People went up to him, saying, ‘I’ll never get to the front, can I just take a picture with you?’” Nearly two years later, even Kate’s husband sometimes gets to feel the affection of fans: “We went to the Philippines for a book signing, and there was a long line. When Fallen came out, I’d been married for three months.” “That she could see into it, and was open enough to imagine what lay beyond those pages, was really cool.” And yes, the author adds, “I do believe in that love very strongly. But an 11-year-old girl came up to me afterward-she waited until everyone was gone, and then asked quietly, ‘Do you really think a love that beautiful exists in the world?’ ”

In an interview from her home in Laurel Canyon, California, Kate says it was at her very first signing that a reader uttered the “best question ever been asked.” The author recalled, “I read this really frustrating, annoying fight scene between, and their special love isn’t really visible if you read the scene alone. The first two books in the series, Fallen and Torment, were New York Times bestsellers, and Kate routinely gets eager crowds at book signings here and abroad. If fan enthusiasm and sales figures are any indication, readers will thrill at re-entering the dark, dramatic world Kate has created, all the better to cheer on their beloved Luce as she sets out on a quest for clarity, safety and love.

Being 17 and in love can be glorious, but what if the object of your affection is a fallen angel? And you’re both beset by an ancient curse? No wonder Lucinda “Luce” Price spends a lot of her time feeling confused and frustrated in Passion, the latest installment in the Fallen series by Lauren Kate.

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