Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel
Release Date: August 3, 2010
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 310
Source: Publisher & Author
Interest: Debut Author
Challenge: 2010 Debut Author Challenge
Buy the Book: Amazon
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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?
I loved this story! Especially loved the flashbacks to Lenah’s life throughout her existence... it was fascinating... I think I need a prequel of Lenah in her earlier vampire years!
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by Infinite Days... I was a little skeptical, with the worldly, elderly vampire queen passing as a teenager. I mean, knowing what I know now, there is no way if I went 'back' to being teen... that I'd be able to pull it off. But I think it worked incredibly well for Lenah. She was worldly... she was smart, aknowledgeable, she knows several languages, had read books throughout her existence, yet she hadn't matured since the day she was changed!... BUT... it worked. Because of the vampire that she was, she had no reason to mature beyond the age she was when she was turned. She was spoiled, she was mean, she was for lack of a better word, a bitch! Why in the world would she ever need to grow beyond that, she was the freaggin' vampire queen, she had no need. So, Lenah may have been almost five hundred years old, but she passed for a teenager... well besides the whole technology lapse. But she picked that up rather fast.
After I felt comfortable with Lenah as a character and saw that Maizel was actually going to be able to pull this off, I was absolutely sucked (no pun intended) into the story. I could NOT put it down. I loved everything about it, the characters, the flashbacks, the plot line... there was something incredibly addicting about the whole thing. The writing was awesome, so easy to read, and those flashbacks... so beautifully descriptive... I found it hard coming back to the 'present' day chapters.
I only have a few small complaints ... minor things really.. One would be Justin and Lenah's relationship. I liked it... but something about it felt a little off. Maybe because I was instantly Team Rhode, but I thought the relationship between Justin and Leenah moved a little bit to fast. Sure Justin was cute... but what else did Lenah like about him... and perhaps it bothered me just a little bit when he sort of dropped his girlfriend like an old dirty hat. Who knows, maybe I would have felt differently had he been hanging solo before his big soiree with Lenah.
The climax of the story was a little fast for me... it just seemed like we were building up to this moment for most of the novel, but then when it came down to facing it... it was over before it began. The ending of the story... wow... I think it might have made up for that though.
Overall... there were a few things that kept it from being perfect, but I loved the story nonetheless! I can't wait for book two!