Book Nerds Across America

Jacque's Review:

This Die for Me novella is 60 pages worth of content from both Die for Me and Until I Die told from Jules's perspective.  We discover that his feelings for Kate are more than just the flirtatious teasing they appear to be.  He has deep feelings for her, but he realizes Kate and Vincent are truly in love and that Kate does not feel that way about him.  Also, he would never do anything to hurt his best friend, so he keeps his feelings hidden. 

It has been almost a year since I finished reading Until I Die, so this was an excellent refresher before If I Should Die is released next month.  I also enjoyed seeing more of the interactions between Jules and Vincent when Kate was not around.  We get a lot more insight on what was happening behind the scenes in LaMaison and how everything that was going on impacted Vincent.  He is such an amazing and lovable character that I know for a fact there is NO WAY Amy could have done what we think she did at the end of Until I Die.  I am sure there is some sort of explanation and everything WILL eventually work out the way I hope.....A happily ever after for Vincent and Kate :)

We Book Nerds received an ARC of If I Should Die.  Flo and Mary have both read it already and it is currently on its way to me.  After finishing this book yesterday, I must have checked the mailbox three times before the mail finally came.  The book did not arrive, but I am dying to get my hands on it.  They both really enjoyed it and Mary said she LOVED the ending.  That can only mean one thing, right??? *fingers crossed*

Flo's Review

This is going to be an interesting review to write for me...so, you remember that I was the Book Nerd who was skeptic about Die For Me -- I liked it, but I thought it was trying to hard to be Twilight. After reading Until I Die, that skepticism was taken away, as a unique and fascinating story found its adult legs. While everyone has been swooning about Vincent -- and, yes, he's great and all -- I have always been about Jules. Who can resist a funny undead guy?!?! So I was super excited when I learned that we would be getting a novella from his point of view, and I pre-ordered it the second I found out it existed. I read it...and it was okay.

Have you ever seen The Lion King 1 1/2? That's what this novella reminded me of. To give you context, The Lion King is essentially my favorite movie. (Don't judge. Disney rocks!) The Lion King 1 1/2 tells the story from Timon and Pumba's POV. I believe it was a straight-to-video type of deal. That movie did what Die For Her did, and unfortunately I felt both were lacking. The main problem I had was that I felt like I was just watching the events of the first two books on fast forward. It was almost like how Revenge and Once Upon a Time will do one episode at the beginning of the season where they recap everything that happened in the last season. In that way, I can see how it was a great refresher for Jacque as she gets ready to read If I Should Die. So, the novella felt rushed and because of that Jules' feelings for Kate came off too rushed as well. He sees her twice and suddenly he's in love! It's like his feelings had to fast forward, too, and I don't think that was the point of the novella.

I think I would have enjoyed it more if Amy had slowed down and focused on those parts in Die For Me. I definitely would have preferred a more fleshed out few scenes from his point of view instead of this landscape assortment of points from the whole story up to this point. The story could realistically show how Jules came to love Kate in Die For Me, then the last page or so could go into, at max, one or two instances from Until I Die. But I felt like this novella was trying to show us Jules' thoughts at all times in 2 books, in about 60 pages.

I'll end with one thing I did like about the novella. Jules keeps repeating how with all the affections he shows Kate everyone thinks he's kidding, when actually it's real to him. Beautifully written, beautiful character exposure. Made my heart hurt every time in that good kind of way.

Tee's Review

Ugg...I am going to be the bubble buster here, and for that I apologize in advance. I have always enjoyed Amy Plum's Die for Me series, and I think the reason I have enjoyed them so much is the fact that Jules is in them. I am the Booknerd that is NOT a paranormal fan, so for me to read AND enjoy these books is saying something about them, and or the author's writing. So when Flo told me our monthly read along was Die For Her and it was Jules story I was excited.

Unfortunately  when she said it was Jule's story, I thought I would be getting HIS story, not a quick rehashing of the first two books. I wont even get into the emosih way that Jules pined for Kate throughout this story. It was so not the Jules of the books, who is witty and charming and well..loveable. It was like his personality was completely re-written for this short story.

As always, Amy Plumb's writing is both wonderful and descriptive, and some of the behind the scene scenes were very interesting and brought to light things. She just failed to give me what I was hoping for....which was Jules story. Every bit of his charm, his wit, his jokes and his ladies man ways. I am sorry girls, I was totally disappointed ....