Fallen by Lauren Kate

Genre: Young Adult

Sub Genre: Paranormal Romance; Angels, Demons, Apocalypse

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Back Cover: There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori. Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at Sword & Cross boarding school in Savannah. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are screwups, and security cameras watch every move. Except Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce – he goes out of his way to make that very clear. But she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, Luce has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret… even if it kills her.

Luce has been sent to reform school and she doesn’t want anyone to know what has happened in her past. As she begins to make friends she can’t help but be captivated by Daniel. Even though Cam is doing everything in his power to get her attention as well. This is one of those stories that keeps you on the edge of your seat making you hold your breath as you are waiting to see what is going to happen next. I really liked the character development as well as how well they all interact with one another. I absolutely enjoyed reading this book and can’t wait to read the next one, Torment.

Publisher: Delacorte Press

ISBN: 0385739133

Pages: 496

Series: Fallen

Volume: 1

Persistence of Memory by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Genre: Young Adult

Sub Genre: Paranormal Romance; Magic, Vampires, Were-people, Witches, Mental illness

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Back Cover: Sixteen-year-old Erin Misrahe just wants to be like everyone else in her new school. But Erin has more to worry about than passing AP Chemistry and making friends. In times of stress, she has always been overcome by her alter ego, Shevaun, whose violent behavior wreaks havoc on those around her. Erin can never remember anything about these episodes, and she’s grateful to have been spared them for a while. But when a protective old friend comes back into Erin’s life, he insists that Shevaun is a vampire who actually exists apart from Erin. Shevaun has dangerous allies, like the handsome witch Adjila – and they’re determined to sever Shevaun’s connection to Erin once and for all.

This story is of a girl that things that she is crazy. And is trying to become someone who can go to a normal school for the first time. But as it happens there are other things going on that she has no knowledge about. Like the things that go bump in the night are real. I don’t want to ruin the story as there is a lot that is discovered both about Erin and her friends. Needless to say there is magic, vampires, were-people and witches all involved. It is a good story. I enjoyed reading it and wouldn’t mind reading more of this world even if they don’t revisit the same characters.

Publisher: Delacorte Press

ISBN: 0440240042

Pages: 224

Series:

Volume: 

Fairy Tale by Cyn Balog

Genre: Young Adult

Sub Genre: Urban Fantasy; Magic, Fairies, Changeling, High School

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Back Cover: Morgan Sparks and Cam Browne are a match made in heaven. They’ve been best friends since birth, they tell each other everything, and oh yeah – they’re totally hot for each other. But a week before their joint sweet sixteen bash, everything changes. Cam’s awkward cousin Pip comes to stay, and Cam starts acting distant. Morgan is stunned when her formerly perfect boyfriend seems to be drifting away. When Morgan demands answers, she’s shocked to discover the reason for Cam’s distance. It isn’t another girl – it’s another world. Pip claims that Cam is a fairy. No, seriously. A fairy. And now his people want Cam to return to their world and take his rightful place as Fairy King. Determined to keep Cam with her, Morgan plots to fool the fairies. But as Cam continues to change, she has to decide once and for all is he really is her destiny, and if their “perfect” love can weather an uncertain future.

This story is an innovative take on Fairies. One of their own was placed as a changeling in the human world. Not only that he just happens to be King. So when his birthday comes around he must return. But as he has live as a human this all kind of comes as a shock but not more so for Morgan our main character. She just wants him to stay with her. The story has a few twists and turns thrown in that make it a page turner. I enjoyed how this story is written. It had its sad moment here and there but I found that I couldn’t stop reading it. Even so I did like it.

Publisher: Delacorte Press

ISBN: 0385737076

Pages: 256

Series:

Volume:

Meridian by Amber Kizer

Genre: Young Adult

Sub Genre: Paranormal Romance; Angels, Death, Fenestra, Protector, Nocti, Aternocti, Souls

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Back Cover: Half human, half angel, Meridian Sozu has a dark responsibility. Meridian has always been an outcast. It seems that wherever she goes, death and grief follow. On her sixteenth birthday, a car crashes in front of her family’s home – and though she’s untouched, Meridian’s body explodes in pain. Before she can fully recover, Meridian is told that she’s a danger to her family and is hustled off to her great-aunt’s house in Revelation, Colorado. There she learns the secret her parents have been hiding for her entire life: Meridian is a Fenestra, the half-angel, half-human link between the living and the dead. It’s crucial that Meridian learns how to transition human souls to the afterlife – how to help people die. Only then can she help preserve the balance between good and evil on earth. But before she can do that, Meridian must come to terms with her ability, outsmart the charismatic preacher who’s taken over Revelation, and maybe – if she can accept her sworn protector, Tens, for who he is – fall in love. Meridian and Tens face great danger from the Aternocti, a band of dark forces who capture vulnerable souls on the brink of death and cause chaos. But together, they have the power to outsmart evil.

Meridian is a girl who just thinks that she is a freak. Not understanding why things die around her, and yet not questioning it either. But things change fast for her on her sixteenth birthday. All of a sudden she learns who she is and must learn how to help souls without losing herself. There are those who hope that she gets herself killed or trying to kill her so she can’t help the souls cross. It’s all very exciting. The story is beautifully written. Meridian is a strong character that takes on her responsibility even though she wishes that things could be different. She takes all her lessons in strides. Tens is my favorite kind of character, he is funny and flirty. And yet he is also very protective of Meridian. I loved this book and can't wait to read the next in this series, Wildcat Fireflies.

Publisher: Delacorte Press

ISBN: 038573669X

Pages: 320

Series: Meridian

Volume: 1

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

Genre: Young Adult

Sub Genre: Historical Fantasy; Faire, Magic, Gemma Doyle

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Back Cover: It has been a year of change since Gemma Doyle arrived at the foreboding Spence Academy. Her mother murdered, her father alaudanum addict, Gemma has relied on an unsuspected strength and has discovered an ability to travel to an enchanted world called the realms, where dark magic runs wild. Despite certain peril, Gemma has bound the magic to herself and forged unlikely new alliances. Now, as Gemma approaches her London debut, the time has come to test these bonds. The Order—the mysterious group her mother was once part of—is grappling for control of the realms, as is the Rakshana. Spence's burned East Wing is being rebuilt, but why now? Gemma and her friends see Pippa, but she is not the same. And their friendship faces its gravest trial as Gemma must decide once and for all what role she is meant for.

I was sad to see how Pippa changed, and how she treats the others. I think that Gemma finally understood where her place was. It was hard to see her have her heart broken and at the same time I did enjoy when she realized what she wanted to do. As a trilogy it wasn’t bad but it is not something that I would read again. It is definitely something to get at the library for a quick read. But not something that I would have for my book shelf.

Publisher: Delacorte Press

ISBN: 0440237777

Pages: 848

Series: Gemma Doyle

Volume: 3

Rebel Angels by Libba Bray

Genre: Young Adult

Sub Genre: Historical Fantasy; Faire, Magic, Gemma Doyle

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Back Cover: Gemma Doyle is looking forward to a holiday from Spence Academy—spending time with her friends in the city, attending balls in fancy gowns with plunging necklines, and dallying with the handsome Lord Denby. Yet amid these distractions, her visions intensify—visions of three girls dressed in white, to whom something horrific has happened that only the realms can explain. The lure is strong, and soon Gemma, Felicity, and Ann are turning flowers into butterflies in the enchanted world that Gemma takes them to. To the girls' great joy, their beloved Pippa is there as well, eager to complete their circle of friendship. But all is not well in the realms—or out. Kartik is back, desperately insisting to Gemma that she must bind the magic, lest colossal disaster befall her. Gemma is willing to comply, for this would bring her face-to-face with her late mother's greatest friend, now Gemma's foe—Circe. Until Circe is destroyed, Gemma cannot live out her destiny. But finding Circe proves a most perilous task. . . .

This was a little different as they where not at school and getting to see the different parts of England. I didn’t like what happened with Ann. And felt very sorry for Felicity how society treated her and her mother. Gemma also seems a little full of herself and the power that she wields, believing that she can save her father from himself with magic. I found the story was still lacking but I did enjoy the intrigue with the peers of society. I will still read the final book in this series, The Sweet Far Things.

Publisher: Delacorte Press

ISBN: 0385733410

Pages: 592

Series: Gemma Doyle

Volume: 2

Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause

Genre: Young Adult

Sub Genre: Urban Fantasy; Werewolves

Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Back Cover: Vivian Gandillon relishes the change, the sweet, fierce ache that carries her from girl to wolf. At sixteen, she is beautiful and strong, and all the young wolves are on her tail. But Vivian still grieves for her dead father; her pack remains leaderless and in disarray, and she feels lost in the suburbs of Maryland. She longs for a normal life. But what is normal for a werewolf? Then Vivian falls in love with a human, a meat-boy. Aiden is kind and gentle, a welcome relief from the squabbling pack. He’s fascinated by magic, and Vivian longs to reveal herself to him. Surely he would understand her and delight in the wonder of her duel nature, not fear her as an ordinary human would. Vivian’s divided loyalties are strained further when a brutal murder threatens to expose the pack. Moving between two worlds, she does not seem to belong in either, and her actions may endanger both. What is she really – human or beast? Which tastes sweeter – blood or chocolate?

Vivian is one of those characters that is trying to find where she fits. After loosing her father her life is so different without her father. She goes to school and after reading a poem by one of the boys at school she must meet him. While things are changing within the pack and her growing relationship with Aiden her worlds are moving fast. She becomes stronger and powerful in her own right after a fight in front of the whole pack. But yet she doesn’t want what she has won. And when humans start turning up dead with her not remembering what is happening she freaks. This story has a lot happening and you can’t help but read on to see what the next turn will be. I loved the way this is written. How the characters related to one another, with Vivian and the Five to the new friends that she makes through Aiden. It’s a book that I really enjoyed and will read again.

Publisher: Delacorte Press

ISBN: 0385734212

Pages: 264

Series:

Volume:

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

Genre: Young Adult

Sub Genre: Historical Fantasy; Faire, Magic, Gemma Doyle

Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars

Back Cover: It’s 1895, and after the suicide of her mother, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle is shipped off from the life she knows in India to Spence, a proper boarding school in England. Lonely, guilt-ridden, and prone to visions of the future that have an uncomfortable habit of coming true, Gemma’s reception there is a chilly one. To make things worse, she’s been followed by a mysterious young Indian man, a man sent to watch her. But why? What is her destiny? And what will her entanglement with Spence’s most powerful girls—and their foray into the spiritual world—lead to?

I don’t read a lot of historical pieces. Its just not really my thing. But I’d been told that the trilogy was very spell binding. I looked forward to the possibilities. The setting of the story was well chosen. It reminded me a little of The Little Princess. The magical aspect to it brought on with a touch of mystery delighted me. But the story seemed a little flat. Adding in the gypsies brought a little spice but it still was slow. I hoped it was just that it was the first book so I will read the next book, Rebel Angels.

Publisher: Delacorte Press

ISBN: 0385732317

Pages: 432

Series: Gemma Doyle

Volume: 1