The first thing I ever heard about FALLEN by Lauren Kate was that it was a close resemblance to Twilight, except with angels instead of vampires. So, before I work to either assert or deny this claim, I must admit one thing -- shocking, at best, for a lover of YA fiction -- 
 ... I've never read Twilight ... 
 Now, don't get me wrong. I HAVE at least seen the first Twilight movie, so I "get" the basic plot and characters and such. So, I think I know enough to say that if I were to guess, based on what I know, whether or not Fallen could possibly --- perhaps --- maybe --- resemble Twilight, I'd say .. at least .. probably so. Just make Edward flip off Bella the first time they meet, make Jacob secretly in cahoots with Satan, and make Bella stupid enough to delay her obvious revelations until even later into the story, right? 
 Something like that. 
 So, backing up just a bit. As I said in my last review, I recently read ANGEL BURN, which was my first encounter with angels in YA fiction. At the time, I was expecting the story to be the typical YA romantic triangle, except with one of the dreamy men being a mysterious, unobtainable angel instead -- of course, presenting the whole crisis of immortality (which will probably never be done quite as well as in Tuck Everlasting, although, again, I still can't compare to Twilight yet). 
 Okay, so ANGEL BURN didn't quite adhere to the formulaic expectations I had set for YA angel fiction, but I think FALLEN definitely came a bit closer to the cliche I set forth in my mind before beginning the endeavor into the topic. Starting with plot, FALLEN is the story of Luce Price, a teenage girl who has been banished into boarding school after the fiery death of an ex-boyfriend. Although Luce cannot quite recall the details surrounding the incident, she does remember seeing dark shadows beckoning overhead -- the same shadows that have been present in her life since childhood. 
 At the boarding school, Luce meets a handsome, brooding young man, Daniel, and finds herself magnetically drawn to him in ways that defy explanation. The closer she gets to Daniel, the more he seems to pull away -- as if he has a secret -- something terrible enough that Luce should never be allowed to discover its truth. 
 Of course, if the reader has merely glanced at the title of the novel, let alone read a page or two of not-so-subtle allusions, it becomes pretty apparent that Daniel is, indeed, a fallen angel. (This isn't a spoiler, right? I was conflicted throughout the novel as to whether or not this was intended to be blatantly obvious from page one, deciding in the end that yes, we should all know that Daniel is angel. Even so, it did feel as if the book was written in such a way that we should FEEL a climax at the extremely delayed point in which Luce finally uttered the words out loud to Daniel, right? I suppose this was pretty reminiscent of the scene in the movie where Bella proudly announced that cold, creepy boys who live forever might possibly be vampires -- although, even Bella wasn't having constant dreams about Edward prancing around in fangs.) I won't spoil the semi-incoherent secret about Luce's connection with Daniel, although I will hesitate to pass judgment on this point until getting further into the series and see where the author takes the story. 
 While I feel that FALLEN followed an awfully familiar pattern in its story, I admit that it did have enough of a charm that I will likely read TORMENT whenever it is finally returned to my local library. (Although, to be fair, it's pretty rare that I'll invest in a series without at least attempting to follow it to completion, the one exception being the Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl stories, which just got too drawn-out and tiring to hold my attention anymore). 
 I went back and forth between three and four stars on this one, settling on an indecisive 3.5 stars in the end. As a cynical 20-something I think the story just felt a bit too awkward and familiar to fully capture my attention -- but, at the same time, I can easily see my teenage self delving into the forbidden love story in a way that felt a bit more magical. Even so, I appreciate that it can be hard to judge a series by the first book, so I definitely intend to give these characters another chance before making an ultimate decision.