Review: Passion by Lauren Kate

Title: Passion

Series: Fallen
Author: Lauren Kate
Publisher: Doubleday Children’s
Publication Date: 23 Jun 2011

Synopsis: From Amazon

Before Luce and Daniel met at Sword and Cross, before they fought the Immortals, they had already lived many lives. And so Luce, desperate to unlock the curse that condemns their love, must revisit her past incarnations in order to understand her fate. Each century, each life, holds a different clue.

But Daniel is chasing her throughout the centuries before she has a chance to rewrite history.
How many deaths can one true love endure?
And can Luce and Daniel unlock their past in order to change their future?

Review:
As this is the 3^rd book in the series it may contain spoilers for Fallen and Torment.

If you have read my reviews of Fallen and Torment you know how much I love this series. I mean angels, demons, the giant battle of good versus evil and soul mates, this series has everything I adore. I was so excited when it came through my letterbox that I dropped everything to read it. I must state that it is necessary to read the books in order to fully appreciate the intricacies of the plot.

The first thing that really stood out for me with Passion is that the chapters had dates under the headings; I jumped out of bed to check the copies of Fallen and Torment just to double check that these had not had dates in. Then I remembered the jaw-dropping cliff hanger that occurred in Torment and realized why there were dates at the beginning of the chapters *doh*.

Significant dates throughout history were used to re-enforce the storyline, the history woven into the narrative gave the plot a rich setting. The descriptive writing style managed to bring all of the different time periods to glorious life within my imagination. Although I am not a writer myself I can still appreciate that this must be a very difficult thing to achieve and it is a credit to Lauren Kate that she manages it so well.

The romance between Luce and Daniel was enchanting to behold although at times felt voyeuristic with the intensity of the emotion portrayed. For all those people that were team Miles at the end of Torment I am pretty sure this book will change your mind.

The portrayal of events between Daniel and Luce over the millenia; Luce’s continued combustion and how it has shaped Daniel’s personality provided much needed insight into Daniel’s personality. I have to admit that I am absolutely frustrated with the lack of answers to the IS She or ISN’T She question – I really really really need that clarified – in nice simple terms PLEASE [ ; D ]
The revelation to the origin of the curse and the loophole that Daniel and Luce currently find themselves in clarified and strengthened the plot.

The introduction of Bill to the cast of characters gave another direction for the story; throughout I was constantly trying to double guess what his motives were. I have to admit that I was not expecting just how dynamic and malevolent those motives were. WOW

This really is the story of Daniel and Luce – all the other characters are there but in background roles. Insight is given into the past of some of the characters but this is a few little snippets sporadically placed throughout; although I will say they are important developments.

What can I say about the ending but OMGosh Lauren Kate has done it again, the cliff hanger to top that at the end of Torment. I have no idea how she sustains it. I cannot believe that I have to wait until Spring 2012 in order to find out what happens next.