The Faire Folk Trilogy by Gillian Summers

Keelie Heartwood is just your average American teenage girl- she loves to shop, hang out with friends, go to the beach, and party. Just one little problem. She's allergic to wood. It doesn't help that when her mother dies, she's sent to live with her father, who travels with Renaissance Festivals and does woodworking. So, she's stuck with her eccentric father in a place where it's cool to be old fashioned, she has no freedom, and the one guy she likes is practically royalty, with a princess for a girlfriend. On top of it all, she has just stumbled upon a secret that will change her life forever: she's part elf. Which explains her one pointed ear, and the fact that her allergy to wood isn't an allergy at all. Not to mention the fact that when she's around trees, they tend to talk to her. Can she save the lives- and livliehoods- of her people? Or is she part of a species that is destined to die out? And, can a poor shepherd's daughter actually be with a prince, when a princess is her competition? The first book is The Tree Shepherd's Daughter, then Into the Wildewood, then The Dread Forest. I give the series 4 stars, for being a bit slow at times, but it's very good even so.

Dragonfly By Julia Golding

Princess Taoshira of the Blue Crescent Islands is used to order. Every single day is planned out to the minute, from what time she wakes, what she dresses in, how she dresses, the ceremonies she does, she doesn't have any room for movement. Prince Ramil is used to freedom. He can do as he likes pretty much every second of his life, and that's how he likes it. So when they learn that they are to marry each other, they are understandably rather appalled. But when they get kidnapped, they find that they will have no escape- from their kidnappers, or each other. They must avoid brainwashing, unarmed combat, and imprisonment- from the very kingdom that their two countries strove to bring down in their alliance. In this cute, Shannon Hale- like novel, we find out what happens when two completely different people from other sides of the world are brought together and fall in love. I whole-heartedly give it 5 stars, and reccommend it to everyone, from 10 year olds to moms.

Angel by Cliff McNish

This book hit me unusually hard when I was reading it. At first, it struck me as annoying, because I figured it would be just another book about a girl who is trying to fit in with the popular crowd, but instead decides to make friends with someone less than popular. But, promised an interesting plot by the name and the summary on the cover, I read on. As it would turn out, the girl, Freya, has actually just gotten over a bit of an obsession with angels that started when she was 9 years old. So, her wanting to fit in is understood, if not enjoyed. The girl who she ends up befriending believes in angels, and she isn't afraid to say so, which makes her not so popular with the students at the school she goes to. Add in the fact that Freya is, in fact, half angel half human, and that it's her purpose to help others, it creates a really good plot. I think the best part of the book, however, was illustrating the world's pain so well. I think that Cliff McNash did excellently with that, and I hope that when others read this book that it will make them inspired to help others as I was. I give this story 4 stars, because although the plot was exceptional and the theme was tear-worthy, the story could have been written, I think, a bit better. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Token of Darkness by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

After a car crash that he was in, that two men died in, Cooper Blake's life is torn apart. First of all, he was injured, so his football career is down the drain, not to mention the survivor's guilt he felt for the people who were killed. It also doesn't help that he has a ghost following him around all the time. Yep. A ghost. Samantha, the extremely colorful, blonde, pale, ghost. Did I mention that she has no clue of anything before she met Cooper? He stays in his own little world, trying to cope with reliving the car crash every night, trying to walk again, and return to a normal life, until he meets Brent. Brent can read minds, and he can even see Cooper's ghost. With his help, and the help of an arrogant sorcerer, and a sorceress who is actually the head cheerleader at his school, Cooper will attempt to not only get his life back to normal, but to understand his newfound powers, get the shadows under control, and discover who Samantha's real identity. Before it all destroys him.

The Naming by Alison Croggon

Maerad, a young girl who has been a slave practically all her life, has no friends or family. Her Mother died when she was 7, and the her father and brother were killed when she was still a young girl. She has convinced everyone in Gilman's Cot, a garrison-like place that is ruled by Gilman, that she is a witch, which brings about a wary respect of her elders, but scorning as far as her peers go. Her prized possession is a lyre, which she was taught to play so that she could entertain the soldiers after their raids. One day, her whole life changes when a stranger, who should have been invisible to her, comes by when she's milking a cow. The stranger, impressed by her ability to see through his disguise, invites her to go away with him, and she leaves. Soon, she discovers that she really is a witch, or, as they call one who has magic, a bard. Not only that, but she may be the only one who can save the world from the one who has plagued it- the Nameless One. I give this story 5 stars, because though it is quite detailed, it left me interested on every page, and it is an, in my opinion, well written story. The first in the Pellinor Quartet.