Review brought to you by OBS staff member Annabell Cadiz
Synopsis: “Every single lifetime, I’ll choose you. Just as you have chosen me. Forever.”
Luce would die for Daniel. And she has. Over and over again. Throughout time, Luce and Daniel have found each other, only to be painfully torn apart: Luce dead, Daniel left broken and alone. But perhaps it doesn’t need to be that way. . . .
Luce is certain that something—or someone—in a past life can help her in her present one. So she begins the most important journey of this lifetime . . . going back eternities to witness firsthand her romances with Daniel . . . and finally unlock the key to making their love last.
Cam and the legions of angels and Outcasts are desperate to catch Luce, but none are as frantic as Daniel. He chases Luce through their shared pasts, terrified of what might happen if she rewrites history.
Because their romance for the ages could go up in flames . . . forever.
Review: I have never truly fallen in love with Luce or the story behind the Fallen Series. There just always seemed to be something missing within the plot and the books have a tendency to drag out far longer than I would like.
Passion is not an exception to that. The book essentially begins where Torment had left off. Luce is traveling through the Announcers to locate her past lives. She wants to know more about what she had gone through with Daniel and to better understand what the curse over them is exactly. The overall story does help to fill in missing aspects from the previous two novels. The origin and reason of the curse is fleshed out practically until the end.
Luce spends pretty much the entire novel venturing into her past lives. Half way through the book I was tired of reading about them and skipped a huge chunk on the novel. Even then, I was still able to fully understand the curse and the reason for it. The good stuff doesn’t really happen until about page 261 but even then I skimmed over some pages. The chapters just drag out too much and Luce reaches her lessons agonizingly slow. So much of what happens could have been condensed and still would have worked.
Luce did manage to grow up some as she journeys through her past lives and being away from Daniel and her friends helped to let Luce come to her choice on her own. She was a little stronger in this installment and matures in wisdom through being able to inhabit some of her past lives.
Some of the chapters are also narrated from Daniel’s perspective as he attempts to locate Luce. Readers gain more incite to what Daniel had to go through choosing Luce over Heaven. Daniel wasn’t always so closed off and guarded. Readers also get to better understand his relationship with Cam and how Cam fell from grace.
Other than the chapters seeming far too long (therefore increasing Luce’s ability to whine and make stupid choices at times), Passion has other flaws. The pacing is, most of the time, slow. The plot is pretty flat until closer toward the end when the story reveals how the curse came to happen. Daniel conveniently forgetting about his past lives was a bit annoying. In a way I understand, he didn’t want to remember always suffering through having to watch Luce die, he just wanted to remember the good. But I still found that a bit out of place. Bill was an extremely irritating character. You find out who he is closer to the end and that makes sense as to why he is so dislikeable but he distracts from liking the story. Lucifer is far too predictable which rather bored me by the time he reveals himself to Luce. Much of the other characters weren’t much in the story and I missed them. They are as much apart of Daniel and Luce’s story as Daniel and Luce and the story felt strange without them.
The final two chapters set the stage quite well for the final installment, Rapture. I am curious to know how this series ends and if Luce and Daniel are finally freed from their curse. I just hope the pacing and fluidity of the story is much better than it’s predecessors.
