Tuesday, February 5, 2013

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

35 comments:

  1. Hm Now I am a little unsure about this book.... I like the sound of it, but your rating makes me pause...
    Oh and .. from I like you to I love you in a few moments? Always hate this!

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    1. She was doing so well with not quite trusting him but taking baby steps to get to know him better and then BAM she's all "I love you" and I'm all "ummmm what?" I don't mind if her feelings deepened, but tossing the word love in there seemed unnecessary.

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  2. Okay, I can't deal with that kind of romance. Not anymore at least - I think I was more tolerant of it when I was younger, but it frustrates me to no end now. So I am sorry to hear that because it seems like this one has some potential, plot-wise and character-wise - almost.

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    1. I know. I think maybe if I'd read this book years ago before I started the blog and started reading so much, their romance wouldn't have bothered me quite as much. Part of the problem too was things were progressing so nicely, and the love just sort of came out of nowhere for me. Still, it was a quick, interesting read:)

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  3. Hmm...I don't think I'm going to like this; I do like my characters snarky and independent, but she sounds like a character I can't, for the life of me, connect with. Oh, and sudden declarations of love doesn't sit well with me either. Thanks for the review Jenny!

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    1. It took a little while for me to get on board with her, but I did end up liking her in the end save her rapidly escalating feelings for Eran:)

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  4. Sometimes snarky characters work for me, sometimes they don't...The thing about this type of book with this type of romance is that there are so many around that I'm picky with what I read nowadays. A couple years ago I would probably have read this one without hesitation - it sounds like it has promise!

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    1. Exactly! I'm feel the same way, I probably wouldn't have minded a few years ago. It didn't ruin this book for me, I just wish it had been a little different:)

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  5. You know it is getting harder and harder to tell between YA book covers and Erotica book covers. When I first saw the cover, I thought it was adult. (That was totally off topic but the first thing I thought when I popped over here) LOL :)

    Great review!

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    1. Hahaha yes, this one could definitely go either way genre-wise based on that cover:)

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  6. Another angel book? Hmhhh.. I enjoyed Fallen by Lauren Kate, but from there her series rolled downhills.. So this title kind of scares me, lol. I like the sound of the story, but I don't like instalove. Hate it actually. I think I'd love to see if I can find some other reviews for this and then see what other people think, too, because it's the first time I'm hearing of this book and I don't think it's the right book for me at the moment. But we'll see, never say never;) Thanks for sharing, though:)

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    1. It wasn't really insta love which was the weird part! It was like delayed insta-love. She was taking her time with him, moving slow, and then the love just kind of came out of left field. I didn't think we were on that level yet, but Maggie clearly did:)

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  7. Sounds like Eran and Maggie needed a bit more time to get to know one another before falling in love -- and, really, do we need to bring love in so quickly? I'm all about the mounting tension, the does-he-doesn't-he of it all, rather than the quick reward.

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    1. YES! I live for tension. Give me lots of romantic build-up, I tend to love that more than the actual relationship when they finally get there:)

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  8. This one sounds good to me...or maybe its just your awesome reviews that make me want to read everything you post. Ill have to remember it when Im in the mood again for paranormal/angels/vampires/immortals type of read!! And PS- I love TLC book tours....:D

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    1. *blushes* Glad I can make you want to pick up every book I read ;-)

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  9. JENN-AY! I always love reading your reviews. There's just a certain elegance and sophistication to them. But I digress.

    Sounds like I would be better suited to wait reading this until the next book comes out if there are so many unanswered questions. And thanks for telling me up front that the main character gets a tad annoying in the beginning. I can appreciate snark as much as the next girl, but there's a fine line between amusing and annoying.

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    1. Hannah. I love you. Just sayin. I believe the whole series is out if you wanted to try this book, there's potential in it I just had a few problems with Maggie:)

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  10. I can't stand when it a couple goes from like to can't-live-without-you too quickly—it always makes me feel like there must be a few chapters missing!

    Despite that drawback, I can't help it, I'm kind of interested in reading it—you made it sound good :-) Awesome review!

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    1. Yes! I thought I had missed something when the "I love you" came out of her mouth, I was in the middle of congratulating her for not falling too quickly when it happened and I couldn't help but be disappointed. Still, it was an entertaining read!

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  11. I'm not quite feeling this one, Jenny. The quick move from "I like you" to "I love you" has me really worried. I think I'm going to skip this one as I'm very picky when it comes to angel books as is.

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    1. It won't be for everyone, and I an curious to pick up the next one to see if some of the issues I had with this one are worked through:)

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  12. You know, there's good snark and bad snark. (Side note: Jenny, you have the good snark market cornered.) It sounds like this book has a little bit of the bad snark, at least at first.

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  13. LOL for me! I see this book for the firs time and I assume it's about angles and then while reading your review I see you don't mention in anywhere. I though maybe I was wrong...but then maybe not! LOL anyway I had to check xD The books about angels tend to disappoint generally. I have no idea why they do. I'm glad you could enjoy this one :) Great review Jenny :)

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  14. Fictional characters sure do fall in love pretty easily, don't they? ;) It's a shame that aspect was suddenly rushed.. even more so when it started off well. Still, I'm glad this wasn't a bad read at any rate. :) I hadn't come across it before so thanks for drawing it to my attention. Great review, Jenny!

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  15. Pacing can make or break a book right, and not to thrilled about the sudden change of heart with the romance. I just won a copy of this last week so I hope to read it sometime!

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  16. Sort of on the fence with this one. I'm not thrilled with the sound of that romance and the fact that it was a challenge to embrace her. Still, it only being a trilogy... Hm....

    Am I the only one who would love to see that feather match the background more and in print become embossed?

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  17. Wow, this sounds so unique! Still, it's a shame that the love story is rushed because there's nothing more I love than a drawn-out romance, but I may still have to check this out. Wonderful review, Jenny! :)

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  18. Hmm, if it weren't for the feather, I might be tempted by your review. But I just cannot get into angels. Fallen, risen, whatever, I can't stand them. So, I'll let this one pass at least until I read a review of the second book!

    Heather

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  19. Well in spite of some of the issues, this sounds like a promising start to a series. I think I'll wait until the next book comes out to see if I'd pick this one up. Lovely review Jenny. :)

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  20. This sounds very action filled. I'm not big on angels (they rarely work for me) but it sounds really interesting! And action filled can be good but it's too bad we aren't granted a bit more access to the characters.

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  21. I am glad you eventually settles into Maggie's shoes. I am not sure this is for me but I am glad that you enjoyed it.

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  22. This sounds like it could be good. I used to not be too big on angel books, but I have read some over the last 6 months or so that have been really good. I will keep this one in mind. Again, you've written another great informative review.

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  23. Never heard of this book but I like the idea of it. Angels are hard for me to get into if they are not done right. Thank you for sharing.

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  24. I love angel novels but I've been burned by too many and so will probably skip this one. Plus, insta-love is a big turn off for me.

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