Torment is the second book in a series written by Lauren Kate, the first book being Fallen . You can read my review of Fallen by clicking the link, do not read this review unless you have already read the first book.
Luce is beginning to accept her role in the supernatural world amongst angels and half-angels. Nothing much surprises her anymore after what happened at Sword & Cross. Now the angels have placed her in California at a rich private school that is populated by mostly humans but has a special group that, unknown to the people, are nephilim... half angel. Her roommate is Shelby, a nephilim teen. With the help of Shelby and Miles, the good looking nephilim guy because we all know Luce has to have someone to pull her affection from Daniel, Luce goes on an adventure to explore her past lives and try to figure out why, through all of those lives and subsequent deaths, she has stuck with Daniel instead of choosing to lead a normal life with a human that could allow her to actually live. Along the way she knows that she is hurting Daniel by exploring these thoughts but she also knows she owes it to herself to finally get some answers.
Torment seemed to be a little better than Fallen for me. I'm not sure exactly what it was, possibly that it moved along a little more, gave a little more information, wasn't a constant 'Which boy do a choose?' situation. Luce was really questioning things and wanting to find the right path for herself regardless of what everyone else tells her her fate will be. Just because the Luce's of the past loved Daniel and died for him doesn't mean this present time Luce must do the same. Luce learns new things from her angel teachers and her half angel friends and gains new confidence.
This book was well-written and continues on pretty smoothly from the first book. If you read Fallen and liked it then Torment is definitely worth the time to read, but be prepared to recieve only a few more puzzle pieces. As I said in my review of Fallen, it was like an incomplete puzzle... Torment is definitely not a completion of that puzzle and leaves a lot hanging, making us wait for the third book. As with the first book, I was certainly not pleased with the ending. Nothing makes me more frustrated than a series of books that each individual novel cannot stand on it's own merit. These books do not tell a complete story on their own which makes it difficult to truly enjoy each one separate of the others. If you haven't begun reading these books yet then I recommend you wait until the third comes out to read them all at once. I'm assuming that since you've read this review that you've already finished Fallen, in which case you should go ahead with Torment because you'll get a few new tidbits of info and have an interesting story to fill some spare time, but don't expect any big revelations. It will be another waiting game...
