Fallen in Love (Fallen, #7)

by Lauren Kate

[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!