Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

http://www.skulduggerypleasant.com/

Stephanie's Uncle Gordon has recently passed away. He was a very popular author and left a fortune. He left it to her. After his funeral and at the reading of the will Stephanie is introduced to a man named Skulduggery Pleasant. This is a very strange man indeed. It isn't until he rescues her from harms way that she finds out he is really a skeleton. It is then that she finds out there is magic in this world. Those in the magic world have been at peace for a while, but there is one man who wants to stop that, he is evil and wants power. It just so happens that Gordon had something this man wants and now Stephanie is caught up in the middle. Stephanie is ok with it though, she never really felt like she belong and feels more connected to the magic world than her old one. She teams up with Skulduggery Pleasant to try and stop this evil man. Along the way she meets some very interesting characters, finds out that she might have magical powers herself, and makes some new friends.

This is a YA book but it was wonderful. I just can't express how much I loved this book. I read it pretty quickly, just couldn't put it down. This is one of the those books that you keep on the front seat of your car and hope you get stuff in a traffic jam so you have some extra reading time. haha! I loved the banter between Stephanie and Skulduggery. They had me laughing and grinning from the very beginning. I hope hope hope this is just the beginning in a long series. I was on the author's website (link is at the beginning of the blog) and didn't see anything that said another book was in the works - but man I really do hope so. This book had great characters, lots of action, magic, and good winning over evil, what more could you ask for?

YA/new author/392pgs