mentioned to you previously, the Fallen series, by Lauren Kate. This series is comprised of four titles including Fallen, Passion, Torment, and finally Rapture. I'm just going to talk about them as a whole work instead of delving into each one.
I started this series very excited. Honestly, the cover art is what got me; it's beautiful to say the least. It made me want to read this story...well, that and the fact that I've seen the titles on the shelves for what feels like forever.
The story starts out as many YA ones do,
with a girl named Lucinda (Luce) who falls for a dark brooding guy, Daniel, at school. Long story short, we realize this guy isn't quite what he seems and BOOM, insert Angels. Yep, Daniel's an angel.
We find out that the main character, Luce,
has lived many lives before her present one and in each of them Daniel was present as well. In each life she has died -actually sparked into flames- at the age of seventeen in Daniel's arms. Now she's on a hunt to figure out why this has happened and why it didn't happen this time.
Up to this point the story wasn't too bad.
I actually dare to say that I sort of enjoyed it. Then it was on to the next three books, all of which about bored me out of my gourd. I know they provided the back story for the characters and how they came to be but they felt so slow and I literally had to force myself to keep. on. reading. I feel like the author could've condensed 2.5 books down into 1 and we all would've been a lot happier.
Then something happened. Finally on
page 367 of the last book, my interest was sparked again. There was a twist I didn't see coming. Maybe other readers might have figured this out by now but not me! It totally made me smile because it was what I least expected. With this shift in the story, the end starts wrapping up quicker, at last. Maybe that's why I smiled. Anyhow, good defeats evil and the lovely couple end up together and happy, as we all knew they would.
Now, with all that being said, let me tell
you what I didn't like about this series.
*The relationship between Luce & Daniel was so chaste that it barely qualifies as romantic.
*The story is based around angels who were made to decide between Heaven and Hell and those that couldn't or wouldn't decide were punished and turned into Fallen Angels. Maybe it's just me, but I have a moral dilemma with this one. The story portrays the heavenly figure, or God, as the Throne. He comes across very harsh and demanding. He punishes and doesn't seem all that loving. Lucifer, however, is portrayed as simply a very misunderstood angel who loves too deeply and cannot choose God because of his love. You can make your own decisions on this one, folks, but for me, I had a problem with it.
*Though the angel Daniel didn't choose Lucifer's side, wasn't he still punished and ultimately sent through Hell? I mean, he was made to live life over and over again and have the same heartbreaking thing happen before his eyes for 6 millenia. If that's not Hell, I don't know what is.
*Daniel chose love. Well, doesn't God=love? So really Daniel did chose his side. Why are we getting caught up in semantics here?
*I felt like the author tried too hard. I don't exactly know how to describe that, I just feel it.
This series has done well as a best
seller and has really great reviews. I had a friend tell me that she loved it even. For me it was just alright. I couldn't get past a lot of my feelings on the whole good vs. evil, Heaven vs. Hell, Lucifer vs. the Throne issue so it really tainted the entire series for me.
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