The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Reading Level: Young Adult
(4 out of 5)

After reading this book I really wish I got to spend every summer at a beach house. I'm a little jealous. Oh well I'm over it now.

This book was really good. Isabella, aka Belly, measures her life in summers. To her everything wonderful and magical happens between the months of June and August. Summer is being at the beach house with her mom and brother Steven and more importantly with Susannah and her two sons Conrad and Jeremiah. Jeremiah and Conrad are the boys she has known forever. This summer, the summer she turns 16, is a summer full of wonder and changes. The more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

The Alchemyst: the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott

If you enjoy stories of legends and myths intertwined with historical events, you will like the “Alchemyst”. This is Book One of a three book series. Book Two is “The Magician” and Book Three is “The Sorceress”.

Nicholas Flamel and his wife Perenelle are both almost 700 hundred years old and own a book store in California. Nicholas is a famous alchemyst who owns an ancient book, the Book of Abraham the Mage, which holds the elixir for the secret of eternal life. Twins Sophie and Josh Newman, are unwittingly caught up in the battle between rival alchemists over possession of this book. In the wrong hands, it will destroy the world. And if the prophecy is right, Sophie and Josh are only ones with the power to save the world as we know it.

Some legends are true.
Sophie and Josh are about to find themselves in the middle of the greatest legend of all time. Enjoy!

Written by Helen Duda

Evernight by Claudia Gray

Reading Level: Young Adult
(4 out of 5)

I don't want to give anything away so this book is about a Gothic boarding school called Evernight Academy, a girl named Bianca, a boy named Lucas, and many many secrets. Are you intrigued? If you are check it out. Any fans of Stephenie Meyer, Richelle Mead, or Cassandra Clare will like Claudia Gray. Evernight is the start of a series. The next one is Stargazer. The next two not released yet will be Hourglass and Afterlife. I can't wait. For more information: www.claudiagray.com

Godmother, The Secret Cinderella Story by Carolyn Turgeon

“Godmother, The Secret Cinderella Story” written by Carolyn Turgeon and published in 2009 is one of our new adult fiction titles. The novel flips back and forth between the fairy world and the present-day world of New York City. The main character, an older woman named Lil, lives in New York City and works at a bookstore in Manhattan. Lil’s secret, which she will let no one in the human world know, is that she was Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother and that she, instead of Cinderella, fell in love with the Prince. Thus, three hundred years ago, she was banished from the fairy kingdom and forced to live in the human world. Lil loved her life in the fairy world. There she was beautiful with red hair and green eyes, and could fly over the fairy lake with her three beloved fairy sisters, Maybeth, Lucibell, and Gladys. In the human world, she likes her job at the bookstore and working for the owner of the bookstore, a handsome, bookish, and kind man named George. With pure white hair, she is told she holds an aura of glamour and that she must have been quite beautiful when she was younger. Now her skin is quite wrinkled, and her after-work life is rather lonely – spent in her apartment alone each night where she reads books and watches television. Additionally, Lil has to hide the remnants of her fairy world, like the large feathery white wings across her back which she has to bind when she goes out and all of the white feathers floating in her apartment which she has to burn every morning. However, one day, upon befriending a fairy like woman named Veronica, Lil decides she will redeem her past mistake in the fairy world by acting as Veronica’s Fairy Godmother, sending her to an elegant ball, and thus giving Veronica a chance at true love. This, she is hoping, will be enough for her to be allowed to return to the fairy world she so misses. The writing is lyrical, pulling the reader into a feeling of the world of the fairies versus the New York City environment. You might want to check out the author’s lively blog featuring her writing and road trip adventures. Interestingly, this book has been optioned for a movie. It will be neat to see how it turns out.

Submitted by Karin Olsen

Lily Dale: Awakening by Wendi Corsi Staub

Reading Level: Young Adult
(4 out of 5)

What could be worse than getting dumped via text message? Calla thought that was the worst thing that could happen to her but she was wrong. Not long after getting dumped she finds her mother dead. Calla's life as she knew it is over. Her father is a professor and is scheduled to do a sabbatical in California. While her dad is in California getting things ready for them Calla goes to spend the summer with her grandmother Odelia in Lily Dale. To Calla's shock Lily Dale is full of psychics including her grandmother. As Calla gets to know Lily Dale and the people who live there unusual things start happening to her. She starts seeing ghosts and having visions. Is she like her grandmother and will she ever uncover who her mother really was. The only way to uncover family secrets is to stay.

I really liked this book but it read like a first chapter. What I mean by that is it felt like I was only getting the beginning of the story not the middle or the end. That could be because there are three other books that follow. Lily Dale: Believing, Lily Dale: Connecting, and Lily Dale: Discovering. The next two books are out already but Lily Dale: Discovering will be out in October 2009.

I can't wait to start reading the next book.

Nick of Time by Ted Bell

I just read the Young Adult book "Nick of Time" by Ted Bell. I enjoyed it very much and would rate it a 4. The setting is on the coast of England in 1939, the eve of World War II. Nick McIver, a 12 year old boy, and his younger sister Kate help their father who is looking for German U-boat wolf packs that are circling the Channel Islands. The information they provide to Winston Churchill is vital as he tries to warn England of the imminent Nazi invasion. One day Nick discovers an old sea chest, left for him by his ancestor, Captain Nick McIver, asking for help. The chest contains a time machine which Nick uses to return to the year 1805 to help his ancestor and the Admiral Lord Nelson's entire fleet. The Royal Navy is being threatened by the French and the evil pirate Billy Blood. Meanwhile, Nick's sister Kate with the help of two of England's most brilliant detectives, Lord Hawke and Commander Hobbes, tries to stop invading Nazis. An adventure for all ages.

Submitted by Helen Duda

Keeper of Light and Dust by Natasha Mostert

Reading Level: Adult
(3 out of 4)

I liked this book but it seemed like it took me forever to get through it. I would have liked the romance to have been explored more. All in all I'm glad I read it.

Mia Lockhart is a tattoo artist and she practices martial arts. Mia has a secret. She is a Keeper. Keepers are woman who are warriors, healers, and protectors. They have the ability to keep people safe. As Mia practices her craft among the boxers and martial artists of South London, she has no idea that a man who calls himself "Dragonfly" is watching from the shadows.

Adrian Ashton is a brilliant scientist, an expert in the field of biophoton emissions from cells within the human body. He is also a skilled martial artist and a modern-day vampire. With the aid of an ancient Chinese text, he has mastered the art of draining the chi of his opponents and by doing so he kills them but he stays young. Mia is drawn to him but when she finds out he is threatening those she loves she knows she has to stop him.