Fallen (Fallen #1) by Lauren Kate
Release Date: December 8th 2009
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Page Count: Hardcover, 452 pages
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Good Reads: Link
Good Reads: Link
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. - Good Reads
I went into this book not having any idea what it was about. I totally went off the Good Reads summary, which is very vague and the cover, which I liked.
I was interested in this story from the beginning - what could Luce, a seemingly innocent girl have done so wrong to end up at Sword & Cross? Lauren Kate did a very good job at painting a scenery that was dreary and depressing and Sword & Cross is the last place I'd want to end up. The secondary characters were interesting and likeable. In particular I liked a character named Penn who became Luce's good friend.
At first, Daniel, the love interest, is a total a-hole. Without a lot of back story I felt that Luce was an idiot for pining after him. The first time they see each other he flips her the bird and from then on she's obsessed. He continued to act cold and then hot and then cold and it was frustrating. It did straighten out a little in the end and I could relate a little more to the whys and hows, but for a while I was ready to jump in that book and pull out a can of whoop ass on Luce and ask her why she was bothering with him.
The biggest problem I think I had was the writing. It's in third person and I don't know if it is the fact that I'm so used to reading in first person lately or if it was something about her writing that bothered me. I never exactly pinpointed what it was. I was able to get through the book well enough though, but I had an underlying irk going on throughout.
I'm definitely going to continue this series. I felt the story itself was intriguing, it just started out slowly. By the end I was full of questions, which will have me running to the library first thing tomorrow morning to grab the next book. With such mixed reviews about this book, I'd probably suggest borrowing it before buying it though.
