Fallen

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.
from laurenkatebooks.com

Beth says 4 Stars...

Finally, a paranormal romance that works! The shelves have been inundated by less than stellar rip offs of Twilight (which actually isn't that amazing to begin with) and I've gotten tired of it. Seriously, who needs to read the exact same story 15 times with different paranormal creatures? The first thing that made this one different was the setting; a Southern (not so different) reform school/mental institute (now that's something new). The cast of characters was interesting overall, partially because you knew that they all had secrets as to why they were at the school. The pacing of the book did get a bit slow in the middle, but it picked back up nicely once Kate decided to give the readers some more information.

Luce is interesting, but not the most riveting main character. The issue I had was that in repressing her own traumatic memories the readers were deprived interesting information that helped explain her personality. Also, she was kinda, well, wishy washy with the guys. The love triangle was interesting, but Daniel was the star. He smoldered through the page and was delightful when he got all dark and broody (after watching Buffy I have a thing for broody). It was nice how he wasn't (quite) the typical male lead, but he still followed the same patterns.

The issues I had were that even though there were parts that were original, a good deal wasn't. I got some similarities to the Immortals series by Noel and a touch of hush, hush. Fallen shows promise because it's well written. Hopefully that will come through and the plot will move in different directions in the next book(s?). This is a story that really pulls you in and refuses to let go until the mystery is finished. A nice summer read if you want something that's on the dark side.

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