Fallen, by Lauren Kate

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Fallen, by Lauren Kate

Book 1 – Fallen Series

Reviewed by Kat

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Reading Level: Young Adult

Hardback: 452 Pages

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (September 28, 2010)

 **SPOILER WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS DEEP INFORMATION REGARDING THE PLOT AND STORYLINE OF THE BOOK**

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

 “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 Sword & Cross Boarding school in Savannah. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are screwups, and security cameras watch ever move.

Except 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.”

 The first chapter of FALLEN is actually a glimpse of the past, a past life of the main character Luce Price. This was a perfect way to start the book. Perfectly intriguing, making you want to know more about this life she lead as well as the current one she is leading.

 When the next chapter starts out in the current time, you are introduced to Luce (Lucinda) Price; average teenage girl with a normal background, but a recent dark past. You first see Luce starting her first day at Sword & Cross reform school. Luce was an all around good kid, with great academics when she was attending her private boarding school, Dover, up along the Eastern seaboard with her BFF Callie, then she met a boy… Trevor. Now the details of her and Trevor’s relationship are a little hazy. Luce barely even really knew Trevor, but they decided to sneak off one night and have a little make-out session, which turned deadly. The details in Luce’s mind are a little hazy as to what actually happened. Somehow, someway, Trevor ended up dead. Personally, I’d like more details regarding this, as it’s very unclear. Anyways, Luce goes to court over the death of Trevor and the judge rules that since she can’t give any details regarding the incident that therefore she must be some level of degree guilty and ships her off to reform school. On her first day at Sword & Cross she meets a gaggle of new people, one in particular being Cam. Enter guy number one. Cam is smooth, and inviting. He has all sorts of bad-boy charm to lay on Luce, from his shaggy black hair to his sunburst tattoo on the back of his neck. He even gives her a guitar pick with his room number on it. Cam is actually a repeat offender and therefore has been sent back to Sword & Cross to serve more time, so he knows his ins and outs with the school, and the people. Luce and Cam are also joined on their first day by a girl named Gabbe, and a boy named Todd. Without even making it out of orientation, Luce is introduced to a girl named Arriane, who screams delinquent. Arriane actually takes Luce under her wing a bit and shows her a bit of the ropes of Sword & Cross. Without even finishing the first chapter you get to catch a glimpse of the main heartthrob, Daniel Grigori as he first smiles at Luce and then flips her off, along with his friend Roland.

 Luce’s first day at Sword & Cross lasts a good few pages. She ends up meeting and dreading her new least favorite person in the world Molly who ends up getting her in trouble and sentenced to detention all on her first day. She also meets her new BFF at school Penn. Penn is not actually a delinquent, and she’s the only one there who’s not. Penn is the daughter of the school’s old caretaker, however Penn’s father died a few years ago and is buried in the cemetery on campus. Yes, there is a cemetery on the campus because originally Sword & Cross was a church/camp for the military personnel from the war. Military personnel are all buried in this wayward cemetery on the grounds of the now school. The church on the campus has been turned in to a gym with the pool actually being in the sanctuary of the old church. Sacrilegious? Maybe just a little, personally I like it.

 Alright, back to the story. Now all through Luce’s childhood, she’s seen these things that she calls ‘shadows’, which you eventually learn are called ‘Announcers’, but we’ll get back to that later. Luce eventually wanders in to the library, since she loves to read, where she meets the librarian and Religions teacher, Miss Sophia. Luce wanders through the library taking in the vast number of books they have when she starts to see the ‘shadows’ appear. Throughout her childhood, she has always noticed that bad things tend to happen when the ‘shadows’ appear, so she’s rather frightened of them. The ‘shadow’s generally make her feel cold and frightened, however when they show up in the library she notices that they aren’t effecting her that way this time. Then she notices Daniel in the library, sketching something on a pad of paper near the Special Collections area of the library, and she realizes that even though the ‘shadows’ are near, she actually feels warm rather than the usual icy feeling that the ‘shadows’ bring. Daniel finally notices her and is rather rude stating that he wants to be alone, so either she should leave or he will. He ends up picking up his things and leaving the library with the ‘shadows’ following him.

 The following day the students with detention report to the cemetery to help clean the statues, and headstones. Molly and Daniel both tell Luce throughout detention that Luce should stay away from Daniel, and Luce is getting kind of a negative vibe from the whole thing. While cleaning, one of the statues, an angel of all things, cracks in two pieces and threatens to fall right on top of Luce instantly killing her. Except, Daniel intervenes and saves her, pinning Luce to him in between the 2 pieces of the statue.

 That night Cam invites Luce to one of his famous parties where Roland smuggles in lots of party materials such as a disco ball and champagne. Cam gives off rather large hints to Luce that he has feelings for her, but Luce only has eyes for Daniel who is sitting in a corner minding himself. Luce goes about to try to enjoy the party but notices when Daniel sneaks out of the room. Luce quietly follows him out the door and overhears him talking to Gabbe. The way him and Gabbe are speaking, Luce gets the impression that they are having a lovers quarrel and Luce is instantly devastated.

 The next day in gym, Luce can’t get her mind off of Daniel and Gabbe being together. She even goes so far as to ask Daniel’s friend Roland if they are together. Roland kind of shrugs her off and tells her to ask Daniel herself, so Luce goes to find Daniel to ask him. When she finds him jumping rope, she decides she doesn’t have the nerve to ask him and goes to leave, only to find out she dropped her key over by where she was watching him. She goes back to retrieve her key where Daniel notices her. He asks her if she won her swimming race in the pool and she states that she didn’t (mostly because she was thinking too hard about Daniel and Gabbe), and Daniel hints that he’s surprised that she didn’t win. Luce tries to question why he’s surprised and he gives an answer like she was always a great swimmer, but backtracks and makes something up. Luce gets the impression that they have met before somewhere, and asks Daniel if he has the same feeling, but Daniel adamantly denies that they have ever met before, nor does he share her feeling.

 Feeling extremely hurt about her encounter with Daniel in the gym Luce rushes off to go to her class, nearly running in to Cam on her way. Cam can tell that she’s a bit on edge and invites her for a picnic in the cemetery with him, where they eat some lunch and Luce shows Cam that she is afraid of snakes. Their picnic is interrupted by Gabbe, however, and Luce starts getting the distinct feeling that Gabbe is just ruining every relationship advantage she has. Miss Sophia sent Gabbe to find Luce and bring her to the library for their next project for their Religion class. Their project consists of looking up the last few generations of their family tree, however Luce doesn’t spend the class time looking up her own family tree, she goes on a mission to find anything about Daniel Grigori. Luce wastes the whole class time searching for something on Daniel and comes up empty handed. Penn however, finds out what she is up to and let’s her in on a little secret. Since Penn is there, not for delinquency, she is actually an office assistant and has access to the school’s personal records, including Daniels. Penn takes Luce with her down to the records room where they find Daniel’s file only to find nothing more than his prior residence, an orphanage in Los Angeles and a few minor criminal actions, such as loitering and jaywalking.

 After the excursion through the office files Luce finds herself wandering the campus, where she happens upon Molly who hints that she knows why Luce is actually at Sword & Cross and warns her not to push herself on any guys lest, the want to die. While in her contemplative state of wondering how Molly would get this knowledge, Luce gets hit on the head with a soccer ball, right in front of Daniel, Molly and Gabbe. Daniel rushes over to make sure Luce is okay while Luce tells Daniel she thinks he’s making his girlfriend jealous. A little confused over this statement Daniel inquires as to which one she thought was his girlfriend and states that he doesn’t have a girlfriend. Daniel thinks maybe Luce has hit her head a bit too hard and offers to take her for a walk to get some air. He ends up taking her to a beautiful secluded lake where he offers to take her for a swim. They swim out to a flat rock in the lake and get out of the water for a conversation in which Luce can’t let go of the nagging feeling that she knows him from somewhere. Daniel denies this yet again, and states that he’s in no stage in his life for a new girlfriend because he was burned by one in the past. Luce doesn’t accept this as a good enough answer and insists that Daniel is hiding something from her, to which Daniel retorts that of course she doesn’t know everything about him because he barely knows her, and states that he has to get back and leaves her on the rock.

 The following day Miss Sophia has a review session before their Religion test. Miss Sophia reviews the fall of the angels from Heaven to earth and hell with Lucifer. Afterwards Daniel checks in with Luce, making sure she made it back to shore okay, and asks how she liked the review session. Luce complains that she didn’t enjoy it at all, and Daniel hints that what was in the review was apart of his family’s heritage. Penn eventually finds a book that was written in 1755, by a D. Grigori pertaining to myths in medieval Europe, so the girls go to the library in search of the book. They, however, can’t find it in it’s intended location so Penn goes up to the front desk to ask Miss Sophia while Luce stays in the stacks to look for the book, only the fire alarm goes off. Thinking it’s only a drill, Luce doesn’t panic at first until she sees the smoke pouring in. She tries to run for the front desk and Penn but the smoke is too dense to go that way. She finds Todd who was sitting at one of the tables reading and they make their way to the back exit. All Luce can see while running down a hallway is the ‘shadows’ above her, then she feels like she’s flying towards the exit door. They make it out the door together, when one of the ‘shadows’ hits Luce and sends her and Todd tumbling down the stairs outside where Luce blacks out. She ends up having a dream about Daniel and how they are flying thousands of feet in the air, and all Luce can do is marvel at his lustrous white wings.

 She wakes up in a hospital with Gabbe, Arriane, and Penn, later discovering Daniel hovering around outside her room. She finds out that Todd died that night due to a broken neck. She returns to Sword & Cross where the student body has a bit of a memorial service for Todd. Cam is close to Luce consoling her about what happened when Gabbe interferes yet again. Daniel comes over and takes notice to Luce that her and Cam spend a lot of time together. He offers to take her for a walk again, where they end up at the lake. Daniel and Luce sit by the lake with their feet dipping in when Daniel brings up the fact that Luce shouldn’t be at Sword & Cross, that she should go somewhere else. Luce is confused and starts to open up to Daniel about what happened the night with Trevor and about being able to see the ‘shadows’. Luce expects him to think she’s crazy but Daniel just seems amazed and keeps asking her questions about them. Daniel has her recount the story again, incredibly interested, then acts like he’s going to kiss her but when Luce opens her eyes she discovers that he’s disappeared.

 Penn and Luce do some more research in the library with Miss Sophia, and Miss Sophia gives some very interesting background on the Grigori Clan, stating that they specialized in a sort of ‘fallen-angel folklore’ and proceeds to give them another Religious lecture. After the permitted computer time is over and Penn and Luce have learned again almost nothing about the Grigori’s, Cam comes to find Luce at around the same time Daniel comes to find her and they end up getting in a physical fight over her, but not before Cam hands Luce a note stating to meet him by the entry gates the next day. It’s a sexy little fight they get in to, can’t explain it but something about attractive guys getting in to a fight over a girl, it’s enjoyable to watch.

 The next day, Luce prepares herself and goes to the front gate where Cam indicated they meet. Luce only went to tell Cam that she wanted nothing to do with him from here on out because of the way he was acting with Daniel and because she has feelings for Daniel, except Cam isn’t there. A black car picks Luce up from the front gates and drives her to a small town on the edge of the coast. The black car drops her off at a tavern where Cam comes out, quite drunk. Cam leads her back in to the tavern only to end up getting in to a fight with some townies. Luce is disgusted by Cam’s behavior and walks out of the tavern and right in to Daniel. Daniel puts her in a car and starts to drive off, while Cam comes out of the tavern shouting at Luce that it’s a bad idea to go off with Daniel. They drive for a bit until Daniel stops the car in the middle of nowhere, he proceeds to get out of the car and Luce follows him on to the beach. At first Daniel remains guarded, saying that Luce isn’t smart to be with him, and Luce retorts, and the conversation goes on until finally all the sexual tension is a little bit too much and it finally breaks and they kiss (a little overdue in my opinion). After the very passionate kiss Daniel is confused as to why she is still there. Daniel starts talking in riddles about how she’s still there, and how they will come for her, because they always come for her, meanwhile Luce is just plain confused. They are out so late on the beach with Daniel making no sense that Luce falls asleep and is carried back to her room by Daniel.

 In the morning she realizes that she has received 2 letters, one from Cam wanting to meet her to apologize for the night before and one from Daniel stating that he wants to meet her by the lake. She decides she will first go to the cemetery and tell Cam off for acting the way he did the night before, then she will go to the lake and meet up with Daniel. When she gets to the cemetery and speaks with Cam, he apologizes for the night before but she states that she’s made her decision and she’s decided to be with Daniel. Cam laughs at this, and states that she can never be with Daniel correctly, never have him kiss her correctly. He is shocked to hear that Daniel actually kissed Luce properly with passion on the lips the night before. Cam asks in return just one actual kiss from Luce. Luce unwillingly agrees, and kisses Cam, only to find out she did so right in front of Gabbe and Daniel. Luce apologizes to Daniel profusely, explaining to him that she was going to come find him right after she told Cam off, but Daniel just kind of waves it off and asks Luce to take a walk with him so he can explain everything to her. Luce of course goes with Daniel while he explains to her that he is immortal. He explains to her why he was so surprised to see that she was still alive after he kissed her on the beach. Daniel is cursed to live forever while Luce dies every 17 years. She has never lived past 17 years old because in each lifetime she always meets Daniel and falls in love with him. Sometimes they can kiss, sometimes just the presence of being together makes her die. Each time she combusts and goes up in flames, just because he loves her. Luce can’t take all of this information and runs away from Daniel and his story.

 Luce returns to her bedroom and falls to sleep, not wanting to deal with any of the information she’s been delivered. Penn comes by and drops off the book that was written by D. Grigori back in 1775. Luce opens the book only to discover a picture on the first page of the book, a very old picture of herself with Daniel. Luce then takes the book to the library to discuss it with Penn, but she finds Miss Sophia instead. She starts blabbing to Miss Sophia about her evening with Daniel on the beach ending with their kiss. Arriane, and Roland happen to overhear the conversation and are elated. Miss Sophie meanwhile discusses with Luce the discussion that she had with Daniel the day before regarding his immortality. Miss Sophia explains that Daniel is damned, and proceeds to inquire as to Luce’s religious upbringing. Luce tells Miss Sophia that she really didn’t have that much of a religious upbringing, as her parents were agnostic, and that she wasn’t even baptized. Miss Sophia concurs with Daniel’s story regarding his damnation, and her death every 17 years. Luce starts to panic and starts to leave to look for Daniel, when Miss Sophia decides to go with her.

 Luce along with Miss Sophia proceed down to the cemetery where Luce originally left Daniel. They run in to Penn at the entrance to the cemetery and see some interesting things in the cemetery beyond. A swarm of locusts are heading towards the cemetery where Daniel is standing on a mausoleum. Luce finds Daniel within the cemetery and tells him that she knows what he is, an angel. Daniel can’t believe that she actually knows what he is, but more importantly that she knows and is still alive. He tells her that they have never gotten this far before in any of their other lives. She has never been able to find out that he’s a fallen angel. Luce wants to know more about him, and herself, and their lives together but Miss Sophia scolds him for wanting to tell her because it will probably kill her. Luce claims that she doesn’t care and declares her love for Daniel. Of course Cam has perfect timing and shows up in the cemetery ready to battle Daniel again, but neither one of them wants to explain to Luce why they are battling over her. Arriane, and Gabbe show up stating that something is different this time with Luce, and throwing in with Daniel for the fight against Cam.

 Daniel tells Miss Sophia to get Luce and Penn out of the cemetery and away from the battle. Miss Sophia takes the 2 girls to the church/gym where Miss Sophia slits Penn’s throat and Luce is left to watch her friend die. Miss Sophia then locks herself and Luce in a room by themselves. Miss Sophia then pays Luce no mind as she attends to an alter in the room and begins a sacrificial ritual in order to sacrifice Luce and end the cycle. Luce states that it won’t matter if she is killed since she will only come back in 17 years due to the curse. Miss Sophia clarifies that she will not come back this time because she was not baptized, in essence, her soul is up for grabs in this lifetime. Daniel breaks through the stained glass window and frees Luce, but unfortunately Miss Sophia gets away. Arriane and Gabbe show up, each with their own set of white wings, showing Luce that they too, are fallen angels.

 Daniel breaks the news to Luce that he’s going to have to move her to a new location in order to keep her safe during the angels’ truce. Unfortunately, Daniel can’t be the one to take her to her new location because it would be too obvious to those who want to get to Luce and destroy what is between her and Daniel. Daniel promises Luce that he will bury Penn next to her father in the cemetery on the campus and leads her to the magnolia tree by the lake where he’s always wanted to kiss her. Luce sees a private jet standing ready by the lake, when she questions Daniel about it, Daniel tells her that’s the jet that will be taking her to her new destination. One of the teachers from the school who is on the side of good pilots her away from Sword & Cross along with her soul mate, Daniel.

 The epilogue is regarding Daniel and Cam. Daniel is watching Luce sleep in the safe house that she is staying in while they are figuring out where to place her a little bit more permanently. The book ends with Daniel and Cam shaking hands, agreeing on an angel truce that lasts eighteen days, during which they would both protect Luce with their lives.

 I found this book to be very intriguing. It had all the details to explain the background of the angel’s fall from Heaven, as well as a little as to Lucifer’s part in that fall. The passion between Daniel and Luce was sometimes very palpable. You wanted them to be together so bad you could taste it, you just couldn’t understand why Daniel was having an issue with it. When I first read it, it was difficult to choose between Cam and Daniel, until you see Cam’s master plan behind his charm. I always appreciate a book that brings more than one piece of eye candy to the plate. Not everyone will like Daniel, some will side with Cam, but that’s an important opportunity to give your readers.

 I found the entire book to be full of interesting details. I wasn’t drumming my fingers waiting for portions of the book to end at all. I enjoyed all of the relationship details between everyone involved. Each of the angels’ are interesting and intriguing in their own way. The writing style was very clear and concise. An easy read, but not without the correct language for the intended audience.

 The only thing that I really wish the book did have was more of an explanation as to why Trevor died. I was left wondering what actually happened regarding his death, and why Luce can’t remember anything about it. Granted that’s why she is at Sword & Cross but I’d like a little bit more of an explanation that isn’t as hazy as this one was.

 I love that the angels were placed meticulously throughout the book, in different guises but all at the same reform school, and all of them knowing each other to great extents. I wish Penn would have been able to live, but she was an expendable character who couldn’t continue on Luce’s journey without raising more questions.

 Daniel’s love for Luce is solid, it’s something you can touch and feel. Something that caresses the reader when he takes her to the lake, when he kisses her for the first time on the beach. You can feel that they are supposed to be together, they are supposed to go the distance. The concept of soul mates isn’t used very much in this genre, or really much at all I think. Sure you have your everyday love, your long lost love, your true love, and your ‘take me around the bedroom’ love. But soul mate love is on a whole different level; it spans time and lifetimes with the same person, with the same residual deep connection, that you can feel in your very soul. It’s a recognition of souls, and this was a great representation of that bond. Only time will tell if Luce and Daniel will be able to face down all of the evil standing in the way of their soul based love.

  Rating: 4 out of 5 fangs