Becky's View: Rapture by Lauren Kate

 
Rapture by Lauren Kate
♦publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
♦release date: June 14, 2012
♦hardcover, 432 pages
♦intended audience: Young adult
♦series: Fallen, book 4
(my reviews for Fallen, Torment, & Passion)

(spoiler warning: description & review may contain slight spoilers for previous books in the series!)

The sky is dark with wings . . . .

Like sand in an hourglass, time is running out for Luce and Daniel. To stop Lucifer from erasing the past they must find the place where the angels fell to earth. Dark forces are after them, and Daniel doesn’t know if he can do this—live only to lose Luce again and again.

Yet together they will face an epic battle that will end with lifeless bodies . . . and angel dust. Great sacrifices are made. Hearts are destroyed. And suddenly Luce knows what must happen.

For she was meant to be with someone other than Daniel. The curse they’ve borne has always and only been about her—and the love she cast aside. The choice she makes now will be the only one that truly matters.

In the fight for Luce, who will win?

The astonishing conclusion to the FALLEN series. Heaven can’t wait any longer.

Review: Writing this review is feeling very bittersweet. I have enjoyed this series all the way through and I am so sad to see it end. But WOW...did it end with a bang. I finished last night and I think I am still trying to catch my breath. The entire series was a whirlwind metamorphosis---from the boarding school dark romance, to a mystery about an otherworldly curse, to a time travel epic through thousands of years, and now this: a journey of timeless love and a girl trying to find out who she is and why these incredible occurances have happened to her and her true love, the angel Daniel.

There was literally not a moment's pause in the adventure of this final installment. Daniel, Luce, and their friends are in a race against time to find the artifacts that, when brought together, will show them how to stop Lucifer from erasing thousands of years of earth's history. Rapture has a completely different feel and seemed much darker than any of the other books in the series. Emotions run deep, there are lots of surprises, and definitely some tears. If you love this series like I do, {spoiler! highlight to read:} you know there is definitely a connection to so many of the main characters and to lose any of them was devastating! The plot wraps itself up in twists and turns, groups change sides, new dangers present themselves---and the things that come to light in Rapture completely blew me away. There were things that maybe I should have seen coming, but they never even crossed my mind until I read them, gasping in shock! It was an astounding and wholly satisfying finale. I know people seem to either love this series or dislike it---but if you are one who loves it and has become completely wrapped up in the fate of these wonderful characters, I'm sure Rapture will blow you away!


Miss Lauren Kate, I will miss Luce and Daniel, Cam and Arianne, Gabbe, Roland, Molly, and the rest of them. Thank you for giving them such an amazing story! I can't wait to see what you come up with next!

Visit Lauren Kate: Website • Facebook • Twitter

Purchase Rapture at: Amazon • BN.com • BookDepository • Indiebound

Trailer:


source: I purchased this one, then received an ARC for review from publisher.

Review: Passion

Passion by Lauren Kate

publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

release date: June 14th, 2011

hardcover, 420 pages

intended audience: Young adult

previous books in series:
• Fallen (review)
• Torment (review)

rating:


source: from publisher for honest review

Warning!! Description and review may contain spoilers for Fallen or Torment!! If you haven't started this series, stop reading now! :)

description:
"Every single lifetime, I'll choose you. Just as you have chosen me. Forever."

Luce would die for Daniel. And she has. Over and over again. Throughout time, Luce and Daniel have found each other, only to be painfully torn apart: Luce dead, Daniel left broken and alone. But perhaps it doesn’t need to be that way. . . .

Luce is certain that something—or someone—in a past life can help her in her present one. So she begins the most important journey of this lifetime . . . going back eternities to witness firsthand her romances with Daniel . . . and finally unlock the key to making their love last.

Cam and the legions of angels and Outcasts are desperate to catch Luce, but none are as frantic as Daniel. He chases Luce through their shared pasts, terrified of what might happen if she rewrites history.

Because their romance for the ages could go up in flames . . . forever.

Review: Throughout the great wide book-reviewing blogosphere, I see readers who love this series and people who...don't. It's just one of those things. Me...I don't know if I can pin-point the exact reason...but I absolutely adore this series. And with this latest installment, it has only gotten better.

Passion is this expansive, breathtaking race through five thousand years of Luce's reincarnations as she is desperately trying to find the answers she needs: what is the reason for her and Daniel's curse? Is there a way to break the curse? And most importantly, whether or not their love is real or just some torturous trap they are compelled to fall into lifetime after lifetime. She jumps from time to time, witnessing their love and her death over and over, trying to understand what it all means. It was fascinating to see who she was in each lifetime and how Daniel found her each time. We're swept along through Russia, Italy, France, England, Tahiti, Egypt...so many places and each one felt like it's own fascinating mini-story. I can't help but try to imagine the insane amount of research that went into making each time and place come to life. It's fast-paced all the way through, the tension builds just perfectly, leading up to an completely explosive ending! I can tell already that the next book is going to be intense and very exciting!

All my favorite characters are there again---Daniel, of course, as he chases Luce through their past lives; we get to see Cam periodically and understand him a little better. Luce's character has evolved so much from the first book, she's much stronger and determined to take the whole curse situation into her own hands. Arriane, Roland, Gabbe...we get to see them only briefly but its fun to run across their characters in different time periods. There is the addition of a new character, a gargoyle named Bill. He is a sort of guide that Luce runs into inside her announcer (for those who don't remember, the "announcers" are the shadowy portals to other times and places). He plays a very big part in the whole story. It's funny but when he was first introduced I couldn't stop thinking of him as a "jiminy cricket"-type character, even so much that when he spoke I heard a very jiminy-like voice. :)

For those of my fellow readers who love this story like I do---I hope you are as completely blown away as I was by Passion!! For those of you who haven't tried this series out yet, I highly recommend it!

Visit Lauren Kate's site here.

Purchase Passion at: Amazon • BN.com • BookDepository • Indiebound

Trailer:

Cover Story Special Edition: a chat about PASSION

OK, guys. Let's chat. Just know, the following post will be my own personal opinion, so agree with me, disagree with me,... but I'd love to hear what everyone has to say!

If you've been a reader here for awhile, you know how much I love the Fallen series, and how I adored and practically drooled all over the covers for Fallen and, especially, Torment. Well, as most of you probably know, the cover for the third book in the series (there will be four, as far as I know) was released just last week. Take a look:

So? What do you think? I have to admit, this is my least favorite of the three. In my opinion, it's pretty but it just doesn't have the same amazing, romantic, almost tortured-love feel as Fallen and Torment, and with the story going back through the past, 5,000 years of Daniel and Luce falling in love and having it end in tragedy, I can imagine that a "tortured love" is exactly what we're going to get in this one!
Here are a few of my honest to goodness thoughts on this cover:

~I don't really like that you can see her face. It was, strangely, one of the things that I loved about the first two covers. Left Luce a mystery and we each got to build up our own little image of her in our heads! If anything, I wish a reveal of Luce's face would have been left for the final book.

~I loved the gorgeous, muted, kind of monotone color palettes of the first two. I kind of understand the addition of more color in this one, as the story "heats up", but I think I would have liked to see it stay with just the pop of color in the flower. The strange brown clouds in the back? Not a fan.

~Speaking of the flower, as I've seen the lovely Juju point out, it definitely should have been a white peony. It was mention is both book 1 and book 2 that white peonies are Luce's favorite flower. I know, picky, picky. :)

Ok, so now, I'm going to share with you a few of my alternate choices that I would have loved to see on this book. They are all, of course, chosen from the gallery of the wonderful artist who created all the covers, Fernanda Brussi. All of her work is simply amazing!! All images below have been posted with her permission, and each one links back to her gallery so you can get a better look.

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This is the original of the art that was chosen for the cover. I kind of wish they had left it like this: her face more covered, no brown clouds in the back, and just that pop of red in the flower. Perfect! Plus the dress looks more flowy and soft because it was left lighter, the one on the final cover is kind of hard and stiff looking.

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This one is one of my favorites in Fernanda's whole gallery. I love the white dress, and would not have minded at all if they had switched Luce to a white dress...and that little hint of her face, that is about as much as I would have been okay with, LOL.







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THIS would have been my first choice for Passion, hands down. Love how she is looking over her shoulder and back (into the past?:D) Love the whispy strands of foliage and the ravens. And the gorgoeus flowing dress holds its own with the first two book's dresses.









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Just another good choice, I think! :) Kind of fits with the first two.








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This one would have been a fun choice, if you change the girls hair color to black, of course, and maybe kind of darken up the colors overall to flow better with the first two books. I thought with the story jumping back 5,000 years into the past, there has to be castles in the story somewhere, right?? :)






Okay, okay, I know we're not suppose to pay so much attention to covers! But when it comes to this series in particular, I seem to have built up a sort of fangirly obsession with them. Let's just say I'm very "PASSIONate" about it! (ayuck, ayuck...sorry, corny joke!) With all that said, I want to add this: Even though the cover is not my favorite of this series, you can bet I'll still be jumping up and down, first in line at my local book store when this releases!! I adore this series and can't wait for PASSION to release in June!!