Fallen by Lauren Kate

There's something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori. 

Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price's attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He's the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move. 

Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce--and goes out of his way to make that very clear--she can't let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her. 

So after much anticipation and waiting I finally read Fallen, I must admit when I first bought the book it was mainly for the cover art, it's just gorgeous and called to me (yes...books whisper to me...it's fine, it doesn't make me crazy), I actually had no idea what the premise for the book was.

When we first meet Luce she's moving into the Sword and Cross boarding school and adjusting to the restrictions this is causing:  giving up her cell phone among other things.  Her fellow classmates are quirky - if not slightly crazy and the moment she sets eyes on Daniel she feels a strange sense of deja vu...that is until he proceeds to be rude and makes her feel as if she is crazy.  At times I found Luce to be fiesty and a little bit kick ass but at other times she was tentative and not quite with what was going on but still charming in her own way.

And then along comes Cam....ah Cam, the dark, mysterious, hot boy who wants Luce all for himself.  I must admit at first I liked Cam a lot more than Daniel, I initially thought Daniel was the bad guy (or at least just a jerk) but you really have to pay attention to what he's not saying and to his actions as opposed to what he does say.  As I read more and more I realised what a tortured fallen angel he is, he remembers everything and I could see why Luce would be so drawn to him.

While the action was a slow burner, the characters and their interactions and the way they were all intertwined kept me interested as did the push/pull thing Daniel had going on, pushing Luce away only to pull her back in.  The writing was intricate and dark and gothic and I could perfectly conjure up the image of the settings in my mind.   I'm really glad this is the first in a series because I would love to learn more about Luce and Daniel's past as well as Cam's - Cam may be bad but there's still just something about him that draws me in and I want to find out why or how he got to be so bad.

Overall, despite the mixed reviews about this book, I really enjoyed it, the writing was great, if not at times a little repetitive and the descriptions were just so details...it's definitely one I'd recommend to be put on the To Be Read lists.