Review for Torment by Lauren Kate

When I first heard the description and saw the cover for the first book in this series Fallen last year it was love at first sight. I read and devoured it earlier this year and have been positively pining for Torment ever since. So when it arrived in the post last week I bumped it up on my To be read pile and read it as soon as I could. Because I adored Fallen so much I had only the highest expectations for Torment, it’s definitely been one of the most highly anticipated books for me this year. The covers for this series are beautiful – quiet literally art they captivate you and draw you in and what’s inside is just as wonderful. After reading Torment I can definitely say that the Fallen series is definitely a favourite for me. I found Torment to be a very different book compared to Fallen. In Torment you get to learn a lot more about the shadows that have haunted Luce her entire life and find that they play a significant part in Luce finding out about her past lives. Torment starts when Luce and Daniel are forced apart when Luce has to attend Shoreline a school for Nephilim - part angel part human offspring who tend to inherit some sort of angel power and characteristics – to keep Luce safe and protected from the immortals that wish to kill her. Without Daniel around to answer Luce’s questions Luce searches for answers of her own by summoning the shadows that allow her to see into her past lives even though to do so can be highly dangerous. Some of the things Luce discovers doesn’t sit well with her and she begins to wonder if Daniel’s version of the past is the truth, or is she really meant to be with someone else? You learn so much more in this book about the world that Lauren Kate’s created Angels, Demons, Nephilim and Luce’s past lives definitely get more attention in Torment. Lauren’s a master at giving you just enough information so that you can understand what’s going on and leaves just enough for you to be kept in suspense making you keep reading and reading to find out some answers. I was just as desperate as Luce to find out the secrets of her past and found myself reading late into the night, time practically flying by because I was so engrossed in this book. The only thing that let me down was Luce and Daniel’s relationship with each other in Torment. Torment definitely isn’t as romantic as Fallen because Daniel and Luce have many ups and downs which resulted in them both getting on my nerves a little bit. However it has to be said that the secondary characters more than make up for that. We get to see all of our old favourite characters from Fallen make a grand return and are even introduced to some awesome new characters like Luce’s new roommate at Shoreline Shelby who was my personal favourite character and Miles a guy who comes drama free something Luce desperately needs during her torment. The secondary characters in the Fallen series are some of my favourite ever and I hope we get to see both old and new feature in future books. Torment definitely has a more suspenseful, layered feel to that of Fallen with less kissing and undying love and more action and answers. I personally loved that side to the story and think that we needed that back seat to the romance so that Luce can make her own mind up about a few things instead of taking Daniel’s word as gospel. I’ve spent the last few days addicted to Torment and would definitely recommend it to fans of Fallen and even to those who didn’t enjoy the first book all that much simply because this book is a lot different to Fallen. I’m hugely excited for the third book in this series Passion which comes out summer 2011. Highly recommended 4.5 stars. My Rating 4.5/5 stars ****1/2 Thanks go to Random House for sending me this book for review