Hey guys! This week, I’ll be reviewing the entire “Fallen” series by Lauren Kate. Why the whole series and not just one book? Well, after reading the entire series, the details get jumbled and it’s still one very large story line. That being said, let’s get started.
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
There are four books in the series- five if you count the little “Fallen in Love” book. The four main books (in order) are “Fallen,” “Torment,” “Passion,” and “Rapture.” As you may have guessed, this is one giant love story. Some may gag at the idea- and there are a few scenes worthy of that reaction- but I thoroughly enjoyed the entire series. There is enough action and story line in it to keep the series interesting through all four books. It certainly had me hooked from the very beginning.
In the very beginning, our main character Luce is being transferred to a new school for the “bad kids”; after she tried to kiss her boyfriend, and he kind of burst into flames. It seems to have happened for absolutely no reason whatsoever, or at least that’s how Luce sees it. Of course, while she’s there, she meets not one, but two boys that immediately catch her attention. In fact, he makes her stop and stare. Not only is he gorgeous, but he is very familiar to her for some reason. His initial reaction to her presence however, seems to have the opposite effect as he ever so charmingly flips her off. Despite his ever gentlemanly ways she was still smitten by him. Not enough though to not notice another guy. Enter Cam, an apparently pretty good looking guy with whom she doesn’t feel an immediate connection to.
So, 50 pages into the book you have two possible love interests, one of them obviously more of a possibility than the other. Daniel (the lovely owner of the one fingered gesture) tries to spurn her advances a bit, trying to resit her, but in the end he can’t. From there, Luce eventually finds out that Daniel, and a bunch of other students, are angels. While some of the other students- including Cam- are demons. They can’t tell Luce any of the details, for the fear that she could die. She has to learn everything on her own. After a confrontation between the angels and some other mystical beings that want to “tip the balance,” the school is nearly destroyed, and Luce finds one of her human friends dead.
Turns out that Luce and Daniel are soul mates, but Daniel is being punished by God for something that happened in his past. Luce has lived many lives through the centuries, and every lifetime has ended with flames due to her love for Daniel. The only reason it isn’t happening in this lifetime is because her parents didn’t have her baptized- so she has no affiliation with either side of the fight. The rest of the books are about Luce discovering who she is, who Daniel is, and why the two of them are so important to the balance between God and Lucifer.
In the end, you find out that Luce was an angel. In fact, she was Lucifer’s first love, before the idea of power got to him. Luce- as an angel- then discovered Daniel and fell truly in love with him. Not that she hadn’t loved Lucifer, but he was becoming too obsessed with power. When Lucifer makes his stand, Luce and Daniel choose each other rather than Lucifer or God. And so, they are cursed. Luce was made mortal and would die over and over again, knowing nothing of her past life.
At the very end, the two must choose again, and once again they choose each other. But God and Lucifer are more merciful this time around, and they allow Luce and Daniel to live out one more life as humans together. But after this, there won’t be any more reincarnations.
All in all, the series was great in my eyes. The romance got to be a bit cheesy, but I was always rooting for the two to get together, and stay together at last. There were a lot of clichés throughout the series though- some romance that was just too much for my tastes. What kept my attention was their slowly revealed back story. The author did an absolutely fantastic job with keeping their history a secret and slowly revealing things bit by bit. Though, I will admit that some of the foreshadowing ruined the surprise of it. I guessed that Luce was an angel early on in the series, perhaps back in the second book. That took away from some of the surprise in the story, but there were plenty of other small details to keep the reader interested.
I love the fact that this book touched on the fact that there is a gray area in the world, and that things aren’t always black and white. Most would expect to see the demons as the bad guys and the angels as the good, but you see that both have positive and negative qualities. All of them have been friends at one point or another, and all of them have stories of their own. I think it’s a really important quality to put into the book; that no one is wholly good or wholly evil. Everyone has their own perspective and their own reasons behind their actions.
In the end, I would recommend reading the entire series. You don’t have to like romance, you could just like the idea of angel mythologies, or perhaps a complicated plot with plenty of suspense. Sure, some of it’s predictable, but there are still plenty of twists and turns that you don’t see coming. I’m not really sure how well this follows any angel mythology, as I am not familiar with the subject. Though, if you are familiar with the mythology, it may be fun to read just to see how accurate to the history the story is.
That’s all for now folks! Make sure to check back next week. Stay Friendly!