Passion (Fallen, #3)

by Lauren Kate

[Angie]

Passion is the ultimate filler book. Absolutely no plot progression happens for the first 400 or so pages, and then, BOOM, new plot point and cliffhanger ending! I didn't wholly dislike it, since I love me some time travel and visiting far off places, but it was all extremely repetitive and melodramatic. Luce is beginning her journey through space and time to learn about her past lives and relationship with Daniel. She's also hoping to find out where the curse changed and how she can break it. It's also pretty important that she doesn't screw anything up, therefore rendering herself nonexistent in the future, or some other catastrophe. Daniel is also making his way backward through time to find her before she breaks anything, but he's also got to be mindful of his actions in the past.

I did like the way time travel worked in Passion. It's definitely less Science Fiction and more divine intervention, but it works for this series. Basically, stepping through the shadows doesn't take Luce to a random point in her history. The travel works on a kind of need to know basis, so wherever Luce needs to be to learn a lesson, is where she winds up. It was interesting to see all of the different times and places, and I liked how the further back we went, the less Luce looked like herself. It would have been pretty strange if she looked like her modern Caucasian self during the Shang Dynasty! Daniel also looked different, but I'm sure that's due to being an angel rather than human evolution.

Aside from the inner workings of the time-space continuum, I was kind of bored with Passion after about three past lives. It was the same thing over and over again. Luce would step into some unknown place and time, be faced with some problem, improvise and end up where her past self is, run into Daniel, watch past Daniel and past Luce kiss, past Luce dies in a fireball from hell, and then goes to the next place/time. Meanwhile, Daniel is always one step behind her and can't seem to catch up. Or they just miss each other by moments. There was some variation added as Luce went further back, but not enough that it felt new and different from what I had already read.

Passion also introduces us to Bill, a little gargoyle who serves as a tour guide through time for Luce. I found his presence extremely comical and couldn't take him seriously at all. My mind immediately thought of Space Jam, because it was kind of like a cartoon character flitting around Luce all of the time. He was helpful in getting her dressed period appropriate, but I just had this mental picture of a cartoon cloud of dust appearing around her as Bill quickly does stuff to change her appearance. It was very distracting.

Passion ends on a cliffhanger. Finally in the last few pages, we see where the curse started, although we never see when Luce and Daniel met, which I would have liked to. Everything goes all the way back to the Fall. Things are learned and evil plans are revealed, and everyone goes back to the present where there's a gaping plot hole! Time doesn't pass the same when you're time traveling, so even though Luce was gone for quite some time, only hours had passed in the present. Well, the plot twist involves the Fall, which was said to last nine days. Now in the future/present, they say they have nine days to figure out how to stop the evil plan before the Fall is complete. Um, no. They'd have a couple of hours! I'm sure Luce was gone for about that time or a little less, but either way, nine days in the time travelly world does not equal nine days in real time.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.