Fallen (Fallen #1)
by Lauren Kate
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 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.
Review:
Or maybe 3.5?
I went into this book knowing nothing about it, but recognizing the title vaguely and figured I’d go ahead and read it. I’m starting to do this a lot lately and I kind of like going into a story with no expectations.
After reading, I have no idea how I feel about this book. I loved it, but I also don’t know if I liked it at all, which is a tough feeling to have.
The prologue and the title of the first chapter indicated to me that there would be two characters who have met previously and from the first few pages, I realized it would be Daniel and Luce. She was completely drawn to him and I knew from the vague prologue that she would be. Unfortunately, this is pretty much the gist of the entire book and Daniel could not have been more unlikable to me. I realize there’s this whole conflict of “I’m staying away from you for your own protection” thing going on, but I hated it. I mean, I knew from the prologue that they had met in some previous life or something, but based on what happens in the present, I could not for the life of me understand why Luce was drawn to him at all. I just didn’t like Daniel. Despite this, I found myself turning the pages rapidly to figure out why exactly these two people have met before, why he was avoiding her (yet simultaneously not avoiding her at all), and what exactly was going on.
For some reason, I really like Cam. Something told me that perhaps he was not a good guy, but I liked his character so much better and found myself totally rooting for him along the way and mentally hitting Luce for being so drawn to Mr. I’m Going to Ignore You Daniel and ignoring Cam, who was incredibly nice.
At some point, about halfway through the book, I realized this was a total love story and it was a huge love triangle, which I tend to dislike, ESPECIALLY in YA these days, but I was actually having fun reading. This is so unlike me, which is probably why I feel torn on whether or not I liked this book. To some degree, it was kind of dumb, but I really enjoyed reading it anyway.
I thought the premise of the fallen angel was interesting and I wished it was more developed, but I’m hoping that it will be discussed further in the rest of the series. I am hoping that I will find out more as Luce unravels everything.
I also think a lot of the aspects of this book could have been better developed. Instead of focusing almost all of the book on the love triangle and Luce being so drawn to Daniel, more energy could have been put into other areas, like religious references or getting to know some of the other characters and their past a little bit more. I don’t know. I just feel like with a premise this fantastic and unique, it could have been done better. Every time I thought Luce was going to venture somewhere, something happened and she was right back to focusing on Daniel or picnicking with Cam instead of finding out more cool stuff (and with a premise like this one, there’s TONS of cool stuff to bring up!)
In short, while I shamelessly enjoyed the YA love triangle, the literary nerd in me thought it could have been a better book with less focus on romance and more focus on the incredibly unique ideas presented. But I’m going to continue the series. Maybe Cam will win. =)
Labels: Review