Review: Torment by Lauren Kate

Title: Torment
Author: Lauren Kate
Series: Fallen #2
Genre: Paranormal Young Adult
Release Date: 09/28/10
But the Book:

Summary:

Hell on earth.

That’s what it’s like for Luce to be apart from her fallen angel boyfriend, Daniel.
It took them an eternity to find one another, but now he has told her he must go away. Just long enough to hunt down the Outcasts -- immortals who want to kill Luce. Daniel hides Luce at Shoreline, a school on the rocky California coast with unusually gifted students: Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans.

At Shoreline, Luce learns what the Shadows are, and how she can use them as windows to her previous lives. Yet the more Luce learns, the more she suspects that Daniel hasn’t told her everything. He’s hiding something -- something dangerous.

What if Daniel’s version of the past isn’t actually true? What if Luce is really meant to be with someone else?

Plot: 4 Stars
It has been around a year and a half since I started this series with Fallen, but I fell right back into the story. The events of the previous novel were eluded to occasionally which allowed me to sink back into the story without getting lost since I didn't remember every detail after such a long break. What I really enjoyed about this novel was learning more about the shadows, or Announcers. They have been such a huge part of the series so far, and it was great to see Luce get some answers so that she could stop fearing them. I also enjoyed learning about the Nephilim and life at Shoreline. It was just as interesting as Sword & Cross, although it was also the complete opposite. Although this novel looked like it may fall into New Moon Effect territory with Daniel leaving to figure things out and leaving Luce at Shoreline where it was safe, he couldn't stay away. His numerous visits made his absence a much smaller part of the novel than it could've been and helped this novel not fall into New Moon-like patterns.

Pace: 4.5 Stars
For a longer novel, I ate it up. Even with the long period between reading book one and book two, I was sucked right back into the world of this series. It didn't take long for me to become engrossed, once again, in Luce and Daniel's story. I really enjoyed getting Daniel's point of view in the prologue, to get a better feel for his emotions in regards to the situation. I also really enjoyed how the majority of the chapters each encompassed one day, and were labelled as such, until the showdown at the end. The author did a fantastic job making sure each day was filled with action, but also a realistic amount of action.

Characters: 4 Stars
There were a number of new characters introduced in this novel, and most of the wide cast from the first novel also made appearances. This could have easily been confusing and overwhelming, but the author did a fantastic job of giving each character unique and defining characteristics. As much as I would've liked to see more from many of the characters from Fallen, the new characters introduced at Shoreline were just as interesting. I'm really looking forward to see how all of these characters come into play in the next novel, Passion.

Cover: 3.5 Stars
This cover is very striking. Everything about the cover model grabs your attention: her hands in her hair, her dress. It also fits very well with the cover of Fallen, the first novel in the series. There's no way you could see these two covers and not know they are a part of the same series. I just have two small issues. First, the cover model's hair. Luce cuts all of her hair off in the first novel. In this installment, her hair is still very short and she dyes it blonde. These covers should not have cover models with such long hair, but after leaving her hair long for the first novel it only makes sense to leave it long for the second too. My other issues is the lack of color. Luce is no longer at dreary Sword & Cross. Instead she's at Shoreline, on the coast of California. The background of the cover could use a bit more color to help convey the setting.

Overall: 4 Stars

Disclosure: I bought this novel for my own reading pleasure.