The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

This book is a young reader level book that I really enjoyed reading. I don't believe it is a series or anything which is nice to be able to read a book and not have to read a series of books. Reynie is a young orphan that follows a newspaper article to take a test for gifted children. He progresses through a series of tests to be one of four children to pass forming the Mysterious Benedict Society. Mr. Benedict gets these four children with exceptional abilities to form a team to save the world by taking over everyone's mind. Sticky has the ability to read, look, or hear anything and be able to recall it again word for word. Kate is incredibly resourceful in her ability to get through any situation using her bucket of odds-n-ends. Constance doesn't seem to really have any special talent except for being very grumpy and always disagreeing with everyone. They become 'undercover agents' and enroll in a gifted school that is a cover for Mr. Curtain's evil plan to take over the world. This isn't the usual school where you learn normal lessons. They are taught to learn phrases that don't seem to make sense and take tests on this material. Those who do the best can become Messengers who get special priveleges of sitting in the Whisperer. The Whisperer is the machine that transmits messages into everyones minds through the tv and eventually has the ability to erase everyone's memory. The Benedict Society has to save the day and find a way to destroy the Whisperer and Mr. Curtain.

The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare

I finally got the third book of the Mortal Instruments series from the library after a long wait. I really liked this series. Clary is like any normal girl hanging out with her best friend Simon at a club when she sees a group of kids kill another kid who just kinda disappears. These kids are Shadowhunters, people who hunt and kill demons who enter the world. Most normal people do not see Shadowhunters, however, Clary can. She gets pulled into their world when her mother is kidnapped by her father, Valentine. Valentine is an evil Shadowhunter who supposedly died when she was young and everyone thinks he is dead. She falls in love with one of the Shadowhunters, Jace. How unfortunate for them to find out that they are actually brother and sister. They constantly struggle with their feelings towards each other. Alec and Isabelle, brother and sister shadowhunters are also involved in the hunt to save Clary's mother and convince the council that Valentine is really alive and they are not spies for him. Alec is gay and goes through all the difficulties of being in love with Jace and a wizard named Magnus Bane, however, being gay is not acceptable in the Shadowhunter world and having relationships with downworlders (wizards, werewolves, vampires, and fairies) is not acceptable. Simon later on gets bit and becomes a vampire. The third book was a great book and of course had a good ending with everyone hooking up together and defeating Valentine.

SPOILER: Now for those who have not read it yet, you may not want to read on. I love how Sebastian is Valentine's real son and every bit a monster and even worse than Valentine. It was nice to see that Valentine actually had a bit of a heart and some feelings towards his family. Jace sort of drove me crazy with his martyr-wo-is-me attitude the whole time, but I am glad he and Clary were able to finally hook up even though they wanted to when they though they were brother and sister. Simon and Alec really grew up in this book and started doing what they felt/knew was right. Alec was finally able to cope with his gay feelings and hook up with Bane and Simon started to realize he is a vampire and capable of doing so much. I have heard that there is a fourth book coming out about Simon, so it will be interesting to see if it is how he copes with the mark of cain on his head now. Not the smartest move I think, but it worked to keep him alive. It was a great book and as always the third book always seems to be the best.

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

I didn't mind this book. Keturah finds herself following an animal into the forest and gets lost. After a few days she finds herself almost dead and Lord Death comes to her to take her. He tells her that her village is going to be taken by the plague because they do not care about their lands. Keturah tells Lord Death a story about true love and bargains with him to let her live one more day and the following night she would tell him the end of the story. He agrees to let her live if she is able to find her true love, otherwise she is to marry him. She ends up helping all the towns people and continues her story for three days before finally realizing her true love is Lord Death. This tale reminded me of the Storyteller's Daughter tale, but a much better rendition of it.

The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance by Glen Dakin

So this was an incredibly strange book written for a younger age group. It was ok to read, but not one that I would consider buying. I will probably continue reading the rest of the series since I have a hard time starting one and not completing it. This is the first book of the Candle Man series.

Theo has spent his entire life seeing only 3 rooms and three people. His hands are always in gloves to protect himself and others from a rare skin disease he is told he has. One night burglars break into his house and Theo touches the one guy who ends up melting into a pool of goo. Yeah, a little strange. He escapes with the help of the maid and is carried away by a garghoul to the Society of Unrelenting Vigilance who opposes his captures the Society of Good Works. The Society of Good Works all have strange names like Dr. Saint, Nr. Nicely, Lady Patience, etc... They help people by releasing them from their earthly woes by being overly nice to them by their good works such as opening a pastry shop next to the police station and setting up eating contests to help the chief end his earthly life by having a heart attack. The Society of Unrelenting Vigilance was set up to oppose the other society. Theo is the next Candle Man who has a special power to melt and destroy evil people. At the end of the book Theo stops the Good Works society from raising up an evil garghoul and then ends up becoming the head of the Society of Goods works since he kills his guardian and is the next in line to inherit the property. So yeah, a very interesting book.

Sun Kissed by Catherine Anderson

I saw this book at my grandmother's house. She got it at an airport to read but never got around to reading it. It looked interesting since it is about horses and seemed to remind me a bit of my mother-in-law in the sense that she loves horses just like Samantha, got divorced and fell in love with a cowboy. Samantha is divorced and owns a ranch that raises and breeds equines (some term for horses that I still haven't looked up yet to know the exact definition of). Her ex-husband was a drunk and pretty much just married Samantha for her money however, in the divorce he did not get any part of her ranch and therefor was slightly ticked off for only settling with one million dollars. Tucker is an excellent vet who saves Samantha from getting beat up by a guy who was beating his horse and Samantha stepped in to stop him. It's a classic fall-in-love story where someone starts to harm her horses by giving them morphine and Tucker is there to save the day and take care of her horses. She is being framed by someone (can't guess who that might be) and taking the blame for mistreating her horses and insurance fraud. Samantha learns to allow herself to love again and Tucker finally finds the one woman meant for him.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin

So I'm not really going to say much about this book since most are familiar with the story. After somewhat reading this book, I have decided not to read Jane Eyre. I skipped many chapters while reading Pride and Prejudice since I had a very hard time with the style of writing and things not moving along. I actually didn't even read the last part of the book since I was done trying. I like the movie and it actually follows the book pretty well. I really wanted to try to read some more 'famous,' 'literary' books other than my usual children/teen fantasy books. I will still try to get a few in here and there, but I just prefer fantasy and the occasional romance novel over the well-balanced, good-for-you read.

The Wizard Heir by Cinda Williams Chima

I finished the second book in this series and enjoyed it more than the Warrior Heir. This book introduces and follows a new character, Seph. He is a wizard that is brought up by an Enchanter since he is told that his parents died when he was young. He knows this is a lie, and so has no idea who his parents really are. Being a lesser guild, (enchanters, seers, warriors, sorcerers), Seph's guardian does not teach Seph much about the wizarding world and so he cannot control his magical abilities when they occur causing him to kill one of his friends by a fire that he starts. Eventually Seph is sent to an all boys boarding school in the US and soon finds out that it is run by a very powerful and evil Wizard who links other wizard kids to him and controls them. Seph somehow manages to make it through a year there being tortured and barely surviving as the headmaster tries to force Seph to link with him. Seph is saved by his true guardian and ends up in Trinity (the guild sanctuary that was enacted in the previous book by Jack and Ellen. The headmaster and Alumni (the linked students) continue to try to get Seph throughout the book and eventually get a hold of him.

The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima

In this series everyone is born with one of five stones. With these stones they become wizards, enchanters, sorcerers, warriors, and one other I can't remember. Wizards are the ruling class and are divided into two main groups, the White Rose and Red Rose. The ruling group is determined by playing Warriors in tournaments and winner of the tournament gains power for the hosting group until the next tournament. Warriors have become very rare and are sought out by the wizards and stolen at a young age and trained to fight. Jack was born without a stone, but was suppose to have one. In order to save his life, a wizard inserts a Warrior stone into him so that her group can have a Warrior later. Jack's aunt who is an enchanter isn't too happy since he was suppose to be a Wizard, however, she bargains with the Wizard to allow Jack to stay with his family who were not born with stones and therefore are inconsequential to the wizarding world. Jack is forced to take 'medicine' every day for his 'heart' condition. One day Jack forgets to take his medicine and finds out that he has tons of energy and some interesting powers. Jack then starts training without the knowledge of the wizards and he is even able to use some wizarding powers that he was born with. By the end of the book, Jack is forced to fight in the tournament against another Warrior that has been training since birth whereas Jack has only been training for a couple of months.

This sort of reminded me a bit of the Hunger Games in the sense that young teens are raised to fight to the death for political power. It has the same feel/writing as books such as The City of Glass. I've enjoyed reading the first book and am in the process of starting the second book, The Wizard Heir.