Shatterglass by Tamora Pierce

Kathlun Warder was a gifted glassmaker until his world was shattered in a freak accident. Now his remaining glass-magic is mixed with lightning, and Tris must teach him to control it (if she can teach him to control his temper first). But there's more at stake than Keth's education. With his strange magic, he creates glass balls which reflect the immediate past and expose the work of a murderer. If he can harness his power properly, he'll be able to see the crimes as they take place. Keth and Tris race against time and the local authorities to identify a killer who's living in plain sight.

Rivvitting and great to many a reader plus it helps us learn everyone has a soft side and learn to repspect by knowlegde not by oh it is anelder they deserve respect. A great conclusion to a fantastic series.

Cold Fire by Tamora Pierce

Daja and Frostpine expect to spend some peaceful weeks with old friends in Namorn. But things begin to go awry as soon as they arrive. First Daja discovers that their hosts' twin daughters are mages. Then mysterious fires begin to blaze across the frigid city. Daja works with Bennat Ladradun, to locate what seems to be a serial arsonist. Daja's magic saves the city from going up in flames, but nothing and nobody can save her the disappointment of learning that the arsonist is someone close to her own heart.

"This series is a pleasant revisit of the characters introduced in the Circle of Magic series." Says Tammykirk on Goodreads. "Tamora Pierce is beginning to speak to a more sophisticated audience here."

As a follow-up to Pierce's previous books, Cold Fire is good. On it's own though, on it's own it stands above them all.

Street Magic by Tamora Pierce

Street Magic is the second book in the quartet The Circle Opens by acclaimed fantasy author Tamora Pierce.
While Briar Moss and his teacher Rosethorn are helping the locals in Chammur, Briar realizes that all is not as it should be in Chammur's streets.

Briar is now a certified mage at the unheard of age of fourteen. He is traveling the world with his teacher sharing their plant mage knowledge to enhance the lives of others. Briar offers free healing services to the homeless gang members and is soon drawn into their disputes. A new gang lord is taking over the city and destroying anyone who gets in her way. Briar refuses to allow her to take over his fledgling pupil, Evvy who has ambient rock magic. This book was much more violent then the others, but exiting  all the same.

Magic Steps by Tamora Pierce

Four years after we last saw the young mages: Sandry, Tris, Daja, and Briar in the Circle of Magic quartet, Sandry is back. Now 14 years old, she is helping her great-uncle, Duke Vedris IV, ruler of Emelan, recover after a heart attack. But there's no rest for the weary mage. A mysterious murderer is afoot, and it quickly becomes clear that Sandry and her reluctant young protégé, Pasco, are the only ones who can stop the killings. Unfortunately, Pasco comes from a long line of harriers, or provost's guards, and his burly family does not think highly of a boy who dances magical spells. It takes some fancy footwork to convince Pasco of the need for his special brand of magic, and Sandry is just the girl for the job.

But this book was a cut above the original four Circle books. The plot was fast-paced and the writing seemed to begin to seek a more mature audience.What a marvelous read.

Briar's Book by Tamora Pierce

This final book in Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic quartet shows with wonderful clarity Pierce's ability to have her books grow up with her characters (the Circle Opens, which chronologically follows these books, shows this even further). As the perspectives of Sandry, Briar, Tris and Daja deepen with experience and maturity, so Tamora Pierce's fictional land of Emelean seems colored more thoroughly in grays rather than only blacks and whites. 

In this book, which is primarily concerned with the outbreak of a plague and the characters' attempts to control and cure it, the lives of the adult characters are further revealed, and readers older than the books intended audience may be glad to see that Pierce devotes just as much attention to their characterization as she does to that of her younger protaganists. For me, the concerns of Lark, Rosethorn, and Crane were just as involving as those of the younger characters, and sometimes more so. Though this book is ostensibly centered around Briar, and it is true that the main conflict concerns his character arc, due attention is still paid to the other characters. A satisfying conclusion to a very nice quartet, and one that will leave readers excited to read further installments set in this world.

Daja's Book by Tamora Pierce

Daja, the third member of the Circle of Magic, was born into the Trader culture; nomadic merchants who live according to their own rules and customs. At the beginning of the series, ten-year-old Daja was the only survivor of a shipwreck which killed her entire family. Because of this, the Traders labeled her trangshi -- bad luck -- and exiled her from their culture. Because of her magic with fire and metal, Daja was brought to Winding Circle Temple, where she made new friends and began a new life.

But now, because of her magic and the magic of her friends, Daja has accidentally created a tree made of metal, which grows as if it were alive. The Traders want it badly enough to do business even with an outcast. This, and the wildfires that are threatening the kingdom, may give Daja the chance she longs for to earn her place as a Trader again. But only if she is willing to leave behind her new friends.

Tris's Book by Tamora Pierce

Earthquake damage leaves Winding Circle vulnerable to pirate attack, so everyone - including the young mages-in-training Tris, Briar, Daja, and Sandry - is working to strengthen the community's defenses. When Tris's cousin Aymery comes to visit, he advises the "weather witch" to return to the family that exiled her, but she doesn't wish to leave her friends to the treat without her.

As the onslaught begins. two things become terribly clear: The pirates have a powerful new weapon, and they have an accomplice within Winding Circle. But the attackers have failed to reckon with the fury of a young mage betrayed once too often and her very stubborn, very loyal friends...

This second book in the Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce picks up, literally, right where the first left off, and it keeps building momentum. Unlike the first in the series this one focuses on Tris, a 'weather witch'.

After the earthquake hit Winding Circle our four young Mages find themselves strangely connected, and it's through this connection that they must explore their powers to save their only true home from Pirates.

Sandry's Book by Tamora Pierce

Have you ever had the feeling that when you've just about lost everything, something incredible and amazing comes along?

Meet the mages (magical people)of Winding Circle--Sandry, a noble who works wonders with thread; Daja, a trader girl who is gifted at metalcraft; Briar, a former thief who can communicate with plants; and Tris, a girl who doesn't seem to fit in anywhere, but has a connection with weather that unsettles everyone, including herself. They've all lived tough lives (even Lady Sandry), but come together with their incredible magic. Their gifts are truly amazing, but most of the time confusing for all of them. Besides learning how to harness their abilities, the four misfits must learn to get along with one another. This isn't the simplest task to complete, but when disaster strikes, they must work together as a whole, or die alone.

Humerous, thrilling and suspensful, Tamora Pierce creates yet another gripping series about magic, love, friendship, and finding one's place in the world.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Katniss Everdeen survived the Hunger Games...

...Now the Capitol wants Revenge.

Again, Collins’ crystalline, unadorned prose provides an open window to perfect pacing and electrifying world-building, but what’s even more remarkable is that aside from being tremendously action-packed sci-fi thrillers, these books are also brimming with potent themes of morality, obedience, sacrifice, redemption, love, law, and, above all, survival. Honestly, this book only needs to be good enough to satisfy its legions of fans. Fortunately, it’s great. And if you were dying to find out what happens after the last book, get ready for pure torture awaiting the next.

Catching Fire doesn’t disappoint when it segues into the pulse-pounding action readers have come to expect. Characters from the previous volume reappear to good effect: Katniss’s stylist, Cinna, proves he’s about more than fashion; Haymitch becomes more dimensional. But the star remains Katniss, whose bravery, honesty and wry cynicism carry the narrative...Collins has also created an exquisitely tense romantic triangle for her heroine...by book’s end (and it’s a cliffhanger), readers will be picking sides—Peeta or Gale?

The Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins

Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don't live to see the morning?

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in lineby forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to death on live TV.

What happens if we choose entertainment over humanity? When Katniss is sent to stylists to be made more telegenic before she competes, she stands naked in front of them, strangely unembarrassed. “They're so unlike people that I'm no more self-conscious than if a trio of oddly colored birds were pecking around my feet,” she thinks. In order not to hate these creatures who are sending her to her death, she imagines them as pets. It isn't just the contestants who risk the loss of their humanity. It is all who watch.

Katniss Everdeen is a hard-core teen who has spent years skirting authority by illegally hunting in the woods and taking care of her starving family. Through a series of events, her sister Prim is selected in a random lottery to compete in the hunger games. Of course the brave Katniss steps in to take her place, in a series of gladiator-like-fight-to-the-death-battles. It's a crazy game of survival and blood, where the winner takes all, while thousands of people across the continent watch in sadistic glee.

It's hard to say what is the most compelling thing about the book. The steady, almost cliff-hanger pacing, the romantic subplot, or the spirited Katniss herself. Her indomitable will to survive, even as she grapples with her own feelings of humanity at the loss of human life.

The Sorceress by Michael Scott

John Dee has spent the last 600+ years trying to catch the Flamels and has failed time after time. Now, his Dark Elder has given him one more chance. Or else! To help him, Dee has hired the powerful immortals Niccolo Machiavelli (famous author and art collector) and Billy the Kid (infamous gunfighter). The two of them have split up across the world to take on the Alchemyst and his wife.
Perenelle Flamel is still trapped on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, and as if having the deadly magic-sucking Sphinx hunting her down isn’t bad enough, Billy the Kid has arrived with reinforcements. However, the bad guys seem to have underestimated the Sorceress. She has had a little time to recharge her powers, and is ready and waiting for whatever he brings her way. Too bad it’s the Crow Goddess and the Old Man in the Sea. They could be trouble. Especially if they unleash the bizarre army of monsters locked in the cells of Alcatraz Prison.
Nicholas Flamel has traveled to London with the twins. Both of them have had their powers awakened, and their gold and silver auras are the strongest and purest anyone has ever seen. Sophie has already been trained in both the Magic of the Wind and the Magic of Fire. Josh, however, is still powerless and a bit jealous of his sister. The goal is to have Gilgamesh the King train them in the Magic of Water. The only problem is, the last time Flamel and Gilgamesh talked, the King tried to kill him. All their hope lies in the crazed mind of the oldest being alive. And Machiavelli is hot on their trail. If Gilgamesh can’t help them, then they might be stuck without options. The Flamels are aging faster with each day and desperately need to find the Book of Abraham the Mage or they’ll die.