Review: Fallen

FALLEN
Guardian Trilogy #1
Laury Falter
Paranormal Young Adult
Self-published
Available Now
Received through TLC Book Tours for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
Maggie is unaware of the terrifying fate that awaits her. It isn’t until she lands in New Orleans for a full year at a private high school and her unknown enemies find her does she realize that her life is in danger.

As a mystifying stranger repeatedly intervenes and blocks the attempts on her life, she begins to learn that there is more to him than his need to protect her and that he may be the key to understanding why her enemies have just now arrived.

MY THOUGHTS
Fallen is a fast, explosive read, introducing us to Maggie quickly and then thrusting us into the middle of her world as her life transitions from nomadic to stationary and becomes increasingly dangerous as a result. As with many books that progress rapidly, we don’t quite to get to know the rather large cast of characters as well as we might like, moving from one threat on Maggie’s life to another with very few quiet moments in between to help us figure out who Maggie is outside her status as a target. Though we don’t get to spend as much time piecing together the chains that link our hearts to hers as we desire, Ms. Falter does craft some intriguing characters overall, each with the potential to be extraordinarily memorable if we were to be granted just a touch more access to them.

Maggie is a bit abrasive in the opening chapters, her “I don’t need anyone to look out for me” attitude understandable given her fairly independent life after the death of her parents when she was younger, but though we might understand the reasons behind her brisk dismissal of many a character when they're first introduced, it still makes it a challenge to fully embrace her. Eventually she lays off the snark a bit and warms to both her new housemates as well as a friend at school, allowing us to settle into her shoes a little more and not feel so out of place with her first person narration.

Her relationship with Eran starts out antagonistic and progresses slowly as she’s thankfully wary of his sudden appearances and disappearances in her times of need, but just as we’re applauding Maggie for taking her time emotionally with Eran, she surprises us with a fairly abrupt declaration of love. Her feelings clearly grow the more time she spends with him, but she seems to progress from simply wanting to see him more often to being in love in a matter of minutes, leaving us floundering as we wish their romance could have continued as it had been without those four little letters coming into play.

Despite the drawbacks, Fallen easily grabs our attention and holds it throughout, the war between Maggie and those who want her dead clearly just beginning as we reach the last chapter. We are left to wonder exactly why the Fallen Ones are after Maggie in the first place, the only reason given a vague reference to her being able to destroy them, but we’re denied any details as to how she, specifically, might be capable of such a thing. Given that this is the first of a trilogy however, it’s fairly safe to assume more answers will be forthcoming in the next two installments.

Rating: 3/5

Be sure and check out the remaining tour stops for Fallen:

Monday, February 4th:  A Buckeye Girl Reads

Tuesday, February 5th:  Supernatural Snark

Wednesday, February 6th:  Sara’s Organized Chaos

Thursday, February 7th:  Paperback Princess

Friday, February 8th:  Book Sniffers Anonymous

Monday, February 11th:  I Am A Reader, Not A Writer 

Tuesday, February 12th:  Oh! Paper Pages

Wednesday, February 13th:  Good Girl Gone Redneck

Friday, February 15th:  From L.A. to LA

Monday, February 18th:  Literally Jen

Tuesday, February 19th:  From the TBR Pile

Wednesday, February 20th:  A Booklover’s Library

Thursday, February 21st:  Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile 

Tuesday, February 26th:  The Written World

Wednesday, February 27th:  Drey’s Library