Erin Potter, Columnist
Lauren Kate’s “Fallen” series contains three books so far: “Fallen,” “Torment” and “Passion.” The fourth and final book, “Rapture,” will be out next year.
The first book, “Fallen,” starts off with Luce Price’s first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in Savannah, Georgia. Here, she is captivated by Daniel Grigori, who seems oddly familiar to her. As the story goes on, Luce comes to realize that Daniel and her friends are actually fallen angels and that Luce and Daniel have quite the history together. Daniel comes around to the thought of being in love with Luce (again) and their relationship causes an epic battle between the good and bad fallen angels. Luce learns that if she chooses to be close to Daniel, she will probably die.
In “Torment,” the battle heightens as Luce is forced to separate from her one true love because her life depends on it. Daniel and the other fallen angels join together to hunt down what are called Outcasts, immortals that want to kill Luce. Luce is hidden at the Shoreline School for Nephilim (Nephilim are the offspring of fallen angels and humans). Here Luce begins to understand her past a little more and learns about the shadows that have haunted her for most of her life.
The third installment of the series, “Passion,” gives important insight into Luce and Daniel’s past. Luce travels to past lives, and is chased by Daniel, the other Fallen and the Outcasts. Luce has the ability to alter the present and erase her relationship with Daniel forever. She wants to better understand why she is still alive by examining her past relationships with Daniel, and why this time is so different. She witnesses her death over and over again, but sees something more than just death; she sees true love.
In “Fallen,” there was unnecessary detail and too many love clichés, but the story was still very captivating and extremely relatable for the audience of teenage to adult women. The other two books were much more addicting with a lot of suspense revolving around Luce and Daniel. The story escalates throughout the books, so I predict the fourth book will be by far the best. I found myself not being able to put down the second and third books. Some may struggle to become engaged with the first installment, but it is worth reading. The subject of fallen angels is a breath of fresh air from the typical vampire/werewolf stories, and leads to philosophical conversations. Readers will find themselves thinking about life, death, love and the choices we make in our own lives.
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