Author : Lauren Kate
Genre : Young Adult/ Fantasy
I'm glad I didn't buy this one - I chose to read an online version simply so I could finish the 'series' and have the lamest lovesick couple in YA fiction be over and done with. And I so wish I'd made the same choice last year with regard to the first 3 books in the series.
Strictly recommended for reading by those who have somehow managed to survive the first three books in the 'Lucinda - Daniel - I will always love you / choose you' quartet, this last book actually boasts a fitting end to this long winding tale of 'star-crossed lovers'. The plot, by itself, is intriguing - Lucifer, enraged by Lucinda's choice of life over death-by-starshot (in her Egyptian incarnation), has decided to restart history by taking time back to the pivotal moment of The Fall (When those angels who either chose to follow Lucifer or made no choice at all, were given the right royal heavenly boot out of Heaven). Daniel, Luce and the rest of the motley band of angels and those-who-side-with-all-that-is-pink-and-pretty must locate the site of the original Fall (because duh! that's where the falling angels would fall a second time dummy! Lucifer evidently couldn't be bothered to pick a better spot this time 'round)and then somehow stop Lucifer from literally restarting the start of the world-as-we-know-it.
(Gee! I feel amazing going about my daily chores these days, knowing that all existence could be wiped out any moment now because someone higher up decided that 6000 odd years of human existence just weren't worth one silly girl's choice of existence over aforementioned death. If only they would give us some sense of a timeline on this coz then I wouldn't really bother with laundry you see!)
Anyway, back to the book, leaving the snark aside, the plot in itself is actually quite interesting. Come to think of it, the overall plot and premise of the entire series in quite intriguing (which is why we chose to read the books in the first place. Yay! Redemption!). An angel and a mortal girl , cursed to fall in love over and over again because every time they 'kiss', she dies (damn! so much for women's lib...), only to be reborn .....and , you get the drift! Only this time (in the first book) something changes and she doesn't die - the author keeps giving out some helpful hints as to why 'this time it's different' - it's either because Luce isn't baptized or because she isn't aware of the 'true nature of her love for Daniel'. It can't be baptism because how do we explain the Egyption and Chinese incarnations so anyway, on to - Rapture!
While the plot is juicy and oh - so - full of possibilities, what completely kills this book (as it does the 3 preceding it) is the author's complete inability to bring out its latent promise to fruition. The prose is ham-handed and heavy and dialogue is weak and terrible in places - somehow I don't think Lucifer would ever, ever , be caught saying “And you don’t even know the half. Without you, I went on to invent evil, the other end of the spectrum, the necessary balance. I inspired Dante! Milton! You should see the underworld. I took the Throne’s ideas and improved them. You can do whatever you want!" or " I could give you the greatest kingdom never known — we work hard, then we party."
That's just one of the many inane, cringe-worthy sentences that this book is filled with. But Kate has her moments of brilliance too, especially some of the descriptive paragraphs make you wonder if they were actually written by someone else - maybe a copy editor who figured it would be nice to contrast the otherwise dull and drab language with an occasional piece of well worded prose.
The characters, the life of any book as anyone who reads knows, are curiously empty (again a carry over phenomenon from the last 3). Especially the lead characters of Daniel and Lucinda have just no depth at all! All Daniel wants to do is to 'be with Luce' and all Lucinda wants to do is 'to kiss Daniel'. Love, somehow, is reduced to nothing but kisses and the feel of your lover's arms around you. I thought Bella Swan (Twilight) was the weakest lead I'd read in recent YA literature - Lucinda Price makes good 'ol Bells seem a positive delight by comparison! Which of course, turns the likes of Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasly into sheer tough love!
And the real heroes of the day , the fallen angels , especially Cam and Gabbe have barely any page time to speak of, which is too bad because throughout the series, it is the like of Arriane, Annabelle, Roland (and Miles and Shelby) who, along with the aforementioned two, keep the engagement quotient high. Each of the supporting cast infact, somehow manages to come across as more developed and 'characterized' than the lead pair.
The end is actually kind of nice and works well within the overall scheme of things. However, there are the usual hits and misses with the prose and 'The Throne' doesn't really need a personification (unless showing God as a 'Woman' is Kate's subtle apology for all the suffering poor Lucinda's been through life after dreary boring life, as mentioned above).
All in all, the occasional well worded prose and the overall plot-line are all that elevate 'Rapture' from a 2 star to a respectable 3 star rating. That and the fact that this ends the whole series and finishes it neatly.
I do wish though that someone with the writing skills of a Richelle Mead/ Cassandra Clare or even Stephanie Meyer would pick up the exact same plot and overall premise and then show us (and author Lauren Kate) how it's really done !
P.S. - is throosh a word???
Genre : Young Adult/ Fantasy
I'm glad I didn't buy this one - I chose to read an online version simply so I could finish the 'series' and have the lamest lovesick couple in YA fiction be over and done with. And I so wish I'd made the same choice last year with regard to the first 3 books in the series.
Strictly recommended for reading by those who have somehow managed to survive the first three books in the 'Lucinda - Daniel - I will always love you / choose you' quartet, this last book actually boasts a fitting end to this long winding tale of 'star-crossed lovers'. The plot, by itself, is intriguing - Lucifer, enraged by Lucinda's choice of life over death-by-starshot (in her Egyptian incarnation), has decided to restart history by taking time back to the pivotal moment of The Fall (When those angels who either chose to follow Lucifer or made no choice at all, were given the right royal heavenly boot out of Heaven). Daniel, Luce and the rest of the motley band of angels and those-who-side-with-all-that-is-pink-and-pretty must locate the site of the original Fall (because duh! that's where the falling angels would fall a second time dummy! Lucifer evidently couldn't be bothered to pick a better spot this time 'round)and then somehow stop Lucifer from literally restarting the start of the world-as-we-know-it.
(Gee! I feel amazing going about my daily chores these days, knowing that all existence could be wiped out any moment now because someone higher up decided that 6000 odd years of human existence just weren't worth one silly girl's choice of existence over aforementioned death. If only they would give us some sense of a timeline on this coz then I wouldn't really bother with laundry you see!)
Anyway, back to the book, leaving the snark aside, the plot in itself is actually quite interesting. Come to think of it, the overall plot and premise of the entire series in quite intriguing (which is why we chose to read the books in the first place. Yay! Redemption!). An angel and a mortal girl , cursed to fall in love over and over again because every time they 'kiss', she dies (damn! so much for women's lib...), only to be reborn .....and , you get the drift! Only this time (in the first book) something changes and she doesn't die - the author keeps giving out some helpful hints as to why 'this time it's different' - it's either because Luce isn't baptized or because she isn't aware of the 'true nature of her love for Daniel'. It can't be baptism because how do we explain the Egyption and Chinese incarnations so anyway, on to - Rapture!
While the plot is juicy and oh - so - full of possibilities, what completely kills this book (as it does the 3 preceding it) is the author's complete inability to bring out its latent promise to fruition. The prose is ham-handed and heavy and dialogue is weak and terrible in places - somehow I don't think Lucifer would ever, ever , be caught saying “And you don’t even know the half. Without you, I went on to invent evil, the other end of the spectrum, the necessary balance. I inspired Dante! Milton! You should see the underworld. I took the Throne’s ideas and improved them. You can do whatever you want!" or " I could give you the greatest kingdom never known — we work hard, then we party."
That's just one of the many inane, cringe-worthy sentences that this book is filled with. But Kate has her moments of brilliance too, especially some of the descriptive paragraphs make you wonder if they were actually written by someone else - maybe a copy editor who figured it would be nice to contrast the otherwise dull and drab language with an occasional piece of well worded prose.
The characters, the life of any book as anyone who reads knows, are curiously empty (again a carry over phenomenon from the last 3). Especially the lead characters of Daniel and Lucinda have just no depth at all! All Daniel wants to do is to 'be with Luce' and all Lucinda wants to do is 'to kiss Daniel'. Love, somehow, is reduced to nothing but kisses and the feel of your lover's arms around you. I thought Bella Swan (Twilight) was the weakest lead I'd read in recent YA literature - Lucinda Price makes good 'ol Bells seem a positive delight by comparison! Which of course, turns the likes of Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasly into sheer tough love!
And the real heroes of the day , the fallen angels , especially Cam and Gabbe have barely any page time to speak of, which is too bad because throughout the series, it is the like of Arriane, Annabelle, Roland (and Miles and Shelby) who, along with the aforementioned two, keep the engagement quotient high. Each of the supporting cast infact, somehow manages to come across as more developed and 'characterized' than the lead pair.
The end is actually kind of nice and works well within the overall scheme of things. However, there are the usual hits and misses with the prose and 'The Throne' doesn't really need a personification (unless showing God as a 'Woman' is Kate's subtle apology for all the suffering poor Lucinda's been through life after dreary boring life, as mentioned above).
All in all, the occasional well worded prose and the overall plot-line are all that elevate 'Rapture' from a 2 star to a respectable 3 star rating. That and the fact that this ends the whole series and finishes it neatly.
I do wish though that someone with the writing skills of a Richelle Mead/ Cassandra Clare or even Stephanie Meyer would pick up the exact same plot and overall premise and then show us (and author Lauren Kate) how it's really done !
P.S. - is throosh a word???
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