Torment by Lauren Kate

Genre: fantasy

Series and Book #: Fallen Series #2
Pages: 452
Summary:

Hell on earth.

 

That’s what it’s like for Luce to be apart from her fallen angel boyfriend, Daniel.

 

It took them an eternity to find one another, but now he has told her he must go away. Just long enough to hunt down the Outcasts—immortals who want to kill Luce. Daniel hides Luce at Shoreline, a school on the rocky California coast with unusually gifted students: Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans.

 

At Shoreline, Luce learns what the Shadows are, and how she can use them as windows into her previous live. Yet the more Luce learns, the more she suspects that Daniel hasn’t told her everything. He’s hiding something—something dangerous.

 

What if Daniel’s version of the past isn’t actually true? What if Luce is really meant to be with someone else?

 

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Oh my goodness, did this book fall to the Curse of the Second. I understand that Luce is frustrated and no one is answering her questions, especially not Daniel (who, let me add, is breaking his own rules), but I don't think that's a good enough reason to search for anything and everything that could lead her to her true identity. Especially when she's almost killed on one of her searches for answers. Plus, after all the warnings Daniel and her teachers at Shoreline have given her, you would think a girl would learn that its dangerous to be away from school property by herself.

Also, let's just talk about Daniel for a second. He's the one who has been drilling into Luce's skull that there are rules and they need to be followed and they can't see one another because its dangerous yet he still sneaks on campus and talks to her. How do you expect your girlfriend to follow rules when you can't even follow your own? And the revelation that Daniel hasn't been exactly exclusive in their centuries-old relationship is supposed to be surprising and heartbreaking? Yeah, sure, every seventeen years Daniel ventures out into the world in search of Luce's reincarnated soul, but that doesn't mean he's gonna be alone for those breaks. Besides, didn't Luce have a thing for Cam? And now the boy at school? She's not without sin, either.

Obviously I didn't really like Torment. As I said in my review of Fallen, I think Luce is a shallow character, and a bit selfish too. Maybe through her decision at the end of this novel will help her personality.

The Cover: I like the theme going for the novels. The backgrounds always reflect the setting Luce finds herself in and this time its on the West Coast ocean.