Novel Review: Fallen (Fallen, #1) by Lauren Kate

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Genre: YA Paranormal Romance

Publisher: Delacorte Press (Random House)

Release Date: 2009

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Teaser Tuesday.

Goodreads Synopsis:

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

17-year-old Lucinda falls in love with a gorgeous, intelligent boy, Daniel, at her new school, the grim, foreboding Sword & Cross . . . only to find out that Daniel is a fallen angel, and that they have spent lifetimes finding and losing one another as good & evil forces plot to keep them apart.

Get ready to fall . . .

The Cover:

I actually really like this cover. I know it's very gothic-girl-in-a-pretty-dress, but I like that. I think the dress is pretty, and that the darkness of it works for the atmosphere. I think it's pretty.

Review:

After all the terrible reviews I read of this book, I’m surprised to find that… it wasn’t actually that terrible. Granted, I didn’t love it, and I won’t be reading the next book. But it wasn’t as horrible as I thought it would be.

Luce is transferred to a new boarding school, for delinquent teens. And almost immediately, she’s drawn to Daniel. Her obsession is immediate, assuming that they connected upon making eye-contact. Which, three-fourths of the book, doesn’t work. Because he is constantly sending her mixed signals, telling her off and ignoring her for most of the time, then once in a while flirting or joking with her. I don’t understand her persistence through it all, because Daniel is a jerk.

But surprisingly enough, when Daniel finally tells her about their past, what he is, and that he loves her, it works for me. Their romance at that point was actually kind of sweet. And I understood why Daniel tried so hard to push her away, given that every time he got close to her in the past, almost immediately she died. It made sense to me.

The writing was a little plain, but kept me interested. It made the book go by faster. And the characterization of some of the other characters wasn’t bad. I didn’t grow really close to any of them, but they were unique and present.

Overall, this book was pretty average. But surprisingly not terrible like I thought it would be.