Customer Reviews

Torment (Fallen)

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(68)
3 star:		(54)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I was eagerly awaiting this book because the first one was amazing, but I read Torment yesterday and was very disappointed. We really didn't learn anything new that wasn't already told in the first book, there were hints, but in 450 pages I'd prefer if there had been a real climax (one I don't think this book provided). This story has so much to offer, yet we still can't see the details of it. I too will read the third book, hoping for a remedy to the disappointment I felt after finishing this sequel. There were good parts in it, but there was just a lot of the book as I was reading that made me roll my eyes and hope it was getting closer to the end. I think I was most frustrated with Luce's angsty "everything's my fault" and finding comfort only in the arms of either Daniel or Miles.
Which leads to the whole other, why the hell bring Miles into it? I thought it was a triangle between Cam, Luce, and Daniel which I really liked, but it seems Cam has been replaced by Miles whom I don't really care for his character at all. Is she turning it into a love square? Or is she pulling a House of night and have Luce fall for all the guys that pay her attention and offer comfort?
I agree who ever said the book was basically full of fluff and I felt it held a lot of repetition. Here's to hoping Lauren Kate can bring back my interest in this series with book #3

liked Fallen.

I LOVED TORMENT!

First of all, one of my favorite themes to read is good vs. evil and even better when it's heaven vs. hell. And while most people are probably going to be more interested in the love story aspect of this series, for me it's really all about the battle between the angels and demons. Daniel, the good guy against Cam the bad guy....or are they?? The line in the sand is sometimes a little fuzzy in Torment. You'd think it would be easy to predict the behavior of either one, but sometimes they act in unexpected ways which leaves Luce confused and questioning. And is one of the things that makes Torment so compelling. There are definite mysteries to be solved and I am loving trying to figure them out!

Torment gives us a new setting...the gorgeous California coast. Shoreline is everything that Sword and Cross wasn't. Sunshine and beaches and a gorgeous building with decks and windows where classes are held. We are also introduced to some new characters at the school...Shelby, Luce's new roommate and Miles, a totally sweet guy who helps make Luce feel comfortable in her new school. And there are two teachers who...well, let's just say they're not your ordinary teachers *wink*

And then of course there's Daniel and his glorious wings. Lauren does an absolutely amazing job of describing them...not only can you picture his wings, she makes you hear and feel them too. As you would expect, Daniel's main goal is protecting Luce from the Outcasts, but he's also protecting her from her past. There are lots of unanswered questions and we are left wondering just what it is that he is hiding from her. I think there are going to be some amazing reveals in book three!

I was really happy with Luce's growth in Torment. Granted, she has a habit of doing the absolute opposite of what the people trying to protect her tell her to do, but I think ultimately that is an important part of her personality. She has free will and she acts on it. She puts herself in some situations she should avoid, but there is so much about her past she doesn't understand and she wants to know. You really can't hold it against her. I also really love the fact that while she has this great passion with Daniel, she questions their relationship. She gets that passion and attraction and history isn't everything. So many girls in YA fiction don't do this and I love that Luce is actually thinking.

Bottom line...if you liked Fallen, I think you're going to love Torment!

Anyone who has read Fallen knows that author Lauren Kate ended the book with a cliffhanger. If you haven't read the first book--and plan to--I suggest you skip this altogether!

So, if you're still reading, I assume you were hooked at the end of the first book in the series and left to wonder: What will happen during the eighteen day truce between groups of fallen good and fallen evil angels who seem to be fighting over Luce's fate? Torment picks up only a couple of days later as Luce makes her way to Shoreline, a school in northern California for unusually gifted students. Her classmates are Nephalim--children who are part human, part fallen angel and Luce will board and study with them at this safe haven until Daniel returns for her.

At the school, Luce is more comfortable and less of an outsider than she ever was at Sword and Cross, but it's what she doesn't know that still haunts her. Eventually, she learns the Shadows that plague her are windows to events from her lives, both current and past. She intends to manipulate them and illuminate her relationship with Daniel. The problem? The Shadows only reveal a glimpse. Sometimes partial understanding is more misleading than none at all. Ultimately, viewing her past confuses Luce. And, adding to her sense of bewilderment is Luce's new friend Miles, a warm, funny, open guy who is so different than Daniel.

Often the second book in a series can be a letdown, but Torment did what a second book should do--pull you deeper into the unfolding story and leave you wanting to read the next! The eighteen-day countdown as the end of the truce nears creates a fast-paced read. Following an exciting climax, author Lauren Kate leaves the reader with another cliffhanger ending and a lot of unanswered questions. So, along with other fans of the series, I'm waiting for the next book, Passion, due to hit shelves in the summer of 2011.
-- Reviewed by Michelle Delisle

(slightly spoilerish)


Torment was a very enjoyable read, though I had a few issues. The issues were surpassed by awesome characters and tremendous writing. I didn't want to put it down and I am now craving Passion even though I have quite a time to wait.

Luce grew a backbone in this book, and for this I am very glad and applaud Lauren Kate. Even though she felt this magnetic pull to and incredible love for Daniel, she began to really question why it was there. She has no memories of the past lives that they shared, all she has are stolen kisses and a few sweet memories. When he gives orders, and is forced to be behind the scenes, she stands up for herself and demands to know more, she gets angry and pushes to know the relevant information. I am not saying that this driving desire doesn't result in some bad decisions, but she has every right to know more, and to wonder at the intensity of their love.

I really wanted to see more of Daniel in this book. I am honestly not completely sold on him, even though I would really like to be. I adore the concept of undying love, and he has the potential to be an amazing love interest and an awesome character, but I just don't know enough about him. I am in the same boat as Luce except that I don't have any pull to him. There is just too many secrets and so much mystery shrouding him and what role he plays in tipping the balance of the war.

As for the new characters, they are wonderful and really made me get into the story more. Shelby is a firecracker and I love watching her and Luce's relationship build and their interactions. Miles is so cute, and I love his devotion, friendship and understanding toward Luce. He is a down to earth guy and I got to see the cute moments that really build a relationship between him and Luce. Though I am hesitant to get too attached because I know that this is ultimately Luce and Daniel's story and I don't want to hope for romance with them even though it made be alluded just to have that shot down or him be a character just brought in to sacrifice himself for her. Oh, and Franscesa and Steven were also wonderful- they wonderfully illustrated the talk about the line between love and hate- angels and demons- is more blurry than one would like to think. It is heart breaking when she says- "Do I love him, yes. But when the battle comes, I will have to kill him."

Adrianne comes back in this one, and kicks some butt. I totally did not see it coming, but I am glad that she is back. Cam is also back in this one, and he is still a big question mark. I am unsure of his allegiances in the end, and him and Daniel working together.

Overall this is a great story, and I feel like Torment is doing a lot of ground- work for scenes to come.


I have to share a few quotes that I found amusing:



"If you two were going to be that obvious about it, why didn't you come down stairs in your Team Daniel and Team Miles T-Shirts?"

"We should order those," Shelby said.

"Mine's in the laundry," Arriane said.



"Well, as much as I love kicking asses and taking names, it's way past curfew for you three"- Arriane"

I was eagerly awaiting this sequel to Fallen by Lauren Kate, and was not disappointed. The world of paranormal suspense is fun to get lost in, and I enjoy it all. Vampires, fairies, werewolves, but in particular, I love me some fallen angels. And can you get better than Daniel . . . and Cam?

Both Fallen and Torment are L.O.N.G. books. Torment was 452 pages, yet it didn't stop me from reading it in a day, just as I did with Fallen.

Right off the bat, to the critics of Fallen who say Ms. Kate took too long to get the story going--in setting up the world and backstory--that is not an issue here. We already fully understand the world Luce is now a part of and are able to dive in from page 1. To lose ourselves in Luce's struggle--her torment--over her relationship with Daniel, dealing with her past and unsettled future. Who and what is evil? Who or what is good? Who are the bad guys? Who are her friends? What is real love? And can she save her current loved ones from the anguish of losing her or being hurt themselves?

My only disappointment with this sequel was there was not enough Cam. Whenever he did appear, however, the page singed with his sexy charm and bad boy humor. Ms. Kate introduced a new potential love interest/triangle in the form of Miles, a fellow student at the Shoreline school Daniel and Cam send Luce to hide. Miles brings something new to the table that neither Daniel nor Cam can provide Luce--stability and normalcy. With him, she can be a normal teenage girl with normal experiences. She even says that their joking relationship "was exactly the kind of goofy, teasing rapport she would love to have with Daniel. If he weren't so brooding all the time. If he were actually around."

The final battle scene in this installment wasn't nearly as epic as in Fallen, but left you with some very big clues into Luce's past . . . and future. The story continues in Passion, the next book in the Fallen series, which will be released Summer 2011. I, for one, can't wait.

I should begin by saying that I wanted to like this book. I wanted to like the series. I really appreciate beautiful, thoughtful graphic design, and I like to see authors and publishers beginning to appreciate just how important good design is as a marketing technique. The series is lovely in concept.

In execution, not so much. The first book was mediocre, and the second was an equally mediocre follow-up. Luce is a troubled teen, put in reform school for her role in the death of her high school crush. In her new, gothic school, she meets a variety of punks and pretties, all fallen angels in disguise. The hero, Daniel, leader of the fallen angels on the side of good, competes with equally attractive Cam, representative of the dark side, for Luce's affection. The second book picks up where the first left off, with Daniel winning Luce's love and her realization that they have been playing out a tragic love story for millennia - Daniel finds her, then Luce dies. This time Luce has not perished, so Daniel sends her to a private school in California for Nephilim, children of angels or demons, to hide her from the growing ranks of their enemies. They proceed to spend the next 400 pages fighting with one another and then making up whenever Daniel comes to visit.

The characters are caricatures - not a single one is fleshed out to real personhood - instead the author relies on style and stereotype to fill in the blanks. The heroine, Luce, waffles from defiant to resigned at dizzying speeds. Even though she realizes she's in an abusive relationship (kudos to the author for making that clear early on), she continues to explain away the fights and problems with that over-exploited panacea 'true love.' It's okay if your relationship is miserable (and killing you!) if it's all in the name of true love.

And since no YA paranormal romance is complete without the requisite Twilight reference, let's just say now, that while Edward becomes a possessive, emotionally manipulative boyfriend from New Moon on, at least in Twilight he is made into an attractive, seductive, tragic, somewhat desirable partner. At the very least, the reader can see why Bella is drawn to him. Daniel is never very attractive - it's hard to see what all the fuss is about. For an angel, supposedly a near-perfect being, he doesn't seem to have many positive qualities. He spends the extent of Torment attempting to dictate orders to Luce, 'for her own good.' He treats her like a child, he's emotionally manipulative, and he's secretive. In real life we'd advise Luce to give him the boot, but because he's a supernatural being, and the Romeo to her Juliet, we're supposed to put up with abusive behavior? Not for me, thanks.

So, with a cast of forgettable characters and an irritating celebrity couple we move towards the BATTLE BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL that marks the finale of the book (again...in Torment evil wears a different face, though that's really the only difference between it and Fallen). We don't learn any new information, Daniel becomes less, rather than more likeable, and Cam is written out nearly entirely for a new, milquetoast-ish Nephilim love interest.

Bottom line: I skimmed, I got bored, and I wasn't sad when it ended. Two stars for the story, 3 for the design...because I'm shallow.

So...... Why did I even read this book? It was completely 100% filler. The entire book Bella and Edward- I mean Luce and Daniel fight and break up and make up. Cam is barely in the book, Luce cheats on Daniel with a kid named Miles. Daniel is gone for some stupid reason that only exists so that the author can artificially separate the two characters. The fake roadblocks only exist to create a filler book to pad out the series. It's really shameful.

The idea of a school for angel & demon kids seems interesting on the surface but is never really explored beyond a pair of Brangelina-esque teachers and classmates who read like refugees from The It Girl (It Girl #1) and Private.

The book opens with the author gurgling on and on about the San Francisco Bay Area. By chapter 2 we never hear of San Francisco again. What was the tour guide act for? I'm mentioning it b/c i was like 'oh wow, is the story going to involve san francisco somehow since the author cant stop talking about it?' the answer is no. it's just included for no reason whatsoever. The school she goes to is actually like 3 hours away from san francisco. bleh.

I don't really get this book. Am I supposed to root for Luce and Daniel to be together? Why? They finally found each other and they're still miserable and they're causing their own misery. Luce cant ever keep her mouth off of another guy for a few days. Why?

Add ontop of that all the deaths and killings, i'm just annoyed. I dont want to read that garbage in a ya paranormal romance book. there is an entire school ON PLANET EARTH filled with angel and demon teens (as well as clueless humans) and luce and daniel aren't allowed to be together? what the heck are you talking about willis?

2 stars because it sucks slightly less than Hush, Hush and Evermore: The Immortals

First off, I love the cover but unfortunately what was inside did not impress me as much. It's been awhile since I gave a book such a low rating. Generally I've gotten pretty good at selecting books that I am confident I will at least somewhat enjoy so this was a surprise.

The characters

It's been almost a year since I've read Fallen but I do not recall Luce being such a wimpy, pathetic character. She moans and pouts so much about being separated from Daniel for just a few days that it grated on my nerves. You would think it was going to kill her not to be in his presence constantly. I really wanted to shake her and tell her that you can be madly in love but not have to spend every second with your man. Then to compound things she seemed to purposely do stupid things just to be spiteful and show Daniel that he cannot tell her what to do. Initially I could understand her resentment because Daniel was being high handed and way too mysterious. But come on, when someone tells you do not leave the campus and you do and in the process almost get killed you would think you get a clue. Unfortunately not Luce. She proceeds to do it again and again putting not just herself but others in danger. After she does all these stupid things she begins to bemoan about how all she does is endanger those around her and get people killed. Well, maybe if she exercised some impulse control it would not be as bad.

We do not see as much of Daniel and Cam in this story which is disappointing considering it's 464 pages long. What we do see of him was irksome as well. The way he treated Luce was too high handed and was just asking for trouble. Then I found it interesting while he was supposed to be the "good" angel he was the one constantly breaking the pact he and Cam made. They promised that while at Shoreline neither would go near Luce. I swear Daniel showed up at the school a half dozen if not more times in the space of less than 3 weeks but of course Cam's the one who really gets called out when he shows up to save Luce's life when she stupidly endangers herself.

Shelby, Luce's new roommate, was interesting but pretty predictable. You can guess the situation with her and her ex-boyfriend pretty easily and know what is going to happen in the end. A new love interest for Luce is also introduced. Matt is a Nephilim student with Luce who conveniently falls in love with her as she waffles over whether or not she really should be with Daniel. He's your typical solid, steady guy who is always there when you need a shoulder to cry on but otherwise not the most exciting person to date.

The story line

This book could easily have been half the length if you cut out all the times Luce did things just to spite Daniel, half the scenes in which she agonizes if she should be with Daniel and then half of the ones where she has a pity party for herself. Other than developing the now love triangle to include Matt and the fact that there is another sect who is after Luce it did not feel like there was much more movement in the over all plot line. It was more of a filler book that ends with Luce making another stupid decision.

All in all this book was a disappointment to me because of Luce and her behavior. While the end of the book really picked up the pace it just could not over shadow the bad taste she left in my mouth.

I'm grateful my friends told me to stick with this series, because I definitely liked this book better than Fallen. There was still a lot of teen angst, which I guess you have to expect from a book like this, but the story was more believable, which I appreciated.

With all the stuff that's going on, Luce is finally becoming a little less whiny and helpless and is taking charge of her own life. Thank goodness! I wanted to see this in the first book, but I'm glad that it came about eventually. One thing I didn't like about her was that she seems to be a bit stupid at the beginning. I mean, she just went through this huge battle with people trying to kill her, yet she doesn't listen when Daniel and Cam tell her to stay at the school where she's safe. This cluelessness on her part is an attempt at conflict, I think, but it just irritated me.

Another thing that bothered me was the tension between Daniel and Luce. Again, I feel it was forced. Daniel using phrases like, "Don't disobey me!" to Luce doesn't make any sense to me. He knows her personality and knows how she'd react to that. And why can't he just explain things? It doesn't help the suspense at all, because the reader pretty much knows what's going on and it bothered me a lot.

Despite that, I really did like this book. I liked the new characters we were introduced to, though Miles is a bit annoying. And Shelby is definitely my new favorite. Seeing children of angels and demons and learning what they can do was a highlight. It was also strange to see how popular Luce is in the angel/demon world. Kind of a Harry Potter moment for her.

The story itself was fast-paced and interesting. I kept wanting to know what would happen next and what Luce would figure out about her past that would shed some light on what's going on in the present. I loved the ending and how it gave enough information to satisfy my curiosity, but not so much that we now know all that's going on. It answered some questions, and made me ask a few more. I thought the final battle at the end was a little unrealistic -- really, nobody saw that? But I can get over it.

If you found yourself on the fence about Fallen, don't give up on the series! Definitely give Torment a try before you decide not to like it.

After I read Fallen ( which I loved!) I was really hoping that torment would be just as good and exciting. Unfortunately, it was not as good as the first. Don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed reading it, but it has some problems. First of all, it was a bit slow in the beginning. In Fallen, the whole book is interesting and exciting from start to finish.But in Torment, there's not much new to learn in the beginning and it's a bit boring ( but it gets better once you plow throw the beginning, I promise :) ) Second, I hate how every time Daniel and Luce see each other, they start off in love and happy and then, all of a sudden, they're fighting and Daniel's leaving to who-knows-where, doing who-knows-what. And then, 2-3 chapters later, he comes back and the whole process starts over again!Another part I was a bit disappointed with was the fact that Arriane, my favorite character,was hardly in the novel. On the other hand, this book does have some good aspects to it. First,you learn what the shadows are and what they do ( they are actually helpful for Luce in some ways). Also, a lot of new, cool characters get introduced in this book. And , once you get past the beginning, it's a interesting and sometimes funny book. Overall, it's worth reading. Plus, it offers a lot of good information that you'll need if you want to continue reading the series. I really liked it. :)