Fallen (3,5) - Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate
This book is supposed to be somewhere between the third and the fourth part of the Fallen Series: Fallen in Love (in French Amours Damnées, in German Engelszeiten). I read it in French, where it had 224 pages.
Shelby and Miles are on their way back to present, but make a stop in Middle Ages on Valentine's Day. Roland is on his way to find Daniel and to protect him around the same time, but instead of meeting his friend, he runs into his former love Rosalinde. Arriane comes from a Valentines-date with Tess. And Bill wants to show Luce the only St. Valentine's Day she and Daniel ever had...
First to the content: Luce from the Middle Ages and Daniel have their only Valentine's Day together, but Bill and Luce never show up in Passion. Even though it is kind of important. Why didn't they visit? Because Luce didn't blow up yet? That doesn't make much sense. Besides, the St. Valentine's Day isn't that old.
Talk about senseless. In Roland's story, he talks to Cam about love between angels and humans and mentions Daniel and Luce as an example of how it could turn out well – this so doesn't fit to the explanation. But well, the previous three books don't fit to the explanation either.
You actually wonder why this book was written. Because, seriously, the characters are flat and there's nothing that influences the story in either way – okay, Shelby and Miles finally get together, but the other stories? Just sappy, nothing more.
Besides, why didn't she 1. write Cam's story in it – since Cam has, like, a real story to tell, or 2. lets Arriane and Roland hook up? They are so close, you basically ask yourself why they aren't together already. You would have had a wonderful romance, with the conflict between good & evil – and it wouldn't seem forced, like with Tess. And it would give the reader hope that one day, they would end up together. Lauren Kate could have added a story of Molly, if she absolutely wanted a girl-girl set up.
Since this is Valentine's Day, the book's bound to be sappy. Apart from this, the characters are flat and basically, well, nothing really happens.
In brief:
I give this book half a star for style and half a star for the ideas, minus one for characters and minus another one for content. This is just so unnecessary.