Book Review: Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel

"Throughout all my histories, I found no one I loved more than you...no one." Those were some of Rhode's last words to me. The last time he would pronounce his love. The last time I would see his face. It was the first time in 592 years I could take a breath. Lay in the sun. Taste. Rhode sacrificed himself so I, Lenah Beaudonte, could be human again. So I could stop the blood lust.

I never expected to fall in love with someone else that wasn't Rhode.

But Justin was...daring. Exciting. More beautiful than I could dream.

I never expected to be sixteen again...then again, I never expected my past to come back and haunt me... (From Amazon)

I received Infinite Days after the buzz had started to build around the blogosphere. I was fairly excited about it, despite my current aversion to vampire YA fiction. I was tired of reading the same vampire story over and over, and this one seemed fairly unique. I enjoyed what I found, although I did have a few issues with the story. Still, I think vampire and paranormal fans will enjoy Maizel's first novel.

One thing that Maizel did particularly well was in describing the differences between humans and vampires. Reading Lenah's first human experiences after years of being a vampire was a very unique experience. I'm sure that even the biggest vampire enthusiasts will have to stop and think about the ramifications of giving up a human life to become a vampire. In on portion of the book, Lenah describes how vampires only have senses which will help them to catch their prey. So, for example, a vampire is unable to feel a silk blanket, nor do they experience emotions in the same way that humans do. I also appreciated the distinct lack of sugarcoating in this book. The vampires were vicious, and quite scary. From a psychology standpoint, I found it that it was interesting that the vampires still experienced love. Despite losing all their other human senses, it seemed as though their last thread of humanity was in that ability.

There were some aspects of the story that I would have liked more of. The story takes place in current day, and over the course of the book there are a series of scenes that take place during Lenah's vampire life. I guess I wanted to see more of Lenah's desire to be human. I felt like there was some part of that scene that was missing. I wasn't sure what her real motivation was, and I think a bit more depth to this scene could have changed that.

Infinite Days (Vampire Queen 1)
By Rebecca Maizel
Published by St. Martin's Griffin
310 Pages
Release Date: August 3, 2010
Rating: C