Torment by Lauren Kate

Rating: ☆☆☆ [3]
Release date:  Sept. 28, 2010
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Format: hardcover
Source: library
Pages: 452
Series: Fallen (#2)
Challenge: --
Summary:

Hell on earth.

That’s what it’s like for Luce to be apart from her fallen angel boyfriend, Daniel. It took them an eternity to find one another, but now he has told her he must go away. Just long enough to hunt down the Outcasts—immortals who want to kill Luce. Daniel hides Luce at Shoreline, a school on the rocky California coast with unusually gifted students: Nephilim, the offspring of fallen angels and humans.

At Shoreline, Luce learns what the Shadows are, and how she can use them as windows to her previous lives. Yet the more Luce learns, the more she suspects that Daniel hasn’t told her everything. He’s hiding something—something dangerous.

What if Daniel’s version of the past isn’t actually true? What if Luce is really meant to be with someone else?

I definitely liked this one a lot better than the first, which I thought was a so-so kind of book. In this book, I think Luce grows more of a backbone, especially when it comes to Daniel. There are times when she doubts whether her and Daniel's relationship is healthy, which I thought was pretty realistic, seeing as they met like not that long ago and they're already declaring their love for each other.

Daniel, who I didn't particularly like in the first book, really got on my nerves in this one. There were points when he acted possessively and controlling. I loved how Luce started to take matters into her own hands instead of relying only on him. Since he wasn't going to give up any of his information, she took the initiative and began to look for answers herself.

I always thought that their romance was kind of sappy and didn't have much substance behind it. It seemed like anytime after they had a fight, Luce would want to run up and just kiss him to make up for it, which is obviously not how real relationships would work. Still, I felt that she was growing more independent of him, especially in the second half of the book.

Just like in the first book, I think I really enjoyed reading about the side characters more than the main characters. Cam, who I loved in the first book, is back. There are also some great new characters that Luce meets, who seemed like genuinely normal people. The side characters definitely make up for the, in my opinion, lacking main characters.