READING : Fallen by Lauren Kate

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 the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He's the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce--and goes out of his way to make that very clear--she can't let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her...

Fallen was one of the books I had high expectations from and unfortunately it let me down.

I have to admit that I could not get into it.I found the story simplistic, almost childish at times, and predictable.What I had thought right from the start would happen, happened, and what I couldn't figure out, its explanation was not satisfactory.

Characters were a bit of a mess.Luce, the lead, was very apathetic and ignorant to everything that went on around her, a passive receiver of every information she happened to come across.She had no chemistry whatsoever with the boy she was allegedly in love with for so many years,although I thought that Daniel,from his part,was great.There is not much of a bad guy in the picture and the little action we were hoping to get from the battle between the "good" and the "bad", did not come, since the book is written from Luce's POV and she was not there to witness it.Also, the explanation we got for the shadows that Luce was seeing all the time was vague,at best.The accident Luce had before going to the reform school,which,by the way,was supposed to have been caused by the shadows,was never explained in full,thus leaving you with the question:why did Luce had to go to a reform school, anyway?

The other characters were kind of OK, but not adding anything to the story, with the exception of Penn,who I really liked.

Overall, I believe that Fallen is not a book to get over excited about.In my opinion,it didn't have that special something that has you turning page after page after page and I found it a bit boring at times.If Fallen had better characters, a unique and intriguing story and was a bit shorter, it would be much, much better.


*edit:I have to admit though,Fallen's cover?OMG, gorgeous!!Best cover of the year, hands down!

2/5