Fallen (Fallen #1) by Lauren Kate

Summary:

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. 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 Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce – he goes out of his way to make that very clear. But she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, Luce 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. (Via Goodreads.com)

Pages: 452

Release Date: December 8th, 2009

My Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

Review:

   
     One of my reading goals this summer (my summer reading goals: http://littleredsreviews.blogspot.com/2014/06/summer-reading-plans.html) was to finally finish the Fallen series. In order to complete that task I needed to re-read the first three books in the Fallen series (Fallen, Torment, and Passion) and read the last book (Rapture) and a novella (Fallen In Love). The main reason I decided to finish the Fallen series this summer was because sometime next year the book-to-movie adaptation for Fallen comes out and finishing the series would prepare me to see the movie. 

     I was a bit worried to read Fallen again because I loved Fallen when I read it last in 2012 and my taste in books has changed a lot over the last couple years. But, I ended up enjoying Fallen. If you enjoy paranormal romance books then you should consider reading this series. 

*Spoiler Section*

     Fallen has such a beautiful cover. The color scheme makes the cover look dark and mysterious and I really like the dress the cover model is wearing. 
     It amazed me how many things I remembered from reading Fallen two years ago. For example, I remembered the secret lake that Luce and Daniel always swam,  Penn's death, and other things.
     I liked that Fallen was written in a third person perspective because most books are written in a first person perspective. But, the one thing I disliked was Fallen only followed Luce and it could have followed multiple people or given us a better insight on other characters since third person perspective can do that. I hope in the other books of the series the third person perspective is used more efficiently. 

     The one thing I felt Fallen had too much of was romance. I usually like books with a lot of romance, but I felt the love triangle was too forced and all Luce was ever thinking about was Daniel. I would have liked Luce to have spent more of her time being a better friend to Penn or using her weekly call to her parents or Callie instead of always blowing them off for Daniel or Cam. I would sometimes put down Fallen and do something else for a while because Luce would get on my nerves. Luce would annoy me because she constantly thinks about her love life and I believe that there are more important things in life than if a guy likes you or not. 

     One thing I still wonder is how all six fallen angels ended up at Sword & Cross. What bad things did they do to end up at a reform school? I would definitely not want to attend Sword & Cross because the school freaks me out and who would what to go to a reform school? I would like to see the church as the gym though, it sounds beautiful!

     My favorite character from Fallen has to be Penn. She is smart, kind, loyal, and can get you any information you want to know at Sword & Cross. I felt so bad for her that her father died and she is stuck at the school since his passing. She did not deserve to die at Miss. Sophia's hands, but, hopefully she is with her father now.

     One thing I was shocked about was that Roland is a demon. I can see Cam and Molly as demons but not Roland. He is a likeable and funny character. I wonder how he became a demon?

     I am excited to see Fallen adapted to film next year and to finish the Fallen series. The next book in the series, Torment, is what I will be reading next. Out of the three books I have read before in the series, I remember the least in Torment. l hope Torment will not be like New Moon and Luce will not just mope around the whole book since she and Daniel are at different places. Overall, Fallen was mysterious, funny, and romantic. 

~Casey