The Temptation by Alisa Valdes

This is the first novel in The Kindred series by Alisa Valdes.

When Shane was going to a musical recital to play her violin, she never expected to get into a major car accident initialed by a coyote with glowing red eyes.

She also never expected to meet a gorgeous stranger who miraculously healed her from fatal wounds that were slowly killing her.

But that is what happened. And it changed Shane's life after that. She was saved from dying, but she also couldn't forget Travis, the mysterious man who came to her rescue. Thankfully, Travis felt that deep connection with Shane as well, so they were always trying to seek one another out.

Except for one thing... Travis is dead. He's a revenant, a spirit traveling in a physical body and he is supposed to protect and help any living creature at the area where Shane had her car accident.

If he does enough good in the world, he may be able to get out the Vortex and go to the Afterlife. But he if goes against the Vortex's rules, he will be sent to the Underworld.

When Shane tells her best friend, Kelsey, the truth, she just wanted to talk to someone about this. But Kelsey told her mom, who decided that Shane had a terrible head injury and that she needs to see a psychiatrist.

Then things get even worse for Shane. Not only are she and Travis soul mates, but they are not allowed to be intimate with each other -  otherwise Travis will be going against the rules and will disappear forever.

But that's not the worst part. Travis has a mortal enemy - even in death. Victor is the one who killed Travis and also his father and older brother many years ago.

Victor is still out to punish Travis's family, and Shane is the next victim since Travis loves her.

Will Travis and Shane be able to survive Victor's hatred, or will Travis have to give in and break the rules in order to get rid of Victor? Read The Temptation by Alisa Valdes to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
I randomly saw this at a local library and decided it sounded like something up my alley. And I really did enjoy it, for a random pick up :)

This is one of those "love at first sight" novels where the two characters know they are supposed to meet one another.

But of course there are complications, like the majority of novels out there.

Shane is a tough cookie. She takes being healed by Travis like a champ, and even took to him being dead fairly quietly - not something a normal girl would take lightly. She also took the criticism of her classmates at school when they started calling her insane and crazy.

Really, Shane didn't really care what others thought of her as long as she knew Travis would be with her since they were in love.

Overall, this was a good book. Not my favorite, but I loved the story line of another revenant plot. This is the second series I've read about revenants (the first being the series by Amy Plum, Die for Me) so it gave me another aspect of this topic to consider.

This is the first in a series, though I don't know when the second will come out or when. This was just released April 2012 so it's still somewhat new, and it's also the first I've read of this author, though it's not her debut novel.

I will be keeping my eye out for the sequel to see what happens with Shane and Travis.

I would recommend this to any female reader wanting a new supernatural creature of Revenants and one that wants to read an automatic love story where the characters don't question the connection.

Until I Die by Amy Plum

This is the second novel in the Revenants series by Amy Plum.

My review of #1: Die For Me.

Now that Kate has fought the numa and is part of Vincent's revenant pack, she's getting the revenant treatment and learning how to fight with weapons.

She also gets to spend more time with Vincent and is learning more and more about the history of revenants.

But she can tell that it's extremely hard on Vincent not to help humans and die for them. So now he's trying a new experiment to see if he can withstand the urge to die while Kate lives.

Kate doesn't like the way the experiment is treating Vincent, though, because he is becoming weaker and bruising up everywhere. She decides to try and find a different cure without letting Vincent know because he wouldn't want her out on her own just to help him.

There's also two new revenants in town and staying at the palace where Vincent lives: Violette and Arthur. Because Charlotte, one of Kate's closest girl friends besides her sister, left with her brother, Violette is starting to become another close friend to Kate.

Things start to get intense when the numa's are breaking into the houses of revenants and looking for something in particular.

Then the revenants find out that the numa knows who killed their previous leader, Lucien. Only no one can know that in less it was a member of Vincent's kinship at his revenant house.

Someone is betraying Kate, Vincent, and Vincent's family. Will they be able to figure out who that person is in time? And will they be able to stop them before they find what they are searching for in the different houses they are breaking into? Read Until I Die by Amy Plum to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
Hmm. I'm not sure how I feel about this sequel to If I Die. It didn't seem like there was a lot going on. Sure, Vincent and Kate both had their different agendas to help Vincent fight the urge to die, but it seemed very slow paced for me.

All of the action came at the end when the traitor was revealed and a fight broke out. But the time it took to get to that point seemed long and boring for me.

I still love Kate. She is a true fighter and has a pure, kind heart by trying to help Vincent even though he wouldn't want her to do it. And she is very smart and a little sneaky, which I have to admire in a character.

I wish that there was a little bit more plot, or at least so more steamy scenes between Vincent and Kate throughout the novel.

Even though I wasn't impressed with this sequel, I am looking forward to reading the third and final book in the series, If I Should Die in May 2013. Hopefully everything will become easier for the two characters and there will be more action and plot to follow as the story concludes.

I would recommend this to anyone who's read the first novel and wants to read more about these characters. I would suggest that you read the first book in the series before this one to clarify terms and what occurred first as this does follow right after the previous book.

Die For Me by Amy Plum

This is the first novel in the Revenants series by Amy Plum.

After Kate and Georgia's parents died in a car accident, they decided to move to Paris to live with their grandparents. Paris has always been a part of their lives since they visited their grandparents every summer, so it wasn't a huge change as far as the culture and language.

But Kate has been dead inside. The death of her parents was extremely hard on her and her sister.

So she was surprised when she got a glimmer of life back after seeing a French boy at a cafe shop.

Kate got to know Vincent a little bit more when they kept bumping into each other at cafe's and museums.

However, Vincent is not a normal boy. Not at all. Turns out he is a revenant - a dead man walking. Not really a zombie, not really a ghost, but someone who died in the 1940's and woke up in his body 3 days later.

When some people die in the place of another, they come back to life. Vincent died while protecting another, saving his life but sacrificing himself, so he was "chosen" to come back to life to save more people who are about to die.

There are more revenants in Paris that live with Vincent and they do the same thing that Vincent does.

Kate was not supposed to find out about Vincent and his family. But after seeing one of his friends die by a train and then was alive 3 weeks later, it was a little difficult to explain. And Kate also saw an obituary for Vincent from the late 40's - so she was getting some of the clues before she was let in on the secret.

But the revenants have an enemy - the numa's who basically do the opposite of what the revenants do. They get humans to commit murders so when they die, they can come back to life to keep murdering.

Kate met Vincent's mortal enemy - Lucien. And found out that her sister, Georgia, was an item with him. Can Kate convince Georgia to stay away from him without giving away Vincent's secret? And will Kate be able to stay in a relationship with Vincent knowing that he will die and come back to life every time he saves a human, with her history of death in her family? Read Die For Me by Amy Plum to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
This was a breath of fresh air!

I've never read a book quite like this before. Like I said, they aren't quite zombies and they aren't quite ghosts, even though they have similar abilities to both supernatural creatures.

Plus, if they were anything like zombies, I don't think Vincent would be nearly as gorgeous as he is described in this book ;-)

Kate is very brave. After the devastating way her parents died and how close she was to them, dating an undead guy who will die every time he saves a human from dying to give them another chance to live would be extremely hard to do.

But she has a physical and emotional attachment to Vincent, just like he does to her. It was harder for them to be apart than together, so an alternative plan had to be created.

I also really liked how well the author describe Paris! For the readers who have never been there, I sure felt like I was sitting at the cafe with Kate or at the nightclubs! It's also a change of scenery for me since I usually read stories based in the U.S.

I'm glad I finally got this book to read - it's been in my "To-Read" list on Goodreads for awhile. But, the plus side of waiting so long for it is that I have the second novel right next to me to pick up and read it right away :) Which is what I'm going to do after writing this post!

I would recommend this to anyone female who wants to read something different with a interesting plot line and a steamy romance! I think I read it in 2 sittings, in one day, so it's very easy to read and you will be left wanting more of the characters!