Passion by Lauren Kate Book Review

Passion (Fallen #3)

By: Lauren Kate

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Release Date: June 14, 2011

Genre: Young Adult

Pages: 420

Source: Library

“Every single lifetime, I’ll choose you. Just as you have chosen me. Forever.”

Luce would die for Daniel. And she has. Over and over again. Throughout time, Luce and Daniel have found each other, only to be painfully torn apart: Luce dead, Daniel left broken and alone. But perhaps it doesn’t need to be that way…

Luce is certain that something – or someone – in a past life can help her in her present one. So she begins the most important journey of this lifetime… going back eternities to witness firsthand her romances with Daniel… and finally unlock the key to making their love last.

Cam and the legions of angels and Outcasts are desperate to catch Luce, but none are as frantic as Daniel. He chases Luce through their shared pasts, terrified of what might happen if she rewrites history.

Because their romance for the ages could go up in flames… forever.

In this third installment in the Fallen series we join Luce as she travels back in time through thousands of years, visiting her past lives in an attempt to understand the love she and Daniel share, as well as the curse that keeps tearing them apart.

I enjoyed the first two books in this series well enough, but I had a lot of trouble getting into this one. The whole novel just felt very long and drawn out, and when it was finished I wasn’t really sure what we had gained from the 400 plus pages. By the end of it I felt like we were at almost the exact same place as we were at the end of Torment, except for the fact that Luce feels more secure in herself and Daniel. I just don’t know that we needed a whole book for that. The supposed “revelations” about Daniel and their relationship that Luce made as she visited each of her past incarnations didn’t feel like anything new to me, and she was very frustrating and immature at times.

I also really missed the secondary characters. Passion focuses almost solely on Luce and Daniel, and although I know that this series is about their story, it felt very empty without the frequent appearances of the other characters we’ve come to know and love. I’m definitely looking forward to having them back in on the action in Rapture, the fourth book.

One of the things that I did like about Passion is that it is told in alternating viewpoints between Luce and Daniel. For the first time, we get to see through Daniel’s eyes for extended periods of time, and as he is much more informed about everything than Luce is, this is a lot more rewarding and satisfying for the reader. We finally get to understand the origin of the curse placed on Luce and Daniel, as well as more information about the Fall and the eventual split between the angels and the demons. Daniel’s chapters were much more enjoyable for me to read than Luce’s, to be honest.

I also have to give credit to Lauren Kate, because the amount of research she had to do to be able to accurately portray so many different places and time periods in one book must have been extensive. Each of Luce’s past lives felt real and well-developed, I just which we could have gotten to spend a little more time in each one!

I think one of my main issues with this series as a whole is that I’ve never really bought into the timelessness and intensity of Luce and Daniel’s relationship. We hear it described as this amazing and endless love, but I feel like we’re only ever told that, and I never really see or feel the passion and chemistry between them. Show me they're in love, don't just tell me over and over! I found myself thinking that if I were Daniel I’d just leave Luce alone and quit killing her every time. It’d make everything easier for everyone.

Overall, Passion felt more like a lead-in to the final book in the series, rather than a complete novel on its own, and I was left feeling disappointed. I’m still planning to read Rapture though, if only for some closure to the story.