Agatha Christie - The Seven Dials Mystery (1929)

This is the second mystery with Superintendent Battle and Lady Eileen Brent (Bundle). Of all Christie's female characters, I like Bundle the most. Fun, feisty and daring - she's the most engaging youthful character in all of Christie's books.

A group of friends staying in the country set eight alarm clocks to wake up a chronically oversleeping friend... this sets in motion murder, conspiracy and a race for Bundle to find the seven dials and stop whatever dastardly plans they have for England.

Elizabeth Norris - Unraveling (2012)

This book started out poorly - Janelle Tenner gets hit by a truck, dies and is brought back to life by a boy in the same grade at her high school, Ben Michaels. As she is magically healed she shares his memories of her and realises he has loved her since he was 10 years old - sound familiar? It's book 1 of the Roswell series.

Then everything got interesting - radiation deaths, an explosive device counting down, earthquakes, multiverse and a murdered FBI father. It started to become a really good book and I'd actually forgiven Norris for the beginning. Until I got to the ending. That was just AWFUL.

Talk about deus ex machina.

Mysterious men from a parallel universe pop in and shoot the bad guy just in time, the same teenage bad guy who'd murdered Janelle's father and best friend. His other two friends, one of whom is Ben, are just allowed to go home to their parallel universe AFTER killing hundreds of people in Janelle's universe. Everyone just left Janelle in a remote location with the body of her best friend even though she couldn't phone for help because the city was destroyed by an earthquake and everyone was struggling to survive. Worse - Janelle just happily sits there and thinks how wonderful life is and how much she wants to live it with Ben. Hopefully the FBI found her and locked her up as an accessory to getting hundreds of people dead because she withheld so much information from them because of her "love" for Ben.

As endings go that one really sucked. What an utterly disappointing book.

Hilary Duff - Elixir (2010)

This is the first book in Duff's series Elixir.

The story begins with Clea Raymond on vacation in Paris. She's a photojournalist who's more comfortable behind the lens, than interacting with people. While looking at her pictures she notices the image of a young man, Sage, in every one. Sage starts to haunt Clea's dreams, like a ghost. But, on assignment in Rio, Clea finds Sage is very real and they're soulmates - destined to live out a tragic life together over and over again.

It was an interesting book (at least the idea behind it was), but I didn't like the ending. The second half of the book was a chase scene and then suddenly it could all be fixed by one action, destroyed by one betrayal - all in the last few pages. Quite irritating really, it left me thinking that the writer had multiple personalities and six of them had written this book. It just didn't run smoothly and two many doors were opened, but not explored. There was too much filler in the book and not enough depth. Sad since it began well. I really liked the opening description of Clea's panic attack, it felt so real. Unfortunately it was all downhill from there.

Meg Cabot - Missing You (2006)

This is the fifth and final book in Cabot's Missing series.

Years have passed and Jess is in New York with her friend Ruth, studying at Julliard and trying to forget the past. After stopping the True Americans Jess joined the FBI  and ended up in Afghanistan fighting a war. The trauma burnt out her abilities and she returned home, broken, lost and unable to find herself. Then the last person she wants to see turns up, her ex-boyfriend Rob Wilkins, and he wants her to do the one thing she can't, find his missing sister.

This was a great ending to the series. I loved seeing Jess all grown up and coming to terms with her abilities and her life. It was great seeing her brother Douglas striking out on his own after he'd spent most of the series ill too. All very satisfying as bittersweet endings go. The subject matter was dark, child pornography, but the new adult Jess dealt with it without blowing anything up (so disappointing, I love explosions!). Cabot had brought about full character development over the years, Jess went from a young angry girl to an adult who understands that violence doesn't solve anything.

Meg Cabot - Sanctuary (2002)

This is the fourth book in Cabot's Missing series.

It's Thanksgiving and Jess is busy trying to get out of dinner with her family so she can make it to her boyfriend Rob's house to eat with him and his mother. On her way home she's stopped by police who've found the body of her neighbour, covered in racist carvings, left dead in a field.

Jess had known he was missing, but she'd thought he was out with friends so she hadn't tried to 'see' where he was. Now she blames herself and when another boy goes missing Jess is determined to use her abilities to find him and put the racist murderers in gaol, even if it outs her to the FBI.

Another dark storyline, but well-written. Cabot finds solutions to the darkness and gives us the happy ending we rarely get in real life. It's difficult to write books like this for young adults without making them adult books, but Cabot manages it. I really like this series, there's so many great characters with simple lives that are so interesting. Jess may have psychic abilities thrust on her, but she's an ordinary girl in all other ways. The books are worth reading just to experience the interactions between Jess, her family, friends and the FBI.

Meg Cabot - Safe House (2002)

This is the third book in Cabot's Missing series.

Jess is back from summer camp and finds herself blamed for the death of fellow student Amber Mackay. Amber had disappeared while Jess was away and didn't know she was missing, but that doesn't make the students at Ernest Pyle High School any less angry at Jess. When another girl goes missing everyone looks to Jess to save her and she's forced into trying to save Heather, whilst keeping her family safe from the FBI.

Considering this was a murder mystery it wasn't too heavy. Cabot is good at writing books where the subject matter doesn't draw you into the dark too deeply, but you're still wanting good to win and evil to be pummeled into gooey pulp. You can recognise that you're in Hell, but it doesn't overwhelm you. I like that about these books. They're darker than Cabot's Princess Diaries (which was more light than dark), but I can see how they're the next level up for kids developing. This is their first look at the horrors of the world and how to live with or fight it.

Meg Cabot - Code Name Cassandra (2001)

This is the second book in Cabot's series 'Missing'.

Jess, aka Lightning Girl, has told the world she's lost her powers to protect her family and friends from the media and government's constant harassment. To get away from it all she takes a job at a musically gifted summer camp, hours from home, and hopes it's far enough to put the last few months behind her. Everything's going great until a desperate father turns up needing Jess to find his daughter and the outcome has her running for her life.

I like any Meg Cabot book. They're fun young adult books. Lots of adventure and none of the trauma that the equivalent adult book throws at you. This is a great book, it's part of my I'm-stuck-in-bed-sick-and-need-a-happy-book shelf of books.