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I was relieved I had Torment primed and ready to go after finishing Fallen, otherwise pretty cover or not, I'm not sure I would have picked it up. Fallen left me slightly foggy about what was going on and what the point was. Yes, yes, mythic romance over many lives, blah, blah, blah. Angels, Demons and some twist I thought was going to be revealed but was really just made into more foggy illusions of something indiscernible. All of it left me a little annoyed, and to be frank, lost enough of my interest it may have turned into Entice (which despite being 5$ at chapters recently still couldn't entice me to buy it after reading Need). Somehow I'm a bit boggled by YA's love affair with epic romance. Since the Twilight success it seems if you're willing to come up with a fairy tale type lusty teen love story then it trumps the need for real story telling or character development. Now don't get me wrong, there are some AWESOME YA books out there with some deadly romances in them which I have quite thoroughly enjoyed. But there seems to be a greater number of pretty looking love centric, badly written YA romances out there (don't lynch me for saying it but Hush, Hush sums it up for me). So I was impressed when I quickly started taking to Torment. With less Daniel obsessing (really only the tiniest bit), and way more character development, interesting dialogue and more reveals about Angels, Demons and the likes I felt like Torment had more substance. Although I have to say, you can get baptised as an adult, so ah, why don't they get Luce baptised if it's such a big deal? Lauren still doesn't really get to the point about whats so special about Luce or why Daniel fell for her (literally, fallen angel here) and there is still a lot of mystique around the fight between Heaven and Hell. But it felt like there were more reveals here than in Fallen, and there were certainly enough to satisfy me. And for once I liked the love triangle. Honestly. Normally I sort of loath the love triangle, seriously, I don't remember any girl in High school having to fight two hot guys off. But this one I like because it questioned the whole epic love between Luce and Daniel. I liked that she thinks "hey, he's hot but I'm not crazy about how he talks to me and dude I know NOTHING about him", I like that she has enough self respect to think the sweet guy she has actually gotten to know and likes could compete with the Angel for her affection, multiple lives or not. Nothing annoys me more than a YA book where some 17 year old girl decides she's found the love of her life 2 minutes after a hot kiss from some smoking guy, give me a girl with some substance. Luce finally gets a bit of substance, enough to question things and not just throw herself into Daniels arms for some steamy smooch session anyhow. Once again Lauren has made me fall in love with her secondary characters. Shelby and Miles are great and their time with Luce is some of my favorite parts of the book. And there were jokes! I love a sense of humor in a book! References to Team Miles and Team Daniel shirts were truly amusing and Arriane was good for a chuckle as per usual. I'm hoping she keeps the vibe going for book three- Passion (really dislike the cover, why of why do I see some of her face?), I'm looking forward to learning more about Daniel and Luce's past, but hopefully it doesn't just become a smooch fest with no story.

2023-07-01 19:36