With the first book in her Fallen series, Lauren Kate instantly captured readers’ imaginations with her breathtaking tale of earthbound angels at a one-of-a-kind boarding school. Now her #1 bestselling series is coming to an end, with the publication of Rapture.

We know that fans will mourn the conclusion of this beloved series, so we asked Lauren to reflect on the series that she had a hard time saying goodbye to.

When a series takes hold of us, its story becomes emblematic of an era in our lives. Beloved series are years-long obsessions, which means that series know us. They spend as much intense time with us during our evolutions as we spend reading or watching theirs. These series remind me of who I was when I fell in love with them—and how much I changed by the time I said goodbye:

Book—His Dark Materials: Lyra’s story rocked me to my foundation. I deeply admire the scope and the grandeur of its narrative, the poise and poignancy of its prose. My husband and I listened to The Golden Compass on a road trip from California to Arkansas for our engagement party. We loved the audio book so much, it inspired us to take the same giant road trip in the following Christmas so we could listen to the Subtle Knife—and yet another for the Amber Spyglass, which we just finished on the drive home on New Years Day last year. Lyra’s transition through adolescence into young adulthood is so graceful, so subtle that it felt right to take a few years to experience her metamorphosis.

TV—Sex and the City: I was in college during the SAtC’s heyday. On Sunday nights, my friends and I would gather in some HBO-possessing upperclassman’s dorm room. We all knew which character we were. (Was there ever any writer who wasn’t Carrie?) We had heated fights over the girls’ dynamics, though of course we were really fighting about our own dynamics. By the show’s last season, I’d moved to New York to try to experience something like those characters. I think I almost found it.

Film—Lord of the Rings: My brother was a big LotR fan growing up, so when the movies came out we made a point to see each one on opening day—Christmas Day—no matter where we were. One year we were in Paris (he’d come to visit me while I was studying at the Sorbonne). The next year we were in New York (I’d moved there after college in hopes of becoming a “real” writer…like Carrie Bradshaw!). For The Return of the King we were in Dallas, where my brother lives, and he’d invited someone special: my future sister in law. We left the theatre satisfied—but the following Christmas, when we had to think about what to see, we felt nostalgic for the loss of our tradition.

A free sample excerpt from this book is available for download on the product page now.

NOOK owners: go to shop and search for “Lauren Kate” to download her enthralling bestselling series.