Fablehaven: Keys to the Demon Prison

This is the fifth and final book in a series, so I'm going to go ahead and recommend the whole series. They are all complete books - no cliff hanger endings - but you want to read them in order.

I've read reviews that compare Brandon Mull's series to Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, but the author he most reminds me of is Rick Riordan. Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series gives the reader just enough details without getting bogged down in background. And yet, at the end of "The Last Olympian," I still had questions. The Fablehaven books are much the same.

In this final installment, my only gripe is that I want more. The series is over, and I wanted the astrids to play a bigger role (the guy on the cover is an astrid). There were so many characters that I want to know more about. The book has 588 pages, and he kept me up way past my bedtime turning them. The action, the characters, the love interests, the betrayals, the climax, and the ending - they were perfect. Le Sigh.

This is one of those series that get better with each book. For those of you who don't know what the series is about, I'll give you a little bit of spoiler free background. The story is set in our world, the USA of today. The catch is that there are secret preserves that house and protect mythological/fairy tale creatures and there are secret societies that know about these creatures and disagree about how they should be treated. Oh, and let's not forget the demons, mostly bound or buried in the heavily guarded, almost unreachable prison, Zzyxx. You'd think these societies would at least agree that Zzyxx is a place best left alone, but what kind of story would that be?

I'm just going to add that Brandon Mull wins the prize for the absolute best break-up scene of all time. But that's in the fourth book. I seriously got up and danced a little "that is so cool" dance when I read it.

Do you have any book recommendations for me?