Fly Away By Lucy Christopher

Isla loves swans and has inherited this love from her father, every year they go early to the lake to see the swans home after they have migrated, but it does not always run smoothly. The council has put up some wires on the route just before the lake and have not put red disks on them as promised. The swans don’t see the wires and Isla and her Dad shout and try to warn them, but they are so confident and sure that they notice nothing wrong. As the swans fall down one by one some still remain but leave the lake. Isla’s Dad goes to see if he can save the swans, but when he pulls out one hopeful swan he is tired and puffed unlike usual and is not looking well, Isla’s mother had told her that her Dad was getting ill but she didn’t realise the severity. When Isla and her Dad are driving along they see the swans and chase them, her Dad runs faster and faster then falls. An ambulance arrives and her Dad is taken to the hospital where she meets Harry and a lake you can see from his window has a swan, one of the smaller swans that was at the back when they crashed into the power lines. Isla goes to investigate but finds that the swan is very interested in her and will run when she runs and stop when she stops. For class they have to make a project on flight and Isla decides to make hers based on swan wings. She takes a stuffed swan from her granddad and he helps her turn them into the wing design, Isla practices with the wings and admirers the swan but her dad is getting worse and not even the swan can make him better. Isla’s Dad gets a pig heart in place of his own and at first the operation recovery goes downhill but then he gets better and Isla leads the swan home. This is a great book with romance, action and tragedy’s in which you will never get bored. This book is suited for all girls and also some guys too.

Sisterhood Everlasting By Ann Brashares

The four sisters have grown up, they have new lives and with this they are no longer together as best friends like they were. Carmen is a successful actress, and is engaged to be married, Lena is still deeply involved with art and still has a longing to again be with Kostos who is now a successful businessman and she is thinking what life would have been like if she had gone with him in the first place. Bridget lives with Eric her boyfriend and keeps moving houses and never settling down then escaping to Brian who might have answers but finds herself filling a gap in her heart. Tibby sends the girls tickets to go to Greece where they meet but things have changed for the worst and the sisters struggle to stay together. This is a great book and shows you how the sisters persevere when life has dramatically changed and when a surprise changes for the worst, it is suited for teen girls and is a great loveable book to finish of ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’ series.

Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood, By Ann Brashares

The Sisterhood is back but are not really together, they are using the pants as a way to make it OK for being apart. Lena paints and keep a boring routine doing nothing at all until she meets Leo a summer fling and forgets all about Kostos but in the end she can never ignore him no matter how much she tries. Carmen goes to a theatre college to work backstage only to find herself centre stage in the main show, Carmen ditches her friends for the stage and her only friend at theatre camp ditches her when she out shines her. Bridget goes to an ancient city off Turkey after Eric has gone to another camp even though they are dating she finds that a friend she meets, means more to her than she expected and this leads to dire consequences. Tibby breaks up with Brian to find that it is the worst mistake she has made but only finds this out when he is stolen by someone else, Tibby tries to get Brian back and beg for forgiveness after she realises how much he means to her. The sisters leave each other and start to lose faith in the pants, but the pants bring them together in the end. This is a great series and has lots of ups and downs and how they get through life whilst keeping together when they are apart this book is suited for all girls and is a great read.

Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood, By Ann Brashares

The sisterhood is about to split apart for the first time, two summers ago they found the magical pants but now they get to wear them again, this is the first time wearing the pants since last summer because they only wear them when they split up to get extra magic. The sisterhood is graduating and they are about to have their last summer together as they are all going to different colleges and will never be together for school again. Tibby doesn’t like change and definitely does not agree with this, she likes her life and does not want it to change, Katherine her sister gets injured and Tibby believes that it is all her fault. Carmen gets caught up with Valia, Lena’s grandmother and has to look after her and sympathise with her for being taken from Greece after her husband died while she has a crush on Win, a guy she met in the hospital. Bridget is caught up with Eric again after she thought this was  over,  Bridget is unable to change Eric as her soccer camp partner and starts to grow towards him as they work together and become friends. Lena goes to art school then tries to get a portfolio finished to apply for a scholarship after her father said that he would not pay for her to draw. This is a great book for all girls and is part of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series,  it is a great book and the next book in the series is Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood, the book has romance and tragedy but also tells you the lives of the girls and what happens to them for their last summer together.

The Second Summer of the Sisterhood By Ann Brashares

Following on from The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants the girls are having their second summer apart and are getting out the pants for a new journey. Bridget goes to find her grandmother in Alabama but she doesn’t want to be recognised by her so she disguises herself by dying her hair and gets a job with her grandmother cleaning out her attic.  Bridget stopped playing soccer and she is no longer fit. She meets Billie whom she used to play soccer with when she was younger. She and her grandmother get closer and she starts getting fitter again but she still wonders if the pants fit. Carmen’s mother is in love and is crazy to impress a man but when Carmen’s life is upset by trying to have her mother back to normal she ruins her own date and when her mother borrows the pants Carmen is sure she has gone too far. Tibby goes to summer college attending a film course, replacing her old friends with new friends but when she realises what she has being doing she has a change of heart and creates a new film that is close to her heart. Lena struggles trying to let go of Kostos her ex boyfriend and can’t stop thinking about him but he has moved on but she feels she can love no other and holding onto hope that he will come back to her. As Kostos comes, she changes and the old Lena is released. The sisterhood hold on to each other and have a journey of their own for their second summer apart. This is a great book that I recommend, there is romance and adventure and will thrill many readers and is suited for a large age range.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants By Ann Brashares

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is about four different girls who find some pants at an op-shop which fit all of them. They are all going away for the summer and need some way to keep together and each of them take the pants with them for a week in hope something great will happen. Lena goes to grease where she meets a boy Kostos who her grandparents want her to be with but she is not so sure. Bridget is going to soccer camp in Baja, one of the coaches Eric is the boy of her dreams and she will stop at nothing to get him. Carmen is going with her dad and she thinks she will spend days with him all to her self and playing tennis with him when he has a surprise, he is getting married. Tibby is stuck at home making short movies when she meets Bailey, a young girl who wants to help her make the movies but Tibby is reluctant until she learns to appreciate Bailey. the pants keep them together and go on a journey around the world. This is a great book with friendship, relationships and trubble. this book is most suited for girls and is part of the sisterhood of the traveling pants series.

The Iron Queen By Julie Kagawa

Meghan Chase is just turning seventeen her real parents are one human and one Faery, her father is King Oberon of the Summer Faeries, and her mother is human. Meghan killed the Iron King Machina and has been given the Iron King Powers. Meghan has the powers of summer and iron and they don’t mix well, Iron magic kills any Summer or Winter Faery which makes life for Meghan hard and she lives with both. She is in love with a Winter Prince and therefore both of them have been exiled from Faery, but Faery needs their help, especially Meghan. A new Iron King the False King, is ruling over Faery and is taking over and is slowly corrupting Faery. Meghan is the only one able to travel into the iron realm without getting killed as she has iron magic within her. Her two companions Puck her best friend and Ash her boyfriend (The Winter Prince) go into the iron realm to save Faery and hopefully stop the iron corruption for good. They get help from some iron rebels, and many other people that she has helped previously and people who have sworn to help her as well as the gremlins who only understand her and will obey her every command and they help Meghan but in the end the fight is hers.

This is the third book in the Iron series and although I didn’t read the first and second book The Iron King and The Iron Daughter the book still makes sense and is a great book and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series. This book would be best suited for tweens and teens. 

Falling By Sharon Dogar

Neesha is caught in life, her mother treats her like a slave and so does her prince of a brother, she is a witch, like her Aunty who had a sad death and was tortured by falling in love with the wrong person. Neesha looks like her Aunt and her mother knows that Neesha is bad news, she is left handed and everything her mother doesn’t want just like her Aunt. As Neesha falls for Sam she is in trouble as she is replaying a previous romance with Sam’s grandfather and Neesha’s Aunt, a romance that could make or break them, Neesha sees what happened to her Aunt and does not want the same to happen to her. Kefin who goes to their school has always thought Neesha was unusual but when his grandmother tries to get through to him using Neesha’s powers and she suddenly blurts out in his grandmothers voice he knows he has to do something about it. Kefin has Knife (which is magical) which he inherited from his father and he goes hunting for Neesha which is one more thing she has to worry about, to try and stop getting herself killed. I really enjoyed this book, it is suited for teens and has romance tragedy and action. Neesha is trapped in her own world not to be messed with but will love save her.

Ella Enchanted By Gail Carson Levine

Ella was not your everyday girl and has never been since the day she was born. Lucinda a silly fairy who thought she could be helpful laid a curse on her, she was only trying to give Ella a gift but gifts from fairies can go very wrong. Lucinda gave Ella a gift of obedience, if anyone told her to do something she would have to do it, no matter how horrible. When Ella’s father has gotten poor after her mother’s death he sends Ella away to finishing school with some rich and snobby children of a lady friend her father, Sir Peter knows. Hattie the older child figures out that Ella will always obey her, she uses this to her advantage and tries to make Ella’s life miserable. Ella has made friends with Prince Charmont at her mother’s funeral and he was kind to her as he thought Ella’s mother funny. Ella runs away from the finishing school and goes to find her father whom is trading at a giants village and attending a marriage, Ella wants to go as many fairies like to attend births and marriages and she hopes Lucinda will be there and will undo the curse. On her way to the giants’ village she gets caught by ogres and passes Prince Charmont. When Ella gets home Sir Peter is still poor and has to marry Dame Olga, Hattie and Olives mother, Sir Peter goes away traveling again and Ella is turns into a scullery maid.

Prince Charmont has to leave their home town of Frell to carry out Princely duties, as they send letters to each other they start to fall in love. When there is a ball for the prince to choose a bride Ella goes and dresses up as another woman calling herself Lela so nobody recognises her especially her stepsisters and stepmother. The prince becomes friends with Lela but when Hattie who has attended the balls pulls off Lela’s mask and reveals Ella the Prince and Hattie are surprised, when the Prince asks Ella to marry him she does not want to as Hattie could order her around but with an order to marry she has to comply. Can she break her curse and save the Prince and all of Frell? I recommend this book for a large range of ages, it is a reasonably short book and an easy read and can be read to younger kids or can be read by them. This is a great book and I have read it multiple times as I have largely enjoyed the read.