Fallen Review

DRAMATIC.
Overly so.
I am just going to say it: I wasn't wowed by this book. *raises white flag* I think this book has passed its prime of paranormal romance days. Which is what I will use as reasoning as to why I was not blown away by this book. Back when Lauren Kate's first book of the Fallen trilogy came out I can definitely see how this would have followed the Twilight phenomenon quite nicely. But now that so many books have come out since then, I don't find it to be as special. That is not to say I didn't enjoy it, I will agree that it was enjoyable and quick to read.

Fallen is about a 17 year old girl named Luce (short for Lucinda) who is sent to a reform school after a mysterious fire kills her boyfriend and left her practically unharmed. Much of that back-story seems to be missing pieces or was summed up too simply for my taste. While she is learning her way around Sword & Cross, she meets a bunch of characters who are very odd individuals. Something is off about the whole situation and you spend much of the book trying to figure out just what is going to be revealed. Like why does she see random shadowy things occasionally? Still not too sure. She gets involved with one guy named Cam, who is full of wooing abilities, but something doesn't sit well with Luce about him. She is also naturally drawn to another guy named Daniel but he wants nothing to do with her. And so the plot thickens...

The characters are just that: characters. They didn't jump out of the pages to me, I enjoyed reading about them and the random quirky characteristics but they never seemed lifelike in my eyes. Arianne made me chuckle with her bad girl attitude. Penn was adorable in the geeky best friend way. Cam and Daniel fit the typical dark and brooding bad boy images. Luce ping pongs back and forth between being a strong female lead trying to take care of herself and just falling headfirst for a guy who is a jerk to her.

Lauren Kate's writing is simple and fun. Some overly cliched moments happen but with quirky twists. The comic relief of some of Luce's friends keep the book from taking itself too seriously. The pacing was slightly off for me. In my opinion the book started slow which I thought would help build some nice character development but I still feel like I don't really know any characters too well. The last 100 pages or so the story takes off and you get a sense of relief. I was waiting the whole book to reveal what I had all ready figured out. I go back to what I said earlier about Fallen being past its prime. When this came out I can see how you possibly have gotten to the end and not figured out we were dealing with angels. But the title lends hints to it, the few dreams Luce has that involves wings also help. So I was relieved for the pacing to speed up and the story to unravel, which it sure did. But it went really fast and ended abruptly. I was finally settling into learning more about the mythology when it was cut short with some drawn out make out scenes.The epilogue does intrigue me to read more so I will most likely pick up Torment, the sequel just to find out more of Lauren Kate's plans for these characters.

The cover design is beautiful and overdone at the same time. Come on...it looks like an Evanescence CD cover right? But I am still a sucker for the dark mysterious covers. Even though the girls in dresses thing is so common now, I still enjoy it. I appreciate that you can't see her face, I don't like when I have an image of the protagonist before I even open the book up. But come on..cheer up girl in poofy black dress! You're only standing in a dark forest with creepy crows flying around you! Also if you have the paperback of this like I do, who else pet their book? The paperback has that velvety finish to it that just feels cool in your hands.

As a whole this book has potential for readers just getting into the paranormal romance subgenre. Definitely check it out if you are interested in the quick and cheesy romantic scenes, because admit it, who doesn't love those? I'm going to have to give this a 2 out of 5 stars and lower bookshelf rating just because it will fit in nicely with all my other dark romance books.