Blog Tour: If I Should Die by Amy Plum & Giveaway!

Welcome to my stop for the IF I SHOULD DIE blog tour! Now IF I SHOULD DIE is book three in the Revenants series, so if you haven’t read the first two books (Die for Me & Until I Die) you should! I love this series and I’m so sad to see it end. And If I Should Die did not disappoint as the ending to the trilogy. I should have my review up a little bit closer to the release date.

You can check out the complete tour line up over at Mundie Moms!

I will not lose another person I love. I will not let history repeat itself.

Vincent waited lifetimes to find me, but in an instant our future together was shattered. He was betrayed by someone we both called a friend, and I lost him. Now our enemy is determined to rule over France’s immortals, and willing to wage a war to get what they want.

It shouldn’t be possible, none of it should be, but this is my reality. I know Vincent is somewhere out there, I know he’s not completely gone, and I will do anything to save him.

After what we’ve already fought to achieve, a life without Vincent is unimaginable. He once swore to avoid dying—to go against his nature and forsake sacrificing himself for others—so that we could be together. How can I not risk everything to bring my love back to me?

Excerpt from If I Should Die:

“Monsieur Grimod, please try to put yourself into my shoes. Last night my granddaughters came home after participating in a violent fight during which both could have easily been killed. Kate’s boyfriend actually was killed, although I realize that that sort of thing isn’t as serious for your kind, your deaths being impermanent,” she said crisply.

“But because his body was then immolated, he is now floating around as a ghost and being held captive in a castle by a psychotic medieval zombie. The same psychotic medieval zombie who gave one of my granddaughters a concussion and has been sending the other flowers for the last couple of months . . . at our home . . . because she KNOWS WHERE WE LIVE.” Mamie’s face was now purple from her battle between politesse and expressing her true feelings.

“And now I am being asked if my granddaughter can walk right back into the same situation. Unless I was completely insane, my response to that request would be an unequivocal no.”

(Continue Reading…)

Blog Tour: Until I Die by Amy Plum & Giveaway!

I’m so excited to be hosting a stop on the blog tour for Amy Plum’s second Reverent novel, UNTIL I DIE! This is a great series and if you haven’t read the first novel, Die for Me, here is your chance! I have a signed paperback copy of Die for Me by Amy Plum up for grabs!

And for another awesome prize pack, follow the entire blog tour (you can click the banner to get all the info at Mundie Moms!) and collect the secret words! Once you collect all the words and put them together, you can enter to win a fabulous prize pack! More info about all the contents of that on the Mundie Moms, just click that banner!

My secret words are: to send

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.

Official Contest information:

• to enter, please fill out the form below
• entrants must be 13 years of age or older
• contest open to Everyone
• the winner will be announced on this blog post at the conclusion of the contest
• the winner will be notified by email and will have 72 hours to reply or a new winner will be chosen.
• DO NOT PUT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN THE COMMENTS SECTION
• check out my Contest Policy/Privacy Policy

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Until I Die by Amy Plum

Release Date: May 8, 2012
Author Info: Website | Twitter | Facebook
Publisher: Harper Teen
Age Group: Young Adult
Shelfability: Acquire
Pages: 352
Format: ARC/Hardcover
Source: Publisher/Bought
Interest: Series
Challenge: Sophomore Reading Challenge
Buy the Book: Amazon

Until I Die really surprised me. And in a good way. It didn’t suffer from “second book” syndrome! You know what I mean. In the first book our hero and heroine are working do hard to be together and then they finally get to at the end. Only to find some sort of unobtainable obstacle in book two that pushes them apart.

I kept waiting for that to happen in book Until I Die… and it didn’t. Well not really. Sure Vincent and Kate had their share of struggles, but they were together. They might have been keeping a few things from each other, but they always told the other what was going on, just not eventually. That made me really respect them as characters!

This sequel was a smashing success! I adored it! Jules and Ambrose, I love those two. I really missed Charlotte this time around. I love the character dynamics, the unconventional family that they’ve all created. They’d all die for each other. And they do die! Ha! And I really enjoyed the new characters we meet this time around! Though I figured out who the bad guy was long before Kate let the pieces fall together!

I am still completely captivated by the revenant mystery and can’t wait for me! Until I Die really does a wonderful job setting up the next book. I can’t wait to find out what happens to Vincent and Kate!

On another note, I love that I get to visit Paris while reading these novels. You can tell that Plum has a wonderful understanding of the city and the culture. I only hope I can experience it first hand one day!

Author Interview: Amy Plum

Amy Plum

Books:

• Die For Me

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Buy the Book

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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.

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Describe Die For Me in three words.

Death Seduces Innocence

What sort of research did you do for Die For Me? Did you discover anything that you really thought was interesting?

Since DIE FOR ME was my first foray into fiction, I took the time-honored advice of “writing what you know”. So I set the scenes in Parisian locations that I knew well, and used history that I was familiar with. I did do research for the characters, making sure I chose names that were commonly used in the era during which each revenant was born.

Also, in researching names for Lucien and Ambrose, I actually came across real people who inspired me for those characters’ back-stories. That was probably the most fascinating part of my research. Finding this evil collaborator to base Lucien on: a Frenchman who worked in conjunction with the Nazis, betraying thousands of his own countrymen…to their death. His story, getting shot and killed by the resistance while in bed with his wife in a secret underground bunker – that came directly from the true story of Philippe Henriot!

Why did you decide to set Die For Me in Paris? What significance did the city have to the story?

Paris is one of DIE FOR ME’s main characters. I love the city passionately, having lived there for five years, and returning frequently. (I currently live 3 hours away.) Paris is a mystical place–the perfect setting for a paranormal story. It’s a small city, space-wise, so every inch of it is jam-packed with history. And that is why I used it as a setting for millennia-old creatures.

Besides that, I had to think about Kate’s personality. She’s a city girl. Museums, cinemas, and just general cultural stimulation are really important to her, and the city spotlights her personality in a way that a country setting wouldn’t have done. Kate’s like me. I thrive in cities, so it was my gift to her to set her in Paris after the death of her parents.

You’ve lived in several different places…. if you could travel back in time to one year, where and when would you go and what three things would you take with you?

I would choose either New York or Paris in the 1920s, when art, literature and music were all at a frenzied peak and those cities were the most exciting places on earth. It was the Jazz Age, and I would have bobbed my hair, worn flapper dresses, and danced to Louis Armstrong with Ambrose. I would have attended crazy Surrealist and Dada art exhibitions with Jules. And gone to the cinema to see “Nosferatu” and “Metropolis”. (Although, if I were sitting next to Vincent, I probably wouldn’t have seen much of the movie.)

Summer is finally here, what books are in your reading pile?

The Cassandra Clare Mortal Instruments series (I loved City of Bones). I’m currently reading Maze Runner. Waiting for me at home I’ve got Hush, Hush. And I thought I’d get Kessler’s Horsemen of the Apocalypse series.

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And since I loved Die For Me so much…. I’ll get one lucky winner their own copy!

Official Contest information:

• to enter, please fill out the form below
• entrants must be 13 years of age or older
• contest deadline is June 29, 2011
• contest open to EVERYONE*
• ONE ENTRY PER PERSON!
• check out my Contest Policy/Privacy Policy

Die for Me by Amy Plum

Die for Me by Amy Plum

Release Date: May 10, 2011
Publisher: HarperTeen
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 341
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Interest: Debut
Challenge: 2011 Debut Author Challenge
Buy the Book: Amazon

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?

I love paranormal. I’ve seen it getting a bad rep lately, but I can’t get enough of it, it’s my kind of drug. And Die for Me was just what the doctor ordered!

Revenants… say what? Only a super cool… dead but not dead kinda person. Never heard of it before, and thought the concept totally rocked. Although after I read the book and did a little research, I like Plum’s take on the folklore much more!

The thing that really stood out to me was the story itself… despite that paranormal boy meets girl story-line, it was different. Maybe it was the setting, Paris. (Oh la la, I really need to go there.) Maybe it was the writing, which was absolutely captivating. I seriously felt like I was in a different world. Then again, maybe it was the characters. Especially the Revenant clan, I adored all of them! They were so well written, especially for secondary characters. Really it was a combination of all the above.

And the love story, I can’t not mention. I’m such a sucker for a good love story. And Die for Me has that, and more! Though I have to say I liked Jules the best, Kate and Vincent’s relationship was very sweet! (And steamy at times!)

If you’re looking for a paranormal, that’s a little bit different than everything else out there, with well depicted, realistic characters, awesome writing and a captivating story, look no further than Die for Me!