Fallen In Love

Fallen in Love (Fallen, 3.5) by Lauren Kate

I’m not sure why authors have all of a sudden thought it a great idea to make novellas.  I’m not sure if it’s a new concept or a recently revisited old one, but I’m not a fan.  I’ve read 3 now (Bree Tanner – Twilight, Hana- Delirium, and now Fallen in Love).  Luckily I did not spend reading time on this book, but I listened to it on my way between Texas and Alabama.  I am not a fan of this series.  I didn’t like the first book (should have stayed with my gut feeling on that one) liked the second book pretty well, third book was a little better and I hated the last book.  So, why did I listen to this short story in between book 3 and 4?  Probably because I’m a gluten for punishment, but mainly because I can’t let a story not be 100% completed, it’s a compulsion. 

This small book is a collection of stories from some of the characters of the Fallen series.  A couple of the stories were ok, but several of them stunk.  Anyway, I would not recommend this book or the series.  Sorry for any hurt feelings.

Keep Reading my Friends!

Next Book Please.

Rapture by Lauren Kate

I did not like this book.  The writing was horrible, not just the style, but the grammar and word choice, the characters were uninteresting and boring.  I wanted to quit, but I knew that this was the last book of the series and I just couldn’t stop midway through.  I’m not saying this was the worst book of my reading career, but it was pretty close.  I did not like Fallen, the first book of the series, but the second book was pretty good, the third book I liked a lot so I waited with high anticipation for this last book to come out.  I don’t know if I waited too long, read too many good books between 3 and 4, or if it just sucked that bad, but I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone.  I actually wouldn’t suggest this series to anyone either.  Save your time, there are too many excellent books out there that will entertain and heighten your reading experience and help you to enjoy other books, this book just made me want to read something else.  Anything else!

This book is about a fallen angel and the girl that is reincarnated every lifetime in a curse of repeating meeting each other and dying and being born, meeting each other dying and doing it over and over throughout the span of time.  This lifetime is different because she was born into a family that has no religious affiliation and therefore her soul is up for grabs from both heaven and hell. 

Keep Reading my Friends, just not this book.

Good or Evil, Which Shall They Choose?

Passion by Lauren Kate

We last saw Lucinda Price hurling herself into an announcer leaving her backyard full of death, destruction, war and her angel soul mate. No, I’m not kidding, this is where Torment leaves us hanging before Passion picks up. Passion is the third installment of the Fallen series and I have to be honest and say that I really have been waiting for it’s release date. As I’ve stated in previous blogs, Fallen was not the best book, but I had already bought Torment as well so I continued to read. The second book was definitely better and I started to get hooked. By the end of Passion I’m ready to close this story and see how it ends, but that is the extent of my excitement. I have mixed emotions, because it was good, but I feel like it could have been better and it was missing something. I’m just not sure what it was missing.

Passion, starts with the dark side, meeting up at a horse race and we find that they have disappointed Satan and he’s ready to step in and do the job right. We also know that Luce is running crazily from previous life to previous life looking for answers to the age old question of why Daniel and Luce are tied in this eternal cycle of love and death. I feel for the first time in the series the audience is introduced to the relationship and we finally get to see what’s so special about this love. We finally get to look at it with new eyes and hope for the best in the end. We’ll all keep our fingers crossed for Daniel and Luce.

Just jumping right into my opinion of this book in the series, I found the view of the author about the Fall of Lucifer interesting and how that came about. I also found it intriguing how she interwove “free will” and “predestination” throughout the story. Were the characters really choosing their own course or was it written before time that all this happened before and all of it will happen again. It’s thought provoking how one minute the characters were talking to each other about their “choices” and then the next moment they are almost being dragged to the next stop in the adventure as if they had no choice in the matter at all. I’m very interested to see how it all plays out in the end.

There was also some confusion about God in this book. Either He is almighty creator of Heaven and Earth, or He’s not. In the end there are some short scenes with God and the language gave God much reverence. Such as, not even the angels could look upon His glory seated on His Throne. They could not even utter His name because the glory was too much for a created being, they only referenced Him as “The Throne.” Yet shortly after that, “The Throne” was surprised by the action of one of the characters and later on the same page, “The Throne” sounded tired. He’s either one or the other. He can’t be both.

Overall, I am enjoying this series. I look forward to Rapture, the fourth and final book, but am I holding my breath until Spring of 2012? Nope.

Thoughts? Have you read this series, if so, what are your thoughts? If not, have I totally turned you off to reading it, or are you curious to form your own opinions? Keep reading my friends!

Is there a battle coming?

Torment by Lauren Kate

Lucinda Price is on the move. Daniel is moving her to a safe school in California called Shoreline. With so much baggage following her she’s excited about getting away and spending some time with Daniel, except for Daniel is just dropping her off and Luce doesn’t know what he’s up to. She wakes up to a horrible roommate, surprises with who her classmate and teachers are, and no Daniel. As it becomes clear that Luce has many enemies and she’s only made a few friends, the outlook of how her life has changed is not good. She learns about a new power that she has and decides to go against her teacher’s wisdom and starts to learn about her past lives through the Announcers. She also learns that there is something going on with Daniel and Cam, something that she doesn’t know about and Daniel won’t open up to her. Trouble doesn’t stop there, she also realizes that she really likes her new friend Miles and he likes her more than just a friend as well. Will Daniel come back and save the day? Or does Luce even want him too?

At the end of Fallen, I was upset, I had been misled and lied to by all of the blogs I follow and I was upset. I didn’t care about any of the characters and I thought the book lacked an overall depth. But, Torment was a different book all together. I couldn’t believe how much depth came into this story where the other lacked so greatly. I also cared about the characters. Kate explained more Luce’s feelings about Daniel and about how strange it was that she didn’t know him, that she didn’t have a real relationship with him, but something from their past keeps them together. She still can’t understand how or why they are supposed to be together.

There were a lot of unanswered questions in this book, I don’t see how the author can answer them in a new book, but we’ll see. I don’t think I’ll be totally in love with this series, but I was really upset at the end of Torment when it finished, I wanted to follow Daniel into that announcer and go get Luce out of the shadow. I also loved Miles. He was such a better character than the others and he also got to know Luce and spent as much time with her as he could. I didn’t get that from Daniel because he was trying to stay away from her in this lifetime.

I am looking forward to seeing how this whole life started. How did they fall in love and not only fall in love but how he fell. Which side he will choose and what is the consequence to his choice? If he chooses Luce does that mean he has to be a demon? If he chooses good does that mean he has to stay away from her forever?

Well, let me know what you think about this book, series, or my blog. Thanks for reading!

Falling for Mr. Right... Or Not So Right

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Luce, a seventeen year old girl who felt she was losing everything when she was transferred to Sword & Cross Reform School. She just didn’t realize that it was the beginning of a whole new life for her. Her first day at S & C, she meets two guys, Cam the good looking sweet guy and Daniel the broody silent type and both have motives behind knowing her. When moved she not only has to give up her best friend and family, she also has to give up her cell phone and freedom upon entry in the boarding school from hell. All her life she has been followed by shadows that have haunted her, they only seem to be more present in her life since the move. They not only bring a coldness that chills her to her bones, but they also seem to bring bad omens. As she continues her short time at Sword & Cross she gets to know her love triangle more intimately. She is happy to have the affection of Cam, but is always drawn to the dark and mysterious Daniel. She makes a few friends and a few enemies, and she finds out more than she knew was possible as the story progresses. There is another world out there that she never knew existed, or did she?

This book was very disappointing to me. I read many fabulous reviews on this book online and I have been looking forward to reading it for at least a year. There was much lacking in the story line and in details. The area of lack is in the details and description in the action of the story. I found myself having to reread sections because I was lost from not knowing exactly what was taking place. Another disappointing factor in this book was that I didn’t have a deep attachment to any of the characters. The author could have killed them all and I wouldn’t have cared, actually it could have made the story better if more people would have died. I also didn’t have a deep attachment to either of the guys in the book. I didn’t care if she ended up with Cam or Daniel. She gave me no reason to like Daniel more than Cam and therefore I didn’t care who she was with in the end.

I have decided to continue to read the rest of the series just in case it gets better. Stay tuned for more developments on the second book, Torment. Thanks for reading.