Audiobook Review: Unforgiven (Fallen #5)

Author: Lauren Kate

Narrator: Justine Eyre

Audiobook Length: 8 hours 2 minutes

Every story has a dark side, and this story belongs to Cam, the brooding, bad-boy dark angel FALLEN readers love.

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 FALLEN novel, UNFORGIVEN.

Unforgiven is the fifth and final novel in the Fallen series. This story is a companion to the main series featuring Luce and Daniel in books one through four. Now the story focuses on Cam, who was a major part of Luce and Daniel’s story. This novel could be skipped as it does not impact the main series, so it seems to have been included as Cam is a fan-favorite for many readers, including myself (compared to Luce or Daniel). It was not surprising, at all, that there was a novel to wrap-up Cam’s story, especially after his lackluster appearance in the previous novel. The true surprise though was some of the narration was from his eternal love interest, Lilith, who made brief appearances in the previous novels.

There are three perspectives in this story, two in the present with Lilith and Cam and then there are flashback sequences that build their love story. To win back his love, Lilith, who has no memory of him, he makes a bet with Lucifer where he has 15 days to get Lilith back. Cam’s character began as the brooding bad boy; however, he is nothing like that by the time this story happens. It was a difficult trait to see as the previous novels progressed, but this one was a very soft side to Cam. As I enjoyed the “original” Cam, it was a disappointment. I can understand having him show a different side of himself as these traits are needed for his love story, but the author could have, at least, integrated some of his other “darker” traits, which made up his character in the first place.

As for Lilith, she is in her current predicament because of events 3000 years ago with Cam. Like Luce and Daniel’s story, it is told to the reader that their love is meant to be, however, there is never a lot of evidence to back this up; instead, the reader is supposed to just believe it. Cam is trying to win Lilith back who is jaded by her current circumstances and vague feelings from her past, which makes it a challenge. The reader essentially knows how this story will end, so I was disappointed that there were not any twists. It was a very straight-forward story, which felt like a wasted opportunity. The ending is written with some things wrapped up and others are open ended. It came across as more novels were intended for the series, yet I do not believe these became a reality. As a comparison to Luce and Daniel, I enjoyed Lilith and Cam a lot more, however, there is still a lot missing from the actual writing to make the story feel complete. Overall, this novel has a lot of potential, but it did not feel like a satisfying read.