Book Review: Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel

Title: Infinite Days

Author: Rebecca Maizel

Series: Vampire Queen #1

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Release Date: August 3 2010

My Source: Borrowed

My Rating: 4/5

Goodreads Summary:

Lenah Beaudonte is, in many ways, your average teen: the new girl at Wickham Boarding School, she struggles to fit in enough to survive and stand out enough to catch the eye of the golden-boy lacrosse captain. But Lenah also just happens to be a recovering five-hundred-year-old vampire queen. After centuries of terrorizing Europe, Lenah is able to realize the dream all vampires have -- to be human again. After performing a dangerous ritual to restore her humanity, Lenah entered a century-long hibernation, leaving behind the wicked coven she ruled over and the eternal love who has helped grant her deep-seated wish.

Until, that is, Lenah draws her first natural breath in centuries at Wickham and rediscovers a human life that bears little resemblance to the one she had known. As if suddenly becoming a teenager weren’t stressful enough, each passing hour brings Lenah closer to the moment when her abandoned coven will open the crypt where she should be sleeping and find her gone. As her borrowed days slip by, Lenah resolves to live her newfound life as fully as she can. But, to do so, she must answer ominous questions: Can an ex-vampire survive in an alien time and place? What can Lenah do to protect her new friends from the bloodthirsty menace about to descend upon them? And how is she ever going to pass her biology midterm?

My Review:

A fresh, new take on vampires can be hard to find. Ever since Twilight came out, YA literature is packed with vampire stories that can start to sound repetitive. I hadn't heard much about Infinite Days before I read it, so my expectations were only for an average vampire story.

I am so glad I was wrong. Infinite Days is about 500-year-old vampire Lenah, who goes through a ritual that turns her human again. She becomes a sixteen-year-old girl and has to attempt to blend in at her new boarding school. The idea is a bit cliche, I've seen a new girl having to blend in at school before. I've seen girls deal with the balance between a paranormal war and say, their biology midterm. So I wasn't too into this book at first.

But once I got into this book, I saw it was a cut above other similar fantasy stories. The most unique aspect of the book was that vampires were vicious, evil killers. That's it. And our main character was one of them. Lenah was an evil killer without a heart. And she becomes human. It was like reading about a serial killer who had a change of heart. We see her struggling with this and who she is the whole book. Lenah struggled to restrain her vampire instincts as she was becoming human. The balance of vicious vampireness and human feelings was always waging war, and over time I saw how she really changed. It was written very well and was so believable. I loved this aspect of the book. Lenah was such a great and unique character.

Unfortunately, the romance fell a little flat for me. Justin, the very human lacrosse star, is attracted to Lenah at the beginning simply because of her almost ethereal beauty. Lenah is attracted to him because of her desire to be human. Justin, being the drop dead gorgeous athlete that he is, was someone I was immediately liked, but after reading about him for awhile, I found he was a bit boring and predictable. Lenah never was, so maybe that's why I didn't like the pairing too much. Though this bothered me, it didn't drag the book down much. Too much other great stuff was happening, and Justin wasn't that bad. I think a lot of people will still love the Lenah-Justin relationship, so don't let this turn you away from reading the book.

The ending- oh my gosh. I have such mixed feelings about the ending. I hated it and loved it. Infinite Days ended with an intense plot drive, where something was happening and the reader just HAD to know what would happen to Lenah. It wasn't predictable, which I loved. I hated that I was confused some of the time, and the book started feeling muddled, just a bit. Some of what Lenah was doing seemed unneccesary and I didn't understand her motivations. I can't go into detail because, well, it was the ending and I don't want to give anything away! Then a serious cliffhanger ending. Which, in this case, I was okay with, but I thought there could be a little more conclusion but still leave it open ended. But it left me dying for the next book. I can't wait to read Stolen Nights.

I give Infinite Days a strong 4/5 stars, close to 4.5 but not quite there. Many YA romance and fantasy lovers will devour this one. It had some small problems, but kept me reading to the end. I had a lot of fun reading this one and I'm looking forward to the next one!

*caution: small amount of vague mature content that might not be appropriate to some readers

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