Thursday 28 January 2010

CBR2 Book 24: "Fallen" by Lauren Kate

Publisher: Delacorte Books
Page count: 464 pages
Rating: 2 stars
Date begun: January 26th, 2010
Date finished: January 28th, 2010

After her boyfriend dies in a mysterious and suspicious fire, 17-year-old Luce is sent to reform school. Since Luce isn't sure she isn't partially to blame for his death, she accepts that she may belong there. The school is rather dismal, but shortly after arriving, she falls head over heels for the broody and aloof Daniel, who seems to like her one minute and completely blow her off the next. The charming and personable Cam seems to be vying for her attention as well, but no matter how inviting he acts, Luce can't get her mind off the stand-offish Daniel.

Meanwhile, she is terrified of letting any of the other pupils at the school know why she got sent there, and is worried by the increasing frequency with which she sees the shadows. She befriends Penn, the only girl who voluntarily goes to the school because she's an orphan and has no other choice, and the two try to find out more about the mysterious Daniel and why he's at the school. After being involved in yet another seemingly shadow-caused fire, where one of Luce's classmates perish, Luce is starting to worry even more. She's also puzzled over why she feels that she's met Daniel before, and why he occasionally seems like he knows her a little too well.

Fallen is clearly partially written to appeal to the Twilight audience. It features an academically inclined young girl caught in a love triangle with two gorgeous guys. All three main players in the triangle are a lot more appealing than Bella, Edward and Jacob, however, and while the plot drags out a bit, and the reader frequently knows more about what is going on than Luce does (thanks to a prologue from Daniel's POV) and quite a lot of blatant hints about angels, I didn't actually mind the book. It's a decent enough young adult paranormal romance, and I especially want to find out more about the charismatic Cam, who generally appealed a lot more to me than Daniel, so I think I will definitely give the sequel a try, when it comes out in September.

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