The Eternal Kiss edited by Tricia Trelep

This short story anthology, including stories by many of my favorite authors and more, had an immense variety of stories all about vampires. But these vampires all differ. For instance, some are like ghosts, only coming at a certain time of night. Others are at war with the human race. Still others are trying to live a normal life, despite being a vampire. Some might be partying as much as possible. But then there are those who become teen rockstars and attempt to decide friend from foe. In this wonderful collection of short stories, you are sure to think twice about what a vampire really is. I give this collection 5 stars.

Kissed by an Angel by Elizabeth Chandler

Ivy is a sweet, innocent teenage girl who loves hanging out with her two best friends Beth and Suzanne, has a great job at the mall working for two addled old ladies, and is trying to adjust to life living with her stepbrother Gregory and stepdad Andrew in their mansion after living in an apartment for her entire life. And then there's Tristan. He's everything she could have asked for in a boy. He's kind, sensitive, thoughtful, understanding, and he's even nice to her little brother, Philip. And he's on the swim team and helps her get over her lifelong fear of water. They are absolutely happy- until Tristan is killed in a terrible car accident. Now he's an angel, and his job is to protect Ivy from the person who killed him, which turns out to be harder than he thought. Can he save her, even when he knows saving her will mean letting go? I definitely rate this book 5 stars.

Peeps: A novel by Scott Westerfeld

Cal is what they call a Peep. This means he has gotten a STD, a parasite really, which basically makes them into vampires. They are bloodthirsty superhumans who go insane and become the opposite of what they were. They scream at the sight of their reflections, their friends, family, everything they loved and were attached to, really. But Cal is different than most peeps. He is benign, because he doesn't go insane. he gets all the perks, without the downsides. And he's working for the government, trying to stop the infection from spreading. His first projects: his old girlfriends. Because they all got the disease too. From him. Before he knew he had it. But his latest project, the girl who he got it from, is a lot more difficult. And it's unearthing a secret that is bigger than the disease. It's the end of the world. And it's up to the Peeps to stop it.

I give this a 4 star rating. It's followed by The Last Days.

Evernight by Claudia Gray

Bianca has to go to a boring old preppy private school in the middle of nowhere. And what's worse, her PARENTS are teaching there. And she doesn't belong. At all. Because everyone is uber rich, and she isn't. She doesn't even fit in with the other outsiders, the ones that got in by a scholarship. Because there is one thing about Evernight Academy that sets it apart from all others: It's a vampire high school. And Bianca is one of them. Not just one of them. She is the only vampire who was born as one. And she has now done the unthinkable: She has fallen in love with a human. And he may just set the world of Evernight on its heels. Because he knows what they are. And he is ready to sacrifice his life to kill everyone else. Which begs the question- will Bianca ever kill a human and become a real vampire? Or will she continue to live as she has- in between? This book was not your average vampire books. It combines a lot of styles of writing and invents a world completely its own. I think this deserves 5 stars, even though i give that to almost every book I review.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

This book is very interesting because it brings greek mythology and contemporary fiction together. Percy Jackson lives in New York City with his mom in an apartment. He is constantly getting into trouble. He doesnt try to, but it just seems to follow him. He's also dislexic, and his only friend is a boy named Grover who will eat anything. So he's very happy to find that there is a reason for all this, and he's not just some messed up kid everyone else thinks he is. He is, in fact, the son of a Greek God, and his friend Grover is a Satyr- half boy, half goat. He's dyslexic because his mind is built to read ancient Greek, and trouble follows him, because the world is kind of against him... or at least the mythological world is. They all want to destroy him, and when they fail, they tend to get him into trouble. So thus Percy goes on a great adventure to get to camp half-blood, to meet other Greek God's children, and to find out exactly where he belongs. I definitely give this book five stars. This is the first book in the series Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Wild Orchid: A retelling of the Ballad of Mulan by Cameron Dokey

This was an incredible read. It was very fast; I read it in one day. It's classic Mulan, except it's probably more historically accurate than the disney movie. Mulan is a tomboy. She wants nothing other than to do exactly the opposite what most other girls do- she doesn't want to sew, or look pretty, or embroider, she wants to climb trees and learn to fight and read. Thanks to her friend Li Po, and the fact her mother died in childbirth, she can. She learns to ride horses, shoot bows better than most men, swordfight, and read. And no one knows except her nurse. But what Mulan wants more than anything else, are 3 things: For her Father to come home from the war, For him to love her, and For her to know her mother's name. One day, everything changes. She is climbing a tree when she sees a horseman riding through. Li Po loses his balance and almost falls- but hangs onto Mulan, knocking her out of the tree. Her efforts at learning boyish skills are then brought to the attention of her father, who was one of the men on the horses. This brings a great deal of events that leads her to risk her life and reputation for her father's welfare. Good for ages 12 and up. I give it 4 stars.

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

Sophie and Josh are not your average teenage twins- They have Archaeologists for parents, they never stay in the same place for more than a few months, and they only really trust each other. Oh, and did I mention they have amazing powers, ones that are beyond anything any human can ever imagine? But they lead realitively normal lives, ignorant of their powers.Until one fateful day, when the bookshop that Josh is working at is ransacked by a bunch of Golems- creatures made out of dirt and clay. That is the day their life is changed forever. As it turns out, Nick Fleming, the owner of the bookshop, is in fact Nicholas Flamel in disguise. And now the twins are going to run for their lives, because his arch enemy Dr. Dee is after them. And now Nicholas' wife, Perenelle has been captured. But not all is lost. An old ally, Scathach, or the Warrior Maiden, has come to their aide. And they have run to protection in one of the Shadowrealms. Because they might just be the twins of an important and ancient prophecy- the Night and Day themselves, and if this is so, the fate of the world, and Perenelle, is in their hands. I most definitely give this book five stars.

Prom Dates from Hell by Rosemary Clement-Moore

Maggie Quinn is not your normal high school senior. Her best friend has the Title D&D Lisa, and insists she is an evil genius who plans on taking over the world one day. She hates anything to do with popular kids, and she is more interested in getting an article done for the school paper than going to prom. Plus, she's a bit psychic. And she's about to have a big adventure involving the jocks, cheerleaders, a dweeb, and, of course, the prom. And doing so, she also meets a really cute college student- who's getting a degree in creepy. And he helps her to break an evil curse that was put on her high school, and fight a demon. This book was so good I walked around the house while I was reading it telling everyone how awesome it was. This book is followed by two others, Hell Week and Highway to Hell. I most definitely give this book 5 stars.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Cameron Smith is your average slacker- C+ average, tries to get out of doing absolutely everything, you know, the basics. He pretty much has an average life- a popular sister, a dad who lives for his work, etc. But that all changes when he gets a rare disease in humans- mad cow disease. And he's going to die. Then he sees this angel. This angel isn't anything close to what you'd expect. She is totally punk, and she loves to spray-paint her wings different things. Well, this angel, Dulcie, tells him about a cure- but there's a catch. He first has to go on a huge road trip and take along a gaming dwarf named Gonzo and a Garden Gnome who turns out to be the trapped form of the Viking God Balder. They have to survive happiness cults, snow globe sellers, and wacked- out game shows, all to get Balder back to the sea and Cameron a cure. This book is the type of story that not only has a completely random plot but also gets you to question reality and the purpose of life. I would definitely give this story 4 stars. This book comes out September 22, 2009 from Random House.

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This isn't a book I'd think to read on my own, it's one of those weird books. But, my favorite author, Stephenie Meyer recommended it, and a bunch of my friends read it, and I decided that I just had to read it too. This book takes place after the end of the world. All that's left in the rubble of North America is a communist government in a country called Panem. Soon after the country was established, there was a rebellion, which the government managed to defeat. The result was they lost a district. As a reminder, each of the remaining twelve districts of Panem has to give one boy and one girl to the Hunger Games, a game where each child is on their own to fight to the death in the hopes that they might be the survivor. In district twelve, the players are Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. These two children will have to battle each other, the other districts, and nature to win. It doesn't help that the government doesn't want them to win. It doesn't help at all the Peeta saved her life when she was a kid. I definitely give this one five stars.

The Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley M. M. Blume

I didn't actually want to read this book, but I had to for a school book club. As the book started, I thought it was way too easy of a read. As I got more into it, however, I really started liking it. I mean, a book about an 11 year old who's completely obsessed with words? How cool is that? And when you add in not one but two world-famous piano playing parents and a wacky author with a the awesomest dog you could ever ask for, the book is bound to be great. So, to summarize, this book is about a girl who has two parents who are famous piano players. She hates music, and instead chooses to bury herself in words. One day she meets an old lady with a cute dog, and helps get the dog inside their apartment. Before you know it, Cornelia's in Miss Somerset's Apartment listening to her tell the most amazing stories involving Picasso, an Indian Prince, and a Gentleman's club in London. The stories Virginia Somerset tells are not only interesting, they also give Cornelia a way to make friends, become closer to her mom, and a reason to be happy. All in all, a very charming and up-beat book. I give it 3 stars.

In The Forests of The Night by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

This is one of my favorite books. Since I can't aptly describe the plot of the book, here is what Randomhouse wrote as the summary: By day, Risika sleeps in a shaded room in Concord, Massachusetts. By night, she hunts the streets of New York City. She is used to being alone. But someone is following Risika. He has left her a black rose, the same sort of rose that sealed her fate 300 years ago. Three hundred years ago she was human. Now she is a vampire, a powerful one, and her past has come back to torment her.
I definitely give this one 5 stars.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

I read this book for English, actually. It's not a book I'd usually read, and it was a bit disturbing in parts. It's about a mentally retarded adult named Charlie, who gets the opportunity to get a surgery done on his brain to make him smarter. It is written as a series of journal entries made for science research. I think this is a good book because it looks at a lot of controversial issues, that although this was written in the sixties, are still relevant to today. I give this 3 stars.

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

This book was very good. It is about a girl who is the only girl in a family of six boys. She acts mostly as the mother of the family since her own is dead. She is gifted in the healing arts, which comes in handy when she rescues a prisoner from her own father's clutches. Now that her father has remarried everything will change for her and her brothers... I would give this book 5 stars. It is the first in a trilogy.