The Bursting Bookshelf: Lauren Kate

Passion by Lauren Kate

3.5/5

Title: Passion

Author: Lauren Kate

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Release: June 14, 2011

Pages: 432

Series: Fallen #3

Synopsis:
"Every single lifetime, I'll choose you. Just as you have chosen me. Forever."

Luce would die for Daniel. And she has. Over and over again. Throughout time, Luce and Daniel have found each other, only to be painfully torn apart: Luce dead, Daniel left broken and alone. But perhaps it doesn’t need to be that way. . . .

Luce is certain that something—or someone—in a past life can help her in her present one. So she begins the most important journey of this lifetime . . . going back eternities to witness firsthand her romances with Daniel . . . and finally unlock the key to making their love last.

Cam and the legions of angels and Outcasts are desperate to catch Luce, but none are as frantic as Daniel. He chases Luce through their shared pasts, terrified of what might happen if she rewrites history.

Because their romance for the ages could go up in flames . . . forever.

Review:
I recently picked Passion up when I saw it at the store. I knew that I would be taking a risk as I did not care for the last book, Torment, but I read it and quite enjoyed it. The fact I loved most about this book was that Luce was going into her own past to find out who she and Daniel really are. Throughout this life changing learning experience, Luce learns that not everyone is as they seem and that she and Daniel do share something special. The disappointing aspects of this book were how repetitive it got, how little we get to see of characters other than Luce and Daniel and how long it took for anything to actually happen. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed learning about their past loves, it got REALLY old because we just saw the same basic thing happen over and over in different settings for the first three quarters of the book. The writing was fairly descriptive, making all the historic settings seem unique. Altogether, Passion gets a 3.5/5 in my opinion for providing a good lead up to what is sure to be an epic final book in this series.

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Torment by Lauren Kate

3/5

Title: Torment

Author: Lauren Kate

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Release: September 28, 2010

Pages: 452

Series: Fallen #2

Synopsis:

Hell on earth. That's what it's like for Luce to be apart from her fallen angel boyfriend, Daniel. It took them an eternity to find one another, but now he has told her he must go away. Just long enough to hunt down the Outcasts - immortals who want to kill Luce. Daniel hides Luce at Shoreline, a school on the rocky California coast with unusually gifted students -Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans.

At Shoreline, Luce learns what the Shadows are, and how she can use them as windows to her previous lives. Yet the more Luce learns, the more she suspects that Daniel hasn't told her everything. He's hiding something - something dangerous. What if Daniel's version of the past isn't actually true? What if Luce is really meant to be with someone else? The second novel in the addictive FALLEN series . . . where love never dies.

Review:

Okay, for any of you who have read my review of Fallen, you know that I thought it was a pretty good book, it had flaws but it was fairly good. So going on that I started Torment fairly soon after Fallen and then life happened. I had other things I needed to do and of course I got tempted once again into reading other books at the same time which meant that this one got pushed to the bottom of the pile for no particular reason. Though once I did finish it I was a little disappointed with it.

The cover for both Fallen and Torment are gorgeous with the cover models in the black dresses, but with totally different backdrops. In Fallen she is clearly at Sword & Cross, and on Torment she's clearly at Shoreline. How can I tell? The coast in the background was a hint. The other bits I like of the cover was the emotion that the model is portraying. It really was what Luce felt through the whole book: confusion and frustration. I also love the little touch of colour in the authors name. In case you didn't know from my theme, I love pink!

The characters are where this book starts to go down hill for me. I really didn't like how rude and controlling Daniel got to be in Torment. I mean I understand that he wanted to protect her, but he didn't need to be so much of a bully to Luce. I also didn't care for the way he just invited himself to Luce's for dinner or how he would just pop up without announcement after he said that they would have to be separated for 18 days. Then there's Luce. She just seemed to be so strong in one moment (which I loved!) when she was arguing with Daniel and then the next moment she was running back into his arms just to fight with him a couple minutes later. She just seemed to flip personalities too often for my tastes.

The writing in the book was good. The story kept moving and never got ridiculously slow, though I wasn't sold on all the events of the book. My favourite part of Torment had to be the ending though. I loved that Luce finally took a step back in order to think for herself for a change. It really did make me glad that she put some separation between her and Daniel , though I don't like how obsessed she was with her past reincarnations. Have you ever heard of the saying 'the past is the past'? I wish that this saying could have been used more in this book and that Torment would have focused more on the present. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't boring, it was entertaining though I didn't always like some aspects of the book.

Overall, Torment was a good read, though I wish somethings were different. Overall, it got a 3/5 because of the ending and the fact that it wasn't hard to read because it never got too slow or boring.