Books by and for independent women

Daniel from Fallen

Apparently, “Angels are the new Vampires”, so why not stick it to the Twilight brigade and fall for the beautiful and mysterious Daniel Grigori…

This book was a gift from my Mum – it had come into her charity shop and she thought I might like to break up some heavier reading with a gothic tale of teenage angst, eternal love and battles ‘twixt angels and demons. She knows me so well. Let’s see which boxes are ticked by Fallen:

- Misunderstood outsider as the main character? Check. Having found herself near too many tragedies and seeing shadows here, there and everywhere, Luce is sent to a correctional facility where the basics to remember are “Meds, Beds and Reds” (reds = surveillance cameras).

- Suitable clothing and cool music references? Check. The ‘uniform’ is anything so long as it’s black, and there are mentions of The Smiths and David Bowie.

- Heathers meets Buffy for the school crowd? Check. We have punky-brash girl, vacant princess, bookish girl, geeky boy, swaggering sex pot, all with an air of secrecy and potential criminality.

- Forbidden love, epic fights and rituals? Check. Check. Check!

The swaggering sex pot I just mentioned isn’t Daniel. Indeed, there are two boys to lust after in the pages of Fallen. We also have Cam who is the more available of the two, the one who shows an interest and flirts with Luce. Of course, his intentions might not be entirely innocent, but we can certainly enjoy his chiselled, rough around the edges charm as the story unfolds.

And then we have Daniel Grigori: piercing eyes, strong but described with a certain delicacy, achingly beautiful; he is distant and aloof, but Luce can’t shake the feeling she’s met him before. His touch sends fire through her body, his presence is felt before he emerges as a light from the shadows, and he catches her looking but gives nothing away. He is ethereal, intelligent, physically powerful and spends most of his time either fully clad in black, wet in a river or with his top off…swoon indeed!

This is sexy teen rebellion Dante-style, full of biblical mythology, supernatural romance and unravelling mysteries. And the next instalment is due out in September? Lauren Kate, I thank you!

Fallen was published in December 2009 by Doubleday, and you can buy it from Amazon for £4.98.

If you’re still hankering after some guilty vamp pleasure check out Jane’s fangirling post here, or tell us about your own favourite fictional characters in the comments section.

Post by Alex Herod