Review: Passion by Lauren Kate

Passion (Fallen #3) 
by Lauren Kate
Published: June 2011

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Available: Amazon

Blurb:

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.

Review:

Since I've blogged about the Fallen book covers a number of times I have to start off by saying that I absolutely hate this cover. Yes, it is nice they they have added some color in, making it finally stick out a bit from the pack, but still an anorexic girl, standing in a very uncomfortable position, with long black hair that Luce doesn't have?

So, this is just one long chase book. Luce runs, Daniel runs after her, Cam runs after them, Gabe, Molly, etc run after them. It made absolutely no sense that any of them would be running through the past, as though trying to catch up to Luce, especially when she didn't even seem to know what the purpose of doing it was. It just felt like Kate was struggling to build suspense, and fulfill a four book contract.

The plot is a complete mess, and honestly I am struggling right now to remember everything that happened. There are angels, and Elders and Outcasts and demons, and the devil mixed with a love story where the characters are now traveling erratically through time in search of something that they don't know about yet.

My first instinct had me rating this a 4 but as time passed and the clarity of what actually happened in the story rapidly faded, I just couldn't justify it, so I've put it at a 3. Daniel's point of view was what saved this for me. He always seemed like a bit of a jerk, but in Passion he actually seemed to come to life a bit.

Review: Torment by Lauren Kate

Torment  
by Lauren Kate

Published: September 2010

Publisher: Random House Children's Books

Available: Amazon

Blurb:

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 to her previous lives. 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?

Review:

So, in my endless annoyance with misleading covers I find that I continue to not understand the reluctance of cover artists to READ the book they are designing a cover for! Or with the publishing houses to let author's say "Hey, this isn't right". I love the Torment cover. It is absolutely beautiful. But that's not Luce!! how can they continue to get this wrong, when her hair is such a big thing in the book? This is the second time, and since I've seen the cover of Passion the third book in the series I know they don't even fix it there!! Maybe I'm obsessing a bit, but it just drives me nuts.

Anyways, despite the cover I did really enjoy this book. I actually thought I'd already reviewed this one, since I read all three already released books in the series late last summer.

Torment changes the scenery and adds in many new characters, but still retains the same eerie, dark feeling of Fallen. Luce and Daniel have been separated and she is falling prey to not just one but two not so good guys. But Kate does a really good job of blurring that line between good and evil, how each side sees their side as the good side. With Daniel in the middle of the tug-of-war between the two sides, it's even harder to figure out which side he should choose, because neither actually seems all that good.

I was disappointed a bit with the separation of Luce and Daniel. It started to feel like the Twilight pattern (Book 1 - resist love, Book 2 - he leaves for her own good, Book 3 - resigned to being to together because they can't resist, Book 4 - loves other problems and maybe one will die) Maybe Kate won't fall completely into this repetitive mess.

The Announcers (or shadows as Luce called them before) were a really interesting development. Luce's experimentation with them changed things up, and I liked the out come of her learning to use them. Kate also did a great job in explaining how the Announcers work, or at least how Luce is figuring out how they work.

The ending was surprising, but I hate giant cliff-hangers. They tend to be big let downs that are dragged out for far too long in the next book. I wish Luce had actually done something that made an immediate difference to the war going on between Angels and Demons, or even to her relationship with Daniel.

Review of Fallen by Lauren Kate

Fallen by Lauren Kate
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Published: December 2009

ISBN: 9780385738934
Available: Amazon, B&N

GoodReads Blurb:  

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 the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.

Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce–and goes out of his way to make that very clear–she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her.
 *****
* This review may contain minor spoilers.


First, I have to say that I love the premise of this book. A fallen angel in love with a human. A human that just happens to burst into flames and die every time they kiss. What I really loved is that Luce is pretty much completely unaware of her past lives, even though there is something different this time around. Ms. Kate does a great job of making Luce normal, while unusual at the same time. I didn't feel like I was reading about Belle Swan with a different hair cut, even if Daniel was a bit too Edward for me. 

The love triangle was interesting, even though it's apparent that she will end up with Daniel, well not for her happily ever after yet, that will come possibly in the third or fourth book in the series. Cam (the other love interest), is a much more complex character than Daniel. While it becomes pretty obviously quickly that Daniel's motivated by the need to protect Luce at all cost, Cam's motives are much more hidden and even at the end of the book it's not clear what exactly he wants and why.


What really drew me to this book was the cover. And yes, I did judge the book by the cover, simply because this was a beautiful one. It spoke of a Gothic setting and a distraught, long haired heroine. Gothic, check. Distraught, check. Long hair...wait, long hair? What? Luce's hair is under discussion a number of times, her need to cut it after she was injured in a fire (prior to the book starting), and eventually coloring it blond. So what's up with the girl with long black hair? I have no idea, but I suppose it did its job.  

Overall, Fallen was a good read and I'll definitely read the next books in the series.