Bloody Jack Adventures

Being Full Accounts of the Life of the Notorious Jacky Faber, Midshipman, Fine Lady, Pirate, Keelboat Captain, Lily of the West, Soldier, Sailor, Mermaid, Spy, and Queen of the Ocean Sea
by L.A. Meyer

This series centers on spunky Mary Faber, who gets into—and out of—every kind of scrape imaginable. In the first book she starts out as a London street orphan who signs aboard the H.M.S. Dolphin to make an honorable living. Disguised as a boy and newly christened “Jacky,” she hopes to voyage to far lands and see the Bombay Rat and the Cathay Cat. But it’s not that easy: life on a royal warship during the Napoleonic Wars is harsh in many ways, including cruel officers and bloody battles with pirates.
In a strange turn of events, Jacky is discovered as a girl by the Dolphin’s crew, separated from her true love, Mr. James “Jaimy” Emerson Fletcher, and sent to the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls to be gentrified.
But learning to be a lady by all odds won’t keep Jacky Faber inside making samplers or away from her beau. No way, she roves the world from the streets of London to a gaol in Boston, the hills of Ireland to the mud of the Mississippi, the swells of the Caribbean Sea to the guillotine in France, and everywhere in between.

Along the way Jacky makes friends in high places and in low (very memorable and almost over the top, but never annoyingly so characters), and the acquaintances of many handsome young men....

There is something for everyone in these novels: adventure, romance, humor, sentiment, drama, even a little action. They are filled with lots of fun little references to legends, characters from classic novels, historical figures, and—most particularly—songs from the period. Like most series, Jacky’s adventures have high and low points, but over all are simply amazing and can be described in one word: WOW. The series is definitely one of my favorites, and has its own small fan club on the Bloody Jack Boards (which I don’t recommend visiting until you’ve read the series because of spoilers).
Fans of Celia Rees’ Pirates! and the Piratica Trilogy by Tanith Lee will love Jacky Faber!

Note: These are definitely at least age 12-and-up books due to mature content matter (some violence and sexual references).

Check out this awesome fan-made trailer!

Read every one of Jacky’s exciting adventures in:

Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary “Jacky” Faber, Ship’s Boy
Curse of the Blue Tattoo: Being an Account of the Misadventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman and Fine Lady
Under the Jolly Roger: Being an Account of the Further Nautical Adventures of Jacky Faber
In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber
Mississippi Jack: Being an Account of the Further Waterborne Adventures of Jacky Faber, Midshipman, Fine Lady, and the Lily of the West
My Bonny Light Horseman: Being the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, in Love and War
Rapture of the Deep: Being an Account of the Further Adventures of Jacky Faber, Soldier, Sailor, Mermaid, Spy
Wake of the Lorelei Lee: Being an Account of the Adventures of Jacky Faber, on her Way to Botany Bay
The Mark of the Golden Dragon (working title)

Montmorency

by Eleanor Updale

If it weren’t for the special medical interest of the prison doctor the young man—number 493—lying wounded on his pallet might not survive. While recovering in prison he thinks up a master plan to become rich, and once freed he sets about making it happen. Using a name taken from a tool company, he soon becomes Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman? and is off to the start of a career he could never have imagined as an imprisoned orphan.

At first the novel is mostly about Montmorency’s clever way of thieving (which I won’t spoil for you) and his daily switch between the gentleman called Montmorency and the street-smart servant Scarper, which itself is interesting. Soon, however, Montmorency’s wealth brings him into the luxuries and delights of the upper class (his first opera, for instance), and the company of other gentlemen. Upon making the acquaintance of one George Fox-Selwyn, Montmorency is offered the job of spying for the British government, which is the beginning of his profession. Throughout the series Montmorency and his friends and allies solve every type of case imaginable—from stolen scientific specimens, to murders, to a plot to exterminate Europe’s monarchs.

Although the characters are clever, silly, witty, or secretive, their emotions are sometimes quite hidden, but somehow the series can still give you the giggles or nearly have you in tears over the events that take place. And though there are a few dull bits, on the whole the series is filled with exciting adventures and the last book ends with a bang that knocks the wind out of you (unless, of course, there might eventually be a fifth novel).


Solve the cases along with Mr. Montmorency in Montmorency on the Rocks: Doctor, Aristocrat, Murderer?, Montmorency and the Assassins: Master, Criminal, Spy?, and Montmorency’s Revenge, which chronicle the rest of his mastermind plans.

Maximum Ride

by James Patterson

No matter how much you read there’s always those books that you’ve heard about from lots of people and that have received rave reviews, but you’ve never read them. The Maximum Ride series was one of those for me. I picked Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment off the shelf on a whim a few weeks ago because the series is supposed to be so good. Well people are right; the story of Max and her Flock is gripping, fast paced, and fun. Even the first paragraph compels you to continue reading:

“Congratulations. The fact that you’re reading this means you’ve taken one giant step closer to surviving till your next birthday. Yes, you, standing there leafing through these pages. Do not put this book down. I’m dead serious—your life could depend on it.”

Fourteen-year-old Max and her friends—Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel—are avian-human hybrids; scientists genetically engineered them to have light bird-like bones, super strength, and wings. Before the book begins, the Flock escaped from the horrible place called “the School,” where they lived in dog crates and were forced to undergo experiments, but now their creators want them back and are hunting them down. Literally, as the scientists command Erasers, a sort of scientifically created werewolf. The sides are constantly changing, and “the bird kids” never know whom they can trust, Max suddenly has a mysterious Voice in her head telling her what to do (how’s saving the world for one?), all of them are looking for their long-lost parents. How do six kids survive against so many odds? Only by using their super powers and sticking together.

After quickly finishing the first novel, I grabbed the next two in the series, Maximum Ride: School’s Out—Forever and Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports. Both are just as high-speed and intense, although I will admit that by the third book all the heart stopping “revelations” (mainly lies made up to scare or test the Flock) became just slightly old. Still, this series is very lively and will entice even a highly reluctant reader in to wanting more. Don’t miss the Flock’s last escapades in The Final Warning: A Maximum Ride Novel, or their adventure when it hits the big screen. Check out Fang’s blog or go to MaximumRide.com for updates.

The Heir Series

Cinda Williams Chima’s new series grabs your attention from the first page of the prologue and doesn’t let go until the last word. Although the books are about modern day wizards, the story is nothing like Harry Potter.

The Warrior Heir begins in 1870, when a family’s life is ripped apart by wizards, then shifts to a time more than one hundred years later to where Jessamine Longbranch, a wizard and doctor changes the fate of a baby for her own selfish reasons.

Several years later, Jackson Swift wakes up one morning and, in his hurry to get out the door, forgets to take his heart medicine for the first time in sixteen years. Surprisingly, instead of becoming sick, Jack feels better than ever and breezes through his soccer tryouts. He knows something’s up when, after taking his medicine again, he feels anesthetized. Very soon after, his Aunt Linda shows up to take Jack and his friends on a spur-of-the-moment genealogy trip. Along the way they discover more than a few family records; Jack finds a medieval-era sword and learns that he has a destiny: to train as a warrior and fight a duel to the death, but will he fight for the light side or the dark one?

In The Wizard Heir, Seph McCauley is a handsome teenager who leaves a trail of disaster behind him. Unexplained fires, explosions, and other strange occurrences happen wherever he goes. He’s been expelled from four schools in the past three years, and now he’s on his way to a school for troubled boys in Maine. There Seph learns that he is a powerful—although untrained—wizard, but soon he realizes there is a dark side to the magic performed at Havens. Now he must fight to be free against those even more powerful than himself.

Ms. Chima effortlessly blends Jack and Seph’s modern day world with ancient fantasy, making for fast-paced novels with completely engrossing storylines. If you enjoy these two novels, look for The Dragon Heir. I’m sure it will be an amazing finale that includes characters from the first two books and tying the previous stories closer together.

John Marsden’s Tomorrow Series

When Ellie Linton and her friends go on a camping trip during the Commemoration Day celebration, they have no idea it will keep them from becoming prisoners in their own country. While the rest of the town is at the Showground celebrating, another country invaded Australia, taking over everything and everything. Ellie and her friends—Robyn, Kevin, Corrie, Lee, Homer, Fi, and Chris—decide that the must do something to loosen the invader’s grasp on their country and families—even if it means killing people. But what can eight teenagers really do to sabotage the enemy’s plans, stay hidden, and most of importantly, stay alive? Tomorrow, When the War Began is a gripping, suspenseful novel with very genuine characters, which at times is so real it’s spooky.

In the sequel series, The Ellie Chronicles, Ellie must learn to fight a new kind of war; a battle to keep her farm, the land she loves, and to survive after her parents are killed by enemy soldiers. This brings a new and different focus to the story but still centering on the same familiar characters.I must warn you, though, that if you begin reading these books you may suffer from sleep deprivation. This is a very well written and suspenseful series and staying up all night to can see what happens next is quite likely

Note: I would not recommend this series for most teens under the age of 14 due to mature content matter.

The Tomorrow Series:

Tomorrow, When the War Began
The Dead of Night
A Killing Frost
Darkness Be My Friend
Burning for Revenge
The Night is for Hunting
The Other Side of Dawn

The Ellie Chronicles:

While I Live
Incurable
Circle of Flight (unknown US release)