Rapture by Lauren Kate

Genre: fantasy
Series and Book #: Fallen Series #4
Pages: 448
Summary:

The sky is dark with wings….

 

Like sand through an hourglass, time is running out for Luce and Daniel. To stop Lucifer from erasing the past, they must find the place where the angels fell to earth.

 

Dark forces are after them, and Daniel doesn’t know if he can do this—live only to lose Luce again and again. Yet together they face an epic battle that will end with lifeless bodies…and angel dust. Great sacrifices are made. Hearts are destroyed.

 

And suddenly Luce knows what must happen. For she was meant to be with someone other than Daniel. The curse they’ve borne has always and only been about her—and the love she cast aside. The choice she makes now is the only one that truly matters.

 

In the fight for Luce, who will win?

 

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The final book of the Fallen series redeemed the series for me. Daniel and Luce have resolved whatever doubts they have had in their relationship, there is serious conflict, and Luce has gotten past her selfishness and is actually becoming someone I like as a main character.

Luce being an angel wasn't as big a reveal as I think Lauren Kate was intending. I had the inkling of the idea from the get-go. The dramatics were unnecessary, and I'm not entirely sure it needed to wait until the final book for it to be revealed. I realize that whenever Luce becomes aware of her holy heritage, she spontaneously combusts, and I know Daniel doesn't want that to happen ever again, but its already established this incarnation of Luce is different because she wasn't "claimed" to one side of the holy war. Since Luce figures it out in the fourth book, and nothing happens, I think it should have been brought to light earlier. Dragging out the series for this long was a little unnecessary.

Rapture was a good finale for this series. There's some true character development from Luce, there's actually a climax that made me really want to read the book, and the side characters were lovely. Dee, Arriane, and company will always be my favorite part of these books.

The Cover: Thankfully, they're back to normal. I think she's supposed to be on the Mount in Israel? Anyway, I like the return to the dark covers.

Passion by Lauren Kate

Genre: fantasy
Series and Book #: Fallen Series #3
Pages: 420
Summary:

Luce would die for Daniel.

 

And she has. Over and over again. Throughout time, Luce and Daniel have found each other, only to be painfully torn apart: Luce dead, Daniel left broken and alone. But perhaps it doesn’t need to be that way….

 

Luce is certain that something—or someone—in a past life can help her in her present one. So she begins the most important journey of this lifetime…going back eternities to witness firsthand her romances with Daniel…and finally unlock the key to making their love last.

 

Cam and the legions of angels and Outcasts are desperate to catch Luce, but none are as frantic as Daniel. He chases Luce through their shared pasts, terrified of what might happen if she rewrites history. Because their romance for the ages could go up in flames…forever.

 

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"You knew it when I followed you to the top of Corcovado in Rio, when you wanted to see the statue up close. You knew it when I carried you two sweaty miles to the River Jordan after you got sick outside Jerusalem. I told you not to eat all those dates. You knew it when you were my nurse in that Italian hospital during the first World War, and before that when I hid in your cellar during the tsar's purge of St. Petersburg. When I scaled the turret of your castle in Scotland during the Reformation, and danced you around and around at the king's coronation ball at Versailles. You were the only woman dressed in black. There was that artists' colony in Quintana Roo, and the protest march in Cape Town where we both spent the night in the pen. The opening of the Globe Theatre in London. We had the best seats in the house. And when my ship wrecked in Tahiti, you were there, as you were when I was a convict in Melbourne, and a pick-pocket in eighteenth-century Nîmes, and a monk in Tibet. You turn up everywhere, always, and sooner or later you sense all of the things I've just told you. But you won't let yourself accept what you feel might be the truth."

Fallen by Lauren Kate, page 357



I liked this installment of the Fallen series because we get to glimpse into Luce's past lives. Thankfully, she's looking for something more concrete in her and Daniels' relationship that isn't just blind passion. Also, Lauren Kate includes Daniel's perspective as he travels back in time to find Luce. Not only was I able to experience Luce's feelings, but also Daniel's, and it added some dimension to their relationship.

I wrote down the quote you can find at the beginning of this post when I was first reading Fallen, and I appreciated being able to recognize the places Luce and Daniel went because I'd heard them before. I have to give Lauren Kate props for her continuity.

Passion was my favorite novel of the bunch because I liked going back in time with Daniel and Luce. I, too, wanted to figure out how their relationship has developed over the ages. And trust me, the end is shocking, if not a bit crafty on Lauren Kate's part.

The Cover: Not my favorite at all. The Fallen covers are dark and the bright splotches of  clouds threw me off.

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.

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Genre: fantasy
Series and Book #: Fallen Series #1
Pages: 452
Summary:

There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

 

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at Sword & Cross boarding school in Savannah. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are screwups, and security cameras watch every move.

 

Except Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce—he goes out of his way to make that very clear. But she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, Luce has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret…even if it kills her.

 

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I appreciate Lauren Kate didn't initially push Luce and Daniel together. Of course, there was the whole "I-recognize-him-from-somewhere-but-I-can't-exactly-remember-where" mixed with "Oh-my-God-he's-so-hot". Daniel's rude reception of Luce kind of puts off their romance until later in the novel, after Luce gets tangled with other people. Still, it's a little unbelievable the amount of time Luce spent fawning over Daniel.

Luce wasn't a terrible main character but she was shallow. First, she's all upset that Daniel doesn't seem attracted to her. Then she's upset that Cam likes her instead of Daniel. I mean, she has two attractive guys vying for her attention and she still has a poor-me attitude? Her commitment to her friends was a good quality. Luce loves Penn and Arriane to no end. 

So, altogether it wasn't bad, but it wasn't my favorite. I loved the side characters more than anything, especially Gabbe and Arriane. Luce didn't really undergo any character developments as the story went on. I hope she becomes a more three-dimensional character as the series continues.

The Cover: The background of the forest surrounding Sword & Cross is good, as well as the darkness. The model looks a lot like Luce is described.