Book Review: Unforgiven (Fallen #5)

About the Book:

Title: Unforgiven (Fallen #5) 
Author: Lauren Kate
Pub. Date: November 10, 2015
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 400
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Synopsis:

High school can be hell.

Cam knows what it’s like to be haunted. He’s spent more time in Hell than any angel ever should. And his freshest Hell is high school, where Lilith, the girl he can’t stop loving, is serving out a punishment for his crimes.

Cam made a bet with Lucifer: he has fifteen days to convince the only girl who really matters to him to love him again. If he succeeds, Lilith will be allowed back into the world, and they can live their lives together. But if he fails…there’s a special place in Hell just for him.

Tick-tock.

Spread your wings and cry as bad boy dark angel Cam finally reveals his anguished heart in the epic new FALLEN novel, UNFORGIVEN.

Review:

I know a lot of readers are extremely torn about whether or not to read this book. I was torn too at first because even though I always felt Cam got the short end of the stick in the last book, I also didn't understand why, after all this time, Lauren Kate was choosing now to revisit the Fallen world. But in the end, my love for Cam won out and I realized I had to read this book. While it wasn't exactly what I was expecting, I did enjoy the novel a lot and think fans of the series will too. The story was a pretty quick read and the pacing of the novel was good. There wasn't much action except at the end, but the conclusion made the book worthwhile. There were some things I couldn't get over, and because of that I had to reduce my rating by a star, but I do think this is a must-read for fans of the Fallen series.

After finding out that Lilith, the mortal Cam fell in love with oh so long ago, is living in constant cycles of Hell, he literally makes a deal with the Devil and has 15 days to convince Lilith that he loves her and she loves him. You should be warned that this is not the same Cam we knows from the rest of the series. And to me, this is one of the downfalls of this novel. While Cam is still Cam in certain ways, and different in others, I just kept expecting a bit more from him. Obviously, his bad-boy, brooding ways weren't going to work in winning over Lilith, but he lost some of the characteristics that made me fall in love with his character in the beginning. I did greatly enjoy Lilith's character. She's tough, and I loved watching her transformation over the course of the story. However, the constant drama between her and Cam did become a bit tedious while reading, and I could have done without some of it. Regardless, I did love Lilith and Cam as a couple, especially when they first met because she wasn't swayed like the typical girls Cam surrounded himself with. She had a lot of sass and was feisty, and I loved it!

One aspect of the story that I really enjoyed was the flashbacks to Cam and Lilith's life when they met the first time in Canaan. Lauren Kate shows exactly what happened between the characters and how their history shaped their characters in the present. The little interludes where we saw these flashbacks was a great way for the reader to learn more about Cam and Lilith's past, and I thought it was a unique way for Ms. Kate to go about revealing their story.

Overall, the story wasn't exactly what I was expecting, and I did want morefrom Cam's story, but for the most part it was a very enjoyable read that I think will please most fans of the Fallen series. The ending is kind of left open, but it ends nicely, and it was nice for Cam to have his story all tied up.

Happy reading :)

~Cassie