Fallen in Love (Fallen, #7)

by Lauren Kate

Unexpected. Unrequited. Forbidden. Eternal. Everyone has their own love story.

And in a twist of fate, four extraordinary love stories combine over the course of a romantic Valentine's Day in Medieval England. Miles and Shelby find love where they least expect it. Roland learns a painful lesson about finding and losing love. Arianne pays the price for a love so fierce it burns. And for the first – and last – time, Daniel and Luce will spend a night together like none other.

Lauren Kate's Fallen in Love is filled with love stories . . . the ones everyone has been waiting for.

True love never says goodbye . . .

• ISBN10: 0552566098
• ISBN13: 9780552566094
• Publish Date: 20 December 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Children's UK
• Imprint: Corgi Childrens
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

2,5 stars

This novella is a collection of short stories that take place during Passion and revolves around the only Valentine's Day that Luce and Daniel have shared.

I knew going into this that it wasn't going to add much to the overall series, so I was able to go with the flow and enjoy it for what it is. There's also only one short story that is told from Luce's PoV and the other four stories are about characters who I like such as Shelby, Roland and Arriane. 

Here are my thoughts about the short stories:
★ Love Where You Least Expect It: The Valentine of Shelby and Miles (2 stars)
Shelby and Miles are not the most developed characters, but they are likable and they're great friends to Luce. I like the idea of Shelby and Miles as a couple, but their romantic attraction appears out of the blue and seems awkward and forced. There are no hints of the potential for romance between them in previous books of the Fallen series, so it's weird to read about it here. 

★ Love Lessons: The Valentine of Roland (2,5 stars) 
Roland is an intriguing character in the Fallen series and he's an enigma so it's interesting to see his more lovestruck side. This story is sad and bittersweet, but ultimately, I didn't care much for it. 

★ Burning Love: The Valentine of Arriane (4 stars)
This is the only story worth reading. It shows a side of Arriane that we don't get to see in the Fallen series and is full of emotion, love, pain, heartache, anguish and doom. The relationship in this short story is more epic than Luce's and Daniel's is made out to be. Also, an aspect related to Arriane that has intrigued me since reading Fallen is answered, how Arriane got the scars on her neck.

★ Endless Love: The Valentine of Daniel and Lucinda (1,5 stars) 
I don't like Daniel. I don't like Luce. I don't like their relationship. This story consists of their usual shenanigans; a little bit more on the sweeter side, but still very cheesy. 

Fallen in Love is what I expected it to be, but it was more tolerable than other books in the Fallen series because it is a short, light and breezy read, it doesn't have the same level of cringiness and cheesiness, it had more of characters that I like and less of Daniel and Luce being Daniel and Luce. I would recommend this novella just for Arriane's story. 

[Vicki]

3.5 stars

[jeannamichel]

Four short stories, about different characters from the Fallen series, make up this novel. Each story revolves around Valentine’s Day during the medieval ages. Fans of Lauren Kate’s series will not want to miss learning new things about the characters which are not shown in the series.

Love Where You Least Expect It: The Valentine of Shelby and Miles
Short Story: 3

In the Fallen series, I always had a hunch that Shelby and Miles were going to get together. This coupling was far from least expected. It was undeniably cute but very cheesy. However, reading a book about how the characters of the Fallen series spends their Valentine’s Day, the reader must expect some cheese.

Lauren Kate started off in the medieval ages, which unknown to the reader continues the same setting throughout the book. The setting seemed overused, where love stories take place and I was disappointed because Kate could have used an array of different settings for the different stories and, instead, chose England. In this short story, I was surprised how realistic the period seemed through the depictions. She did not spend a long time describing castles, kings, and true love. Kate, in this short story, depicted England as it really was: muddy, dirty, and sort of awful to Shelby, who just wanted some lip balm.

Some of it did not add up. Here Miles and Shelby were trading elastic bands, shoe laces, and a tradesman (at one point) got a hold of Miles’ baseball cap. In the story, the tradespeople make a fuss over the items, wondering what kind of magic they are. But how did this, all this trading, not change the course of time? It did not add up. However, it made the cutest story of the entire book.

Love Lessons: The Valentine of Roland
Short Story: 4

Roland has always been my favorite character of the Fallen series. There was something about him, his secrets which always wanted me to find out more. Secretly, I still want Roland to be my next door neighbor and we could play chess on weekends or something like that. Anyway, how could I not love this short story all about Roland.

This short story goes deep into Roland’s raw emotions, digging until readers discover a huge secret of his past. These fresh emotions are heart wrenching to read about; it made me sympathize with Roland. However, the short story holds an adorable piece: the idea of Roland in love is just so astounding.

However, the plot is left open, at the end. The husband must be keeping secrets, as well because Lauren Kate does not full explain why he is so adamant to stay away. Roland deserves better than this heart break.

One thing I loved with the entire book was how Lauren Kate transitioned for one story to the next. Shelby and Miles saw Roland, Roland’s story was next. It was a genius way to move to one story to the next, especially if she was going to stick with using the same clichéd setting.

Burning Love: The Valentine of Arriane
Short Story: 3

Another heart wrenching story. Now this was unexpected. I was hoping for something cute and light but I’m reading this story about Arriane’s breakup.

Lauren Kate made to create every love in the book: true love, puppy love, heartache, and forbidden love. This short story is forbidden love. The idea of this sort of love is fantastic, however clichéd it is. I would love to read more about Arriane and her love but it ends here.

All the blood and gore scenes were unnecessary and too much. Lauren Kate is a fantastic author; her descriptions are spot on and visually stunning which also means that Kate can create violent scenes that seem real as well. I could have done without the visual. As I was expecting a light and cute book, it came to a shock to me that there was attempted suicide. This is not how anyone should be spending their Valentine’s Day.

Endless Love: The Valentine of Daniel and Lucinda
Short Story: 3

This was a shocking story too and I didn’t even have to go farther than the cover page to ask: why does the reader need a short story devoted to these two character when they have an entire series depicting their love. Lauren Kate could have chosen so many other characters. I would love to read about Gabbe, Cam, or even “Bill.”

Of course this story was cute and adorable. It was nice that it brought in elements from the other three stories. I loved hearing about what became of the other people. I was half expecting Lucinda to die at the end but I was pleasantly surprised when she didn’t.

Overall, this book was a nice addition to the Fallen series. If you did not read the series or didn’t like the series, I would not recommend reading Fallen in Love. If you have a curiosity for the other characters and want to learn more about them, you should definitely pick this one up. However, if you are looking for something cute and new, this book is probably not the one for you.

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

Being such a massive fan of the Fallen series, when I heard about Fallen in Love, I knew I had to have it! And it was amazing!

Fallen in Love is a companion novel to the Fallen series. It doesn't answer any questions or further the plot, you could even completely miss this book out of the series. Yet, it's not just written randomly. Yes, I said companion novel; despite this being four short stories for Valentine's day, it's actually a full story. The events of Fallen in Love take place some time during Passion. Each of the characters have their own Valentine's story to tell, but they are all interlinked, and it's still in the middle of all the chaos that's going on. The four individual short stories make up a whole - albeit short, at 201 pages - novel.

True to what she has previously written in the Fallen series, although these stories feature around Valentine's Day, Lauren Kate again shows use that the course of love never runs smooth. These are not all happy stories, some of them are terribly sad. But each and every one of them is awesome!

First up is the sweet story of Shelby and Miles. Narrated by Shelby, their story, Love Where You Least Expect It, is a sweet, almost normal tale of blossoming love between two teenage friends. Sure, they find themselves in Medieval England after stepping out an announcer and have no clue how they're going to get home, so it's still full of the usual problems, but the essence of the story is both of them discovering their feelings for each other. As I said, it's sweet, but it wasn't as wow-some as I was expecting considering the epic love of Daniel and Luce, and I got a little worried. I shouldn't have. But this story sets the scene for the rest of the stories, and where they take place.

The next story is Love Lessons, which is Roland's story. The Roland who narrates is our Roland, future Roland who has jumped through an announcer, and he is remembering when he actually lived in this era, five years before the time he's currently in. When he was in love with a mortal. A mortal who would grow old and die. A mortal who may have had trouble coming to terms with the fact that he's a fallen angel, a demon. His struggle over his remembered love and the pain that never left is so terribly sad to read about. But he shows, even for a demon, he can still act with honour, chivalry and gallantry, as the knight he is pretending to be. A really awesome story, and one that quelled my worry about the book.

Burning Love is the third story, narrated by Arriane - but the Arriane of the time, not our Arriane, but her past self. This story broke my heart. Arriane is in love with a demon, but not just any demon, one that Lucifer has marked, one of his closest demons. Their love has spanned centuries, before either of them chose a side. But now the time has come, Lucifer has called Arriane's love back to hell, for good. How far will you go to be with the one you love? What would you sacrifice for love? This story is epic, it's painful, and, god, it's heart-wrenching. I am amazed at the amount of emotion Kate is able make her readers feel from a short story. It's just brilliant. More proof of her astounding ability as an author.

The final story is Endless Love, and it's Luce and Daniel's story. This story is just as beautiful as you would expect it to be. For once, Luce decides to let her hair down while experiencing her past life, choosing to just enjoy her time with Daniel, rather than trying to work things out. After all, it's their one and only Valentine's Day together. Their love runs as deep as you've come to expect, and it's just wonderful to see the effect they both have on each other.

Kate must be applauded because, even through short stories, she still manages to cover issues like race and homosexuality. The issue of race is very subtle, but it still made me so mad! Yet, the homosexuality in the novel was brilliantly written as if it wasn't an issue; there was nothing about the pressures of being gay, nothing about what other people might think, but only the love that was felt. It was so not an issue that, after the first realisation that they're a homosexual couple, you don't even bat an eyelid. It was so awesome to read a gay romance that was just so beautiful.

Fallen in Love comes with some bonus features; an extract from Rapture, and an interactive cover. Using the free Aurasma app, when you hold your phone over the cover, it comes to life, and when you do the same to Lauren Kate's author image on the dust cover, you can watch a video message from her. Unfortunately, the app isn't compatible with my phone (boo!) so I can't tell you how awesome this is, but it sounds amazing! Maybe some other reviews of the novel discuss these aspects.

All in all, a wonderful novel! One I think die hard fans must read, because you'll love it! Fantastic short stories that have got me in the mood for Rapture!