Title: Passion
Author: Lauren Kate
Series: Book #3 in the Fallen Series
Release Date: 14th June 2011
Publishers: Random House

Check it out: Goodreads | Book Depository

Book Description: Luce would die for Daniel.

And she has. Over and over again. Throughout time, Luce and Daniel have found each other, only to be painfully torn apart: Luce dead, Daniel left broken and alone. But perhaps it doesn’t need to be that way. . . .

Luce is certain that something—or someone—in a past life can help her in her present one. So she begins the most important journey of this lifetime . . . going back eternities to witness firsthand her romances with Daniel . . . and finally unlock the key to making their love last.

Cam and the legions of angels and Outcasts are desperate to catch Luce, but none are as frantic as Daniel. He chases Luce through their shared pasts, terrified of what might happen if she rewrites history.

Because their romance for the ages could go up in flames . . . forever.

Sweeping across centuries, PASSION is the third novel in the unforgettably epic FALLEN series.

 

My Thoughts: I’ll be honest, I struggled through Passion. I can understand why Lauren Kate needed to give some of Luce and Daniel’s back story, but I found it repetitive and a little boring. I certainly didn’t feel the “passion” that Lauren was trying to evoke by taking us back in history and showing us glimpses of Luce and Daniel’s love through the years, but that may be because I fell out of love with the arrogant and domineering Daniel in Torment.

I was sad that many of the characters from the previous two books were excluded from Passion or if they were mentioned they were tiny insignificant parts. I missed the banter between Roland and Arrianne and even missed snarky Cam.

The ended of Passion, like many other young adult titles left us with a cliffhanger, I am interested to see what happens but I just hope that all our favourite characters are included and that we get to have some comic relief from the tormented love story.

About the Author: Lauren Kate grew up in Dallas, went to school in Atlanta, and started writing in New York. She has a master’s degree in fiction from the University of California.

She aspires to work in a restaurant kitchen, get a couple of dogs, and learn how to surf. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband.

The Giveaway: Even though I didn’t enjoy Passion, I do have to say that I am a big fan of Lauren Kate herself. I had the pleasure of meeting her during her Sydney book tour and I think she is very sweet. Lauren took the time to sign multiple books and have conversations with her fans so it pains me that I didn’t love her book.

Anyway, Lauren was lovely enough to sign some of my Fictional Fantasy bookmarks for me to give away to you all. I have 3 to give away. To win simply fill in the form below. The competition closes on 19th August 2011 and the winners will be draw using random.org

Have you heard? Lauren Kate is coming to Australia and will be doing signings in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane :) Below is her tour schedule, you can also find out more on her website and Facebook page!

 

July 30th: Sydney

KMART – Castle Hill

11:00-1:00pm

Max Webber Library, Flushcombe Rd Blacktown

2:00-4:00 (Free event, but book in advance, places limited)

SWORD AND CROSS PROM! (ticketed event)

The Arthouse Hotel 275 Pitt Street

6:00pm

July 31: Sydney

Big W – Campbelltown

11:00-1:00pm

Dymocks Parramatta

Level 2, Shop 2115 Westfield Parramatta (next door to City Beach)

2:30-4:30pm

August 1st: Sydney

Dymocks Penrith

Shop 145 Westfield Penrtih

4:00 – 6:00

August 3rd: Melbourne

Big W Southland in-store signing

3:00-5:00pm

Dymocks Melbourne

234 Collins Street Melbourne

5:30pm

August 4th: Melbourne

Target Chadstone in-store signing

4:00-6:00pm

August 5th: Brisbane

Big W Macarthur in-store signing

3:00-5:00pm

Riverbend books Brisbane

193 Oxford Street Bulimba

6:00-8:00pm (ticketed event)

August 6th: Brisbane

Dymocks Chermside in-store signing

11:00-12.30 pm

Dymocks Indooroopilly in-store signing

1:30–3:00pm

Author’s Website

Book Summary: How many lives do you need to live before you find someone worth dying for?
In the aftermath of what happened at Sword & Cross, Luce has been hidden away by her cursed angelic boyfriend, Daniel, in a new school filled with Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans. Daniel promises she will be safe here, protected from those who would kill her. At the school Luce discovers what the Shadows that have followed her all her life mean – and how to manipulate them to see into her other lives. Yet the more Luce learns about herself, the more she realizes that the past is her only key to unlocking her future … and that Daniel hasn’t told her everything. What if his version of the past isn’t actually the way things happened … what if Luce was really meant to be with someone else?

My Thoughts – Please don’t continue reading if you haven’t read Fallen yet, there may be some spoiler!

I just finished reading Torment and I loved it! I could not put it down!

Torment is the second book in Lauren Kate’s fallen angel series and it picks up right where Fallen left off.
Now that Luce knows about the existence of fallen angels and of her past lives with Daniel, she and Daniel should finally be able to have that chance to be together but Daniel is still as illusive and mysterious as ever, insisting on secrecy for her own protection. He sends her off to another school which will ‘shield’ her from others that have learnt of her mortality. This is where we are introduced to Shelby and Miles. Shelby is Luce’s new roommate, she’s sarcastic, and a little rough at times but her and Luce become friends anyway and then there is Miles. Miles is cute and sweet and thoughtful and the guy that makes Luce consider the possibility that Daniel and Luce are not destined to be together after all.

I was glad to see that some of the old characters (from Fallen) were carried forward in this book, they helped to cement the two books together and also helped to answer some of the questions from the previous book.

Lauren gives us more details of Luce’s past lives as well as delving into angel mythology a little more in this book and many of the questions I had after reading fallen have been answered.

I loved the way Lauren ending Torment, such a cliffhanger and I am quite impatient for the next book now. If you liked Fallen, you are going to love Torment!

My Rating: (out of 5)

Get your copy from:

Fishpond
QBD
The Book Depository (free international shipping)
Amazon

More Books in the Series:

1. Fallen
3. Passion (2011)

Trailer:

About the Author: The author of several pseudonymous novels for Alloy’s Inside Girl series, as well as the forthcoming The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove, Lauren Kate grew up in Dallas, Texas. She received her Bachelor’s degree in the deep South at Emory University, then went to New York for a brief stint in publishing, before enrolling in the University of California, Davis’s Master of Arts Creative Writing program. She is finishing up her degree at UC Davis, where she also teaches. She lives and writes from an old farm house in Winters, California.

Have you read this book? What did you think? Leave your review or a comment below telling us what you thought :)

Today Dymocks Books hosted a Q&A with Lauren Kate author of Fallen and soon to be released Torment where fans got to ask her questions.

She was lovely enough to answer a couple of my questions which were:

Q “Is there a minor character from Fallen that you would like to explore more in future books?” and her answer was:

A “Arriane springs to mind first. She’s always been my favorite. I’ve written a couple of short pieces about her–scenes between her and Roland, scenes before Luce arrived at Sword and Cross. What’s fun about working on the series is that I get to go back not just to Luce and Daniel, but to all of them in each new book.”

Q “Have you always been interested in angels or was it a new interest before you wrote Fallen?”

A “It’s a newish interest. I was taking a course in graduate school about reading the bible as literature and I starting circling around all these angel anecdotes. It became a sort of obsession and by now, I think I’m hooked.”

Here is a quick run down of some interesting parts of the chat:

- Lauren is working with a production company called Mayhem and hopefully Disney will make the movie!

- Lauren is currently working on the third book in the series. It’s called PASSION and it’s actually a prequel which goes back in time across many of Luce’s lives.

- So far there are going to be four books in the series. Torment comes out next month, Passion will be out in June/July of next year, and then the forth book, Rapture, will complete the series, possibly in January 2012.

- Lauren reads alot of young adult books, she loved Wicked Lovely and Shiver, Hunger Games.

- She recommends reading The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff when it comes out.

- She is wanting to visit Australia and says possibly in 2011

- Cam is based loosely on her husband

Lauren Kate’s sequel to the bestselling Fallen hits stores September 28th, 2010, here’s the book trailer:

You can find out more about Lauren and her books at her website!