I settled in with Fallen, loving the rich descriptions of the utter desolation that has become Luce's life. The school she is eventually sent to after an unfortunate incident is alive in its dreary, desperate loneliness. I could feel the Spanish moss and blanketing dark gray surrounding everything. The author immediately sets up a terrific atmosphere for the book of which Luce is the constant center. Even the required school attire - of which only the color black is allowed - lends itself well to the book's atmosphere.

Essentially, Luce has been sent to a reform school, after having spent a life pursued by mysterious and sometimes malevolent "shadows" and therefore on pretty heavy antipsychotic drugs as a result. She's not committed any crimes, but her possible involvement in a tragedy has her sentenced to Sword & Cross anyway, where she's surrounded by odd classmates and even odder urges that she knows one of the male students. She can't stop the feeling that she knows Daniel Grigori and even though she constantly questions these feelings and urges, she decides to pursue them.

Daniel, in the meantime, tries to turn Luce off the best ways he can, in general by being a jerk. I have to admit, even when Daniel wasn't being a jerk, I didn't get the attraction between these two. With the exception of one scene between them at the end of the book, where romance seemed to come out of nowhere, Daniel has about as much personality as sawdust. While I vaguely understood the basics behind his standoffish behavior, I felt absolutely no chemistry between them until the end. We are told why and it is hinted at all throughout the book as to why they should be in love, but it's never especially demonstrated. There was really only one scene, and Luce "melts" at his words, but this comes after hundreds of pages of her not knowing why she likes, then loves him. Although she questions these inexplicable urges, she doesn't exactly put up too much of a fuss about it. It always seemed as if, when she finally would make strides in finding out who Daniel was, she would revert back to the unquestioning, melting-at-Daniel Luce.

A secondary character named Camden is another story, though. The only thing I'll say about him at this point, is he appears to be "on the other side". The proverbial bad boy, he steals kisses from Luce, pursues her and basically does everything Daniel does not. It's no wonder Luce looks at Cam as having more romantic potential. Then comes that pesky inner voice of hers that never once gives her any concrete information, yet she cannot help but prefer Daniel. Yet she finds Cam attractive too. Back and forth, revolving door plot and by the time anything really starts to happen - at about page 302 (out of 400-something) - confusion reigns and the hot mess engages.

I'm really not sure what this series first is trying to pull off. Given what happens in the prologue, which is set in 1854 England, we immediately get a huge insight into an important aspect of this book. Take a hard look at that title again as well. The title speaks loudly, and the prologue shows us right away a big, big part of the plot. Which puzzled me at first as it seemed a little jumping the shark. Right off we get a lot of important detail, which, by the way was done well at least through good character dialogue and interaction, yet for almost the next three hundred pages, the plot does that revolving door pattern I cannot stand. Around and around with the reader getting absolutely nowhere until bam - the end comes along and squeezed all the important parts into the last eighth of the book. What happens for more than two hundred pages seems to be meant to feel eerie, strange and therefore more intriguing, but I was bored. It's nothing new to save the most interesting parts for last, hopefully generating excitement that will entice readers to pick up the next book. There needs to be an interesting, layer-unfolding and well plotted series of events to tie it all together to that point though. The events meant to lead up to an exciting climax felt about as put together as an untucked shirt. I kept going, hoping for something exciting, something half past monotonous. No dice.

While I feel the author has potential - believe it or not, I enjoyed the voice used here immensely - I'm pretty sure I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to continue. Even though I can enjoy what might be trying to be accomplished with Fallen, the book unfortunately makes no sense. There are no bones thrown out to the reader, only carrot after dangled carrot, which are all yanked back. I suppose those that like to speculate on what might come to be could have a lot of fun with this one. There is that air of forbidden love, and we all know how hard that one can be to resist. Unfortunately there is no tangible incentive to continue on when we're only given question upon question. I could make a lot of assumptions - but I'd rather know at least ONE thing about this whole mess for 100% sure. It would've made the whirlwind last eighth of the book more palatable.

I predict this book will do well. I suspect that the problems I have with it will not be issues for a lot of readers. It's a dark, broody, angsty soup of YA drama that tries to make good use of the new hotness - angels. This first feels very much like one never ending setup, so do prepare for a slow pace, with the real and important action only transitioning in at about the last eighth of the book. Forbidden love, mysterious young men and plenty of supernatural happenings usually make for exciting reads these days and I daresay a lot of readers will enjoy Fallen for these characteristics. Unfortunately, the way they were played out rang a little too hot mess for me.

Fallen is yet another entry into the highly popular teen paranormal romance genre a la Twilight. It's got pretty much everything readers have come to expect from these kinds of books -it's dark, atmospheric, light on action, filled with flat characters, features some kind of "undying love"/"forbidden romance" story, and has a paranormal element to keep things somewhat out-of-the-ordinary.

In Fallen, Luce is sent to the Sword and Cross, a school for troubled teens after a horrible accident. As she tries to make friends, Luce becomes interested in Daniel, one of the few students who shows any warmth toward her. As the rather thin mystery around the school unfolds, Luce and Daniel fall even more in love until Luce learns that Daniel is an angel stuck in the middle of the constant war between good and evil. The romance between the two is forbidden, but they are willing to fight for acceptance.

While the concepts of Fallen sound interesting, they simply are not executed as effectively as they could have been. Newcomer Lauren Kate has a haunting and highly promising style, but her characters are a little too cardboard to be relatable -at least for me -and the plot, overall, has very little action aside from the love story, thus making the pacing feel painfully slow at points.

I was also hoping for just a little more out of the paranormal element in novel. It seemed to be pushed to the side a little too much for my taste, almost to the point that it felt like an afterthought. But for fans of stories heavy on romance and light on the paranormal, Fallen is the perfect match.

While promising and semi-entertaining, Fallen just falls short. The novel brings practically nothing original to a genre that's currently being flooded with Twilight rip-offs and isn't engaging for a wider range of readers.

At first glance, Fallen is intriguing and fresh. However, on reflection many of the themes and events are reminiscent of other popular teen books - which probably means if you liked Meridian, Evermore: The Immortals, or Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception you will probably love Fallen. Personally, I found it most similar to Evermore.

One of the delicious things about this book is how slow to build it is - it was nearly maddening in the tepid pace with tantalizing little clues being dropped. Who is Cam? Why does Luce feel drawn to Daniel? Why is she really at Sword and Cross. The flip-side of this slow burn, is that it is SLOW. So...if you enjoy everything being laid out and the flow and direction of the book smooth, the pace of Fallen may seem, well, maddening and not in a good way.

The characters in this book are engaging, and Luce herself very sympathetic. Most of the characters seem to have overwhelming ulterior motives. After the book was completed and I knew how they related to one another, I did have to wonder about some of the interactions some of the characters had midway through the book. I was very nearly torn between Cam and Daniel, and what builds between them was very well-played. Most of the characters are fairly well-developed; however there are too many complete shifts in characters in the end for me to be able to comfortably track. I never felt like I had a clear answer to how they ALL just happened to end up at Sword and Cross either before or with Luce - especially a certain teacher. A good book is bound to have a superb plot twist, and Fallen does have this - however, there are just a few too many coincidences for me to be happy with.

I have to say I never did understand the events that landed Luce at Sword and Cross. What was the deal with the shadows - why did the events that sent her there happen in the first place? However, ultimately I appreciate that Kate did not feel forced to explain every detail and leave some delicious intrigue. However, personal preference on loose strings is a good predictor if you are going to enjoy Fallen or be frustrated.

Fallen is very captivating and really reads like Luce feels - conflicted and full of pain. Despite having many romantic overtones - this book is anything like a romance - more like the raw edges left behind after romance has ended. The ending of Fallen was a tad too abrupt and anything but tidy or happy. Rather, Fallen built up from despair into something like hope (or at least when you start to begin to hope for hope) - ultimately, not as dark as Lament but not as rosy as Evermore.

Bottom Line: Fallen is most enjoyable if you don't know the surprise ending going in. This book is probably not for readers that love nice, neat, packages. There are lots of loose strings left over, and some of the character interactions do not make a lot of sense after all is said and done. Kate may have tried a little too hard to keep the reader guessing. Easy, enjoyable read, but probably not one that sucks you in until you envision yourself in the story line. Recommended with warnings.