiery Heart, set to be released November 19, 2013.

Review of Die for Me by Amy Plum

HarperTeen

Die for Me (Revenants)
by Amy Plum
4 Scribbles
After the death of her parents, Kate and her sister Georgia move to live with their grandparents in France. Kate swims in depression, struggling to fit into a world without her mother and father, but then one day she sees a boy who catches her attention. Vincent Delacroix is everything a girl could want, handsome, charming, sensitive, and doting. But when Kate finds out that Vincent isn’t a normal teenage boy, she isn’t sure she can stand to love him.

This novel has much in common with the Stephanie Meyer Twilight saga. Girl moves to a new place, Girl meets mysterious sexy guy, Girl meets guy’s entourage and becomes best friends with Charlotte, one of the crew, Girl finds out guy is Undead, and Girl discovers she cannot live without guy. Oh, and guy has seriously dangerous enemies who will target her if they know she loves Vincent.  So, if you are a Twilight fan, you won’t be able to help loving this story. I like Twilight okay, but I’m sort of burned out on the whole vamp genre, so it was nice to see this tiresome formula have a little twist. In fact, I’ve already read the second book Until I Die and downloaded book three which just came out in May, If I Should Die. I seriously think this series will be opted for film. That being said, let’s discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the work outside of the obvious weakness, it’s a ringer for the Twilight formula.  Perhaps best of all is the unique Undeadness that Vincent suffers. He is a Revenant. This means that he has a compulsion to save the lives of humans, and once he dies for someone else, three days later he is resurrected again (we’ll just leave Christian theology out of the discussion of this novel). Thus, he isn’t immune from death, which is why Kate isn’t sure she can love him, I mean who wants to endure the death of a loved one over and over again especially when they’ve recently lost their parents (I mean, if he’s coming back though, what’s the big deal?). I’m not sure I buy that obstacle to their love entirely, but whatever. A better hurdle is the fact that Revenants have sworn enemies, Numa, who would happily destroy Kate if they knew her importance to the clan, and the fact that her wonderful grandparents would not like her dating a Revenant.  So those conflicts are well done. The characters in this novel are a huge plus. Kate isn’t especially interesting to me (perhaps because she’s a bookworm like me) but her sister Georgia is amazing and fun and quirky, and I adore the crew that Vincent rolls with.  Kate’s grandparents are classy and cultured, and that’s pretty cool. And of course, the author has so many opportunities to elaborate on the history of each character layers and layers of interest are added to the already great mystery of the story line. I also admire the way the author deals with the age issue between Vincent and Kate. I was always bothered by the fact that Bella in Twilight is dating, essentially, an old man, which makes Edward sort of a pedophile.  However, in this novel, Vincent returns to the age he was when he died, each time he rescues someone. So he is only a few years older than Kate. This is drilled into the reader by repeated pronouncements of Revenant’s ages. So, even if I might still be a tad skeptical, the author artfully brushes that concern aside, thus making the kissing scenes less, um, disturbing. Lastly, the novel is set in Paris, France. Who doesn’t want to know more about France? And if you listen to the book on audio like I did, even better. Then you get to hear the sexy French accents. So those of you YA paranormal romance lovers who like a little who-dun-it action in the mix, check this one out, you’ll be hooked!