Mini-Review: Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate

Title: Fallen in Love

Series: Fallen #3.5

Author: Lauren Kate

Publisher: Doubleday Children's

Publication Date: 2 Feb 2012

Source; Review Copy

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis from Goodreads

What makes your heart race a little faster? Just in time for Valentine's Day, it's FALLEN IN LOVE, four wholly original new stories collected in a new novel set in the Middle Ages by Lauren Kate. FALLEN IN LOVE gives fans the much-talked about but never-revealed stories of FALLEN characters as they intertwine with the epic love story of Luce and Daniel. The stories include: Love Where You Least Expect It: The Valentine of Shelby and Miles , Love Lessons: The Valentine of Roland; Burning Love: The Valentine of Arriane; and Endless Love: The Valentine of Daniel and Lucinda.

REVIEW

I am a huge fan of the Fallen series as you may already know. I jumped about with sheer delight when I received this book. It is beautiful feeding my cover love. Plus the cover comes to life (more details of that later) but what an awesome idea.

Fallen in Love is a collection of short stories featuring the peripheral characters from the main books. Providing valuable insight into the characters themselves as well as how their relationships have shaped their decisions, actions  and personalities in the other time periods already portrayed in the main plot. Although these are individual character stories they still revolve around the main story-line featuring Daniel and Luce.

Nice recaps within the narrative keep the story fresh in the imagination while simultaneously progressing each individual story. Providing a clever way in which to relate aspects back to the central story-line within the series. The way in which all the characters converged at the same time and place enriched the story-line as a whole.

In reality not all relationships have a 'happily ever after', the inclusion of heartbreak along with the 'true love' ideal provides a nice balance. Although the notion of 'true love' together with soul-mates is the basis of the story  and therefore is the plot equivalent of 'a moth to a flame' for the characters. Providing a source of hope to all of them (and me).

The way in which Valentine's Day celebrations were depicted in Medieval times gave them far more credence than the commercially exploited day we celebrate now. A day of feasting, dancing and festivities sounds so much better than one filled with overpriced cards and flowers. The glorious descriptive writing brings the Medieval World to life within the imagination.

Hints are subtlety placed within the narrative to gear the main plot towards its conclusion in Rapture. Fallen in Love provides a great addition to the Fallen series and is a MUST for all Fallen fans.