Ballad-Maggie Stiefvater

James Morgan and his friend Deirdre start school at Thornking-Ash, a boarding school for the musically talented. James is a piper, he plays the bag pipes. He's the best piper in the state.

When James meets Nuala (so she calls herself), a leanan sidhe (lan-an-shee), he finds that he feels more creative when she's around. She's basically a muse-faery.

James and her are getting to know each other and he's still in love with Dee, but he's warming up to Nuala and falling in love later. When he's not cracking jokes, he's getting into trouble or dealing with fey...okay, not exactly, but something like that. Nuala know she has to burn on Halloween in order to live, so she's not sure weather she needs to steal years from James or not, so she resists her urge to do so. James is working on a short play about a magician, called Ballad. He's letting Nuala direct it. Though she cannot create, she's always dreamed to direct and she's very good a inspiring his actors to do well.

Dee is later kidnapped and she's going to be used to make the faerie queen, Eleanor's consort the king of the dead. Nuala wants to be human. James lets her burn in the bonfire and says her true name seven times...but he has to go save Dee. I really can't tell you the rest. Just know that with James being the main character this time, it was so freakin' funny, I couldn't stop laughing. I seriously recommend this book. It only took me 2 day to read it though it's 352 pages long.

~*Haley*

The Tear Collector-Patrick Jones

Cassandra Grey and her family feeds off of human sorrow, not causing it directly. She's basically like a vampire that thirts for tears instead of blood. She's a heart breaker, breaking up with boys such as Cody and making them cry. She volunteers and a hospital and is a peer concealer. She's always a shoulder to cry on.

When her best friend commits suicide, she comfort her friend's family. She also tries to make friends with a goth girl, Samantha and she's becoming the girlfriend of Samantha ex, Scott. She's starting to have feelings for Scott and that's not her nature. She shouldn't be able to fall in love.

At the family reunion, Alexei, her promised mate, is there. He's evil and picks up Cass's cell when Scott calls and tells him lies.

Later on he kidnaps Scott and tortures him like he did to many little boys. Cass tells Samantha what she is and they go rescue Scott. Scott is near death and Cass will risk everything, even exile, to save him. She's falling in love and she just might become human.

This book was pretty good! I live vampire book, the only problem with this one it that Cass was pretty fake, always trying to make people let out their tears and wiping them with a handkerchief.

~*Haley*

The Reckoning-Michael Carroll

The is the 3rd Quantum Prophecy book. Danny and Colin are super humans and sons of legendary superheroes. Quantum was Danny's father, and Energy and Titan were Colin's mother and father. Now Colin ran away from Sakkara, a special government agency. The Trutopians (now secretly ran by Victor Cross) try to get Colin on their side with some bribes. It's really hard to remember every detail:

-Stephenie, one of Paragon's (the non-superhuman superhero) twin daughters, is now renamed Erica in the witness protection program. She's ends up having to train some kid in Indiana that wants to help and be a superhero. She's gonna take-over her dead father's role.

-Colin is being controlled by Yvonne, a super smart and strong mind-controlling girl.

-Danny is still dealing with having only a left arm.

-Mina, Yvonne's sis, wakes up and Yvonne is controlling her.

-Colin rescues some slaves in a platinum mine.

-I forgot to mention Diamond aka Renata Soliz. She can turn into a solid crystal form, and she's strong. Danny likes her.

-Butler is a guy who can make forcefields.

That's all I remember. I recommend this to those who like superhero stuff.

~*Haley*

Liar-Justine Larbalestier

Micah is a compulsive liar. She lies about everything...well almost everything. When her kinda-boyfriend, Zach, dies, Micah's lies catch up to her and rumors spread. She's not only a suspect, but she was also dating a guy who already had a girl friend.

This book is a bit of a puzzle. The chapters are mainly titled BEFORE or AFTER. There's some pretty interesting stuff in it. Micah's a werewolf, which would be easy to figure out if you read the tags to this book and the first bit about her being born with a light coating of fur.

Micah is half black, half white. She lives in New York City. She like biology. Her grandma and great-aunt called the "Greats" live upstate on a farm with her cousins, some of who are wolves too. They live without modern technology and Micah doesn't want to go there. I'm afraid if I spoil anymore I will ruin the mystery, but I'll just say that this book will catch your interest, flipping the pages for you. A non-stop mystery-thriller! The author, She's married to Scott Westerfeld. She wrote the Magic or Madness trilogy that I loved!

~*Haley*

Stargazer-Claudia Gray

This is the second Evernight book. Bianca starts the new school year without Lucas and Vic gives her a letter from Lucas saying to meet him is Amherst in October. She runs into another vampire there, a young girl who later turns out to be Charity, Balthazar's sister who he made a vampire way back when. Lucas was hunter her and thinks she's part of a gang. Later on Bianca and Balthazar strike a deal that he will help her meet Lucas from time to time if they help him get his sister back. They make an arrangement to pretend to be dating. Meanwhile, ghost of "wraith" activity has been going on at Evernight and when it does things seem to frost over, ice crystals everywhere. The wraiths are after Bianca, her parents have kept a secret from her-that her parents made a deal that their child would become a wraith instead of a vampire in exchange for the wraiths' help to conceive the child. Bianca's love and life are both on a thin line.

Overall, I liked this book. It was much easier to read after having read the first. I like Balthazar better than Lucas, I think. Balth's more charming.

~*Haley*

Biker Girl-Misako Rocks!

I actually met the Artist/Author of this manga at ACEN. She was really nice and like my artwork when I showed it to her at the drawing workshop.

Biker Girl was her 1st graphic novel. She did the drawings in calligraphy pen ink and they're kind of rough because it was her 1st.

So it's about a 17 year old girl named Aki who finds a magic bike while cleaning out the garage. She touches it and becomes Biker Girl. Her grandpa says it's her destiny. She's off to fight crime and save the day. She races the biker gang that caused her cousin's death and she wins. She finds out that the new leader of the gang is actually her brother. She also falls in love with her best guy friend, Kai. That's about it. It's quite short, didn't even take me and hour to read.

~*Haley*

The Iron King-Julie Kagawa

When strange things occur on her sixteenth birthday, Meghan Chase finds out that her best friend Robbie isn't who she thinks he is and that faeries exist. Robbie turns out to Robin Goodfellow a.k.a. Puck (like from A Midsummer Night's Dream). After school she goes home to see her mother on the floor and her brother turned evil, replaced by a changeling. Her mother's fine, though that doesn't mean all is right. Meghan and Puck go to Faeryland to get her brother back. Along the way she meets a cat (or a cait sith) named Grimalkin, who can talk. The cat leads her to the Seelie court after she was ditched by Puck. There she finds out that she is Oberon's daughter, a half-breed fey. During Elysium she meets (again) the youngest prince of the Unseelie Court, Ash. He has an oath to kill Puck. All lot of stuff happens after that so I will just list now.

-Meghan's elfish aspects show.

-The go to the Winter (Unseelie) Court and are in a manor and Puck lets Meghan try some kind of fruit that makes her drunk.

-Meghan and Grim go to a club in Detroit because a trod is in it.

-Meghan gives up a memory to get info from an Oracle in New Orleans (She lives in Louisiana too)

-Meghan and Puck (who's hurt) and Ash go to meet some dryads in some park and get the special wood that could kill the Iron King who kidnapped her brother.

-They get attack by an Iron fey named Virus.

-They go to the Iron Court, which is like a wasteland of technology.

I'm not even going to go on. So much happen in this book, I can't remember how it did. Anyway, Robbie/Puck is so funny. I like him. Ash is okay.

I love the cover, don't you?

~*Haley*

Evernight-Claudia Gray

Bianca, a shy 16-year old girl, has to start school at Evernight boarding school because her parents are becoming teachers there. She meets Lucas on orientation day and she feels comfortable with him. She really likes him and they get together and break apart a few times. She ends up going to the Autumn ball with Balthazar instead. Lucas shows up and Bianca kinda bites him...the first time she ever tastes human blood. It was 140 pages into the story and we finally find out that she's a born vampire, and I though Lucas was the vamp. Anyways, she's in trouble for it and there's a whole side story of Raquel, Bianca human friend, being stalked by the vamp Erich. Bianca confronts Erich and Lucas sees and Bianca confesses her vampire-ness to Lucas via email. We later find out that Lucas harbor a secret too-he's a vampire hunter, part of the Black Cross. Will their love survive, I mean, c'mon! Oh, and Bianca bit Lucas twice so now he has some vampire powers.

And also, Patrice is Bianca's roommate. The author wrote a short story about her in this other book I have.

I'm gonna read Stargazer, the sequel.

~*Haley*

Meridian-Amber Kizer

Meridian Sozu has had many things die around her. On here sixteenth birthday, when a car crash happens in front of her house, her parents send her off to her great-aunt's house in Revelation, Colorado. He Auntie is her name sake and also a Fenestra like Meridian finds out that she is. A Fenestra is partially angel and they a windows to heaven, being that can lead people to other side very comfortably. Auntie trains Meridian with the help of a teenage guy that lives there named Tens. Tens is very mean to Meridian at first, but she falls in love with him. There's a very charismatic and movie-star looking reverend in town and he's turning everyone against Auntie, calling her a witch. They think he's a Aternocti, one that leads souls to the Destroyer rather than the Creator. They're been getting strange calls and dead animals on their door step. Meridian isn't very safe.

Auntie is 106 years old (because that's how long all Fenestras live) and going to die soon. Meridian is learning how to escort souls and she must be able to do so for her Auntie when she passes. Meridian help Auntie's dead lover, Charles to the other side. She does so for Auntie on New Years Eve, and then some believers and Aternoctis burn down the house. Tens and Meridian narrowly escape through a secret passage. They make it to the cave that Charles souped up a long time ago and Tens improved it. Tens was poisoned by the reverend when Meridian was leading souls at the train wreak. Meridian's got to stop Reverend Perimo before it's too late.

This book was so good, can't wait till the next. I read it in 2 days.

~*Haley*

Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret-Liz Kessler

Emily's life is finally perfect on Allpoints Island, but she feels like something's missing. She's home-sick. After finding out from Archie that Shiprock is under distress, Emily, her mom, Mr. Beeston, Aaron and his mom, and Millie all go to Emily's hometown, Brightport. Shona and her family return to Shiprock (the mermaid town near Brightport) Aaron and Emily get in trouble on their first day at Shiprock's mermaid school because the principle finds out they're semi-mers.

Also, Mandy doesn't remember ever being Emily's friend, but Emily and Aaron somehow break the memory drug's spell by holding hands and she remembers.

Shona and Emily go out in search for some lost sirens and Emily gets pulled by a current into a well and meets the old lost sirens. They're not very nice and think that the can get out only by a siren's song and since they lost their singing voices, they need another siren to help them. Shona finds the cave and her singing doesn't help. Aaron finds Emily and they break the curse, but only so they can get through. They take conch shell the best siren, Melody. They find the map inside of it of some deserted island. Mr. Beeston finds out about all this and goes to the cave. Melody just so happens to be his mother. Emily and Aaron go to Neptune and ask for him to break the curse for them all and let the sirens out. He does it under the conditions that Emily and the others up their efforts on stopping Brightport's development that's ruining Shiprock and also Neptune takes Emily and Aaron's power to undo his own power away. They ask Melody for help and she agrees. Before, Millie brought Emily's grandparents into town. They had been memory drugged and now they got the back and the drug's magic is gone. So now Emily's grandparents remember. There's a nice happy ending and I wouldn't want to spoil that too, but I like this series. It's probably my favorite Juvenile series, but I don't read many anymore. The mermaid phrases are pretty cute and I think that 12 year old Emily Windsnap seems more mature now that she's falling in love with Aaron. I wonder if this story is British or American. It's Mom not mum, and it uses dollars and not pounds, so I think that Liz Kessler made this more American based despite living in England.

~*Haley*

Radiant Shadows-Melissa Marr

Ani is a hound halfling with a hunger for both emotion and touch. This, as well as being able to feed off of both mortal and fey, makes her abnormal. Irial, Gabriel and Rabbit are all protective of her but know that she is very strong herself.

Devlin is the Bloodied Hands of the High Queen, he's her assassin. He was the 1st male fey, created by both Sorcha and Bananach, brother to both. Years ago Sorcha sent him to kill Ani, but Rae, a spectral mortal he met over a hundred years ago, convinced him not to.

When Ani and Devlin meet in a club, Ani kisses him and feeds herself. He feels drained and wonders what she is. Eventually he's falling in love with free spirited Ani and here are some highlights of this book:

-Rae, the spectral girl, she can walk in dreams of others.

-Sorcha, Bananach and Devlin can only see the futures of those not tied to them.

-Seth can see the future as a fey in the Mortal world.

-Irial's been doing experiments on Ani's blood, seeing if it can help the Dark court.

-Ani gets a steed! She names it Barry for Barracuda. I thought it was cool.

-The High Court's queen Sorcha kinda unbalenced now. The Unchanging Queen has changed.

-Ani & Devlin take Barry across the country for Ani's safety and when they stop at a rest stop, it's funny when Devlin almost walks into the girl's room. Ani tells the other lady in there that Dev's just shaken up cuz he's sensitive. lol

-Ani & Dev stay in a hotel for a night.

-Sorcha asks Rae to walk into some artists dreams.

-Faerie falls apart while Sorcha's sleeps to dream about her "son" Seth.

-Dev & Ani save faerie by bring Seth to wake the queen.

-Devlin & Ani start the Shadow Court!

That's about all I can think of. I had a hard time reading it because it's in 3rd person. I just have a short attention span when it comes to boring books. I'll give it at least 1 star, though for the funny parts.

~*Haley*

Whiteout-Walter Sorrells

This is the 3rd book in the Hunted series. The 1st is Fake I.D. and the 2nd is Club Dread.

Chass and her mom move to Greensville, Minnisota. After a month of being there and Whiteout storm happens, making everything a Winter World. Chass finds Ms. Hill's body in the snow with a shot in the head. She was the music teacher, an old lady, and Chass wondered who would do this to a nice lady. She sees a man, the killer most likely. When she tells her mom, her mother wants to leave. Chass gets mad and walks out into the storm. She goes to the police station and the chief helps her a bit, but then he's going crazy about the wolves. Chass hotwires a snowmobile and wrecks it. She goes home again and her mom's still not there. Katie shows up at her house. There's someone at the door and they freak out. It's Fabe from California. I can tell you a few more key events:

-Her mom gets shot after going out with Chass's hat on

-The girls get in trouble for breaking into Ms. Hill's house

-The high school is set on fire and Katie tries to save instrument while Chass looks for evidence

-We find out that Kyle Van Epps was from this town

-Kyle had a brother, Cale

-Cale was deformed. He's in the loony bin.

-Elliot used to go get Cale in secrecy and drive him to Ms. Hill's home to record and make songs.

-Cale is a rich song writer, but Kyle gets all the money.

-Chass goes back to Ms. Hill's and into her basement and is locked in as it burns. She gets out barely.

Too much happens. It's a good book and a mystery, so I'm not gonna tell you the killer. Is is Kyle, Cale, Elliot, Elliot's Dad, Mr. Osmund or some other person? Read and find out!

:)

~*Haley*

Firespell-Chloe Neill

Lily Parker's parents send her to St. Sophia's boarding school in Chicago when they leave for Germany on a sabbatical. The school is pretty strange and so is her roommate, Scout. Scout disappears a lot at night and Lily wants to know what's going on. She find out that nothing is what it seems. Scout is a part of a group of magic users that want to protect Chicagoans from the psychic-energy stealing Reapers. Lily doesn't have a power so the elders of the Adepts don't let her join, but after being hit with firespell a darkening appears on Lily's back. She does have a power. Firespell.

Lily also finds out that her parent have been lying about their jobs. They aren't really philosophy professors, but geneticist, though they don't know that she knows.

Lily and the other Adepts have a fight against the Reapers and I will not spoil the rest. This is the 1st Dark Elite novel. I loved it because it was set in Chicago. Scout and Lily are pretty funny together. Jason sounds really hot. He's Lily's crush and he's a werewolf. I recommend this yummy series.

~*Haley*