Review: Unforgiven (Fallen #5) by Lauren Kate (Series Ender Challenge #3)

First, thanks to Delacorte Publishing and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an egalley of this book.  I just listened to books 2-4 in this series over the past month or so.  And then I saw this pop up on Edelweiss and I was very excited to read it.  I really have to say that I wasn't disappointed, it was a good story, and definitely a good addition to this world.  I did have one issue, that kind of kept it from being a 5 star review on Goodreads, but I'll mention that at the end of my review. 

So Luce and Daniel had their ending in Book 4.  And I really like the way we pretty much got to know how the rest of their story would go.  But how many people kind of wondered about Cam?  Cam, the bad boy, the one who started trying to seduce Luce in the first book.  In book 3, we got a glimpse of a romance that may have led to Cam being the angel he is when we first get to know him. A girl named Lilith, who he had been going to marry a long, long time ago, bibilical days I would guess.  They ended up not getting married because she would only get married in a church as that is what her family would expect. But see we learned in book 4 that the fallen angels could not go into churches.  So since he couldn't do that, they fought, because he wouldn't tell her why he didn't want to get married in the church, and they split up.  Now the story Cam had always told, isn't quite what happened, and we learn the true story in this book.

Cam finds out that Lilith is in hell, because of a deal she made with Lucifer.  And her hell is basically growing up over and over in the worst lives, and never being able to realize her dream, and then once that is over, she starts all over again.  I think that her different hells never last much longer than the amount of time Luce would get before she would die.  Cam decides after all that happened with Luce and Daniel, that maybe he wants to try again with the girl that he's never forgotten.  And so he makes another deal with the devil. That if he can get her to fall in love with him before the current hell she is in ends, he will save her from ever having to go through that again, and also get to be with her.  But if he loses, then he has to go to hell, never to leave, and to be Lucifer's right hand man.

Of course Lilith is in high school, and she is an outcast, no friends, a family with no father, a mother who is not very nice, and a younger brother with life-threatening health issues.  Cam remembers how much music was a part of Lilith before, and as her sees her here, she still loves music.  And so he enters high school, and tries to get her to start a band and perform.  Deep inside Lilith though, is the hate that she doesn't remember, but whenever she sees Cam, there is something in the back of her mind bringing it up.  And just when it seems like things might be going well, Lucifer drops in, and starts setting more obstacles in Cam's way.  Like for one thing, Cam starts aging, pot belly, losing his hair, wrinkles, and even worse, he starts getting goat/demon hooves.  Fortunately he is able to hide his feet in boots.

Cam must overcome all the obstacles and still win Lilith, basically by the prom in this hell she is in.  So many ups and downs, every time Cam seems to be ahead, some new obstacle pops up, usually put into motion by Lucifer.

As I said, a great story, a great way to spend more time with Cam.  While I always rooted for Daniel in the other books, you definitely are rooting for Cam to get the girl this time.  And after what we learned about Lucifer in the last two books, I so wanted to be able to step in and punch him every time he caused problems.

Okay, the one thing I didn't like, well I don't feel like I got a good closure, don't know what happens to the two at the end of the book like we did with Luce and Daniel.  Will they get to be together?  On Earth?  In hell?  In heaven?  I need to know!  I would love another book, although I'm not quite sure that it would take a full novel to finish the things I want to know.  Not a cliffhanger ending, just not all the things I want to know.  This is a great series, and I can't wait until next fall when the movie for the first book comes out in theaters.

Waiting on Wednesday: Unforgiven (Fallen #5) by Lauren Kate

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  While my pick is part of a series still this week, it is a book from a character's point of view that we haven't had as much from yet.  As I just finished recently the Fallen series by Lauren Kate, I was excited to see that this book would be coming soon.  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:

It’s the book FALLEN fans have been waiting for: Cam’s story, the brooding, bad-boy dark angel readers love.

High school can be hell.

Cam knows what it’s like to be haunted. He’s spent more time in Hell than any angel ever should. And his freshest Hell is high school, where Lilith, the girl he can’t stop loving, is serving out a punishment for his crimes.

Cam made a bet with Lucifer: he has fifteen days to convince the only girl who really matters to him to love him again. If he succeeds, Lilith will be allowed back into the world, and they can live their lives together. But if he fails…there’s a special place in Hell just for him.

Tick-tock.

Spread your wings and cry as bad boy dark angel Cam finally reveals his anguished heart in the epic new FALLEN novel, UNFORGIVEN.

I never thought I would be one to say it, but sometimes Daniel was a little too goody-goody for me.  And sometimes he had the bossiness and possessiveness that people said Edward had in Twilight, but that I didn't see.  So I'm excited to see about Cam and hopefully find out he will get some happiness as well.

So, what book are you eagerly awaiting this week?  

And while you're here, don't forget to go enter my October New Release Giveaway. 

Audiobook Review: Rapture (Fallen #4) by Lauren Kate

Once again I have enjoyed another audio book downloaded through my public library using the Overdrive app.  Now, I haven't been exercising like I'm supposed to be, so I pretty much listened to this whole book in my car, with a bit on the plane rides to and from New Orleans a couple weeks ago.  While I still have issues with the narrator, by this time I'm pretty used to her voice and how she does the different characters.   All in all, I feel this was a pretty great conclusion to the whole series, even though there is now going to be a book #5.  If you haven't read the books up until this point, then I'm sorry, this will have spoilers for those books.  You can go back and read any of those reviews here:  Fallen, Torment, and Passion.  Now, on for my review of this book. (Excuse any incorrect character name spellings as I didn't read, but listened, so don't know for sure some of the spellings).

As we ended the last book with a huge possible end of the world situation going to be caused by Lucifer himself, that is exactly where we pick up again.  Turns out that there are some relics that Daniel had studied that should help them figure out where the angels' fall from heaven happened.  And that is what they must do, they must find those relics and get to the site of the fall in order to stop Lucifer from grabbing all the angels and taking them straight from the fall to the current day.  Because if they did that, all of history would be rewritten, and Luce and Daniel would never have the chance to get together, even with their curse.  So the story takes place as the angels we know and love, Daniel, Cam, Roland, Arriane, Annabelle, Molly, and Gabby, as well as Luce and her Nephilim friends Miles and Shelby, set off in search of the relics, but they come up against the Scales and the Outcasts.  They will find other obstacles, places that the relics were originally may have been moved, and other villains from the past, like Miss Sophia.  They are able to use the memories that Luce is now retrieving more easily thanks to her trips through the announcers into her past lives in the last book.  They will also find some new allies, relatives of Miss Sophia, as well as those that were once considered their enemies.  And we learn so much more about Luce, about how she and Daniel actually first met, and just why Lucifer went to so much trouble as Bill in the book before this one.

While I had an inkling about the reason for Lucifer's interference, it was nice to find the way it happened was done perfectly.  Many parts that we learned about heaven and before the fall totally reminded me of the Supernatural tv series that I love so much.  And not to offend anyone, but the part where angels were created by God for the sole purpose of adoring him, well that just really hits me in my not sure about what I think about God.  Who creates something just for that sole purpose?  It is similar to adopting a kid or buying a pet with the only thought that they will be there for you, not that you are there for them?  I don't know, that just sticks in my head.  And my complaints about the audiobook have to do with the narrator.  Once again I understand she is lowering her voice for the male characters, but often the way she did Daniel made him sound like a really dumb guy.  Just the way she did the voice, not necessarily his lines or anything specifically from the book. 

Overall, a great series, a great ending to the series as I said before.  I love the way the author ended it, I won't give that away, but I feel like it should be a very satisfactory ending and way to make sure that we know just how true the love between Daniel and Luce is.   I know that there is a #5, but it is going to be Cam's story, and that is something I'm eager to read.  Oh, on the end of the audio, there was an interview with the author, and it is funny that Cam is modeled on her husband, and they way she talks about that.  Now, I'm still waiting for the movie of the first book, and need to go do the research to find out when it will be coming to a theater near me!

Audio Book Review: Passion (Fallen #3) by Lauren Kate (September Sequel Challenge #2)

Once again I downloaded the audio book from the library to go on with this story. And I really enjoyed a lot about this next part in the series.  It was filled with so many different periods in history, which was a lot of fun.  We didn't get to see all of the characters that much in this book, other than of course Luce and Daniel, although the others did show up here and there for small parts of the story.  If you haven't read this far in the series yet, you can stop here and go back and read my review of the first book, Fallen, so that I don't give you any spoilers. 

In this story we pick up right where we left off from book 2, Torment, Luce has taken off inside of an Announcer, and the others are following her, trying to find her.  Especially Daniel.  Luce is trying to understand just why do they always fall in love.  It leads to death for her every time, and horrible heartbreak for Daniel every time.  And she doesn't know just why they fell in love, or if they are just compelled to because of the curse.  And so she is going back to her past lives to try to figure out why they love each other.  Along the way she will pick up someone named Bill, a gargoyle, who is there to help her figure out what she wants to see.  She will find out in some lives she is a much different girl than she is now.  She will see Daniel in all of his different human bodies as well.  We get to see how she dies, and Luce gets to actually be inside the bodies to experience the death in some of the situations.  I loved all the reincarnations, although so many were in Europe and places other than America, even before it got into the more ancient history.  But there was World War I, and World War II.  Russia, Shakespeare's time, ancient Mayans, and the one I was beginning to wonder if they'd have, ancient Egypt.

The whole time Daniel is following her, always showing up just right after she's left it seems.  And he is just hoping that she won't do something that could mess up all of history, including their love.  In the end, they will find each other, but it will be after something horrible is about to be set in motion.  You see the devil himself will show up, and he will have something to say about this whole thing with Luce and Daniel, and his own wants.  And we'll be left waiting to find out how the gang will fight him, and whether Luce and Daniel's love will really survive, and if they can finally break the curse.

I liked it better than the first two, although there were still moments I wanted to smack Luce, and moments that Daniel was still kind of a controlling jerk.  But again, I'm so ready to read the next book and find out what happens.  Or should I say listen to the next book.  I also heard there is going to be a 5th book, told from Cam's point of view.  And does anyone know when the movie comes out?  I thought it was this fall, but I haven't seen any previews for it.

Audio Book Review: Torment (Fallen #2) by Lauren Kate

I decided to listen to this book after reading and mostly enjoying the first book, Fallen.  I finally figured out how to download audio books from the local library, and I'm now taking advantage of it.  I had mixed feelings about this book as well.  In my review of the first book, I mentioned how it definitely reminded me of Twilight.  However in this book, the guy that Luce is in love with, Daniel, totally embodies the controlling qualities that people seemed to attribute to Edward in Twilight, except that Edward was nowhere near this bad.  Daniel actually told Luce she should be "obeying" him.  That was the exact word, "obey".  Wow, my mouth hung open when I heard that on the audio book. 

So, this story picks up where the last one left off.  Daniel has taken Luce to a school out in California, one that he says she will be safe at.  In the meantime, Daniel and Cam are part of some kind of truce, and the story passes day by day of the truce.  But Luce is far away from all her old friends and family.  And as far as they know, she is still at Sword and Cross, the school from the last story.  Daniel tells her she cannot leave the campus, it's not safe.  Even when she goes down to the beach with other kids from the school, he gets upset with her, and tells her she can't even go that far.  The other kids at the school, well some of them, are Nephilim, or half angel/half human.  They have two teachers that are just part of the "gifted" program, what the human students think it is.  One is an angel and one is a demon.  Luce does have several close calls, but she also learns a lot while at the school.  She learns about all the shadows that she'd always seen.  It turns out they're called announcers, and they can use them to see events in the past.  They can even be used for traveling from one place to another.  Kind of like a transporter on Star Trek or a little wormhole that can be opened up and traveled through.

Of course at the end, the time is pretty much up for the truce.  We've got a new enemy, the Outcasts, and they are pretty creepy.  There is a trip to Las Vegas, and Luce starts seeing past families by looking in the announcers.  She makes a new friend, and even a guy friend, one that makes her wonder if Daniel and the soul-shattering love they have, is really what she wants. What if she could just live a normal life, with a normal boy, would it be worth it?  And what would happen to the curse? 

Honestly it just irritates me when people won't tell the other person what they ask questions about.  Nothing at all.  I think it is ridiculous the way Daniel treats her.  Especially when other people, Cam, other angels/demons, will tell her things.  Maybe not everything she needs to know, but at least some kind of information.  Things that can help her figure things out. Although, other than the "obeying" part, I feel like if a guy I loved, who was an angel, told me I needed to do something to be safe, I would probably do it.  But then, I guess it would be a pretty short, boring story. 

The ending was pretty exciting though, and so I immediately, actually before I even finished the 2nd one, had to download the audio book of the third book, Passion, so that I could pick up right where I left off.  And that is what I'm listening to in the car and when I exercise.