Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The fourth entry in the 7 part series of the Harry Potter Series, the Goblet of Fire was definetely an action-packed, exciting read. The main focus of the novel was a competition within 3 schools taking place in Hogwarts, the Triwizard Tournament. Each school has a champion that has been chosen by the magical goblet, which only accepts contestants age 17 or older. By a twist of fate, Harry gets chosen to be the second champion of Hogwarts, opposite handsome and popular Cedric Diggory. Each competition is dangerous and difficult but Harry pulls through with great marks till the finals, where he and Cedric both grab the trophy at the same time to be transported to no one other but Lord Voldermort. After Voldermort kills Cedric, Harry and the Dark Lord duel it out until both their wands form a magical connection and Harry narrowly escapes. The story goes on and the readers get the shock of their lives when they figure out that Mad - Eyed Moody, their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, is actually Barty Crouch's supposedly dead son, who was in a plot with Voldermort to kill Harry. Readers were urged to read Goblet of Fire with the recent movie release, which gave both the book and the movie a lot of publicity.

Fall on Your Knees
Fall on Your Knees is a very powerful, emotional book about a certain family living in Cape Breton. The story starts of with James, who elopes with a Lebanese teenager and starts a whole new family. The family goes through many changes over the times, from births to deaths. In my opinion, this novel is slow but gripping, but as soon as you get close to one character, they die. For that reason, i stopped reading the book half way through when the Lebanese wife, and her beautiful, gifted, first daughter both died.

The Village Bride of Beverly Hills
A novel which describes a not-so-typical life of an indian girl from a traditional family, The Village Bride of Beverly Hills by Kavita Daswani describes the life of a rebellious bride who moves to the U.S. after marriage. Her first time in America, she finds herself struggling to accept their traditions when she finally does, her in-laws do not accept them. The bride soon lands a glamorous job and finds herself lying to her in-laws and her husband since she knows they wouldn't approve. One day, her sister in law snitches her out and Priya finds herself calmly telling her family about the job and lying to them about it. Her mother-in-law, being a typical mother-in-law, quickly approved after being told her salary. Priya leaves her husband, much to the dismay of her gossipy neighbors, but he soons returns to claim her back.

The Magician's Nephew
The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis is a short, middle school read, but all the same an entertaining book part of a 7 book series. The series is called The Chronicles of Narnia which features the enchanted land of Narnia and it's various characters from the real world that often bump into it. The Magician's Nephew, first in the series, includes Polly and Digory, two children from London. Digory's evil uncle Andrew sends them to Narnia via the Wood between the Worlds through magical rings. Their experience in Narnia consisted of Aslan, a lion who is more like God, bringing the country to life with his song and Digory going to a certain garden to retrieve a special apple for Aslan. Overall the book is short and sweet, but i would recommend it for ages 11 and younger.

Dither Farm
Dither Farm is a fun, childish read about a family living on a farm in a rural county in Virginia. The family's life seemed completely normal until a certain magical great Aunt happened to stop by. Aunt Emma, who lives in Antarctica, keeps her magical carpet under Henry and Clementine's (the parents) bed, thinking that it would be safe. Little did she know that a brother and sister would take it and ride it. But, their secret joy ride didn't go unnoticed, as they received a blackmail later on concerning the carpet. If Matilda and Archibald Dither did not give the carpet, the loathsome Crowley would kill Archibald. Archibald is soon rescued by his father and matters wind up happily, of course.

Trading Up
Candace Bushnell, the author of Sex and the City, has been noted as a good writer, but Trading Up is the perfect counter-example. The story revolves around Janie a Victoria's Secret model, and her life and hardships. The novel starts off in NY where Janie is on top of the society, but with numerous sex scandals, finds herself on the bottom, then on top again. The book was a very slow read, and the author portrays Janie in such a way that the reader does not develop any kind of feelings for the character in any way. I ended up disliking all the characters and wanting just to finish the book and throw it away, a complete waste of time.

Skinny Dip
Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen is a humorous book concerning Chaz Perrone's wife's, Joey Perrone, life after he threw her off a cruise ship. The only thing Chaz forgot after he threw her off that Joey was a former swim champ, and therefore found her way to a remote island where she meets Mick Stranahan. Stranahan, handsome, independent, lonely and most of all, lovable, proves to be Joey's next lover as well as the master planner of the downfall of Chaz. We go on to find out the motive of Joey's ex husband, Joey had stumbled upon some figures of her biologist spouse which indicated that he was lying about the PH level of the Everglades. She infact had no idea what he was doing, therefore leading Chaz to make the biggest mistake of his life - throwing her off the ship.

If only it were true by Marc Levy is funny, romantic, and finally has a bit of light suspense towards the end of the book. The story starts of with the beautiful and intelligent nurse Lauren falling into a coma as a result of a serious car crash, but who's ghost (who is in fact very human-like) is discovered in the serious minded architect Arthur's, closet. When she is able to convince him that she is her own ghost and that he is not crazy because he is in fact the only person that could see her, they (obviously) fall in love. The story takes an unexpected twist when it was decided that the hospital was taking Lauren off her feeding tube, thus killing her. Arthur acts on impulse, but I'm not going to ruin the story and tell you what happens next! Overall, If only it were True is a fun and humorous short read along with being a great page-turner.

Prarthana