Fablehaven series

[Aethling he/him]

Fablehaven is a YA series involving a brother and sister and their adventures around and concerning a series of nature preserves for magical animals and entities.

I strongly recommend this series for both adults and kids. Each book can be read in a few hours by someone of relatively fast reading speed. Thus, it can be used as between book readings or you can treat the series as you would a larger book and read straight through.

Because it is written as a YA, there is no sex and the language is very, very tame.

This series is much better written than the first book in Beyonders. So much so that I almost didn't read it because I made the mistake of reading the first Beyonders book before this. While I will not continue reading Beyonders unless I can find them as clearance, I will have no qualms reading any future Fablehaven books if he decides to continue them as a second series or just adds to the original.

[Lightflame he/him]

I loved the first four, and would highly recommend them. However, book five was painful to read, as Gralaus being the villain was book clever and stupid. Also, Bracken is a massive Gary Stu. He's overpowered, everyone likes him, the love interest for the main character, has no flaws, is the son of the Fairy Queen (And she's a unicorn. What?), and has a lot of other Stu traits.

I can him "Stu Horse".

[Riddlesinthedark he/him]

I loved the first four, and would highly recommend them. However, book five was painful to read, as Gralaus being the villain was book clever and stupid. Also, Bracken is a massive Gary Stu. He's overpowered, everyone likes him, the love interest for the main character, has no flaws, is the son of the Fairy Queen (And she's a unicorn. What?), and has a lot of other Stu traits.

I can him "Stu Horse".

That and how our main heroine is broken, powerwise. I always felt like the siblings were fairly static and made the same mistakes over and over again (though you could say it was just Seth making mistakes over and over), but then the ending was just silly.

I could understand her being more powerful than the Fairy Queen if she AND her brother were wielding the sword. But that was just a little too much from Kendra alone.

I liked the idea, and liked the setting, but really feel like Mull could have used a better reading group/listened to the criticisms.