Fallen in Love by Lauren Kate
Published by Random House Children’s Books
Out January 24, 2012
Synopsis
What makes your heart race a little faster? Just in time for Valentine’s Day, it’s FALLEN IN LOVE, four wholly original new stories collected in a new novel set in the Middle Ages by Lauren Kate. FALLEN IN LOVE gives fans the much-talked about but never-revealed stories of FALLEN characters as they intertwine with the epic love story of Luce and Daniel. The stories include: Love Where You Least Expect It: The Valentine of Shelby and Miles , Love Lessons: The Valentine of Roland; Burning Love: The Valentine of Arriane; and Endless Love: The Valentine of Daniel and Lucinda. (Synopsis from Goodreads)
When Fallen debuted in December 2009, I fell in love with it. It was different than a lot of other YA novels out there at the time , which made it pretty refreshing to read. When Lauren Kate came out with the third installment in the Fallen series I was just as excited to read it as I was the other two, but my excitement quickly diminished-it seemed I was no longer interested in Luce and Daniel’s story anymore. I tried and could not finish the third in the series. With Fallen in Love, I thought maybe I would have better luck.
All of the short stories in Kate’s new novel are very sweet, there is no denying that. Kate takes you to a different time period and shows you the many types of love with each story, building up to the final Valentine story of Daniel and Lucinda. There is not much to say about each story individually as they are exactly what one can imagine. So, were they terrible to read? Not at all. Was I completely giddy reading them and so excited Kate published another novel? Not really. Publishing another novel revolving around other characters in the series is a good idea, but this one is so-so. The only perk is the sneak peak into her fourth installment, Rapture, which I happen to quite like so far.
Why did I bother reading it? Because I want to like this series as a whole. It has elements to it that I adore and I want to recommend the series to those who share the same infatuations as I do (fallen angels-what’s not to love?) I look forward to reading the fourth and final book (out June 2012) just to see how it will all end.
Overall: Debatable. Those who still love everything about the Fallen series will enjoy this compilation of short stories. They are sweet, they delve into the lives of other characters, and you get the sneak peak into Rapture. However, those that feel they may be in the same boat as myself will be left wanting more of the Lauren Kate that first started the Fallen series. So, here’s hoping the fourth book is a strong one…come on Lauren, you can do it!
endless queue 
I had a similar experience as you. I really liked the first book a lot, but it just declined from there. I did read the last one that came out, but I’m not certain I’ll finish the series. Awesome review though.