Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian by Eoin Colfer (audio)

In the final installment of the Artemis Fowl series, Artemis is up against Opal again.  This time she is trying to open a magical gate that will lead to the destruction of mankind and will allow fairies to rule the world with her as the leader, of course. But the boy genuis and his friends will not allow that to happen especially since all of this takes place at Fowl Manor and Artemis' little brothers and Butler's sister are possessed by ancient fairy spirits bend on revenge against the humans.

An excellent finish to a great series! I am going to miss the adventures of Artemis Fowl, Holly Short, Butler and all the other great characters in this series. When I reviewed The Atlantis Complex I said I had no idea how the series would end. I guessed Opal would be involved and I was right. But I didn't really make any guesses beyond that because the Artemis Fowl books have always been surprising. And the ending of this book is really surprising and I enjoyed seeing Artemis grow so much as a person. He is such a different character in this book than in the first one and that is some amazing character growth. The adventure itself is sort of not again for the characters but it was fun and hilarious in some places. And I never doubted that they would win. I was genuinely surprised at how they won. Now I really want to go back and read the first book again, just to remind myself at how far the characters have come.

Nathaniel Parker is the narrator for this book and I enjoyed listening to him. He brings a great sense of urgency, excitement, and humor to his reading. I've pretty much only been listening to the Artemis Fowl books for a long time because they are great on audio and really one of the best audiobook series I've come across.

Messy by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan

From Goodreads: 
After a rocky start in Spoiled, Brooke Berlin and her newly discovered half sister, Molly Dix, have settled into something like sisterly love, but the drama is far from over.
Now that Brooke's caught a taste of fame and her movie star father's attention, she wants to launch a blog that will position her as the ultimate Hollywood insider. But between schoolwork, party-planning committee meetings, and spa treatments, she hardly has the time to write it herself...
Enter Max McCormack, an aspiring author with a terrible after-school job pushing faux meat on the macrobiotic masses of La-La Land. Max reluctantly agrees to play Brooke's ghost-blogger for an impressive salary, and the site takes off, but how long can their lie last? In person, Brooke can't live up to the intellectual wit of openbrooke.com, and Max soon begins to resent hiding her genius behind a bandage dress-wearing blonde. Can the girls work together to stay on top, or will the truth come out and ruin everything they've built?

I adored Spoiled and I really loved Messy. Both have the terrific sense of humor and pop culture jokes that you'd expect to find from the Fug Girls. There are a lot of references to clothing and gossip, of course, but some of the best things are the made up stuff like the soap opera "Lust for Life." Max, as a character, didn't stand out in my mind from the first book but it was cool having her front and center with Molly returning as a secondary character. I enjoyed that and I enjoyed seeing more of Brooke. She is a very complex character and it is nice to see more development of her.

It was a good story too. It wasn't a groundbreaking plot or anything but it was very fun and the characters more than make up for some of the more generic plot elements.  There are a few surprises along the way and Max and Brooke grow a lot as characters. I enjoyed the character of Brady Swift as well. He was a genuinely nice guy as was Jake, the football player Max has a crush on, and that was nice to see. It is a very fun book, something to pick up for a good, quick read.

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan (The Lynburn Legacy #1)

Kami has lived her whole life with a boy inside her head. But when that boy turns out to be real and one of the dreaded Lynburns, a family whose mysterious hold over the town causes fear and silence, Kami's perceptions of her life and her town are turned upside down. With her nap loving friend Angela and the other Lynburn, tall, polite Ash, Kami sets out to find out why the Lynburns are so feared in Sorry-in-the-Vale.

It's been a while since I've read a book that I haven't wanted to put down. For a long time now, I've lazily been reading books. Usually I ripped through books quickly taking a couple of days, sometimes a week but not much more. But not lately which is why I have been so quiet on this blog. But Unspoken was not a book to be put down. It pretty much demanded that I read it right now. And I am so glad it did. This is one of the funnies, smartest, and most engrossing book I've come across in a while. I loved it. While I didn't find what the Lynburns are to be that surprising, sometimes it is less about how original an idea is and more about how well it is executed. I did love the element that Kami and Jared are telepathically linked and how that came about. I loved the ending even though it broke my heart a little. I loved how funny this was. True story: I was reading this during a reference desk shift and started laughing out loud. Probably not my most professional moment but it could not be helped. This is a great book and I highly recommend it.

The Snow Queen's Shadow by Jim C. Hines (Princess #4)

From Goodreads:
A broken mirror. A stolen child. A final mission to try to stop an enemy they never dreamed they would face.

When a spell gone wrong shatters Snow White's enchanted mirror, a demon escapes into the world. The demon's magic distorts the vision of all it touches, showing them only ugliness and hate. It is a power that turns even friends and lovers into mortal foes, one that will threaten humans and fairies alike.

And the first to fall under the demon's power is the princess, Snow White..

The last of the Princess series! I am sad about that. It was an excellent book and a great ending to the series. It really explores and twists the story of the Snow Queen.  All the elements are there from the story by Hans Christian Andersen, just remade to fit the story of Snow's possession of the demon who inhabited her mother's magic mirror and that demon's quest for power and Snow's desire for revenge. It was really well done how Hines managed to have the Snow Queen's story and yet make it about Snow White and fit the narrative of the series as a whole. I enjoyed how Talia and Danielle fit into the story and the exploration of Snow's past. She was the only princess prior to this book whose back story hadn't been fleshed out more and this book filled in that gap. There was a lot of action and definitely a lot of emotion. It was a good read and I am going to miss this series.

Princess
The Stepsister Scheme (#1)
The Mermaid's Madness (#2)
 Red Hood's Revenge (#3)