The Maze of Bones (#1) by Rick Riordan

Cute, fast paced read about a brother and sister who embark on a journey to find the 39 clues their grandmother left behind, leading to treasure and making whoever finds it the most powerful member in the family.

Lord of the Shadows by Darren Shan

I started reading this series because my brother raved about it. He made it through book one. I really really wanted to know how the series ends, so here I am, book eleven and thrilled to death there's only one more book left. It's been an okay series. Not one I loved but not terrible. They are easy reads, somewhat juvenile in the beginning but gets better by book four.

The Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler

Fourteen year old girl moves from Manhattan to the small town of Hog's Hollow. She has to deal with being cruelly tortured by the popular girls at school and the fact that her parents are getting divorced. Her mom moves back to her hometown to open up a cupcake bakery.

This book seemed to get good reviews but I just really didn't enjoy reading it as much as I thought I would.

The Everafter by Amy Huntley

What happens when you die? What happens to all those things you lost in your lifetime?

Madison wakes up to nothing. She can't remember her life. She doesn't really remember her name. She just knows that she is in "Is." A place where all of her lost objects have come to show her the life she can't remember. Madison does know that she is dead. As Madison comes into contact with objects she's lost, she finds she can go back and relive those moments in which those objects were lost.

I really loved this book. It was an interesting perspective on "life" after death. Through this journey, Madison relives bad moments, great moments, and finally understands how she dies. The ending was a complete shocker to me. Yes, one of those, yell out loud "OMG" moments. Very few books actually have that ability for me.

Blue Bloods: The Keys to the Repository by Melissa De La Cruz

I enjoyed this quick little read. Background information about the characters and settings of the Blue Bloods world. Many definitions of terms and such used in the series.

Manga

What is manga you ask? I wondered the same thing. Basically is a comic book (or graphic novel) written from right to left. So it's read backwords. It is a very weird style of writing. I read one for a challenge called Aqua. It is all about a female gondolier (yes really) living on planet Aqua for the summer. The president is a cat (yes, I did say cat). Needeless to say manga is not for me. I read one, glad to have had the experience but not again. Any book that gives you directions on HOW to read it is not for me.

Twilight: the Graphic Novel, Volume 1 by Stephenie Meyer

I loved loved loved this book. I've never read a graphic novel. To me, they are too much like comic books, which I didn't really read much of when I was a kid (other than the Archie ones). So I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew the story would be the same but the illustrations.........I fell in love. I found myself studying all of the pages and scenes and really wishing the characters in this novel looked like this on the big screen!

April and Oliver by Tess Callahan

April and Oliver have been friends since they were little. They are actually somehow related. Oliver comes back to town after years of being away so he and his fiance can go to graduate school and get married. April's life is in shambles. Her past is full of abuse, his brother dies, and her boyfriend has a shady past of her own. Oliver gets involved in trying to save April from herself (and others) while destroying his own life in the process.

This book wasn't what I expected. It was a very hard story to get through, not an easy read. I liked Oliver but April seemed to be a little too dark for me. She constantly sought out the wrong guy, the one she knew would hurt her. Her relationship with her father wasn't great. I suspected he knew that she was being abused by his business partner but did nothing to stop it. If it wasn't for Oliver, she probably would have ended up dead.

I finished the book but it's not one that I would recommend to others. I didn't enjoy it. The last 80 pages were better but the ended fell flat.

The Water Mirror by Kai Meyer

Wonderful concept and characters, poorly executed in my opinion. This is a story of Merle and Junipa, who come to live with a magic mirror maker. They are to serve as his apprentices. This story has some fantasy elements that seem cool but just too cool to really believe such as, mermaids (and not pretty ones) magic mirror eyes, stone lions that fly and the Egyptian Empire taking control over the land. This was one book I definitely wasted my time on.

The Van Alen Legacy by Melissa De La Cruz

Book four in the series picks up one year later. Lawrence is dead. The conclave thinks that Schulyer is guilty. She and Oliver are on the run. Schuyler ended her secret relationship with Jack, but runs into him again in Paris, and the feelings are still there for the both of them. Mimi is headed out with the venators, looking for Jordan, who was taken from the family after being discovered as the Watcher. Bliss is having a hard time coping with the fact she is carrying the "Visitor" inside her. She realizes that the Visitor is responsible for all of the horrible things that have happened. Through the Visitor, she has corrupted others, and now carries many souls within her.

Happy to say that book four doesn't disappoint. I am just in love with this series. Why you ask?

Top 10 reasons to love the Blue Bloods series:

1.Action
2. Adventure
3. Theory of vampires really being fallen angels from heaven is awesome!
4. Jack and Schulyer and their relationship (and the fact that he is "bonded" to someone else)
5. Exotic locations to travel
6. Oliver (I really feel for him, being with someone who doesn't truly love him)
7. References to historical events, with angels and Lucifer as the characters
8. Cycles of life: being able to live more than one life
9. The non gross factor of vampires who feed (minus all the nasty descriptions of blood)
10. There are many characters that you love to hate (Mimi)

Reasons I don't like the series (just one, I promise):

Jack and Mimi's relationship in their current "cycle." They are bonded angels, but in their current lives came back as twins. The descriptions about how they look at each other, etc is a little hard to take because they are often referred to as brother and sister. That's just weird and creepy!

Great Website

I found this awesome website this morning.

http://fantasticbookreview.blogspot.com/

It has tons of great book reviews, plus I found a new book to love, with the cover art that's just so gorgeous!

Full Moon by Rachel Hawthorne

This is the second book in the Dark Guardian trilogy. I enjoyed the first one but this second one blew it out of the water. I really enjoyed Lindsey's inner struggle as she tries to make the right decision for her future.

Lindsey, a shifter, is about to come upon the first full moon after her seventeenth birthday. Connor has declared her as his mate. They have been together forever but Lindsey is questioning whether they are meant to be. She dreams of Rafe, a quiet bad boy, who has also declared her as his mate. Lindsey must decide between two shifters, while trying to keep her community safe from the medical team who want to study them.

Kissed by an Angel/The Power of Love/ Soulmates by Elizabeth Chandler

This I guess is a three book in one. I was wondering why it was taking me forever to get through it. Duh on me until I realized. Anywho, here's an outline of the books.

Kissed by an Angel is the story of Ivy and Tristan. Tristan is a swimmer on his school's team and extremely popular. Ivy is new to the school. This book follows their story of how their relationship evolved, ending with Tristan's tragic (and somewhat mysterious) death.

In The Power of Love, Tristan, now an angel, is dealing with the fact that he's dead and an angel. He is helped by Lacey, another angel, who urges him to figure out what his mission is. He's overcome with the loss of Ivy, knowing he'll never be with her again. Ivy, meanwhile, is mourning Tristan while everyone around her is telling her to move on. Throughout this story, Tristan comes to the conclusion that someone is out to get Ivy for something she saw but shouldn't have.

In Soulmates, Tristan continue's on his mission of saving Ivy's life. She regains her belief in angels, which she lost after Tristan's death. In regaining her belief, she is able to communicate with Tristan to help figure out the details as to who is after Ivy.

I thought that this was an okay read. Not one that I was captivated by. I love the idea of angels, but this story just seems to be missing the spark that makes you want to keep turning the pages. I originally picked it because of the pretty cover. I guess covers can be deceiving.

Mermaid Park by Beth Mayall

Amy , a swimmer, has a rocky relationship with her Mom, sister and her stepdad. They take a vacation to the beach to see Lynne, her mom's godmother. One bad event leads to Amy staying at the beach for the entire summer. While wandering around, she finds the Mermaid Park. An amusement park of sorts that puts on a mermaid show. With her love of swimming, Amy just knows she has found the perfect summer job.

I actually expected this to be a more magical story. I really didn't enjoy it much. Amy is a wishy washy character who allows her mom to pick her stepdad over her. She doesn't really stick up for herself, even though it's obvious her stepdad is verbally abusive. Her relationship with her sister is strained, as she finds out Mel, lies about everything in her life.