Book Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

One of my goals for 2014 is to review the books that I read, and I read a lot of books. The book that I finished most recently is Fallen by Lauren Kate.

Title: Fallen

Author: Lauren Kate

Genre: YA Fantasy, Romance

Length: 452 pages

   This book was recommended to me by my aunt, who also liked it. This book was very well written, action packed, romantic, and enjoyable all around.


  Lucinda "Luce" Price is the main character in the story, sent to Sword & Cross reform school in Savannah, Georgia by her parents after she is accused of murdering a boy from her old school by starting a fire. When Luce arrives at Sword & Cross, she has to give up her old life, including communications, aside from 15 minute weekly phone calls, and talking to her very best friend Callie. She is partnered with Arriane, who is considered one of the more "supervised" students, and they become instant friends. While Arriane is showing her around, she meets Daniel  Griorgi, who not only does she feel instantly drawn to, he has no intentions of even acknowledging her existence, which is a nice of way of saying he gave her the finger. But that doesn't stop her, the sense that she had met him before it's far too strong.
   But as if getting flipped off by a cute guy wasn't a bad enough first day, she runs into Molly, who is known to be the means and worst tempered girl in school. Molly is pretty furious and ends up dumping meatloaf all over Luce' s head. She runs to the bathroom to get cleaned up an is followed by a helpful and sweet girl who introduces herself as Penn.
   Another new student, Cam, who has attended Sword & Cross multiple times before, seeks to befriend Luce as quickly as he possibly can. Honestly, he wants to be more than friends. Buying her gifts, taking her out to picnic lunches in the cemetery, and taking her off campus to a bar with burly men who are ready to fight. Daniel saves Luce from both Cam and the men he was fighting and takes her to a beach where they kiss. Luce was confused when Daniel kept saying "I don't understand." And feel asleep while he was trying to figure it all out, while she was asleep she dreamed Daniel was an angel surrounded in a purple hazy light with his wings so lush and soft.
   Daniel eventually explains that everyone at the reform school are fallen angels and that he is cursed to always be in love with her. Though every time he gets to close emotionally, she dies tragically. He, Arriane, Gabbe, and Annabelle, are all on the side of God but Cam, Roland, and Molly are under the rule of Satan. Which explains the awkward dreams she had been having and the last she felt towards Daniel.
   The angels get into a battle over Luce, and the librarian, Miss Sophia, leads the only mortals, Luce and Penn, to a hidden dungeon room where she murders Penn with a knife and leads Luce to a table, tying her down to do the same. Luckily, Daniel saves her just in time, as soon as the battle is over. The battle was victorless as Daniel said it always ended. To keep his love safe, Daniel sends Luce with Mr Cole, a teacher who knows about the fallen angels, and is transported by helicopter to safety where Daniel promised he'd see her soon.

This book was very good, definitely kept me interested from the first page. I highly recommend it to others who enjoy fantasy romance stories. There are 5 books in the series, Fallen, Torment, Passion, Fallen in Love, and Rapture.