Laury Falter

Fallen (Guardian Trilogy Book 1) We meet Maggie as she is entering into a transition point in her life. Used to travelling from place to place, hardly ever settling down for more than a few months, this is the first time she will have roots. Maggie will be living alone in New Orleans. I loved the setting for sure. So rich and vivid. I couldn't wait to see what happened to our protagonist.
 
Unfortunately I wasn't a huge fan of Maggie after the start of the book. She came into the story as an independent and feisty girl. One who was totally able to take charge if necessary. However the further into the book I read, the more she slowly became a damsel in distress. Someone who needed saving at the drop of a hat, and pining for a guy. I had a hard time with this. Still, I can definitely say that the secondary characters make it all worthwhile! Each time one of them popped into the story it made me smile. I'm hoping in future books Maggie might gain a little of her independence back?
 
Fallen is a book with a great premise, but sadly it suffers from some definite writing issues. There were points where I was trying to hard to ignore grammatical issues that I actually lost track of where I was in the overall story. As an example, Maggie uses the word "anyways" around 12 times in the first 20 pages. I wouldn't have minded normally. Sometimes being in the narrators head and using their vocabulary is fun. In this case though, I felt like it detracted from my enjoyment of the story. The writing is overall a little forced, just be warned. It does get better about halfway through though.
 
Apologies if this is a rambling review, but honestly that is how my thoughts are after finishing. I think that Laury Falter definitely has something worthwhile here. I would have liked to see a continuously strong Maggie, and maybe a little bit more character building. Add in some editing and I see a series that I'd be interested in following.… (meer)