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    Infinite Days: A Vampire Queen Novel
    Infinite Days: A Vampire Queen Novel
    Infinite Days: A Vampire Queen Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    Infinite Days: A Vampire Queen Novel

    Written by Rebecca Maizel

    Narrated by Justine Eyre

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    I release you, Lenah Beaudonte.

    Believe...and be free.

    Those were the last words I could remember. When I awoke, I immediately felt a cold surface on my left cheek. An icy shiver rushed down my spine. "Rhode!" I screamed. He had to be here. There would be no world without Rhode. A door somewhere near me opened and closed. Rhode loomed over me, but he was a blur. Even in the haze of that moment, his icy-blue eyes pierced me, down to my soul.

    After centuries of terrorizing Europe, Lenah Beaudonte, with the help of the handsome Rhode, has been able to realize the dream of all vampires-to be human again. Now, as a raven-haired sixteen-year-old, Lenah believes her greatest challenge is fitting in at her new school. But the challenges have only just begun. The vicious coven Lenah once ruled is threatening the new-found pleasures of her human life, including the one guy who makes her feel most alive: Justin. Can this ex-vamp survive in an alien time and place, or will her past come back to haunt her...forever?
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 17, 2010
    ISBN9781400188901
    Infinite Days: A Vampire Queen Novel
    Author

    Rebecca Maizel

    Rebecca Maizel hails from Rhode Island, where she teaches literature at her alma mater the Wheeler School. She tries not to force her students to read her books, though. Rebecca is the author of several published novels for young adults, and recently received an MFA in Writing for Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

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    Reviews for Infinite Days

    4/5

    327 ratings115 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I want to start by saying that I really liked the premise of this book. I don’t remember reading a vampire book where the character starts as a vampire, then becomes human. I looked up information on the author, Rebecca Maizel and learned that this is her first book. I think that her characters lacked some depth, but since this is her first book, I know that she has great potential as an author.The main character Lenah Beaudonte is an almost 600 year old vampire when the story starts. She is one of the most evil female vampires in the world. She explains in great detail how she loved to kill, and the joy that she experienced for a few moments after each kill. I liked that she explained that vampires have lost most of their sensations, such as touch, smell, emotions, etc. She says that vampires are miserable and love to experience fear in their victims, which is almost all they can feel. Most vampires want to be human again.Her sire, Rhode, was bonded to Lenah and they had something very close to love for each other. He wanted her to be happy at whatever cost and found a way to perform a ritual that would make Lenah human again. He performs the ritual to make her human again, but it kills him in the process. Lenah must now live as a 16 year old student at a boarding school. She was 16 when turned into a vampire, so this is the age she is as a human.Lenah also made a coven of 4 other male vampires. They are evil and she explains how she found each one. She found ones that she knew would be the most evil to run with her and torture and kill. She is also bonded to them and they are hunting for her, not knowing that she is human again. Lenah’s character has depth, explaining how she must fit in as human again. She was in the ground for 100 years before coming human so she knows nothing of the world today. She was called weird by the cool kids and said inappropriate things. A lot of this book is her relationship with Justin, the coolest kid in school. I did like the book. I wish that more of the secondary characters had more depth than they did. There was one girl in school who hated Lenah. Her name was Tracey. She hated Lenah for taking her boyfriend, and then all of a sudden she was ok with it and hung out with them. That would not happen in real life. I would recommend this book to people who like vampire themes.
    • 5/5
      This book made me very emotional, which I was not expecting at all. Parts of it had me in tears. The first half of the story is fascinating as we get to experience the world with someone who has never truly lived. When Lenah becomes human, she has so much to deal with: modern times, human emotions, interacting with others, the loss of her best friend, and coming to terms with her own actions while she was a vampire. Just when the story starts to get somewhat dull, the book takes an unexpected turn.No spoilers here, but what does happen is not what I expected. Not. One. Bit. I can't really say too much about the second half without ruining it, so suffice to say that it blew my mind. And the ending is another unexpected twist. My only real problem with the book is that I didn't really care about Justin, until the end. He wasn't flawed in any real way and I wasn't entirely sure why Lenah liked him. But in the end we see some chips in his armor and he becomes more likeable when his feelings for Lenah are more believable.So definitely read this book. It is a paranormal romance, but it is a lot more. It will have you reflecting on your own life and have you thinking about what is really important in the world.
    • 3/5
      Personally, the YA fantasy genre is a hit or miss thing for me, though lately most of my reads have been misses. I wanted so badly to like this book, not only because I was sent a wonderful ARC (thank you St. Martin’s Griffin!), but because the premise sounded interesting and original. Infinite Days tells the story of Lenah Beaudonte, a former vampire queen who is now trying to make her living in a boarding school as a human. Sources tell me—though I have not seen it with my own eyes—of a movie that came out early this year or sometime last year concerning vampires becoming humans rather than vice verse. Other than this one instance, I have never heard of any story addressing such a concept and I was excited to be enthralled in the new experience of a centuries-old vampire trying to adapt to this time period as a mere mortal. In my opinion, great premise, less-than-stellar execution. Lenah, who has been asleep for a hundred years, adapts to the twenty-first century within the first couple of chapters. There is nothing that causes her true confusion or bewilderment save for a few instances of musing over modern slang, a couple of “and what is this contraption?” inquiries, and a brief incident with a stereo. I was disappointed that she took it all in stride. There are so many things in this world now that even I, a child of the nineties, sometimes have trouble wrapping my head around—had I been witness to this with only knowledge from up to a hundred years ago under my belt, I’m sure my head would explode. But Maizel passes Lenah’s knowledge of most things modern off with a few brief mentions of “reading manuals”. In truth, I got the impression that the author wanted to use the century-long sleep as an explanation as to why Lenah’s coven didn’t immediately try to reclaim her so that she could advance the romance plot and just found Lenah’s consequential ignorance of the modern world a hindrance. Most of this ignorance is either glazed over, as mentioned, or it’s played off as charm. Pity. It was one of the things I was looking forward to. My other huge problem was the character and relationship development. More specifically, the fact that there wasn’t any. I hated Justin. He was every other generic good-looking love interest that I have read about—nothing distinguishing, nothing interesting, nothing that would make me care. I hated the fact that Lenah simply fell in love with him and put it off to nothing more than some mysterious force drawing her to him. I detest these romantic sixth senses. Lenah knows that Justin is “something” to her the second after they introduce themselves. No kidding. We’re never let in on why he is something, just that he is and that we should accept it. Personally, I like love interests that are developed. There is no reason for this attraction and I don’t know a single thing about Justin that would make me understand why Lenah loves him so. Honestly, Justin has no other defining characteristics outside of his name. The relationship between Lenah and Justin isn’t the only one that just falls from the sky. As the characters are introduced they simply wade into their roles with no rhyme or reason. Lenah talks to Tony on her first visit out into the sun so they are best friends. The “three-piece” are the catty schoolgirl antagonists because one of the girls is Justin’s girlfriend. I took issue with the fact that every time Lenah comes upon these girls they are talking about her. Do these three having nothing better to do with their time? Perhaps a very mild spoiler here—they get a reprieve somewhere halfway through the story and there is no explanation at all. Lenah clearly didn’t like them and they didn’t like Lenah. I guess their understanding is reached off screen since we’re treated to a simple “well they’re not as bad as I thought” before the story dawdles on. Really now? I was frustrated at seeing the cliché bitchy girls show up so early on in the story to hate our protagonist and I love when a story will take these clichés and humanize them. So how do we et from Point A to Point B? What I’m saying is UNREALIZED POTENTIAL. And a lot of it, all the way around. In this book’s favor, it was refreshing to see a heroine that could look out for herself. Lenah was a strong female character which is an unfortunate rarity at times. Maizel’s writing was respectable and, as I said earlier, she had a great concept to work with. Seeing as this is her debut novel I’ll probably be checking out some of her other works in the future in the hopes of seeing improvement. Recommended for paranormal YA enthusiasts. Anyone who is a stickler for character development and motivation might want to skip this title.
    • 4/5
      Rebecca Maizel has taken the current theme of humans becoming vampires and turned it around. Lenah Beaudonte is a vampire who is newly made human by her sire and love Rhode. Sadly, the ritual to return her to human life costs the life of the vampire who performs it. This leaves Lenah alone at age 16 in an exclusive boarding school mourning her love and trying to adjust to human life after 500 years as a vampire.The story is told in the first person and we see frequent memories of earlier events in Lenah’s life as they are triggered by current situations. We see her committing atrocities and forming a coven with four other male vampires that she sired. I had a hard time connecting with Lenah especially as I read about her memories. Maizel’s vampires are so completely alien to human life that I just couldn’t connect with her. I think that the first person lends itself more to telling about what happens as opposed to showing what happens. I found that viewpoint to be distancing.When Lenah ventures out of her apartment at the beginning of the school year her first friend is Tony who is one of the art geeks at the school. But she is also immediately attracted to the Big Man on Campus Justin Enos. He is also attracted to her and dumps his girlfriend in her favor. He is something of a daredevil and encourages her to try a number of things including scuba diving and bunge jumping. As best I can tell, the basis of their relationship is that they are both beautiful (which seems shallow to me). Lenah is also attracted to him because he makes her feel more human.Her new life is endangered by her coven especially Vicken. In Maizel’s mythology the love between vampires is eternal and irrevocable. Except when Lenah became human the connection was broken from her end leaving Vicken in more than the usual vampire pain.The story and the mythology were very complex. I recommend this book to older YAs who want to read a different kind of vampire story.
    • 4/5
      I love all types of paranormal books and this one has an interesting twist, a vampire becoming human again. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of her rediscovering herself. It will be interesting to see how the series develops, I'm certainly interested in the next book.
    • 5/5
      Very interesting twist on Vampires. I loved the names of the Characters in here as well. Lenah going on 600 years old yearns to become a human again. Her original maker/lover comes up with a ritual to make her human again, however it is not without sacrafice to her and him. Lenah gets her wish and starts to live normally again and falls in love again, however never forgeting Rhoade her maker/lover. Without giving to many spoilers this had quite the twist at the end and honestly I cannot wait to read the next installment whenever it is due to come out.
    • 4/5
      Thought that this was an original idea, as I don't think I've ever read a story where a vampire yearns to become human again. I didn't even think that this was possible, so loved the whole idea!Understandably, Lenah has a hard time learning to be human again and is doing her best to fit in at her new boarding school. She works a part-time job, attends classes, and slowly starts to make friends. Taking the advice of Rhode, her vampire soulmate who helped her achieve her dream of becoming human again, Lenah fully embraces her new life. Unfortunately, her old life threatens her new found happiness.Didn't care for Lenah at first, but she grew on me and I was rooting for her by the end. Bits and pieces from her former life are interspersed throughout the book, and I liked the contrasts between Vampire Queen Lenah and teenage girl Lenah. Gave this a 4/5 rating as I really liked this book. Thought that Maizel came up with an original idea, and then fleshed it out with interesting characters. It was well written, the shifting time periods weren't confusing at all, and it was well paced. It's listed as being the first book in the Vampire Queen series, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the author plans next! Think anyone who enjoys fantasy will enjoy this one!
    • 5/5
      Beautifully written, superb characters that came to life, written like a movie, completely engulfing
    • 5/5
      I will admit that I was skeptical about this book. So many of the YA vampire books that have come out lately have the same feel to them. This book took a little different approach in that the vampires were dark and terrifying. Lenah, a 592-year-old vampire queen, who has created her own coven to be bound to her, yearns for humanity. She is almost mad from wanting just to feel again, to not feel numb all the time. Simple pleasures like a touch or smell elude her in her vampire form. You see, Lenah was turned vampire as a young girl. Ironically, the same vampire who turned her will give her life back to her. The thoughts and feelings that Maizel describes in Infinite Days made me keep picking this book up to see what would happen next. I kept coming back to the word used in the ritual to bring Lenah back to her human form; intent. Fighting against the coven of monsters she created, Lenah soon finds out just how important that word is as she tries to save herself and the ones she has grown to love. Infinite Days is a fascinating story that I highly recommend reading. Maizel's gift of storytelling and characterization is impressive. Her characters are powerful, imperfect, infinite, and the trip that lies ahead of them is filled with danger and adversity. Infinite Days is a must-read for those who love the vampire genre.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed that this novel put a spin on what we're used to seeing in paranormal teen romance nowadays. Vampire Lenah Beaudonte bemoans that she hasn't seen the sun in over 500 years. Her motivation to be human again comes from wanting human experiences - everything from emotions to taste and touch, and the feeling the sun. She sacrifices being an immortal evil bloodsucker for a chance to be a real 16 year old girl again. She gets to experience human life, and this is where I felt the author pulled back from fully exploring into Lenah's new emotions and experiences. I was expecting for some really moving scene when she finally enters sunlight again. Instead, Lenah hides from the sun underneath shade and floppy hats for most of the book.Lenah is likable enough, but it feels as though she never appreciates what she’s been given. The love story was piss-poor and felt forced the entire time. I never once believed she was actually in love. Instead, I felt the chemistry bubbling up between her and another character. And so did he. How did Lenah (and the author) miss this?The last quarter of the book felt rushed to me and not at completely thought out, which is when this book dropped from a 4 star rating to 3 stars. However, the book gets mega points with me for originality, but the writing was nothing special (I’ve never read the word "languid" so many times). The plot could’ve been a bit more special, though. Thankfully, Lenah finally got her priorities right eventually. I’m a little annoyed that some of the hyped-up action happens off-screen, but that's the downfall of first person narratives. I loved that the author invented her own vampire mythology, and I love that the vampires are actual scary, bad-ass killers here. Overall, it was a good-ish book that I'd recommend to fans of paranormal teen romance.
    • 5/5
      I liked this book. At first it was a little slow, after a few chapter gets better. I liked it because its a little different from the others vampires books I had read. -I don't liked that its been a long time and the second book haven't come out yet. I would have to reread it again when the next one comes out because I would forgot what happened in the first book.
    • 4/5
      When I first heard about this book months ago I immediately added it to my wish list and started counting down the days until its release date. It sounded right up my street- a fresh new take on vampires with it being about a 500 year old vampire queen being re-made as a 16 year old human girl, and after reading this the books biggest triumph is definitely the originality of it all but unfortunately for me that?s pretty much where it ends.Lenah Beaudonte is a ruthless, murderess vampire queen to a coven of some of the most feared vampires in the world. Having been made into a vampire in 15th century England she is one of the oldest and strongest of her kind. Despite all of this Lenah isn?t happy. After being turned into a vampire by her lover Rhode at the young age of sixteen Lenah feels like she?d missed out on her chance to live life, so as Rhodes last act of love he performs an ancient ritual that allows her to reclaim the human life that he took away from her. Lenah must now live as a mortal in a boarding school in New England and try to stumble her way through modern technology, make friends and keep her past a secret. But when you?ve lived your days as an evil creature of the night it?s not so easy to put your past and your mistakes behind you, and when Lenah?s coven discovers that their queen is missing Lenah realises that her human days may be numbered?I loved the idea of this story and when I first started it I found myself really enjoying it. It was interesting learning about Lenah?s past as a vampire queen and watching her try to fit in and appear normal amongst her peers but my problem started when this didn?t stop. For 300 pages there?s no real action and it reads very much like a YA realism book. Yes it?s all very interesting watching a vampire try to live as a human but after the first 100 pages it got very tedious and boring and by the time I was half way through I was debating putting it down. When I pick up a book about vampires I expect it to be action packed, and filled with blood and lust but Infinite days just didn?t read that way. The plot moved along very slowly making some parts boring to read. It wasn?t what I was expecting when I picked this book up so it left me very disappointed.The second problem I had with this book were the characters. Be warned - if you find Zoey Redbirds boy problems irritating in The House of Night series you may not get along so well with Lenah Beaudonte. Like Zoey, Lenah has a string of 4 boys in this book that she has some sort of thing with who are all fighting for her love and to make things worse none of them were that great. There was very little character development which made the characters just ok for me. I didn?t love any of them in particular and so wasn?t really fussed who Lenah ended up with. The main relationship that Lenah does have happens very quickly over the period of a few weeks and when that?s done well in a book I don?t mind it but with Lenah and the guy in question I just wasn?t convinced they were the real deal.So after suffering through 300 pages of the above I get to the last 100 pages and that?s when things start to improve considerably. We finally get some action and the ending almost makes it worth getting through the first 300 pages. I won?t say too much about that but it definitely sets things up for a potentially better sequel. During the last 100 pages Rebecca Maizel really shows us what she?s capable of and I just hope that now with everything set up in Infinite days she?ll continue on along that path with the sequel. Her writing is really beautiful and this definitely has the potential to be a great series if she?d just cut out a few of the guys and work on adding some action and suspense through out the book instead of saving it all for the end. Over all I have to say that I was disappointed with this book because I was looking forward to it for so long and it just wasn?t what I expected it to be. It was an ok read though not something to rush out and buy so for that reason I?m giving it 3.5 stars.Note on the UK Cover:I just wanted to leave a note about the UK edition of this book. The cover has an almost tracing paper like quality to it making it very easy to snag which happened to me - even though I?m a very careful reader - a few times leaving tiny tears in it. The model used also looks like she?s in her late twenties and doesn?t resemble a just turned 16 year old girl at all. After one very careful read of this book the covers crumpled and snagged, this book just isn?t very good quality at all. This is in no way Rebecca?s fault though which is why I didn?t want to include this in the actual review of the book but if your from the UK and are thinking about purchasing this book I?d advise you to try and hunt down the US copy ? considering this is a hardcover it?s really not worth the money!
    • 4/5
      Wow! This book was not at all what I was expecting. It turned out to be a fantastic tale of love and vampires. Same old story? Not really. Lenah is an interesting and complex character, being both 600 years old and also only a teenage experiencing high school for the first time. I loved all the characters, some more than others. There were a few parts where I had to really stretch my belief to enjoy the story (mainly Lenah's very fast feelings about a new classmate). Overall it was a refreshing new look at vampire romance in the YA genre which is lately over run with cliche vampire stories. 4 stars and I look forward to the sequel.
    • 5/5
      I won this book in the early readers. I loved it! They are 'teens' and there is a little bit of high school drama to it. But I truly feel it is a storyline that can be enjoyed by teens and adults (as I am 33). These are not sparkly vampires! I really enjoyed the return to the traditional vampire rules. And it is complete with a story twist at the end. Looking forward to book #2!!
    • 5/5
      Beautifully written, superb characters that came to life, written like a movie, completely engulfing
    • 3/5
      Highly recommended from a friend of mine, I did enjoy this book. I had to mark a few stars off just because the writing (which is executed quite well) took a while to get into. I always felt a bit disconnected to the story. The romance was a bit generic, but the lead character makes up for it. Word to the wise-- if you want the ending to mean anything, don't read the excerpt from the next book directly after. Wait a day or two. That is my advice to you.
    • 4/5
      I thought Infinite Days was kind of uneven. Big chunks of it are absolutely brilliant. For chapter after chapter, Maizel really made me believe in the thoughts and emotions of an ex-vampire, trying to detox from several centuries of cold-blooded killing by assimilating at an American high school. And yet, there were passages throughout the book that made me roll my eyes or groan or sigh in disappointment. I'd be reading along, turning pages happy as a clam, and then some overly melodramatic conversation or silly plot device would ruin the moment.

      So we know that Lenah is a former vampire. And not just any vampire - an exceptionally vicious queen vampire. Her soulmate, Rhode, once explained that the viciousness of the vampire is exactly proportional to how deeply she (in this case) regrets the human life she lost. Lenah had a lovely girlhood, and so she became one of the cruelest vampires ever to walk the face of the earth. Because he made her, and because he can't help but love her, Rhode eventually decides to do what he can to make reparations. He decides to give her back the life he took away when he made her a vampire.

      In order to do that, Rhode must sacrifice his own life. One of the most beautiful things about Infinite Days is that Rhode's sacrifice is real - there's no trick, no takebacks, he's really gone. Lenah's new life is founded on tragedy, and she has an obligation to make Rhode's sacrifice worthwhile. And Lenah must grieve, part of which means putting Rhode behind her and moving on. It's emotionally really powerful, and gives the book weight and gravity. I also liked the internal logic of this bargain - that if killing a human can turn him or her into a vampire, killing a vampire can turn another vampire back into a human. It makes sense.

      Lenah's assimilation into high school reads pretty much like every other YA novel about assimilating into high school. Lenah feels strange and out of place, she's magnetically drawn to this super hot, super perfect, super popular guy, he's already dating a super hot, super popular, but not so super perfect girl. Lenah makes a misfit friend en route to ruling the school, which usually leads to a be-true-to-yourself-and-don't-turn-your-back-on-your-true-blue-friends crisis but, for a change, goes a different direction in this novel.

      It's all very poignant. Both because Lenah is appreciating the experiences in a unique way - basically, as a very old person in a very young person's body - and because she knows that her time is short. The members of her coven will hunt her down, and ruin her new life as a human. Lenah picked the members of her coven very carefully, and she knows they're capable of finding her. So all the pleasures she finds in human life are fleeting and ephemeral, she has to grab on and enjoy while she can.

      As far as it goes, this all sounds great. That's because it is. All the really lame, silly things are scattered throughout, like finding a little hair in your pasta or something. It's invisible until you catch it on your fork and then you just don't want to eat any more. Plus, specific details would be pretty spoilerish. Sometimes it was just a bit of melodrama, a few conversations that were cheesy and (for me) lost their connection to the emotional truth of the characters and their situation. Sometimes it was a plot twist. A few things that happened towards the end really made me groan, like, "Oh, no, why'd you have to go and do that? Really?" I would have appreciated a little more introspection on Lenah's part about why, exactly, she was so attracted to Justin Enos - and why it is that the three men in her life (Justin, Rhode, and Vicken) all have/had remarkably similar personalities, as humans at least.

      I'd probably give this 3.5 stars if half-stars were available; I'm rounding up because it really is better than a 3 star book, hair in the pasta or no.
    • 1/5
      Finally finished this, but it felt like it took forever. I picked this up thanks to a good review from a journal, but found the whole thing very frustrating. When I read the premise of Infinite Days I was really excited by the concept – vampire is going insane so maker sacrifices himself for her so that she can become human again and finish her life, but she’ll have to hide from her former vampire followers – I mean how cool does that sound? And this has an intriguing twist on vampire lore – they can’t physically feel things since their skin is dead and this is part of what drives them mad. Unfortunately, the execution was simply not good. Maizel does a fantastic job of creating scenes that could be right out of a TV show or movie, but they don't hang together all that well. The emotional motivations are not consistent and there’s just a lot of plot holes. She has to hide from the other vampires, but they don’t bother to change her name? She’s been asleep for 100 years, but in three days completely assimilates to modern culture except at times when it’s convenient for the plot? Despite a deep connection to her maker (and at least one other vampire), she immediately falls for the cute, popular boy with the mean girlfriend – even though she’s mourning the death of the love of her unlife? And we’re told over and over again how scary and powerful a vampire she was, but you never actually see it. She's mean, sure, but why do all these other vamps follow her? There are absolutely fantastic individual scenes – the flashbacks to her time as a vampire are better than the modern stuff by far, although the scene where she hears music on a stereo at the library for the first time is also pretty good – but as a whole it just doesn’t hang together. Disappointing.
    • 1/5
      I usually feel bad giving terrible reviews, because I realise a lot of effort goes into writing the book, and a lot of the time it's just not my kind of book. This, however, should have been my kind of book and I still thought it was terrible. There's a lot of competition on the market right now with regards to YA vampire novels, and I have enjoyed a lot of what's out there. This book had a very clever base idea, and certainly had potential. It turned out to be a disaster, though.

      The characters are all bland, with no sign of character development anywhere in the book. Lenah is a five hundred year old vampire who somehow becomes human again through some vague ritual which involved her soulmate killing himself. She becomes human, is enrolled into a private school, and has seemingly no problem adjusting to her new life. She's supposed to be five hundred years old, yet she still thinks like a sixteen year old. She wasn't human five minutes when she was complaining about it, and how she should have 'thought it through' more. Even though, clearly, she had five hundred years to decide if this was what she really wanted.

      Two guys instantly fall for her, for no apparent reason. One boy is a sweet, kind and artistic, while the other is self-obsessed and the signature popular kid in the school. So of course Lenah goes and 'falls in love' with the popular kid, despite the fact that they've never had an actual conversation.

      Nothing really happens. Lenah tells Justin she was a vampire, and on the next page tells us she can't tell Tony because she has to keep 'silent' and can't tell 'anyone.' Lenah gets made a vampire again and for more vague, unexplained reasons gets to keep all her human characteristics. There's no concrete plot, no strong character, and no evident structure. Definitely a massive let down.

      For more of my reviews and recommendations, visit my blog: here
    • 5/5
      I just finished this book about 15 minutes ago. I have to say, I really enjoyed it. The story was great.I loved Lenah as far as a strong main female character goes , I feel like she was perfect.What really pulled me in was the back and forth from present time to going back into the 1800′s. Overall, I liked the pacing of the book. I enjoyed the story line and really look forward to the second book. I’m really hoping more about Rhode is in that one. : ) I give this book a 5/5. I just really enjoy the authors writing style.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed Infinite Days. It was interesting and the world-building was unique. Lenah, a former vampire, has at the start of the book, just become human and is now focused on fitting in during the twenty-first century and avoiding her coven. I loved the flashbacks to Lenah's life as a "vampire queen" and the descriptions of her behaviors as a ruthless killer. Although I wish there had been more of a learning curve for Lenah's acclimation, and more information about her vampire life and her lover Rhode, I enjoyed the emphasis on Lenah's power and I detected a "woman-power" message throughout the novel, and I loved that aspect. However, I didn't really care for Lenah's "great love" Justin. I thought he was bland and I would have appreciated more characterization on his part. Despite my minor issues with it, I liked Infinite Days and I will be reading the sequel.
    • 4/5
      This was a really interesting book, and a definitely new twist on the hole vampire topic. I really liked the characters and the romance between the two main characters.
    • 5/5
      This book is so well written, it was incredibly hard to shut. Despite all the hidious things Lenah Beaudonte has done as a vampire, once she has been transformed back into a human, her entire pursuit throughout the book, has been to make things right. An honourable girl you would want to call a friend. The same can be said for her former mate, Rhode. He sacrificed himself in a ritual in order for Lenah to become human once again. Indeed, a selfless man that I hope is still alive and well so that he and Lenah could once again cross paths as humans. A fantastic story and eagerly awaiting its sequel, Stolen Nights. Job well done Rebecca!
    • 5/5
      Infinite Days has become one of my favorite new books this year. I have gone completely fan girl of this novel. In a genre dominated with the same type of stereotypical vampires, ones who make life as a vampire sexy and attractive, Rebecca Maizel puts a new spin on vampires, one that teaches redemption and what it means to live. I laughed, I cried, I screamed, I gasped, and I loved this book. I really loved this book and I’m struggling to put exactly how much I loved it into words From the first chapter, Rebecca Maizel had me sucked into the story. I loved that, instead of desiring to be a vampire, like so many characters in books now want, Lenah wants to escape from just that and, instead, desires humanity. I loved Rebecca Maizel’s vampires. Her spin on vampires was intriguing. Vampires in Lenah’s world have no feeling, they are numb, empty shells with echoes of emotions and sensations. Lenah misses her humanity and desires to feel more than just numb; she wants to experience all the emotions and sensations that she recalls from being human. Luckily, Lenah has Rhode who loves her and is willing to sacrifice himself for her happiness. Lenah’s story starts here, in present day with Rhode’s sacrifice. Rebecca Maizel however is able to show Lenah’s previous life and life as a vampire through beautifully written flashbacks to certain events in her history that correspond to what is going on in her human life. While I can go on and on about how this book is not simply a vampire book, but about making up for misdeeds and redeeming oneself, I will move onto more important stuff, like the other reasons I loved this book, like the characters, the writing and the plot. While reading this book, I feel in love immediately with two of the many boys in Lenah’s life. The two boys I loved where not the ones I thought I would end up loving when I started reading this book. These two lovely guys are Tony and Vicken. Tony, was by far, my favorite character in the book. I loved Tony. I was constantly wishing that Lenah would dump Justin and go with Tony, the artistic, funny one. And, Vicken….phew. I thought I’d be more of a Rhode fan, but something about Vicken, drew me in, probably because he was cast as the villain at times. All of Rebecca Maizel’s characters were extremely well written and each unique in there all way. Her characters and their relationships drove the story forward, without them, the story would not exist. This novel was beautifully written and captivating. I was drawn in from page one and got sucked in more and more as the story continued. And the ending, boy, that ending was amazing. Infinite Days is a great first novel in a series, and if the following books are anything like this first book, this series is going to be amazing. I cannot wait to see where Rebecca Maizel takes Lenah and the rest of the characters in this series in the following books and am anxiously awaiting the next book in the series.
    • 5/5
      I have been looking forward to reading this book for weeks. When I got in the mail, I admired it for a few days while I finished up some other obligation reads and then started it as soon as I had a chance.At first, it just met my expectations. Then as I got into the story, it started to exceed them. By the time I reached the end it annihilated them. This book is GOOD and you should definitely be camped out at the front door of your bookstore when it opens on August 3rd, because you have got to read this. You know me, I'm not big on talking about plot points in my reviews because you can read a summary (or duh, the book) for that...but I really am in awe of everything Rebecca Maizel manages to accomplish in this story. Every single aspect of the book is flawless.The plot involves vampires, and it still manages to be 100% fresh and original. That is pretty incredible, if you ask me. Coming up with something new that stands head and shoulders above all the other vampire fiction out there is a pretty big achievement.Lenah is an awesome character. The book starts out very slow action-wise as you get to know and care for her. When you start the book, you might get a little bored - but you just have to stick with it. Even when I did find myself getting a bit antsy in the beginning, I was still amazed by the writing. I was transported into Lenah's world within the first few pages...and I still haven't left it several hours after having finished. I couldn't possibly relate to what is going on in Lenah's life any less, but Rebecca Maizel still managed to make me feel her emotions and believe her story. How cool is that?So, just in case I haven't made my point yet...I'll say it again. You all must buy and read this book at the first available opportunity. Prepare to be blown away.
    • 4/5
      I am in love with Rhode!
    • 4/5
      Infinite Days is a must read for any fan of vampire fiction. Infinite Days not only offers the reverse of most vampire stories (instead of a human becoming a vampire, a vampire becomes human again) but the novel also gives the reader a new kind of heroine. Once wise and lethal and powerful as the leader of a vampire coven, Lenah must now try to learn to be innocent, vulnerable, and open to what life has to offer for a teenage girl. While the boys who stand in as her love interests are a little too perfect, members of the supporting cast are refreshing and worth the time getting to know. Overall, a lot of fun to read. A great start to a new series.
    • 4/5
      "Infinite Days" is a well written fresh look at the vampire genre. I like the authors voice and style, definitely pleasantly descriptive. Lenah is nicely done, and unlike some other lead females lately, I don't want to choke her. This is a good thing. I look forward to following her through the next books in the series!
    • 3/5
      I'd had this on my TBR list for months and months before the book was even released... so when I saw it in the library a few weeks ago, I couldn't resist picking it up! The problem? I think the hype that preceded the book may have ruined the story for me. The concept is: Immortal vampire becomes human again. Sounds interesting, right? I figured, a 500+-year-old vampire turning back into a mortal would make for some rather dramatic scenes and sticky moral situations as she struggled to fight her killer nature. Well, she does try to fight her killer nature... the problem is that she just muses about it here and there. We see her thoughts, sure, but where's the excitement? Where's the accidental killing, or the rudeness/sense of entitlement that you'd figure an ancient vampire would have?It seemed to me that the main character slips all too easily into her new life as a human again. Sure, vampires can adapt and pretend (especially after living for 500 years), but it all just seemed too easy for her. And naturally she had to hide out at a high school. That's just the way things are.Honestly, I was bored. The pace was slow and languid (I wondered if it was supposed to be a reflection of the main character's task, which was to hide and blend in... but I think that's giving the story too much credit), and the action didn't really pick up until the final third of the book. And then there's an unnecessary death that reminded me of the one in 'Fallen', which made me rather angry at the book as a whole.I'm sad that I didn't like this very much, because I'd been so looking forward to it. The writing itself is quite beautiful -- the author is very skilled at writing tactile description -- so if you're reading from a writer's perspective, I'd recommend choosing a chapter or two to study her technique. However, from the story side of things... unless you like your vampire stories slow and high school-y... I can't say it's one I'd suggest picking up.
    • 4/5
      Lenah Beaudonte has been alive, if you can call it that, for more than five hundred years. She has killed without mercy and assembled a coven of the most powerful, most dangerous vampires in the world and bound them together with magic. She has worn the finest fashions of every decade and has the literally eternal love of two vampires. But with eternal life comes eternal suffering and eternal longing for one thing: a human life. Lenah is dying to live even if living ultimately means dying. When the one who first changed her to a vampire finds the secret to returning her to human life, Lenah finds her greatest wish coming true. She returns to mortality as a student at a New England prep school where she quickly befriends Tony, an artist, and falls for Justin, arguably the most gorgeous guy in school, who glows with the life that Lenah has been missing. It's not long, though, until Lenah's vampire days come back to haunt her because the magic that binds her wicked coven cannot be severed, and she is doomed to be hunted by her most vicious creations. It will take everything Lenah has learned in just a few months of being human to save the people and the life she has come to love. At first, I though Infitinite Days really wasn't going to work for me. I can't tell you how many times within the first 50 to 100 pages I was tempted to give up on it. I had a hard time buying Lenah as a teenager. As much as I loved and felt for Tony as a character, I had a hard time believing that anyone would be as blindly accepting as he was of the many things Lenah is inexplicably clueless about. Things that anybody who hasn't been asleep for the last hundred years would know about were overexplained. Also, the thought that you could be a girl who is over 500 years old and still fall for that perfect-looking prep school lacrosse player guy just like any other silly girl was, if not unbelievable, then at least disheartening. I didn't put it down, though, and I'm glad of it because once I got through the rocky beginning with only Lenah's vampire flashbacks somehow ringing true and drawing me into her world, Infinite Days really started to come into its own.Maizel's vampires are not the romanticized, cuddly sorts of vampires popular in many books, they are cold-blooded killers driven to kill by their fury and resentment at being robbed of the pleasures of human life and left to exist for all eternity. Lenah is a well-drawn character who forces us to be both appalled at her actions and sympathetic to her trials as she tries to re-acclimate to human life in an unfamiliar place and time. Her struggle with her guilt from centuries of perpetrating horrors as she gains the human ability to truly feel and the flashbacks to her memories of love and loneliness and treachery in the life she lived as a vampire are rich and haunting. Set in sharp relief against Lenah's expansive past, the private school's petty rivalries and would-be bullying seem even more ridiclous and downright laughable. I'm also happy to report that despite my initial qualms about Justin as a love interest, Maizel does a good job of explaining Lenah's attraction to Justin as more having to do with how he pulses with life more than anyone she's met rather than his simply being "that guy" that all the girls fall for. Somehow Lenah knows that it is Justin who will be able to teach her how to truly live again, a lesson that she is most desperate to learn. Ultimately Infinite Days is a compelling, fast-paced story of a vampire turned human whose newly-learned humanity might just be the key to her salvation.