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The vampires are really fallen angels, but they are divided amongst themselves. Some continue to side with Lucifer, but others need to stop the Dark Prince from waging war on heaven itself. In Melissa de la Cruz's final Blue Bloods novel, Gates of Paradise, the final battle is primed, but the risks are bigger than anyone imagined.
Schuyler has sacrificed everything to continue the work of her mother, the great angel Gabrielle, but nothing seems to have worked. Lucifer is still gaining power and the Silver Bloods have scared all the vampires into hiding. Schuyler and her best friend Oliver know they must protect the Gates of Paradise from the Dark Prince and his plans, but she doesn't even know how to find it. Mimi, on the other hand, has gotten over wanting to kill her heavenly twin for leaving her for Schuyler, but Mimi and Jack were called back to service by Lucifer. While they don't actually want to help the Dark Prince, they must convince him they are in his service in order to protect the ones they love; the problem is Lucifer is much smarter than even they, his trusted two, give him credit for.
Bliss is no longer a vampire, but she has folded into the Wolf Pack. With Fenrir and the other wolves at her side, she thinks they can give Lucifer a good fight to stop his corruption of heaven. The problem is she no longer has the powers as a new Red Blood that she once had as a Blue Blood. Just investigating the destruction of the Repository becomes dangerous, since she can't protect herself. But the true story lies with Michael and Gabrielle generations upon generations ago. How did they stray apart? What came between them? And what, ultimately, allowed Lucifer to get to this point?
My relationship with this series went up and down at times, but I actually really liked this conclusion. At a couple points in the novel, I was confused as to how everything was going to play out, but I was happy everything all eventually worked out in the end the way I wanted it to. Again, I liked the multiple stories carrying on simultaneously; it built the suspense and kept me going to find out what was going to happen next. Sometimes it got a little confusing, but I still liked the rotating perspective.
As for the series as a whole, I think this is a good series for middle readers who are just starting to branch out into YA books. It is a little juvenile at times, but the story matures with each installment. It always joke that it is "Twilight meets Gossip Girl", but it is certainly more than that. There is much more the the story behind the vampires, and the whole fallen angel angle makes this a unique story. I can't say I am totally sad to see this series end, because I was ready for it to conclude, but I did certainly enjoy it while it was going.
A conclusion to a well-loved series is tough. You know how you want things to end, so the ending has the dangerous tendency to be predictable, which is always disappointing. Or the author could do something completely unpredictable, but what if it kills your favorite character or means the girl ends up with the wrong guy? Then you are just ticked off that you bothered to even read the whole bloody series in the first place. But sometimes, just sometimes, an author can do something magical. They can do something unexpected and still make you happy. Difficult to accomplish? Absolutely. Phenomenal experience? You bet your rump it is! Well, Lauren Kate didn't disappoint with Rapture, the final book in the Fallen series... Not by a long shot.
Now that Luce has seen the beauty and the horror of all her many lives of falling in love with Daniel and then her immediate destruction, she knows the consequences and she still loves Daniel. But Lucifer won't let them accomplish their one true desire: to end the curse and finally be together as they have always wanted to be. Lucifer decides to start the Fall again, to erase thousands of years, not only of Luce and Daniel's love for each other, but also of the rest of the world's evolution. By starting the Fall anew, the angels must again choose between the Throne (God) and Lucifer (Hell). But the consequences will be catastrophic.
Daniel knows that there are three relics in the world that might lead them to the path where the Fall is to begin. If they can find these three relics and locate the place where the original Fall took place, they might be able to stop Lucifer before he follows through with his mad plan. But the relics haven't been seen for generations, centuries, and locating them is only half the battle. With only a little over a week to stop Lucifer, all the angels and demons must come together and work as the team they once were. But how do you stop the greatest evil of all when he sets his mind to something?
I never saw this ending coming. I knew what I wanted, but I didn't expect what actually happened, and I have to say, I am not the least bit disappointed. I think Lauren Kate did a beautiful job finishing this series and I am very glad I stuck with it. I struggled with the first book, but I think the story just improved with age and culminated in this final, epic volume. The final section (I won't give it away!) is so beautiful that while you read it, you feel like you are beholden to something magical, supernatural, and just beyond your ability to comprehend. It was amazing and I feel completed by this final novel in this series. I feel like there was no better way to end the years of books I have kept up with, so Brava, Ms. Kate. Brava.
This series can fluctuate in its excitement and confusion levels, so I would start the series with a kid who is strong enough to keep up with it. But I wouldn't give this series to the kind of kid who doesn't like to read all of the books in a series, because this series definitely gets better with time. You would be doing yourself a disservice to read one or two books and put it down. But if you want a really beautiful series that started out a little bit trite and transformed itself into something magical, I give you the Fallen series!
