(3) 4-6 In this trilogy ender (The Various, Celandine), the Various--hidden tribes of little people--need Midge's and Celandine's help in searching for a lost artifact that will allow them to return to their homeland. Augarde takes his time, entwining human and Various, youth and age, vengeance and love, mundane and magic in poignant, harmony. A bittersweet, moving finale.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(4) YA Mortal Instruments series. Demon-fighting teens Clary and Jace, with a large supporting cast of friends and family, climactically defeat their murderous archvillain father. In this exhilarating trilogy ender, Clare relies less on fantasy clichés and hip banter; instead, her characters drive the breakneck story, as does the love between Clary and Jace (who, luckily, aren't really siblings after all!). A scintillating, if bloated, page-turner.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(4) YA Worldweavers series. Thea (Gift of the Unmage) and her magic-impaired friends at Wandless Academy must save the world again, this time from e-mail spam contaminated with increasingly dangerous spells. Though the pacing is sometimes uneven and the cast of characters overlarge, the premise is fresh and intriguing. Thea's personal maturation and the politics and mysteries of the magic-rich world are well developed.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(4) YA Obernewtyn Chronicles series. Elspeth's strange psychic powers make her a Misfit, one of the many mutants born after the nuclear holocaust. Exiled to Obernewtyn, a remote prison farm where Misfits undergo sinister experiments, Elspeth helps overthrow the wardens' plot to find and control the "Beforetime" apocalyptic weapons. Though Carmody's premise and prose are unoriginal, her world is substantially developed and packed with mysteries; this engrossing series opener leaves readers wanting more.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(4) YA Obernewtyn Chronicles series. Generations after a nuclear holocaust, Obernewtyn is a safe haven for mutant Misfits with psychic talents. Elspeth (Obernewtyn) must leave the region's safety to pursue her destiny as savior of animals and destroyer of lost apocalyptic weapons. Though Carmody's cast of characters (many underdeveloped) is dizzyingly vast, her world-building is imaginative, substantial, and absorbing. Review covers these Obernewtyn Chronicles titles: Ashling, The Farseekers, The Keeping Place, The Stone Key, and Wavesong.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(4) YA Obernewtyn Chronicles series. Generations after a nuclear holocaust, Obernewtyn is a safe haven for mutant Misfits with psychic talents. Elspeth (Obernewtyn) must leave the region's safety to pursue her destiny as savior of animals and destroyer of lost apocalyptic weapons. Though Carmody's cast of characters (many underdeveloped) is dizzyingly vast, her world-building is imaginative, substantial, and absorbing. Review covers these Obernewtyn Chronicles titles: Ashling, The Farseekers, The Keeping Place, The Stone Key, and Wavesong.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(4) YA Obernewtyn Chronicles series. Generations after a nuclear holocaust, Obernewtyn is a safe haven for mutant Misfits with psychic talents. Elspeth (Obernewtyn) must leave the region's safety to pursue her destiny as savior of animals and destroyer of lost apocalyptic weapons. Though Carmody's cast of characters (many underdeveloped) is dizzyingly vast, her world-building is imaginative, substantial, and absorbing. Review covers these Obernewtyn Chronicles titles: Ashling, The Farseekers, The Keeping Place, The Stone Key, and Wavesong.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(4) YA Obernewtyn Chronicles series. Generations after a nuclear holocaust, Obernewtyn is a safe haven for mutant Misfits with psychic talents. Elspeth (Obernewtyn) must leave the region's safety to pursue her destiny as savior of animals and destroyer of lost apocalyptic weapons. Though Carmody's cast of characters (many underdeveloped) is dizzyingly vast, her world-building is imaginative, substantial, and absorbing. Review covers these Obernewtyn Chronicles titles: Ashling, The Farseekers, The Keeping Place, The Stone Key, and Wavesong.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(4) YA Obernewtyn Chronicles series. Generations after a nuclear holocaust, Obernewtyn is a safe haven for mutant Misfits with psychic talents. Elspeth (Obernewtyn) must leave the region's safety to pursue her destiny as savior of animals and destroyer of lost apocalyptic weapons. Though Carmody's cast of characters (many underdeveloped) is dizzyingly vast, her world-building is imaginative, substantial, and absorbing. Review covers these Obernewtyn Chronicles titles: Ashling, The Farseekers, The Keeping Place, The Stone Key, and Wavesong.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(4) YA Mortal Instruments series. The breathless adventures of fledgling demon-fighter Clary, her newfound brother Jace, and their friends continue in another battle with Valentine, the child-murdering archvillain who's also the siblings' father. Self-consciously hip banter and florid clichés sometimes take precedence over fully realized individual characters' voices. Clary and Jace's incestuous attraction is the romantic heart of this glittering urban fantasy.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(3) YA Monster Blood Tattoo series. While training as a lamplighter, Rossamünd confronts danger on monster-ridden roads while facing intrigue and prejudice at home. Still collecting odd friends in unexpected places, the meek orphan slowly but surely asserts his strength and resourcefulness. A stirring climax is well worth the long, leisurely buildup; its power is in Cornish's meticulous world-building of the richly detailed Half-Continent. Appendix. Glos.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(4) 4-6 Rapunzel's daughter Julie Marchen (Into the Wild) and her long-lost prince father flee across the country as the Wild, the mystical, sentient forest where fairy tales grow, swallows everything behind them. A treat for fairy-tale lovers, just as fast-paced (and convoluted) as the first, this sequel further explores the nature of storytelling through the characters' uneasy relationship with the Wild.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(4) YA Bianca's creepy new school is full of sharply beautiful students with unsettling habits. Turns out they're vampires. The twist is, so is she (sort of), and the only one who doesn't know is her boyfriend--an undercover vampire hunter. The tale of star-crossed lovers unfolds with predictable angst, but Gray makes clever use of the school-story and vampire formulas.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(4) YA Princess Tania and Edric journey on a desperate quest while her royal family fights an ancient enemy. Nearly all the action takes place in the stock Faerie landscape; Tania's former human life is barely referenced. This action-packed conclusion to the trilogy remains entertaining and engaging despite its reliance on fantasy clichés, including a climactic final battle.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(3) YA Drawing on Balinese legend, this riveting horror story is chock-full of nightmarish sacrifices and grisly occult imagery. After being held as a suspected terrorist, Jesse longs to live unobtrusively in his new small-town home. He soon realizes, however, that he's the only one who can stop a raging, grieving teenage witch from unleashing an unspeakable evil. Jesse is an empathetic reluctant hero.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(4) YA Leslie, a teenager seeking to forget her traumatic past, acquires a tattoo that, unbeknownst to her, makes her a living tool for the Dark King of the faeries. Heavier and more ambitious (if less enjoyable) than Wicked Lovely, this companion novel also centers on a love triangle but explores a bleaker emotional landscape, resisting a tidy ending.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Brandon Dorman. A dark plague threatens the inhabitants of the magical preserve of Fablehaven. The caretaker's grandchildren Kendra and Seth must summon all their courage and ingenuity, plus Kendra's developing fairy powers, to save it. Though he sometimes gets mired in an excess of recapitulation and info-dumping, Mull manages a complex world, high-stakes battles, and his ever-growing cast with emotional sincerity.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(3) 4-6 Tapestry series. Max and David, two preternaturally talented students at magical Rowan Academy, quest around the world and eventually beyond to prevent a demon from gaining the power to unmake creation. This dark sequel (the forces of good are continually defeated) swells in scale and scope, and Neff occasionally overrelies on summary, but overall his storytelling remains compelling.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(3) YA Noble Warriors series. Despondent after Nomana's destruction, Seeker resumes his quest to destroy the ancient savanters, enemies of the Noble Warriors, while his friends become followers of a new prophet called Joy Boy--the last savanter. Though this installment explores difficult questions of responsibility and faith, its take on the mysteries of love is comfortingly simple.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(3) YA Gus, Diana, Kali, and Tigre, mortal teenage avatars for gods battling to regain control of a world that forgot them, are supposed to be killing one another--not fleeing their pantheons and working together to save the world. Sutherland wisely focuses the narrative on her four lively and likable main characters, driving her rousing, suspenseful trilogy to a satisfying conclusion.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett