Seventeen-year old Luce is sent to a reform school in Georgia after the mysterious death of her boyfriend. No one knows how Luce killed him, or even if she actually did, but she was alone with him in the cabin when it started to burn. Not helping assure those around her of her innocence is Luce’s problem: the shadow figures that she sees and no one else believes in. You’d think that would make her an oddity at her new school, but everyone there has a history and some are even darker than hers. This is Luce’s opportunity to start over. Or so she thinks.
Luce meets two nice boys, both alluring in their own ways, makes some friends, and seems to be dragged into the battle. And I mean THE battle. The one between angels and demons and all that end of the world stuff. There are fallen angels out there and Luce has met them before. She keeps meeting the same people, life after life, but this time history isn’t repeating itself. This time she may find out what the shadows are and why they are haunting her. This time she won’t get another chance to live her life.
If you’re looking for a multi-part paranormal romance I would point you here (and also to Shiver by Stiefvater). I’ll admit I’m not a fan of Bella and Edward. I never got what the two of them saw in each other. In Fallen you understand the emotion between the two characters and you don’t want a third character (Jacob, to extend the Twilight comparison) coming between them. And I’ll admit that too, I was a Jacob fan. Not what you’re supposed to be in a young-love-against-all-odds romance! In this one, you do want love to prevail against horrific odds and you root for them to the end, waiting impatiently to get your hands on the sequel. (I really enjoyed it on audio.)
