What Should I Read? Book Talks and More

Save the Cupcake!   by Lisa Papdemetriou -- #1 in the Confectionately Yours Series.  Everything is changing for Hayley.  But, that is what 7th grade is like here at my middle school.  But, for her, it is all happening at once--her parents divorced, she moved, her best friends are acting weird, her mom is looking for a new job...  Her constant is cupcakes (recipes included).  She invents recipes and bakes.  She often sells them in her grandmother's Tea House.  Is everything that's going wrong all her fault?  Now the PTO is trying to BAN cupcakes from her school.  I really enjoyed this realistic middle school book.

Slither by Joseph Delaney, book 11 in the Last Apprentice series. When this book came in, I was really excited and took it home to the son who loves this series as much as I do. But he said--"Is this the same series, I don't know who this character is..." And I said, if Joseph Delaney wrote it, it has to be good! This is a parallel plot to Tom Ward's stories.  Grimalkin, the Witch Assassin, appears and is very important in the story.  Who is Slither?  He is a being--not human--maybe like a blood loving wood nymph--with magical powers attached to the land.  He lives within a hierarchical society and "farms" people.  I know that sounds weird, but Delaney pulls it off. One of Slither's tenants dies.  The man has three daughters, the oldest is 17 and the youngest is 8.  The old man traded with Slither and made him promise that he would deliver the two younger girls to their aunt, but he could sell the oldest girl.  The story is about that journey

  Lure of the Dead by Joseph Delaney The Spook seems to be getting old and his apprentice, Tom, knows that he will soon be in charge of all the County's spook business.  Which is, of course, fighting supernatural elements, including witches, demons, vampires, and worse. Tom continues to seek a way to defeat the Fiend. Grimalkin, the witch who is an assassin and his ally, gives Tom bad news about the sacrifices he will have to make in order to get rid of the Fiend--it is the worst possible news.  In this episode, Tom works with another of the Spook's former apprentices to expel  Strigoica , an especially ancient and powerful type of vampire.  This is the tenth installment in The Last Apprentice series.  It is currently my favorite!  In this book, the Spook is rebuilding his home and he and Tom seem to understand one another with mutual respect.  Always remember, this is a VERY scary fantasy series--heed the warning on the cover:  not to be read after dark!

Recently I wrote about Devil's Breath by David Gilman.  The next book in Gilman's Danger Zone series is Ice Claw .  Max is in the French Alps for an extreme sports competition when he and his best friend narrowly escape an avalanche.  Later, back in town, he helps a girl get out of an attack by a motorcycle gang.  This gets him noticed by the wrong criminal element--and then he witnesses the murder of a priest.  Max senses something else, bigger and sinister is going on, so he follows his instinct and begins investigating the murder of the priest. This story is action-packed and exciting with the very likable main character, Max Gordan.  The plot includes elements of science, astrology, international endangered species, and a very very sinister bad guy.