Fallen In Love (Fallen #3.5)

This was quite disappointing after reading Fallen, the first book in the Fallen series. I really liked that, but this book seemed to be lacking in any depth. There are four different tales in this book based around Valentine's day. The first is the Valentine tale of Shelby and Miles; the second, Roland's tale; then Arrianne's story of lost love and lastly, the first time Daniel and Luce spend a Valentine's together. This should have been, and could have been something much more, to whet our appetite and give us a greater insight into these characters. To me it seemed like a bit of a flimsy gimmick where every tale is really a re-hash of the one before.

Won't let it spoil my reading of the rest of the series though. I'll put it down to a small blip in Lauren Kate's thinking.

I found these short stories interesting to read--you really get some insight into some of the characters in the Fallen series. But, I found when I was finished, my overall reaction was merely, "meh."

Surprisingly, the best part was Roland's short story. If I were rating the book just on that story, it would have gotten 5 stars. I loved seeing how Roland's past choices consume his present self, and after choosing Lucifer, he can still feel love, shame, and sorrow. Hopefully we can see more of this Roland in Rapture!

What bothered me?
I got bogged down in all the details again--just like in Passion. There were entire pages that I just skimmed because it was description after description after description. There was a point I wanted to yell, "Get to it already!"

Nonetheless, if you like the Fallen series, you should still check this out, just for the sake of seeing a little deeper into the psyche of the angels.

Wow. What a complete waste of paper.

The last time I checked, a "novel" was more than two-hundred measly pages of huge text and lots of chapter breaks. Calling this tiny thing a "novel" is ridiculous, as is pricing it at $15.99. Luckily, I got it on sale at Target, so it wasn't too expensive, but I totally want my money back after reading it.

Also, the last time I checked, a novel in a series was supposed to advance the overall plot. At least a little. In FALLEN IN LOVE, the word "plot" is nonexistent. Cute, sappy valentine's day stories aren't enough to satisfy your readers, Kate. The franchise doesn't need to be milked any more. Honestly, I would've rather gotten RAPTURE after a normal nine-month period than wait another three for this piece of crap to be released.

The first story in FALLEN IN LOVE is the story of Miles and Shelby. This was my favorite (and the only one I actually liked). So much of it was backstory and background and description, and so little of it was actual character development, plot, you know, stuff a book needs to thrive? Even though I liked the romance between Shelby and Miles, I wasn't completely enthralled about everything else.

The second story in the book is the story of Roland. I also liked his story, but I wouldn't consider it a love story. ****Partial Spoilers**** Maybe a heartbreak story, but that's crossing the line. He talks a lot about his lost love and feels sad and stalks her and in the end, just realizes that (view spoiler). *Gag*

The third story is Arianne's story, which I wasn't crazy about. Fourth was the valentine's story of Luce and Daniel. That's right, the ones the whole series are devoted to. I don't know why this was necessary; the entire FALLEN series is their perpetual and gag-worthy love story. This story I mostly skipped over.

At the end of the book is a snippet of the next (and last, thank God) book in the Fallen series, RAPTURE. I will admit I was really excited for this. FALLEN IN LOVE was a huge disappointment, and I thought I'd like the RAPTURE sneak-peek more.

I didn't.

It was boring, and I skipped over a lot of it. I hope the book reads more smoothly than the excerpt that was included, because if that's how the rest will be, I'm not so excited for it anymore.

FALLEN IN LOVE was a big disappointment in the world of FALLEN. Hopefully RAPTURE will redeem it a little bit.