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.