Review – Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel

Posted January 14, 2013 by Emma in Blog / 15 Comments

Title – Infinite Days (Vampire Queen #1)
Author – Rebecca Maizel
Genre – Paranormal, YA.
Pages – 400
Publisher – Macmillan Children’s Books
Source – Bought

For 500 years Lenah Beaudonte has been a vampire. 500 years of seduction, blood and destruction. But she is sickened by her dark powers and longs to feel the sun on her skin, grass under her bare feet, and share the breath of a human kiss.

She wants to be mortal again.

But is she really capable of being human, after her long years of darkness? Waking up as a sixteen-year-old girl brings Lenah many things the life she has missed, taste, touch, love. But a vampire soul is not easily shed. And her coven of four vampires she led in decadence and thrilling destruction want their queen back…

Believe it or not, I have read this book many times but since I’m doing the blog tour to the sequel, I thought I would read it again, and post my first review of it! There have been many vampire books inspired by Twilight and alike, but this one has something uniquely refreshing about its plot. When I first read back in 2011, I loved it and I couldn’t believe she was doing a sequel to it, 2 years later. 

Lenah, a former vampire of 500 years was getting bored of the power, strength and immortality of being a creature of the night. I mean who would get bored of that. Pfffft! Anyways, after being bound to Rhode, her maker and her lover, she wanted to feel again, what its like to express humanity. A ritual was found and performed to express her greatest wishes. However, life, or in Lenah’s case her second life, will never go as planned! Her original coven want her back, their queen, their guide and their saviour.The plot was very original in comparison to other vampire YA novels as I mentioned before. What I enjoyed about it was the  time difference of her former vampire life to the 21st Century. The setting of the five centuries she has endured is created so fluently that you know your travelling and remembering with her. 

I found that I despised Lenah as an immortal she so dark, deceiving and evil in her own nature. For someone so small she embraced her need to her fill potential. Lenah was calculating at the best of times, she became the darkest hole of the night as a full fledged creature. However, her flawless skin, her graceful yet predatory movements makes her someone unnatural, someone with a decaying soul trying to find the light. Lenah’s character in modern day society were the complete opposite. She is gentle, fragile yet strong-willed, bold, blunt but is a lovable character to explore with. Her use of language and appearance is slightly out of sorts from being in slumber for 100 years, yet her style is in her favour when locals see her for what she really is. She needs live, a new life, a new beginning, for herself and Rhode.

Immediately, Justin is the lead La Cross player and the eye candy of all the girls.  His popularity draws Lenah in but Justin is just as curious. Justin is just average hot boy dating Miss Popularity of the year, but their is something beneath him that makes that appeal that more distinct and catching to all readers. Justin curiosity of Lenah springs from her casual fashion to her through her boldness of dissecting a cat, they both appear to take this as it comes. Lenah’s relationship status is N/A, its been a long time since she has had a human relationship and Justin is her first.  Maizel integrates there relationship steadily throughout the whole novel, she deepens their feelings to where they both have each other’s hearts in their hand. (Justin has my heart any day!) However, I felt that their relationship didn’t portray the love that Rhode and Lenah once had, pure, beautiful and solid.

“Lenah?”“Yeah?” I replied.“Will you go to winter prom with me?”“Of course,” I whispered, sure I would fall asleep in moments. “Justin?”“Mm-Hmm?” he said, moments from sleep himself.“What’s a prom?”

What I loved was of the most likeable characters of the entire novel, Tony. An opportunistic, artistic, passionate and a comical persona. Tony a Japanese/English Goth was one of the first characters to be introduced into Lenah human life. What I loved about Tony was his artistic nature and the  intricacy of his portrait that he creates of her, through Maizel beautiful writing you can tell the ease and the expression of his  emotions through the brush-strokes on the canvas. 


The ending was a little predictable and slightly rushed, I didn’t feel it held the expectation and impact of the rest of the novel. Though, I know I can’t wait to what will happen for the sequel to come.  The only cliché with the novel was the romance between Justin and Lenah and living in an Academy. However that aside, I thought this novel was astounding to say that its separated from the many YA Vampire novels I have read, and I that is a lot and that’s saying something! And Remember:

“Evil be he who thinketh evil.”

Rating: 4.5
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15 responses to “Review – Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel”

  2. Sam

    I haven't seen this cover before! I actually won a copy of this recently and look forward to reading it after all the great things I have heard. Justin and Lenah sound like great characters, and I love that prom quote. 😉 Brilliant review, Emma!

  3. Lucy

    This does sound good, although I am a little fed up of Vampire books. They're all a little samey-samey. I love your review though! Very detailed! I like descriptive reviews! Thanks for sharing!

  4. Zoe Crook

    I'm not a big fan of vampire books… I think they are getting a bit repetitive. But I like the sound of this one! I definitely agree with you about how a former vampire for 500 years could never be boring… that sounds really interesting! Thanks for the brilliant review and for sharing those quotes, I love the prom one 🙂 xx

  8. Eileen

    Wasn't this one really great? I totally agree! I didn't like it as much as you, but the story does sound amazingly awesome now that you think about it! I so agree, she was SOO insanely evil at first, and then she got better! 😀

  9. Renu

    This sounds like a vampire book with a difference! I like that the characters are layered and the mc sounds great. Awesome review. 🙂

  10. Jasprit

    After devouring so many paranormal books, I'm always wary about what I should pick up next, but seeing as you loved this book so much, I think I may have to give it a try! Beautiful review Emma! 🙂

  11. Keertana

    I love the concept and premises of this one, especially since I'm on the hunt for some good paranormal novels, so I'll definitely have to give this a try. It seems so original! Thanks for a great review, Emma! 🙂

  12. Rachel

    I've never heard of this series, Emma. To have to wait two years for the sequel must have been painful because it sounds like this was an addicting story. I do like the sound of this story and I'm wondering how her old vampire life will factor into her new "human" life. Great review. 🙂

  14. Jessica@Booked Up!

    I'm in love with that front cover! Caught my eye straight away 😀 I love how unique the idea of this is! Obviously vampires have been done at least 193,847 times, but I've never heard of one where the vampire turns into a human. I've only read books where it's vice-versa.

    I really want to meet Lenah, despite how dark and creepy she sounds! This probably seems pretty morbid, but I always love the evil characters more than the "good guys" …mwahahaha! 😛

    Anywhoo, brilliant review Emma! I hadn't seen series before, but it sounds really interesting. And if you loved it, I'm sure I will too (noticed we have similar reading tastes!) Also, I'm a MASSIVE fan of anything vampire-ish!

    So thanks for sharing your lovely and very persuasive review with us! By the way, like somebody mentioned in a comment above, I seriously adore your butterfly rating system. It's adorable and they are very pretty butterflies indeed. 😀 xxx

    P.S. That quote made me laugh out loud. 😀