Book Review: Infinite Days by Rebecca Maizel.

Product details:
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin.
Paperback, 310 pages.
Release date: August 3rd 2010.
Ages: Young Adult.
Rating: 3½ out of 5.
Series: Vampire Queen #1.

 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?

For lovers of vampire fiction, even those of you who are becoming a little jaded with the genre, try this! Rebecca Maizel is a new author on the block, and in her debut novel she has created a unique vampire world, one in which all vampires have one ultimate wish, and that is to become human again. In this book a vampires existence is a doomed one, bringing nothing but pain, misery and suffering. You’ve never quite read a vampire book like this, right?

Lenah Beaudonte is a five hundred year old vampire queen who has just had this dream fulfilled by her vampire lover, Rhode. We meet her reborn as a sixteen year old schoolgirl, trying to readjust to human life and fit in at the prestigious Wickham Boarding School. She’s alone and pretty unsure of the ways of the world she now inhabits. She also faces a serious threat from her coven of vampires once they find out that she is no longer their ruthless vampire Queen, but just a normal human girl made of flesh and blood…

There were a lot of aspects of this story that I loved. Maizel alternates between Lenah’s life as a schoolgirl and her previous existence as a vampire queen. This takes us back hundreds of years and lends a historical aspect to the book, which I loved. As a vampire queen Lenah was vicious and ruthless - killing without mercy and thinking of nobody but herself and her quest for blood. In her incarnation as a teenage girl, Lenah’s still thinks like a vampire at times, which makes for some witty asides, and adds some humour to proceedings.

My only major problem with this book was the relationship between Lenah and her new love interest, Justin Enos. He’s the number one hottie at Wickham, and quickly drops his ‘mean-girls’ type girlfriend once Lenah arrives on the scene. For me, Justin pretty much looked upon Lenah as a trophy girlfriend, and while these two declare themselves to be deeply and utterly in love after all of five minutes, I didn’t really sense any deep connection between them at all. I'm a total romantic, and I love a good love story, but this one just didn‘t work for me. I also felt that the second part of the book suffered in it’s pacing. Lenah’s coven are presented to us as being a major threat to her existence, but when that threat happened, it felt somewhat rushed and fell a little flat for me.

Apart from this though, I enjoyed reading this book . It’s a strong debut, and I loved Maizel’s unique take of vampire mythology. The writing style worked well and the character of Lenah and her re-integration into society was interesting to read. The book also ends on a surprising note, and I need to find out what happens next! I’m looking forward to reading the second instalment in the Vampire Queen series, Stolen Nights, published 2011. Maybe Lenah will find herself a new boyfriend in this one…