Review: Passion by Lauren Kate

Passion by Lauren Kate
(Fallen #3)

2 out of 5 stars

Published by Random House Children's Books
This review may contain spoilers for the previous books in the series

Reading the Fallen series has always been like walking on thin ice for me. As long as you're treading very carefully, everything is fine. Passion is the book that was just slightly too heavy for the support of the ice, and it falls through, dumping me in the freezing water.

Luce is jumping through the Announcers through history to find something she's looking for. She doesn't know yet what exactly that is, only that she needs to find her past selves. All of her friends and Daniel try to follow her, and find her before she changes something fundamental.

I did like the idea of this book. I'm a secret fan of historical settings, and I was looking forward to meeting a Regency Luce, and a pre-historical Luce, etcetera. The problem is, that was the only thing I ended up liking in this book. Luce breezes through history, and I enjoyed watching her being a completely different person in other time periods.

The rest of this book wasn't that entertaining though. Passion lends from countless clichés. The snarky travelling companion. Daniel chasing Luce but never quite catching her. But the worst thing I read in this book was the awful characterisation of Satan. With a character like Satan, you need him to be the ultimate of evil. He should be cruel but intelligent. Someone that makes you shudder, that you can be afraid of.

Well, none of that. Ms Kate's Satan acts like a five-year-old. You know, one that throws a tantrum if he doesn't get what he wants. But the worst cliché that an author shouldn't even want to touch with a very long stick, is one that Ms Kate embraces. She lets Satan spill all of his evil plans. Just like that. Here they are, puny human. My ego is so large I don't have to be sneaky in taking over the world. I will tell you just now how I'm planning to win from heaven so you can try to stop me.

Ugh.

I might have been able to deal with the awful clichés if there was some emotion to brighten up this story. But Luce is just jumping through time, looking for some kind of love. It feels like she's running around like a headless chicken. There is no reason behind it, and in the end I still don't get exactly what she was searching for. All of her emotions felt forced, and I couldn't relate to them at all. In the meantime Daniel is just flying around, being emo. Thinking about killing himself.

Passion really wasn't a passionate book at all. If it had more of it, I might have liked it. Just like the cover, the inside of Passion is mediocre at best. I will read the last book in this series, Rapture, but my expectations of it have been exponentially lowered.

Blurb

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.

Other reviews you might be interested in

• Review: Torment by Lauren Kate (4/5 Stars)
• Review: Everneath by Brodi Ashton (4.5/5 Stars)
• Review: Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick (4/5 Stars)
• Review: Angel Burn by L.A. Weatherly (4/5 Stars)

More links

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• Goodreads