Customer Reviews

Fallen

5 star:		(167)
4 star:		(150)
3 star:		(107)
2 star:		(72)
1 star:		(52)

 

 

Quick & Dirty: Ultimately this tale isn't captivating and lacks a real villain.

Opening Sentence: Around midnight, her eyes at last took shape.

The Review:

Marketing almost sold me on this book, but the book itself couldn't close the deal. With a beautiful cover, the promise of a tragic love story, a creepy, gothic boarding school setting, and fallen angels, I expected a compelling read. Unfortunately, Fallen is a disappointment.

Fallen's protagonist, Luce, is a suspected arsonist, and claims that she's constantly stalked by malevolent shadows. Her parents, at their breaking point, send her to Sword & Cross, a boarding school. Once at Sword & Cross, Luce battles the typical "new girl" problems and immediately catches the eye of two hot guys at the school. She finds herself drawn to the mysterious Daniel and is determined to find out more about him and his past.

Fallen is a flawed novel and I had to struggle to finish. Fallen was crafted in such a way as to make the story predictable and ultimately doing little to keep the reader engaged. I knew Fallen was a series so I didn't expect the overall story arc to unfold at a breakneck pace, but I did expect something to actually happen. The pacing of the story is slow with little to no action. In my opinion, a lot of the chapters that were written really didn't do much to move the plot forward.

I think the most damning aspect for me is the author's inversion of the Show vs. Tell concept. Meaning, Ms. Kate did more telling than showing me what I needed as a reader. Daniel and Luce are supposed to have this amazing connection and be hopelessly in love, yet none of this is shown to the reader. Ms. Kate didn't establish enough background about Daniel and Luce's relationship to make this a believable or particularly compelling love story. I never established an emotional connection with the characters and their plights simply didn't resonate with me. The dialog was flat and character descriptions were inconsistent. There wasn't enough worldbuilding and as a result the story suffered.

My second gripe concerns the lack of characterization. The difficulty in writing immortal/supernatural characters for a sophisticated audience is that you have to respect their reality. For an immortal character, Daniel certainly lacks imagination, maturity, skill and purpose. His brooding and skulking around didn't make me believe that he was dangerous or a bad boy for that matter. Luce came off as a creepy stalker, pathetic, naïve, weak, and at times really annoying. The narrative voices of the secondary characters aren't particularly unique. With no real character development and growth, it was hard to care about them. I'm not sure if I will invest the time to read the second book in the series, Torment, because Fallen did not grab me.

Overall, Fallen falls prey to clichés. It's all buildup with no climax, and that left me more frustrated than satisfied. Ms. Kate seems to have left key elements of the story for later installments, and a bevy of plot devices weakened the story. With little depth to the characters or plot, I fear some seasoned and savvy readers of the genre will have a hard time falling for Fallen.

Notable Scene:

She looked up into a maelstrom of shadows. A spectrum of shades of gray and deepest black. She should only be able to see as far as the ceiling overhead, but the shadows seemed somehow to extend beyond its limits. Into a strange and hidden sky. They were all tangled up in each other, and yet they were distinct.

FTC Advisory: I purchased a copy of this book. In addition, I don't receive affiliate fees for anything purchased via links from my site.

Lauren Kate's debut novel, Fallen, has garnered very mixed reviews, so I wanted to check it out for myself. Unfortunately, I fall into the group that disliked the book. Following on the heels of other recent paranormal romances, FALLEN uses a fallen angel theme. After a devastating fire, Luce is pulled out of her high-achieving prep school and deposited within the rusted gates of Sword and Cross reform school in Georgia. Though plagued by visions of lurking shadows and the unexplained death of her classmate, Luce starts making both friends and enemies and drawing the attention (both good and bad) of two guys. Despite his cold behavior, Luce is inexplicably drawn to Daniel, and she slowly finds herself on a path of discovery about her past and her potentially devastating future.

Author Kate appears to be able to write well, as there are some good moments here and there in the novel. However, these moments were outweighed for me by the clumsy dialogue and forced attempts to create a dismal, southern Gothic atmosphere. While the author tried to create a strong sense of place, the descriptions of the South and the reform school were so filled with contradictions that each setting seemed implausible. Editing was also lacking in the book, and these mistakes pulled me out of the story. Further, character development was very limited. Luce came across as mostly inept and uninspiring, even though we're told she's smart, beautiful, and worthy. The romantic connection between the main characters felt superficial at best. Luce's love for Daniel may have been fated, but I never felt why the two loved each other so desperately. The secondary characters of Gabbe, Arriane, and Cam were more interesting, but they seemed like caricatures at most.

The book's story arc was mostly predictable, and the most interesting components, like Luce's constant hallucinations of shadows, were dismissed casually once they were finally mentioned. We're told the two main characters have a damned love, but it was never explained why. Nor was it ever explained why these angels had fallen and why some were now fighting for good and others for bad. All of these things, including Luce's involvement as a catalyst for events to come, were never explained. It seemed obvious that these questions were left unanswered to set up things for the forthcoming sequels (including Torment), but I feel that readers could still anxiously await the next installment while understanding why it's all linked and all so important.

Combined, these concerns made this book a very unsatisfying read for me, but I'm glad that others enjoyed it so much. In the three coming books, I hope that Kate better develops the connection between characters and that she provides more background about Daniel's and Luce's relationship.

The storyline sounded intriguing, the cover was absolutely haunting, and after reading all the glowing reviews of this book, I decided to give it a read. What I hoped to find was a stunning book on the power of eternal love, loss, and maybe some redemption. What I received was a spectacularly mediocre reading experience.

Lucinda "Luce" Price is special. Shadows follow her around, but no one else can see them and no one believes her. People just think she's lost her marbles and she is sent to an unforgiving boarding school, which is not unlike a prison, after the mysterious death of her friend. At Sword & Cross, Luce meets a varied cast of characters, some who appear to want to kill her or annoy her to death and others who seem to truly want to help her. Then we learn they're all angels and there's a huge conspiracy at the center of which is Luce.

I told you the premise is compelling. Where the book faltered, however, was in the telling. Neil Gaiman once said that a good story should have the reader asking "...and then what happened?" when there is a pause in the story. With Fallen, I never asked that question. I continued reading in the hopes that it would get better, but it never did. The story was rote and unadorned. Telling became prominent rather than showing and it slowed the book down considerably.

When the writing faltered, so did the characterization. Any story worth its salt has compelling characters whose actions and personality feel genuine. Luce was rather bland in the beginning, the middle, and the end. In other words, she never developed. Daniel Grigori, to whom Luce had an overwhelming and inexplicable attraction, was an inconsistent stereotypical Byronic male. But he annoyed more than he intrigued. Cam was the quintessential charming nice guy and Arriane was the disfigured girl who picked Luce up when she was down. Of the characters, Arriane and Cam--two supporting characters--came the closest to being genuine, though they too drifted into cliche. Overall, the characters were unskillfully handled puppets on the page.

As far as the plot, which tends to develop out of strong characterization (what is plot if not a character's actions and reactions to each situation?), it fizzled.

This book could have been great; the elements are there, but it is nothing more than commercial supernatural fantasy with few, if any, redeeming qualities. The uninspired prose, lacking character development, and weak plot with far too many unanswered questions in an attempt to push the reader into the next book left much to be desired.

Have you ever tried to finish a book even though you felt as if your life was slowly fading away as you read the book? Unfortunately this was the case with Lauren Kate's Fallen. Here is yet another supernatural young adult book where the "hero", and I use that term loosely, is a fallen angel. I've come to the conclusion that using fallen angel characters in young adult books just doesn't appeal to me. The problem is that an author will use this fallen angel character as the ultimate bad boy, but one that isn't redeemable or has anything to be proud of. All that matters, and is so important in getting across to young readers, that as long as fallen angel bad boy looks like a god or an Abercrombie model, has a dark demeanor, is rude and at times crude to the lonely, pathetic heroine, it is perfectly acceptable for this to be a believable romance because their love is meant to be! Why is it meant to be? No real reason, just take it at face value and don't ask any questions.

The problem with Fallen is that the action and overall story limps along, much like watching water drip from a kitchen sink. By page one-hundred I was ready to throw in the towel, but I decided to give it another fifty pages. And around page two-hundred I wanted to bang my head against the wall from the sheer boredom I was feeling.

Luce Price is being stalked by shadows that follow her every move. These evil forces have caused Luce a life full of woe where she cannot be considered normal. Her parents have sent her to specialists and given her medication to keep her stable. They think she needs major help and enroll her in boarding schools where she can get the help she so desperately needs. But then over the summer, there is a fire and a young boy is killed and Luce can't explain who or why it started. Now Luce has been enrolled in a new school for her senior year in Savanna, Georgia called the Sword & Cross School where her parents hope the strict rules and being watched by the teachers and the warden like staff will help Luce get better. What Luce walks into is more of a dungeon type place near an old Civil War cemetery and buildings that give off a creepy gothic vibe. The uniform everyone must wear is the color black and the crimes of these unstable students are kept a mystery. Luce is not sure who she can trust because anyone she allows into her life ends up being hurt or killed by the evil entities that stalk her.

The first few days Luce is at Sword & Cross are horrible. Because she's the new kid, she is ridiculed and almost hazed by those students who know how to get around the rules. But soon Luce makes some tentative friendships such as Arriane, a playful but very strange girl who lays claim to Luce and Penn, an orphan who likes to dress in multiple layers of sweaters. Then there is Cam who is very friendly and all too willing to help Luce settle in. Luce is interested in Cam, because he seems to be the only normal on in this asylum type school. But then Luce forms a small crush on another student, Daniel Gregori who is like a golden god with his, "deep golden hair, high cheekbones and almost unblemished look". Daniel keeps his distance and makes sure Luce doesn't get too close by giving her the finger on her first day and making fun of her. Luce can't understand why Daniel seems so disgusted with her. But, something about him calls to her and she must find out why! And still those dark shadows come out of nowhere, searching for a moment when Luce will be weak, where they will have their revenge and steal her soul. And the only one who may be her salvation the one who keeps turning away from her and that is Daniel.

Fallen should have been a dark, on the edge of your seat gothic type mystery romance. Instead, Fallen is a limp, insipid telling that lacked enthusiasm and spirit in every single passage. The feeling of doom and gloom, where I expected thunder and lightening on every page did not deliver in any way. The characters had no personality to recommend, I guess because of the amount of drugs they were given, and the so-called creepy antics that should make you jump and drop your mouth in shock is comparable to fireworks that don't go off the correct way and fizzle out of the sky.

The writing is awkward and the revelations that take so long to get to should deliver but don't. Unfortunately I can't tell you why Luce is so important and why Daniel is the key because I simply didn't care. I couldn't decide if Lauren wanted to make Daniel such an anti-hero to a point where he is so bad, but then wised up because who would sympathize with a character like him? He reminded me more of a hunchback sidekick to an evil scientist in a science fiction B-movie from the amount of times Luce would come in contact with him because he was always off to the side or next to someone who overshadowed him.

Luce's characterization is of a poor girl who has already given up and if she could, would role up into a ball rock back and forth under one of those gravestones with the angel statues on top. I wouldn't blame her if she did because she is stuck in a desperate world where there is no help or exit plan.

I simply cannot find one valid reason to read Fallen. I had this desolate feeling as I read, but for all the wrong reasons.

Katiebabs

This book was just so horrible that I am not sure if I can find words for it. Luce Price is the most idiotic character that I have ever met. She is creepy stalking Daniel, when she barely even know him. And will do anything for him, when she only recently met him. Daniel is also a selfish and a complete asshat to Luce. Wait he doesn't even deserve that word, because he is worst then that. I didn't really learn anything about the characters, because Luce was only obsessed with Daniel. What you do learn about the other characters is rather bland and repetitive. The plot is also extremely slow. The real action only takes place in less then one hundred pages and isn't extremely interesting.. This book was really similar to a lot of the horrible paranormal romance that I have read. I would love it, someone came with a book, with a brooding paranormal character. Kate needs to put more detail into her books and also develop the story arc and characters more. You might like this book, if you enjoy paranormal romances, but I would suggest getting it from the library if you must

I hope to be entertained in some way by whichever book I decide to read, but Fallen made that impossible. I will not repeat the synopsis of the story since it's been recounted a number of times. The writing itself was choppy in some places, well-done in others (rare), and uninspired overall. The characters were inconsistent. The main character for instance, Luce Price, behaves in the most immature and idiotic ways although we're told she's an honor student. She's chasing after a guy who would probably drop her off a cliff if he could. Which brings me to Daniel, the guy Luce is chasing after. He's good looking and brooding, so of course that makes him mysterious and worthy of Luce's undying attention, nevermind that he behaves rudely and is downright malevolent. There's Cam who is charming, pleasant, and flat as a pancake. Luce likes him too, but Daniel is soooo pretty. In most instances I'll be able to forgive weak characters if the plot is stellar. Let me be blunt: Fallen has no discernible plot. This book does not have a self-contained story with a set up, climax, and cool down. It's a build up with no payoff because you're to buy the next book for that. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with series, but each of the books in a series needs to have its own story with the hint of *another* story in the next book. For the best (and probably most well-known) examples, look at the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling or the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer. Each of their individual books has a complete story with a hook that leads into the next. Fallen doesn't. To make it sting even more, this book should have been about 150 pages lighter. So not only was there uninspired writing, weak characters, no plot and no complete story, there were a whole bunch of extra words that said nothing. I now regret not heeding the critical reviews of this book.

WARNING: SPOILERS. Not that you wouldn't figure them out yourself in a few pages, but hey, fair warning:

Wow, so with the vast difference in opinions I'm seeing in reviews of this book, I figured I'd throw my hat into the ring. I almost didn't read it, because of the negative reviews I saw, but I'm glad I did. Now there seem to be more positive than negative comments, but maybe I just misread the number of negatives the first time because I read them on my phone instead of a computer screen. Anyway, I liked FALLEN.

There were problems with this book. I'm not denying that. Most of the time Luce is searching for answers, but she really isn't figuring much out. The readers have pretty much figured out by halfway through, at least, that Daniel is a fallen angel and may well be among others of his kind at Sword and Cross. I mean, if the title wasn't a dead give away, there's the Paradise Lost references, and the whole "Los Angeles" thing. Coincidence? I think not. So, you're searching for a mystery that you already know the answer to for quite a while. Also, the first chapter let's the audience in on why Daniel might be fighting the relationship. I think that's the main problem: the audience knows WAY more than Luce, so it's easy to be exasperated by her ignorance. I left the book thinking of Luce as being a bit of a wimp compared to her hardcore angel retinue, but after some thought, I realize she braves a supernatural fire to save a friend; she hides the horrors of reform school from her parents to protect them and keep them from worrying; and she races into a cemetary of doom filled with creeptastic shadows and weird pyrotechnics of destruction to go save her boyfriend. Not bad for a human chick surrounded by supernatural beings. Luce turns out to be a pretty strong character, just not absurdly so. That's a good thing to keep in mind when you're annoyed at her for not figuring it out already. After all, she doesn't have an opening chapter or an obvious title to give her brain a hint. The fact remains that when the book reaches the falling action and these great mysteries are revealed, the audience already knows most of what is told to them. The majority of the information we want is left a mystery, to be revealed in a sequel. And that's irritating. However, there are several things keeping this book afloat.

-1) The Writing: actually quite solid. Lauren Kate really built good images of her story with her language.
-2) Romantic plot: this kept the story going. The readers may have figured out the central mystery: angels. But they'll stay to find out what happens between Luce, Daniel, and Cam. Speaking of Cam...
-3) Cam!! Thank goodness for Cam. It's not that I loved Cam as a person. The whole, 'I'm good, evil, back to being kind of good' thing was confusing, but Cam was a bit of a curveball. I didn't want Luce to end up with him, but I wanted to find out who he was and what his role was in all this. Cam is the main reason I will probably read the sequel: in lieu of the angel mystery which is obvious, the mystery of Cam is still beyond my grasp. Which is good. Cam constitutes a major redeeming factor.
-4) I'm really curious where the author is going to take this whole angel thing. Apparently there are good fallen andgels and bad fallen angels in this book, and that's new. I want to know how she's going to spin it...and what Luce's baptism or lack there of has to do with anything.

I believe I saw someone say there was nothing original about this book: that it was all recycled. I can see some parallels: Edward and Bella's whole, "We can't be together. I'll hurt you." dangerous relationship thing is in there. The reincarnation and repeated falling in love is reminiscent of EVERMORE, though, in my opinion, FALLEN does it better. However, a reform school for delinquents and crazies populated by humans and fallen angels? That, to me, seems pretty original.

Overall, I liked the story. Despite some flaws, I enjoyed it. FALLEN was pretty well written, and it kept me reading. I really wanted to find out what happens, and I still do. I guess I'll just have to wait for the sequel.

Luce Price (who has a truly annoying family motto I have actively forgotten) accidentally killed someone. Or the shadows that follow her around accidentally got into arson one day. Whatever. It's not like we get any explanation on the shadows that follow her around, so I'm not going to spend more time than I have to on them. Shadows follow her, antagonize her, and, like me, want to set everything around Luce on fire. Because the shadows randomly killed someone and she can't quite recall how it happened, she is sent to reform school.

This is the only strong point of the book, so enjoy it now. Reform school, where the kids are not cuddly and no one dazzles, shimmers, shines, sparkles, or is slightly luminescent. We are escorted around school and Luce stumbles across the heavenly visage of Daniel, reform student with attitude, who is so gorgeous and blond and gorgeous and muscular and gorgeous. Then he flips her off, because she's staring at him and he feels this is appropriate. Luce, weirdly enough, decides he's perfect for her.

The book takes a sharp nose dive right about here. It never recovers. So in lust with this boy who apparently thinks she is crazy/stupid/weak/annoying/creepy/what have you, she begins to stalk him and act like a total loon whenever he interacts with the opposite sex. Daniel, hiding a terrible secret, keeps making really awful attempts to hide this secret while simultaneously treating Luce horribly. He abandons her, ignores her, talks down to her, speaks slowly so she'll comprehend the very short words coming out of his mouth, and then goes and broods about it in a super enticing way so Luce can fall more into lust. Boys who treat you poorly are awesome, clearly.

Meanwhile there's this other guy, Cam, who is devilishly charming if not for the fact that he gets into lots of bar fights in totally random ways. He almost wins Luce over, only because we have to have a love triangle to add tension in a weak story about two people with no chemistry whatsoever who are in magical love based on outer beauty and destiny...or whatever. After many of Luce's questions go unanswered by Daniel because she is apparently too stupid to grasp any explanation, it becomes pretty obvious that most everyone besides Luce is a fallen angel. Specifically, the Grigori, who, legend has it, mated with people and created the Nephilim. This is kind of screamingly obvious, given Daniel's last name is Grigori. Luce, who is self-described as intelligent, takes forever to realize this despite the fact she's been stalking him and internet researching Daniel's name for weeks on end.

Somehow Daniel decides to succumb to the tantalizing awesomeness that is the lust-fueled void of Luce's personality, and all hell breaks loose...not that we see that because Luce is too dumb to realize she's been purposely herded into a closet.

True to the form of these books, surface beauty rules the day. Personality, which Daniel and Luce both lack, isn't important. Not to mention, having a life outside of boys isn't really necessary, right? The whole thing reads like an elementary school saga. If these kids were about eleven, I'd believe their antics. As it is, their emotional depth doesn't match their worldly knowledge, especially in the case of Daniel and Cam, who should be old enough to know better seeing as how they've got to be a few millennia old by now.

Ultimately, Fallen is a dull story trying desperately to cash in on the Twilight phenomenon. Nothing more.

I can almost hear Lauren Kate and her publisher's thoughts:

Step 1: Write a book exactly like Twilight
Step 2: Market this book exactly like Twilight
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!

Here's the problem:

When Twilight came out, it was the first book of it's kind and yes, I gave it 1-star because I hated it but still, in it's own way it was unique. The reason I say it was unique is because stephenie meyer pretty much took all her squishy little romantic fantasies and puked them onto a page, unedited. it came from the heart. On the other hand, this book tries to artificially duplicate it scene by scene.

1- We have the brown haired average looking heroine newcomer with mysterious powers (Bella's thoughts can't be heard, Luce can see shadows.)
2- we have the unearthly handsome hero with COLOR CHANGING EYES (edward's eyes go from amber to black // Daniels eyes go from grey to freaking VIOLET.)
3- We have the love triangle. (Both Edward and Jacob are supernatural, and... well, without spoilering it, let's just say it's prettymuch the same thing in Fallen.)
4- The love interest plays it hot and cold. Edward was mildly bipolar in Twilight, Daniel takes it to a new extreme, one minute he's flipping her off, next minute they're cuddling, what the heck is going on??
5- The damsel in distress. Both Bella and Luce get saved by Edward and Daniel in virtually identical ways all throughout the story.
6- The supernatural entourage. without spoilering i just want to say both books cover this trope down to the rosalie and alice clones. (debbe and arianne.)

What makes Fallen much worse is that it just DRAGS ON AND ON AND ON. I knew what it was about because i figured from the name "fallen" it had to be about fallen angels and all you have to do is look on wikipedia for watchers/grigori to see where the author got inspired. But in the book it took until way past page 300 for the big reveal and it was so rushed and so annoying. the ending was really beyond ridiculous and clearly designed to hook the reader for the next part in the series. problem is i am just so uninterested in this ridiculous couple that i just don't care enough to buy the next book.

the reason i give it 2 stars is because it was set in Georgia and the writing wasn't horrible. I should really be giving this only 1 star.

In "Fallen," young adult author Lauren Kate attempts to create the first in a grouping of novels that will do for angels what "Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1)" does for vampires and werewolves. Knowing that supernatural themes capture the young teen girl audience like no other, Kate capitalizes on a formula that already works. However, she struggles a bit in her inability to generate the type of passionate, believable bond between her lead character and her love interest that will whip up her fan base to the type of frenzy that will vie with the Jacob/Bella/Edward triangle beloved by the readers of Meyer's "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" and "Eclipse (The Twilight Saga)."

As "Fallen" deals with themes of reincarnation and forever love, Kate does little to elaborate on illustrating the histories of her couple. She needs to generate a sense of the magic of their chemistry so that her audience clamors for more of their togetherness and roots for their eventual reunion. Instead she concentrates on presenting the confused and angst-ridden life of seventeen-year-old Luce, new to a strangely atmospheric reform school in the low country of Georgia. Troubled by her past and the weird shadow manifestations that haunt her, Luce tries hard to make her new circumstances work and to keep it all together until she lays eyes on blonde teen god Daniel Grigori and her focus cannot help but shift.

Kate spends nearly all of her 400 plus pages on describing the minutia of Luce's day, the girls that she perceives as either her friends or her competition and her attraction to Daniel and Cam, two of the school's hottest boys. But what should give the story its drive--the actual mystery regarding Luce, the school and its inmates and how her past life relationships with Daniel--is not really touched upon until the last hundred pages. Instead, Kate seems to focus on a portrait of a young girl with a typical young girl's questions and problems. However adequately Kate presents this aspect of Luce's persona, it slows the feel of the entire novel, making even climatic scenes seem dull. Because of this the story's big moments that should be anticipated are rushed and play out a bit falsely; Kate simply doesn't build up the feeling of the supernatural or the sense of timeless love too effectively. She doesn't make the reader weak in the knees, eager to turn the next page and swoon at her dialogue while savoring the couple's reawakened chemistry.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel any chemistry until it was almost impossible to ignore towards the very last pages. In fact, I found that I was reading the novel's most exciting scenes with the same lack of excitement that I read most of the book's contents. It is not as if the story is a bad one, however similar it is to Twilight and other young adult novels with the supernatural theme. It could have been wonderful if only Kate had driven her plot in a totally different way.

Take note. What makes the Twilight series so powerful is its ability to depict teenage love with its nuance, innocence and "to death do us part" intensity. Edward and Bella "grew" up with different sensibilities, but Meyers takes the time out to explore their complexities. Not that her style is perfect, at times her scenes are downright corny, but let's face it, on the eve of the debut of the film version of "," she has created quite a little industry for herself. Team Edward and Team Jacob would die for their respective heartthrobs. Would something similar occur for the sake of Daniel and Luce's love? I doubt it.

Kate could have used the trials and errors of Twilight to fashion a perfect little series for herself. But she did not. The reader is told Luce and Daniel are long-time lovers, but we do not feel their passion until it is blatantly depicted at the end of the novel. Kate almost had it right--she begins her story with a scene from the past--however, she abandons this technique once chapter one is underway. Why oh why didn't she continue with this flashback technique to give the reader the sense of forever love? Reliving chapters in this couple's multiple existences would have been both poignant and exciting. Plus it would have added to the pivotal moment of Luce's revelation in a way that would have solidified that "I knew it would happen" satisfaction that any reader enjoys if it is done properly.

As it stands "Fallen" has potential but it needs a lot of work. As a piece of literature, it falls short on many levels, most of which address the many loose ends that are never fully rectified. Even though it is the first in a series, the novel itself must stand alone in terms of its structure. This one does not. The ending cliff hangs over situations that are hinted at but never defined. Kate has her work cut out for her in the next installment.

Bottom line? Lauren Kate takes the idea of love lived over many lifetimes and like Twilight fashions one of her teen protagonists as a supernatural being. The potential for success is there if Kate structures her next installment in the series with a little more thought to the bond between her characters and intensifying the plot drive so that the reader stops yawning and starts turning those pages to find out what's coming next.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"