For a debut novel, this is definitely worth checking out. It's a battle between good and evil, with a wobbly romance and teen angst thrown in to sweeten the deal.Samara's father disappeared. He is presumed dead, but Samara still has hope. Her mother and her were stuck in a rut ever since his disappearance, but the sudden appearance of new student, Lucian, in her school would inevitably turn her world upside down. Lucian is an angel that was sent to Earth to complete a mission--find a key that can save the Timeline and stop it from disappearing. However, Samara seems to be the ultimate distraction. And to make matters worse, ancient enemy, Jack--a fallen angel--does not plan on making anything easy for him. This novel is the beginning of their journey.The plot for this novel is great. Anna White took something odd--willingly leaving heaven to complete a mission instead of being cast out of it--and added her own unique spin to it. The whole banister thing was not something I would have thought of. She brought elements of the human world into the angel-world to help make the transition better.The characterization was great. White was able to avoid the cliches that generally evolve around the beginning of young-adult relationships by attributing Lucian's fascination with Samara to her odd behavior. After all, he was told humans behave the same, but Samara was so different and it stunned him and made him want to know why. This allowed the infatuation to slowly take effect and have reason of doing so. I'm happy to report that this is not one of those novels where the characters are in love from the second they lay eyes on each other. As much as we wish that would happen, it doesn't. However, Lucian's fight to keep on task and follow his heart is a bit bothersome. At times, it allows him to be unpredictable and his actions are downright odd. Then again, other times, all you want to do is wish that he was yours.My only problem with characterization is Jack. I get that he is evil, so he must be sinister, but his character seemed a bit psychotic at times. He pursued Samara as if she were a piece of meat just because his enemy truly loved her. His thoughts just freaked me out at times, that's all I can say. Again, I feel like that's supposed to be part of his characterization, but I do not like him. Didn't like his character to begin with, but hated him more as the psychotic-meter began to rise.Finally, the ending. It was predictable. You could figure it out if you paid attention to Lucian's guardians pieces of advice. And I'm okay with that, but I'm disappointed with how the big reveal was carried out. It came out of nowhere, no type of hint that it would happen. You could tell it would happen because it had to, but it just happened out of nowhere. She can't just know how to handle something so big, but she did, as if such an odd thing was an every-day occurrence. I know I'm being vague, but I don't want to spoil anything for you if you didn't catch onto the foreshadowing like I do.This book is worth reading. It's very short, so it will go by in a single day. At least it did for me. I thought I'd be upset that it was so short, but I'm not upset because it didn't include enough information, I'm upset because I wanted more. I hope that the sequel is longer so Lucian and Samara can stick with us a bit longer than 189 pages. With that being said, I am giving this book a 4. Like any debut novel, it is not perfect, but it sure is worth checking out. It's a cute, quick read.I'd also like to applaud Anna White for her contributions to such an amazing cause.
Angels are a bit hit-or-miss with me, but I was convinced to read this one when the author mentioned the male POV. It's actually told in multiple POV, but two of the three are male, which I really liked. The narrative is third person, so it's always clear who we're following. The chapters also very short, which earns bonus points with me! Lucian is one of the Light, an angel sent to Earth on a mission, while Jack is one of the Fallen. The female POV is Samara, a seemingly average human, who of course is special in some way and attracts the attention of both Lucian and Jack."...one thing we've learned is that there's always a plan, even when we can't see it. Sometimes you just have to wait for it to find you."I have mixed feelings about The Light and Fallen. On one hand, I flew right through it in two sittings. However, this may be due to the short chapters and the easy flow of the writing rather than the story itself. There's a lot of time jumps, which make sense since Lucian has no idea what he's suppose to be doing on his mission and therefore spends a lot of time wandering around. This should mean that the story is mostly "the good parts" without all the filler, but in actuality not much happens for most of the book. The ending definitely picks up though, and I really want to know what happens next.Not only do I want to know what happens to Lucian, Jack, and Samara next, but I want to know what the heck is going on right now! I'm still not clear on what exactly Lucian's mission is, but he isn't either, so I'd love to learn more about why he was sent to Earth. I'm also super intrigued by the angel lore that was set up, and would like to go deeper into that. The contrast between Lucian and Jack was great, and I'm looking forward to getting to know Jack more. Yes, I tend to go for the bad boys!Overall, I think this was a good set up for books to come. I just wish there had been more explanations in this one to really hook me. As far as angel books go, this one was in the middle for me. It had a unique premise and twists on angel mythology, as well as likeable characters, but the plot just didn't fully grab me until the very end.Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.
What do You think about The Light And Fallen (2012)?
Lucian lives in Heaven where he watches over the timeline on Earth. He has seen everything, and he knows the future. But now a series of events has propelled him to fall to Earth, where he is seemingly mortal. Of course he’s not, but he appears to be. But he’s not the only one who has come to Earth, and that’s where Jack Stone steps in. And no triangle would be complete without the girl. Meet Samara.“Between the training and his thousands of years watching over the Timeline he knew more about humans than any of the Host, but knowledge couldn’t save him from himself.”I really enjoyed reading this book, although fallen angel stories are not usually at the top of my list. Lucian was a great character, although he was a bit pigheaded at times. But the description of his fall to Earth was wonderful. I really felt like I could understand his frustrations and fears. He is definitely one of those people who couldn’t see the forest for the trees, which is surprising considering where he came from and his previous job. And then you meet Samara, who is all sorts of awesome. There is a mystery surrounding the disappearance of her father, and I really want to learn more about that. But Samara, herself, is a strong girl, although she doesn’t believe that herself. She really has an internal strength that is only to be admired. “She raised her eyes and met his gaze, determined not to act as completely dazzled by him as she felt. His eyes were spellbinding.”Whether it is fate or pheromones that bring Samara and Lucian together, when they actually are together its magical. You just know that something wonderful is in store for them. And when they are apart it is heartbreaking. But wait, let’s all say hello to Jack Stone. He’s fallen too, and he’s spent a lot more time on Earth than Lucian has. And he has his own agenda. He is dark and dangerous, and all of the girls at school are swooning at his feet, except Samara. Go Samara! More reason to like her, as she has a mind of her own. But ultimately here it is, do you know why I liked this story? It made me smile. Great big happy smiles. Yes, at times it was heartbreaking and hard to get through some scenes. There were a few scary moments when you can believe this person or that person made that decision. But hey, that’s the way it goes. There are a lot of characters in this story that are so interesting, and not all of them got the spotlight. I hope that we get to know them more in upcoming books.
—Liz at Fictional Candy
The book has such a predictable storyline where an angel sent to earth on a mysterious mission gets sidetracked and fell in love with a teenage girl instead. Once he's on earth, Lucian had a hard time coping with his new human body and was told to pretend to be a human teenager by his guardians. Samara on the other hand, is a confused human girl undergoing some hardship as her father had been missing for some time. Nevertheless, the two met and have an instant connection but the appearance of bad boy Jack seems to complicated matters.It was a light and easy read for me as the story is not too complicated to follow but somehow the twist in the end is something I had been expecting so it is not a big surprise for me at all.
—Natasha
There are a lot of angel books out there, it seems that more and more are popping up every day in fact and some are good, some are just okay and some are down right terrible.So it was with a little apprehension that I approached The Light and The Fallen.Don't get me wrong, I loved the synopsis but really, there is only so much you can do with repeat books about angels and demons and not start to be repetitious. So it was a great and rather pleasant surprise when I started reading this one to realize that it was in fact not an ordinary fallen angel story.That White did indeed come up with something very unique and compelling. Something way different than other books about angels that are out there right now.In fact, I had a really hard time putting this down it was so well done.I loved Lucian's story and background and the very origianl approach White took with his story and the reason he was on Earth.I found Samara's story and character just as intriguing and interesting as Lucian's and never once did I feel like I was reading the same old angel story. I was completely drawn into the story and was truly sad when it ended.I really enjoyed White's writing style and the fact that we not only got Lucian and Samara's POV with different chapters but we also got the antagonist's POV as well.It was very well done, never confusing and never left me feeling like it was overdone or that anything was left out.I look forward to the next book in the series and will definitely be putting this series and author in my TBR pile for future releases.
—Mlpmom (Book Reviewer)
