Book Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

"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. 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 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.
Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, FALLEN is a page-turning thriller and the ultimate love story." (Goodreads.com)


Genre: YA, Fantasy.
Published: December 8th 2009
Pages: 452 (Hardcover)

First of all: I'm sorry for the lack of posts these past two weeks. I have been studying like crazy and since I am in my final year of high school, I have no choice but to focus on school. So sorry for that, but there will be more again next week. Now let's get to the book review!
I think that the Fallen series by Lauren Kate are known all around the world. I had already read this book a while ago, I'd say two years ago, but I wanted to read it again because I wanted to refresh my memory and somehow the story always sticked by me. Secondly, I'll be (hopefully) meeting Lauren Kate this november and I wanted to make sure that I knew the story so I wouldn't sound like a complete fool.

As far as remembering the story, I was around fifteen when I first read it, my english wasn't that good back then and somehow, I feel like I picked up the story in a different way. So I am happy that I gave it another shot, because this time I could understand everything and it was a lot more fun to read!

I know that a lot people don't really like this series, but to be honest, I really enjoyed it. It made me laugh and it was such a quick read! That really surprised me and I had that feeling of not wanting to stop reading. I stopped reading on page 390 one night and kept thinking about the book the entire next day. I couldn't wait to get home and finish it, which is fairly rare for me.

I do agree with those who say that the story itself is somewhat predictable. Especially near the end, but that didn't bother me at all. Have you ever read a book that was so predictable that it only took you about 50 pages in to predict the entire story? I have and this wasn't one of them. Not even close, and I'm quite happy about that.

As for the characters in this book, I appreciated Luce's way of thinking. At times she'd be shy or insecure, she would just tell herself to get over it and stand up for herself. I liked that about her and to me, it made her character more realistic.
And then there's Daniel, who acts like a mysterious bad guy in the beginning and you can see him slowly turning towards Luce. But of course there's a story behind Daniel's behaviour: Luce is not just a problematic girl. She has been born multiple times, always with the same name and same looks. Daniel had always been there with her, falling in love with her. But that love was dangerous to Luce, because everytime he would come too close, Luce dies.
But this time is different. They can touch and kiss and Daniel can tell finally tell her the truth about who he is, even tough that bring even more danger into the story.

I think it was quite an original twist and I really enjoyed the development of Luce and Daniel's relationship. A love story wouldn't be one if there wasn't a bad guy, in this case it was a guy named Cam and I just really liked him. He had two sides, a sweet and an evil one, but I liked the way Lauren used him to create more of a background.

Overall, it's a well-written story, the romance is good and not cheesy, the characters all have a background and are relevant to the story and the book leads up to something, which is also good.
I really liked the book and I'm currently reading the second one in this series; Torment.

Have you read this series yet?