Anyone who's ever gone to high school knows that it's practically a jungle in there. Finding a place to sit in the cafeteria is an art and a science; there's pressure to keep up with the latest trends and know the latest gossip; and with the mountains of homework, how is there ever time for a social life?

High school may not be a cakewalk, but at least we've never had to worry about shadows trailing after us, boys spontaneously combusting after we kiss them, or fallen angels battling over our immortal soul, right?

Um. On second thought, maybe our high school experience wasn't so bad, after all….

Welcome to the world of Lauren Kate's Fallen.

For seventeen-year-old Luce Price, high school is anything but simple. She goes from being the top of her class at a preppy private school to getting shipped off to Sword & Cross, a school that's more like a dilapidated bayou than a place for learning. The gym is in a run-down church, the teachers are weird, the uniforms are drab, the cafeteria food is gross, and Luce's nemesis, Molly, crushes meatloaf into her hair on her first day.

Yeah, it's bad.

To make matters worse, this a reform school: it's where the worst of the worst go to be monitored because other schools can't or won't take them. Cameras dot the campus, cellphones are outlawed, and some students wear electrified collars to keep them in line. Luce feels like a total outsider.

So things seem pretty grim—until, that is, Luce catches a glimpse of troubled dreamboat Daniel Grigori. She feels instantly drawn to his blonde hair and violet-gray eyes and toned muscles—er, we mean, she feels instantly drawn to him, as a person (right?) from the moment she sees him. It doesn't matter that he's mean to her. He's just so hot. And there's just something about him.

But is Daniel really her true love, or is Luce simply having delusions? Why is he so mysterious and aloof? Why does he seem to find reasons to ignore or belittle her at every turn? Why does he draw her toward him like a pretty moth to a hunky flame? And why does his shadow always look like it's sprouting wings?

Could it be…because he's an angel?

Fallen, the first book in a series of four, climbed to the top of the charts for YA paranormal romance. It was number three on the New York Times bestseller list and was also dubbed a USA Today bestseller, an Indie bestseller, and a Publishers Weekly Flying Start. To date, more than ten million copies have been sold, the book has been translated into over thirty languages, and it's been made into a legit movie.

All we have to say is, move over, vampires: there's a new paranormal love interest in town—with wings and blood-free diets and histories just as tortured as yours.

Oh, yeah.

Love stories about star-crossed lovers and forbidden passions are tales as old as time.

Fans everywhere love a good love story, and young adult fiction has this business on lockdown. In fact, the YA genre is usually willing to pull out all the stops to give its readers love stories that haveit all. And by all, we mean things like love triangles, paranormal twists, and life-or-death encounters that could end the universe.

Think about it. Whether you're in a relationship or single as a Pringle—which is actually a weird phrase, because Pringles come in a pack of, like, fifty, but whatever—you're going to identify with a good old-fashioned love story, even (especially?) if it's set in the modern day. Throw in some mystery and a love interest with a shady past, more questions than answers, and a high school setting that's grittier and more Gothic than any school campus you've ever actually been on, and you've got yourself the makings of a solid YA romance.

Fallen is no different. It has all the appeal of a timeless love story: it has a spicy love triangle with a baddie who's as charming as he is dangerous and it has the added implication that the love between two people can change the course of life forever. There's just so much more hanging in the balance here than whether your crush will ask you to prom. This is an epic love story about a couple torn apart by fate, destiny, and time, and they're fighting the forces of nature, darkness, and curfew to save each other's lives.

Literally.

How could you not care?