Book Review: Torment - Lauren Kate

Love never dies...
It took Luce an eternity to find her beloved angel, Daniel. But he waited for her. Now they are forced apart again, to protect Luce from the Outcasts - immortals who want her dead. During their separation, Luce learns about her mysterious past lives. But the more she discovers, the more she suspects Daniel is hiding something.
What if Daniel's version of the past isn't true? 
Is it really their destiny to be together? 
Or is Luce actually meant to be with someone else? - From the back of the book.

Torment is the second book in the popular Fallen series by Lauren Kate. I didn't enjoy the first book, Fallen, at all, and I was hesitant to buy Torment. But, when Torment's release date drew near, I couldn't help but be really excited to read it. Why this is, I do not know. Maybe it was because I was anticipating it to be better than it's predecessor, and it definitely was.

Torment starts almost immediately after Fallen finished. Luce and Daniel are being forced apart again, after having found each other after an eternity of separation. Luce doesn't know why, and is mad at Daniel for having kept secrets from her, so she doesn't know that it's for her own good. The Outcasts are after her, and won't leave her alone until they have her.

Now, I shall tell you why Torment was so much better than Fallen. For starters, something interesting actually happened before the last 50 pages of the book. There was lots of action, and the characters were a lot more complex, and were easier to imagine, in the second book. Luce grew on me as a character, and I found myself actually caring about what decisions she made about what and who. Daniel also grew on me, as before, I thought he was one dimensional and shallow, whereas now, I actually quite like him. He has nothing on Patch though, or Damon Salvatore. Anyway, back to Torment.

Unlike Fallen, Torment was unpredictable. I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen, but when I read on, I found that actually, I had had no idea, which I like. If I know what's going to happen, it makes the book boring and I end up putting it down and doing something else, which is why I find it very difficult to reread books, unless I have forgotten what happened. The twists and turns in the plot were interesting and engaging, and I ended up reading for hours, something which I can only do with really good books. The characters were well thought out and written well, a definite improvement from Fallen, which is one of the reasons I disliked Fallen so much. The general writing of the book was so much better, and it flowed easily, and was very readable.

Overall, Torment was really good. If, like me, you didn't like Fallen, you should still at least try to read the sequel. You might be pleasantly surprised, and actually enjoy it. You do need to have read the first book though, as I constantly found myself wondering about what had happened in Fallen, as I can't exactly remember, and there isn't much of a hint in Torment. Although, saying this, I got through it OK without knowing the whole plot of Fallen backwards. Anyway, I think Torment is definitely an improvement on Fallen, and I will definitely be buying Passion, the next book in the series, coming Summer 2011.

I give it 4 Feet!