Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs (2014) Ace

Charles, the Marrock’s son and enforcer, and his new mate, Anna are sent to a meeting of werewolves from around the world to deal with the Marrock’s decision to out the werewolves to the public.  With the Marrock only in charge of the werewolves in the U.S., his announcement will also affect those in other places and not all are enthused with the idea.  His biggest ally is Arthur, someone he doesn’t really like, the Alpha from England who insists that he is the Arthur of legend reincarnated.  His biggest foe, Chastain, is the Alpha from France, who controls, but does not administer, Europe mainland.  He is a beast that kills without rules.  To keep the peace, the Marrock hired a fea, a Grey Lord, one who was the Grand Belled Sans Merci. 

Then, vampires try to kidnap Anna.  Followed by vampires kidnapping and killing Arthur’s mate.  There is a hunt in a controlled environment going on when it happens.  Chastain, in wolf form, having found one of the prizes, presents it to Anna, who wants nothing to do with it or him.  Chastain snaps his jaws close to her neck and Charles reverting to wolf form almost instantly, blindsides him, then grabs his nose, shutting off his air supply and making him pass-out.  The fea announces that Charles drew first blood and has broken the rules.  He runs to pick his own fighting ground, expecting the other wolves to give chase.  But Anna, notes that the hunt was over and she was threatened and therefore Charles is clear.  Once they have reunited, they go to their hotel to rest.  Then Anna wakes-up in the vampire’s van.

The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore (2012) HarperCollins 

The Loric chronicles continue with the introduction of number nine.  He was raised in Chicago in a penthouse taking up two top floors in the John Hancock tower.  He is arrogant, brash and everything number four is not.  But he is also extremely well trained in his legacies.  Number four is still torn over his girlfriend, Sarah, having turned him into the FBI and the Mogodorians and the loss or capture of his friend, Sam.  Number six left to go find the Garde member in Spain and finds two other Garde: numbers seven and ten.  Seven turns out to be able to breathe under water, to be able to see in the dark, and most importantly, to heal the wounded.  Ten is a surprise in more than one way: she escaped Lorian on a second ship, with several chimera, though none are with her, and she can change age.  She can also communicate with some of the others telepathically.  Perhaps the biggest surprise was number eight.  He was in India and he can teleport and morph into animals or anything else he can imagine.  The locals think he is a reincarnation of Vishnu.

The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore (2011) HarperCollins

The saga of the Loric Garde continues.  Those who came to Earth with their Cepans (guardians) in a desperate attempt to develop their Legacy powers, learn to use the tools in their chest (which only opens the hands of both the Garde and their Cepan, unless the Cepan is dead), train and take back their planet – while evading the Mogadorians who have come to Earth to find and kill them.

A ‘charm’ had been in place to keep the Mogadorians from just killing their targets in any order.  They have to find each successive numbered Garde or the attempt will backfire and kill the killer.  But now, Number Six has found Number Four and the charm will no longer work, putting all the Garde in danger.  Number Six and her Cepan were captured by the Mogadorians and held prisoner.  While there, her Cepan is killed in front of her.  Back in her cell, she develops a Legacy power of invisibility and uses that to confuse her guards who rush into her cell and she escapes.  The Mogadorians still have her chest, but she develops additional powers, including the ability to control the elements.  Between them, and Number Four’s friend, Sam, they begin to defeat the Mogadorians each time the catch up to them.  Clues lead them to understand that Sam’s dad was an ally and hid something at their property under a sundial.  This takes them so close to Number Four’s girlfriend

But they are not all-powerful.

Hello Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly (2017) Greenwillow Books

About a group of young people.  There is Virgil, referred to by his family as Turtle, which he hates, the Tanaka sisters; Kaori and Gen, Kaori working as a psychic with only two customers; Virgil and Valencia, who is deaf, but wears hearing aids.  Her family doesn’t get her either.  And then there is Bull, who is a bully and thinks he knows everything, and none of it is necessarily good.

Virgil is in a special education class with Valencia, whom he has a crush on, and Bull calls him retard and calls Valencia deafo.

School is out for the summer, but Virgil feels he has failed – at least at what he wanted to do before he wouldn’t see Valencia for the next three months.  So he sets an appointment with Kaori who tells him to bring five special stones and he sets out across the woods.

Valencia has seen Karoi’s card on the bulletin board at the store and calls and sets her own appointment.

While Virgil is crossing the woods, Bull comes upon him and steals his backpack and throws it down a well – the backpack contains Virgil’s pet guinea pig, Gulliver.  Virgil sees a ladder and tries to climb down to rescue Gulliver but falls from the last rung and cannot reach it to climb out.

Virgil’s lateness worries Kaori and when Valencia gets there, she and her sister figure out that Valencia is who Virgil was wanting to say hello to.  They all go in search of the missing Virgil.

Well written and deserving of the Newbery Medal.

I Am Number 4 by Pitticus Lore (2010) HarperCollins

This book follows an alien teenager and his guardian as they try to stay one step ahead of their mortal enemies, the vicious Mogodorians, who destroyed their planet of Lorien.  Now, they’re tracking the nine surviving kids - Garde who are just now are coming into their legacies to Earth, and the Mogardorians intend to kill them.  But they have to kill them in order.  As they manage to do that, each of the other kids get a scar on their left ankle.  Three of them have been killed.  The narrator of the story is number four.  His Cepan, or guardian.

(James Frey and Jobie Hughes collaborate as Pitticus Lore)

M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman (2007) Subterranean Press (3/4)

a collection of short stories including:

- The Case of the Four and Twenty Blackbirds in which Jack Horner is approached by Jill Dumpty to look into the murder of her brother Humpty.

- Troll Bridge in which we finally get to understand how the troll came to live under the bridge.

- Don’t Ask Jack in which we learn just why Jack in the Box is so scary to kids.

- How to Sell the Ponti Bridge where we learn how someone can sell the already owned to the owners.

- October in the Chair where the months take turns in the chair, deciding who can tell their stories.

- Chivalry in which a Mrs. Whittaker buys the Holy Grail from a thrift store and is bothered by Sir Galaad, on a quest for the goblet.

- The Price that a cat pays to keep its benefactors safe from something worse than their nightmares.

- How to Talk to Girls at Parties in which two young men barge into a party, one slick with the girls, the other very bashful.  Only these girls are from around here, meaning Earth.

- Sunbird in which extreme epicureans depart to Egypt to eat the one and only sunbird, which is at once exhilarating and deadly and can be done only once every hundred years.

- The Witch’s Gravestone the precursor to the Graveyard Book – in which Bod, a live boy, is being watched over and educated by the denizens of a graveyard.  He meet the spirit of a witch who was buried in unconsecrated ground (for being a witch) and learns she does not have a gravestone.  He resolves to get her one.