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.
