Passion (Fallen #3)
by Lauren Kate
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.
Sweeping across centuries, Passion is the third novel in the unforgettably epic Fallen series.
Review:
This book was exactly what I needed from this series. In Fallen, I couldn’t really understand why Luce was so drawn to Daniel and I didn’t care for him much. In Torment, Luce got on my last nerve with her undecided love triangle bull**** with Miles (?! of all people?!) and Daniel never told her anything because he wanted to “protect” her and it just drove me nuts. But Passion sort of sat me down and said Ok, fine, here is why Luce and Daniel belong together and here is Luce maturing and finally understanding the concept and wrapping her mind around everything. Daniel wasn’t there to meddle in Luce’s maturity quest and she wasn’t distracted by trying to fit in with friends or getting all gooey over Daniel. I could breathe a total sigh of relief at this novel. It was what I needed to see from the series in order to continue to love it.
Instead of Luce being stuck at yet another boarding school setting, the book starts off where the last book ended – with her being transported by an Announcer. She travels throughout time and witnesses various past lives of herself and Daniel. Sometimes, she’s there when they first meet; other times, she’s there when she’s dying. Daniel attempts to follow her through the Announcers. The goal of both Luce and Daniel is to somehow figure out a way to stop the curse that inevitably kills Luce, although Luce also wants to understand some things about herself, the curse, and Daniel. Witnessing the glimpses of her past lives is exactly what Luce needed to see to answer some of her burning questions, such as do they really love each other or is it just a part of the curse that draws them together? And those questions are the same questions I had as the reader and I’m glad they were answered in a creative way. Instead of trying to figure out pieces of the puzzle from Daniel or the other angels, Luce gets a front seat and gets to see it all unfold in front of her, leaving the decision making and interpretation up to her.
The journey was creative because of the various settings and time periods where Daniel and Luce eventually meet. Seeing Luce die each time and watching Daniel deal with that also gave me some insight into his character. Yes, he’s the brooding, dark YA love interest that drives me nuts sometimes, but I feel like he has a good reason at this point. He has had to watch the love of his life die so many times, it’s ridiculous. And even though I knew that from the beginning of the series, seeing it happen a few times helped me understand him better. Because the situation is always different for previous Daniel’s and Luce’s, I figure Daniel must have grown a lot over the course of thousands of years living different lives in different social classes and eras and he’s not just a brooding dude with no personality like I thought in the first book. (For the record, I’m still all about Cam, regardless of his allegiance. But I know he never really had a shot and I know that Luce and Daniel have a pretty hefty history and I’m no longer skeptical about it all. Daniel wins and I’m okay with that.)
I suppose my favorite thing about this installment is that it is serious. It’s more about the angels and the lives of everyone Luce knows, including herself, and the curse and the mythology than it is about going to school and making friends and having a boyfriend. This book tells me that this series grew up a little bit. I shamelessly enjoying the teenager-ness of the first two books, but I think I needed it to evolve and it did and that’s why I rated it another star higher than the last two books.
I cannot wait to read Rapture and I’m so thankful this didn’t turn into another love triangle at a boarding school because I think I would have screamed. I would definitely recommend this series to people and if they’ve only read the first one or two books, I would strongly urge them to continue the series and give this book a shot.