“Fallen In Love” by Lauren Kate

Title: Fallen In Love
Author: Lauren Kate
Read Date: March 2012
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Review Preview: Something fun to read while waiting for “Rapture” (no, not the doomsday thingy.)
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Unexpected. Unrequited. Forbidden. Eternal. Everyone has their own love story.

And in a twist of fate, four extraordinary love stories combine over the course of a romantic Valentine’s Day in Medieval England. Miles and Shelby find love where they least expect it. Roland learns a painful lesson about finding—and losing—love. Arianne pays the price for a love so fierce it burns. And for the first—and last—time, Daniel and Luce will spend a night together like none other.

Unexpected. I wouldn’t say Shelby and Miles’ romance was entirely unexpected. Okay, let’s just say that a good number of Fallen fans have been shipping them since Torment, but of course only Lauren Kate had the power to make them a couple or just have them remain good Luce-chasing time-traveling buddies. But I really like that Lauren went there because this series needs an uncomplicated romance—something sweet and fun and affirming amid all the doom-and-gloom surrounding everyone else. Hurrah for Miles’ Rogue Cap!

Unrequited. I still cannot shake the images of Roland going all tower-climbing Romeo on us (and falling), or of him being so clumsy while attempting to kiss a girl, or of him being a failure at poetry. It’s different from the confident Roland of the present, but then again, it seems like the common theme with Roland, Arianne, and Cam is that their great loves have had such a profound effect on them and we can see how much it changed them.

I like that even though I am conditioned to believe—because of religious prejudice, I think—that Roland is “evil” because he’s a demon, Lauren still managed to convince me that he is capable of acting honorably, and that it’s an integral part of his character.

Throughout the series, the portrayal of the “demons” often surprised me. They don’t seem inherently “evil,” they’re just beings who chose the other side in an epic if-you’re-not-with-me-you’re-against-me battle, and Roland’s story here attests to that.

Forbidden. Arianne’s story has got to be the most heartbreaking one in this book.

Tess tempted Arianne, challenged her, and questioned who she was and what she really believed in. And if it were possible, Tess would have died for her. Theirs is a love that began before they made The Choice, so really, if you’re keeping track, their relationship is marred by big double heartbreaks.

The forbidden aspect of their relationship—Tess is a demon—mirrors Luce and Daniel’s romance, so it’s telling that when Arianne walks away from Tess, scarred, she goes to find Daniel and Luce “to fight for the kind of love I believe in.” Arianne believes that Daniel and Luce’s love does not “require the other to betray her nature,” but in a way, Daniel already made that choice and committed that betrayal, and if we take all the hints seriously, soon, Luce would also have to make a choice that may just be as important as the one that Tess wanted Arianne to make.

And yes, I was surprised that Arianne’s great love was portrayed as a woman. I’m sure there are strong reactions to this revelation, ranging from “Lauren is just pandering to the call of character diversity” or “yay!” or “ugh!” But I do remember from my interviews with her that the angels in the Fallen-verse are more like souls who take up whatever form they fancy (“Passion” Spoiler Alert! – come on, The Evil One took up gargoyle form).

…their physical traits don’t really matter that much—they matter to the readers, they matter to me as a writer, to be able to visualize them—but literally, they don’t matter. Their bodies are sort of just shells—they can change it anytime and look like something different, like when we see Daniel in China, he’s Chinese. It’s really what their soul looks like, which is a hard thing to describe. And so I think that it manifests itself in their physical characteristics so that I can paint a picture for the readers and for myself. I think probably the closest that I get to who they really are is when I describe what they look like. I think that’s how I get closest to what their souls look like, if that makes sense.

So whether it’s all deliberate or contrived or Arianne whispered to her that this is how it has to be, I’m excited to ask her about this, and I hope to be given the chance to do so if she ever comes back here. 😉

Eternal. Of course the Daniel and Luce story here was sweet, but forgive me when I say that it didn’t make much of an impact after those first 3 stories, especially Arianne’s. *hangs head in shame*

The novelty of Fallen In Love is that we experience these stories within the same backdrop of Medieval Valentine’s Day, and they are structured in such a way that the transition from one story to the next is natural and continuous, it almost feels like we’re reading a single tale if not for the story divisions.

If you absolutely can’t wait for Rapture, then this is a good way to pass the time without leaving the Fallen-verse.

For those who keep landing here on my blog after googling “lauren kate rapture excerpt,” here’s some Search Term Indulgence. Of course I can’t post the excerpt which was included in Fallen In Love, but I’ll give you an idea.

It’s the prologue and the first chapter of Rapture, which is exactly where Passion left off, in that little cabin near Sword and Cross. The angels, Shelby, and Miles helped smuggle Luce back to her home so that her parents didn’t notice she was even gone. The next day, everyone’s gathered at the Sword and Cross library to figure out their next move when an earthquake happens. Oh wait, no, according to Cam, it’s a “seismic shift in time,” which could only mean that The Great Evil Gargoyle (sorry, can’t help it) is getting closer and that their time is running out.

♥ ♥ ♥
Special thanks to Leia, who loaned me her copy of the book. 🙂