Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel

August 3rd 2010 by St. Martin's Griffin

Paperback, 310 Pages

Copy Won

Book Synopsis

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?......(Goodreads)

Review

Fall into the world of dark romance, ruthless vampires, sacrificial love and oh yeah high school.........

Lenah a once powerful and feared vampire queen, has awoken to her new human life with the help of Rhode the vampire who made her in the 15th century when she was a young teenager. Having traded his life for hers Lenah has been given the chance to reclaim all the wonderful things she lost in her mortal death. During her reign as queen she was known for her ruthless murders, her vicious contempt for human life and her lust for another’s pain. Basically Lenah was pure evil and had no sympathy, no compassion and no traces of humanity. Regaining her humanity is awkward to say the least, while she has lost all of her vampire curse and most of her vampy powers she still retains the sight and the whole ESP next to me thing. Now enrolled at a private school, she must pass for a normal 16 year old girl, blending in the current modern day culture. But Lenah is watching the clock as well, watching the hours tick by to the day her coven will discover the secret and begin the hunt to track her down.

I really enjoyed this story, while it had its fair share of sappy teen romance centered around its young characters, Lenah and all the other vampires in the story were centuries old. The mix of ages gave the book an older appeal while still staying true to the YA market. I thought Maizel’s writing was done well and gave us a unique character in Lenah- actually two characters, due to one was evil Lenah and one was good Lenah. I of course liked good Lenah, its not easy to accept a character who kills children and munches on babies, but she certainly redeems herself multiple times by the end. Told almost entirely through Lenah’s -pov- we get the depth of her past through flashbacks, some terrible and murderous and some actually just sad…It was defiantly easy to see why Lenah was so miserable, who would want to live as a murderer, with the only desires for despair? The other thing surprising in this novel was the romance, not only do we get the potential hot guy verses the fun friend, we get the hot vampire verses my soul mate vampire and in each world the opposite lover wins. Four potential loves may seem overboard, but in a lifetime of hundreds of years I guess for today's standards it was a small amount, but disagree that 16 year olds should be having sex. While I never really connected to her and Justin (nor were her and Tony ever going anywhere) I did realize the significance of the relationships. For me I felt the strongest bond was between her and Rhode, as it went through all facets of a relationship with the ultimate sacrifice in the end. Speaking of endings...this one offers a cliffhanger with a bit of poetic beauty, leaving you waiting for more......

Rating

Infinite Days while remaining free of graphic sexuality, doesn't shy away from teens engaging in sex, sexual encounters, romance, underage drinking, underage clubbing, violence, blood lust, murder, mild language, themes such as spells, magic, and many elements of the Wicca religion. Ive read some blogs out there comparing this to Twilight romance, and I would suggest this is far from Twilight- the sensuality is heightened and the overall messages are completely different. Recommended to mature teens- 16 and up.

4/5- YA-Vampires
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