Maximum Ride 1: The angel experiment by James Patterson

Fourteen-year-old Maximum Ride, better known as Max, knows what it’s like to soar above the world. She and all the members of the ‘Flock’ – Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman and Angel – are just like ordinary kids – only they have wings and can fly. It may seem like a dream come true to some, but their lives can morph into a living nightmare at any time – like when Angel, the youngest member of the ‘Flock’, is kidnapped and taken back to the ‘School’ where she and the others were genetically engineered by sinister scientists.Her friends brave a journey to blazing hot Death Valley, California, to save Angel, but soon enough, they find themselves in yet another nightmare – this one involving fighting off the half-human, half-wolf ‘Erasers’ in New York City. Whether in the treetops of Central Park or in the bowels of the Manhattan subway system, Max and her adopted family take the ride of their lives. Along the way Max discovers from her old friend and father-figure Jeb – now her betrayed and greatest enemy – that her purpose is save the world – but can she?

I love this book because there is a lot of mystery and love. You have not lived until you have read Maximum Ride! 😉 T.L. (S2) *****

Grass by Cathy MacPhail

It would have been hard to have missed what was written on the wall. Painted in giant whitewashed letters: ‘SHARKEY IS A GRASS’. I hadn’t a clue who Sharkey was, but I knew one thing. ‘Sharkey’s a dead man,’ I said. Leo knows the value of never grassing and that you never grass on your friends. Everybody, too, knows the gang leaders in town. And you don’t grass on them. Not unless you don’t value your life – like Sharkey. And then Leo is unlucky enough to witness the murder of one gang leader by another, a man called Armour. Leo is petrified as he realises what he is witnessing and even more petrified when he realises that Armour has seen him. Sure that he is drawing his own last breath, Leo silently says goodbye to his family and everybody he knows. But all Armour does is wink at Leo, very slowly, and leave the scene of the crime. Leo draws a long breath of relief. He has got away with it. But he hasn’t – not really. Leo will live to regret that wink and realise that Armour has an insidious hold on him and his family,which will test his family relationships, and his very sense of what is right and wrong. It will take bravery, luck and sheer daring to extricate himself from Armour’s deadly web.

A good book and a good author. ‘Do not grass on your friend’. G.Y. (S1) *****

The Rescue (The Medusa Project Book 3) by Sophie McKenzie

Until recently, the Medusa teens lived under the protection of William’s brother, Fergus Fox, at his North London boarding school – Fox Academy. However their existence has now became known to members of the criminal underworld, so they are being taken to a secluded training camp in Spain, where their identities can be kept secret. Now Dylan has been kidnapped, and this time only Ed can help set her free…

It was really good. I didn’t want it to end. G.S. (S2) *****

Secret Lives (Darke Academy Book 1) by Gabriella Poole

The Darke Academy is a school like no other. An elite establishment that moves to an exotic new city every term, its students are impossibly beautiful, sophisticated and rich. And the more new scholarship girl Cassie Bell learns about the Academy, the more curious she becomes.

This is one of the most beautiful, intense books I have ever had the privilege to read. The use of historic legends is incredibly clever and the descriptions used are fantastic!
C.W. (S2) *****

The violet keystone by Garth Nix (Book 6 in The Seventh Tower series)

Tal and Milla are only one step away from death, while the evil that has controlled their world for so long is about to triumph. If the Veil is lifted, nothing can save the Dark World. Their one glimmer of hope is to confront the monster Sharrakor and regain the violet keystone.
A very good book, particularly the bit about the worm. K.A. (S3) ****

Wasted by Nicola Morgan

Jack worships luck and decides his actions by the flip of a coin. No risk is too great if the coin demands it. Luck brings him Jess, a beautiful singer who will change his life. But Jack’s luck is running out, and soon the stakes are high. As chance and choice unravel, the risks of Jack’s game become terrifyingly clear.
This book is intense. It constantly speaks of luck and chance and philosophy. I found it very enjoyable.
R.G. (S3) ***½

This book is a true masterpiece. It brings up so many philosophical questions and entwines fantasy and reality in a beautiful way. I would recommend this to anyone.
C.W. (S2) ****½

Follow Nicola Morgan’s blog about Wasted at:
http://www.talkaboutwasted.blogspot.com/

The Ely Plot by Joan Lennon

You’d think growing up in a medieval abbey, surrounded by nothing but monks and hundreds of miles of swamp, would be pretty boring. Pip thinks so too, until the day he meets Perfect, a small stone gargoyle with a life of her own. Before long, the two find themselves in the midst of an assassination attempt against the new king, escaping into the cold dark night, being chased across the fens by a man bent on killing them …Boring? Not so much.

An amazing heartwarming story and a true fantasy story. J.B. (S1) *****

Time Riders by Alex Scarrow

Liam O’Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2029. Yet moments before death, someone mysteriously appeared and said, ‘take my hand’. Liam, Maddy and Sal have been recruited by the TimeRiders, to stop time travel from destroying the world.

This book is OK and it has a good story. Anon (S1) *****