Series: Fallen #4
Author: Lauren Kate
Publisher: Random House, Imprint: Delacorte Press
Release Date: June 12, 2012
Blurb:
The sky is dark with wings . . . .
Like sand in an hourglass, time is running out for Luce and Daniel. To stop Lucifer from erasing the past they must find the place where the angels fell to earth. Dark forces are after them, and Daniel doesn’t know if he can do this—live only to lose Luce again and again.
Yet together they will face an epic battle that will end with lifeless bodies . . . and angel dust. Great sacrifices are made. Hearts are destroyed. And suddenly Luce knows what must happen.
For she was meant to be with someone other than Daniel. The curse they’ve borne has always and only been about her—and the love she cast aside. The choice she makes now will be the only one that truly matters.
In the fight for Luce, who will win?
The astonishing conclusion to the FALLEN series. Heaven can’t wait any longer.
Oh my! What a perfectly flawed ending to one of modern days greatest love stories. Daniel's and Luce's story, start to finish, is what romance is all about. It's not perfect or easy. No immediate unyielding trust without questions. Not all pretty rainbows and unicorns. Falling in love is about learning and growing--into yourself and each other--and becoming secure enough to hand someone the power to squish your heart until it stops beating but trust them to love you forever. True love.
Rapture is the fourth and finale book in The Fallen Series...as I may have mentioned before. When we left Luce and Daniel in Passion, they had just finished hopping through announcers and The Fall had started. Lucifer's final plan to separate Luce and Daniel. Rapture picks up exactly where Passion left off. Admittedly, there were things I'd already figured out, but I think Ms. Kate knew this and, therefore, threw in some mind-blowing twists.
The thing I love about picking up one of Lauren's books is falling in love with her writing all over again. Her prose is all-encompassing, her descriptions simple but lovely. Her sentence structure flows with the book. Shorter, tighter sentences build tension. Longer, complex sentences in larger paragraphs slow the tension but build Lauren's world, filled with Angels and Demons.
I'm really going to try to keep this spoiler free because I want everyone to fall in love with Rapture the same way I did, but here's a short summary.
Daniel, Luce, Cam (swoon), Roland (Favorite Male Character), Arriane (Favorite Female Character), Gabbe, Molly, and Annabelle are charged with the mission to stop the fall or eternity will be erased, and Luce gone from Daniel forever.
A few quotes from Rapture:
"There you are, you lovebirds, you, doin' that thing that lovebirds do," Arriane sang. (Speaking of Daniel and Luce) Page 22
"There's a reason he was called the Morning Star. Lucifer was beautiful Some say the most beautiful." ... "There is no darkness as dark as a great light corrupted." (Daniel on Lucifer) - Page 54
"I know you don't trust him, but you can. I do. Cam's darkness is legendary, but it is only a sliver of his personality." (Daniel on Cam) - Page 55
I betrayed him. Whoever he was. There was someone before Daniel, and I--
And the last one:
No, that isn't true," Luce said. "I chose love! Just now, you asked whether I knew my soul, and I do. I must stay true to who I am and place love highest of all. (Luce to the Throne) Page 418
Oh what the hell...one more
"Ah, Daniel, a mere shadow of a true bad boy." He pressed his hand to his heart and raised an eyebrow at her. "Make sure he treats you well. You deserve the best of everything." (Cam to Luce on Daniel.) Page 425
In order to stop the fall, this group of fallen angels must work together and find three artifacts which will, hopefully, lead them to where the first fall happened many millennium ago. Luce, though she has learned much, has one last lesson to learn about her true identity and it's a whopper. As the only innocent of the group, the responsibility to connect the three puzzle pieces lays solely on her. It is officially her time to make her choice, and alone she must make it.
One thing that always bothered me throughout The Fallen Series is that no one would just tell Luce what she needed to know. Not about hers and Daniel's past. Not about Cam. Not about anything. But, with this last installment, I now understand their reasoning. Luce absolutely did have to learn every single thing on her own, with guidance of course, but she had to do the work and initiate the willingness to learn.
Luce is a character who I watched grow over four books from an immature and self-doubting teen into a confident and selfless young lady. And hey...aren't our heroines supposed to grow and change, just as teens grow and change? Undoubtedly. Daniel is so supportive and even when he and Cam were at their worst, they still maintained that brotherly bond, which brought tears to my eyes a couple of times. Cam needs his own story. He really does.
A friend told me she loved Rapture but that the ending was bitter-sweet and those words frightened me. All too often, I am disappointed with the grand finale, but not the case this time. Yes, the ending is most definitely bitter-sweet, you're left with hope for the constitution of love.
If you are a fan of true love and soul mates, I highly recommend The Fallen Series! To both you and old.
So...I mentioned my favorite character (male) was Roland, if you've read the series, tell me who your is and why? My why is because he seems like that guy everyone needs to know. Always pretending to be full of useless information, while really having all of the inside answers. Plus, he's a little bit of a bad-boy, so.
EDIT:
UGH!!! I'd like to apologize to anyone who read this review and realized that I noted the wrong author's name in a couple of places...I've been several days without any sleep, and yes, I mean I've had not even an hours sleep. I proof-read, but totally missed the references to another author who writes about fallen angels. I'M SO SORRY!
Wow. And I here I was, not even getting started in the series... To be honest, I had kind of breezed through this titles, not looking much beyond the backcover: they looked a bit "same old story", if you know what I mean. I expected them to contain insta love and predictable turns and nothing really happening beyond the love story.
ReplyDeleteNow I see just how mistaken I was. I must give it a shot; I'll definitely pick up the first book, see where it leads me. I'm sure I'll like it!
Thanks so much for sharing!
Ron
Ron...I promise I'm not telling you anything here that you wouldn't find out in the first few chapters of Fallen. LOL
ReplyDeleteWhile some people would call what Daniel and Luce have insta-love, it is actually so much more. There's a reason the two of them are drawn to each other across a thousand lifetimes, a curse, which you learn about in Fallen (Book 1). So, to me, that's not insta-love because, whether Luce remembers it or not, she and Daniel have been in love since the beginning of time...literally. And Daniel knows exactly who Luce is, always has, always will.
Now, the reason I put the quote about no two people read the same book, is because there are people out there who haven't liked the series as a whole, but from the day I read Fallen, the series has been one of my favorites. Of course, some books are better than others in the series, but overall, they are all really good.
When I first started the series, my son had only been gone a few years and something about this series really struck home because there is a battle between Heaven, Hell, and Love...and what should be the most important. And I could understand Daniel's decision perfectly.
I hope you like the first book, because to honestly feel the complete reality of the fallen angels choices and their repercussions, you really have to read the whole story.
I loved this book! I honestly didn't like the series all that much when I started it, but it grew on me. I definitely agree with the ending being bittersweet, but I still loved it.
ReplyDeleteNow onto Cam. I agree he NEEDS his own story. There's so much potential. I can't wait to see if Lauren Kate's going to do anything with his character.
Great review!
I have the first 3 books, they were always so expensive ): But I got some money for Christmas, so I think I will definitely buy the book! From what I've read so far, my favourite characters are probably the same as yours. Arriane and Roland are just so badass!
ReplyDeleteI liked the book but i hated the ending. I love the series and the story has always been amazing but i just hated the ending of this finale book. I feel like the whole series has been Luce finding out who she really was and remembering her past lives. With each book getting closer and closer. At the end of the book she finally knows who she was and always meant to be and then she has to choose heaven or hell. She chooses love like she always has from the beginning of time but the price she has to pay for choosing love is that she forgets everything leading up to this point and has to start over new being a mortal and not knowing if her and daniel will meet in the life? I think that's bullshit. She finally knows who she is and how strong her love for daniel is and then to keep it she has to throw it all away? Why couldn't they just become mortals but kept their memories? That just doesn't make since to me. And then i still have questions like what happened to Luce former life with her parents? Did her parents forget about her or think she died? And then i wanted to know more about them meeting again, do they fall in love? do they get their happy ending? Just to many questions and a bad ending to what the story was all about.
ReplyDeleteI liked the book but i hated the ending. I love the series and the story has always been amazing but i just hated the ending of this finale book. I feel like the whole series has been Luce finding out who she really was and remembering her past lives. With each book getting closer and closer. At the end of the book she finally knows who she was and always meant to be and then she has to choose heaven or hell. She chooses love like she always has from the beginning of time but the price she has to pay for choosing love is that she forgets everything leading up to this point and has to start over new being a mortal and not knowing if her and daniel will meet in the life? I think that's bullshit. She finally knows who she is and how strong her love for daniel is and then to keep it she has to throw it all away? Why couldn't they just become mortals but kept their memories? That just doesn't make since to me. And then i still have questions like what happened to Luce former life with her parents? Did her parents forget about her or think she died? And then i wanted to know more about them meeting again, do they fall in love? do they get their happy ending? Just to many questions and a bad ending to what the story was all about.
ReplyDelete