Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

What if the person you
were meant to be with
could never be yours?

There's something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price's attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He's the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move. Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce--and goes out of his way to make that very clear--she can't let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her. Dangerously exciting and darkly romantic, Fallen is a page turning thriller and the ultimate love story.

I must be the last person on earth to have finally read this book. The mysterious prologue pulled me right in with an intriguing beginning but then the first half of the book moved a bit slow for me. While I realize there needs to be background information given to build up the story, especially for the beginning of a series, the early chapters didn't always hold my attention well. But I also didn't do the book justice with my sporadic reading so that was also a factor. I had too many interruptions to get into a good flow at first.

I liked the characters more as I got to know them. It was obvious they had many secrets and peeling back the layers of their past, getting to the real story, was interesting. Luce is drawn to the mysterious Daniel and the outgoing and friendly Cam. They are completely opposite and may not be the people they appear to be. She also forms a bond with Penn, a girl who has grown up at this school. I was a bit annoyed with Luce in the early chapters. She had been through so much - a mysterious fire that takes the life of her friend, being sent to a reform school, threatening black shadows that appear often and unexpectedly, a confusing love triangle - so I expected her to be sad and confused but she (and her parents!) seemed whimpy and weak. Why were they so trusting of all of these strangers? But as the story developed and progressed, so did Luce. She started to participate in her own destiny.

The creepy setting at the boarding school and cemetery added to the tension. As the chapters went by the story picked up for me and the suspense continued to build with more secrets being revealed. Some of them I was able to figure out but there were still interesting twists. I did like the ending even though the loose ends weren't all wrapped up with a tidy bow. It's a nice set up for the next book in the series, Torment, to be released September 2010. I will be looking forward to it.

www.fallenbooks.com

Thank you to Delacorte Press. I received an ARC in exchange for a honest review of this book.

Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release date: 12/8/09
Pages: 464
Price/format: $17.99/Hardcover
Type: YA fiction, paranormal