Before Luce and Daniel met at Sword and Cross, before they fought the Immortals, they had already lived many lives. And so Luce, desperate to unlock the curse that condemns their love, must revisit her past incarnations in order to understand her fate. Each century, each life, holds a different clue. But Daniel is chasing her throughout the centuries before she has a chance to rewrite history. How many deaths can one true love endure? And can Luce and Daniel unlock their past in order to change their future? I've said it before, that I've got a bit of an equal-parts-love-equal-parts-hate thing going on with this series. I love the world Lauren Kate has built, I love the way she tells a story, I love the way she creates her characters (even the ones that annoy me). But I'm often annoyed by the lack of plot development and Luce is a wee bit irritating. Does this series really have much of a plot anyway? So far it seems to be something like 'There's this angel and he fall in love with a lady and so falls from heaven and so they get cursed which means she keeps getting reincarnated and then they fall in love and she bursts into flames and then he's all lonely till she gets reborn and old enough for sexy time and then she dies again and this goes on and on. Until this one time, she breaks the curse. The end.' I'm not sure this is enough for 4 books. On the one hand I say this, but on the other hand I can never put the books down and can't wait to read the next book. Confusing to love something that irritates me.
Here's what I loved about this instalment: Finally we get some answers! I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sure what they mean or what it's all about or what Luce and Daniel and the others will do next but who cares, at least the plot moved forward. It was very cool to follow Luce through all those lifetimes, and it really made sense that she would want to see all those lifetimes to understand why this keeps happening, and to discover if it is real love that binds them and is it her choice to love him or is it due to the curse. To really discern, is it just fated that they meet up in every lifetime? The writing is as visual as ever. Like I said in the first point, I've got no idea what they're going to do next, but it looks like something big and exciting! What I didn't love about this: I think the story telling is lacking a bit of the depth found in the previous books, it's a little bit more sketch like and not as developed. Luce, bless her, is a bit of a noodle again. This is a spoiler, so just highlight the text below if you want to read it. I have to say I found the depictions of Satan and God a bit caricature-ish and it got a little bit farcical for me in that part. So, again I find myself saying the same thing about this series. It's somewhat annoying but I can't put it down and am eagerly awaiting the final installment raputure.