The Chronicles of Faerie by O.R. Melling

I believe I was in the 8th grade when I first read the Chronicles of Faerie, and I loved the entire series, and still do to this day. Melling is known for these books and they have been translated into many different languages, you can see which ones and the corresponding cover art on her website. The series written for young adults.

The books are not one single story cut up into four books, rather, each of the books feature different characters (minus the last two) and though the characters from previous books make a cameo here and there, each book can be a stand- alone novel. What ties the books together is the world that they share. The books take place chronologically, so by reading them in order the reader will get a better sense of the world they're stepping into. The first two books, The Hunter's Moon and The Summer King, are similar in plot. there are two girls (in Hunter's Moon they were cousins, in Summer King, sisters) and one of the two girls gets taken away from the other and brought to the faerie realm. The reader is left with the girl who is left behind and that girl undergoes a journey to attempt to get her friend back. The last two books in the series, The Light-Bearer's Daughter and The Book of Dreams, focus on only one girl named Dana and her unique bond with the faerie realm.

The series has always had a special place in my heart and I always remember it fondly. It was an exciting read full of magic and traditional celtic folklore and belief and just a tiny bit of romance, enough for a tomboyish fourteen year old not to get too squeamish when reading it. The faeries in this book aren't all sugar and cream either. These was some of the first books I read that had vicious faeries in it, where the faeries weren't good or bad necessarily, but could 'shed blood without blinking an eye' i think it says somewhere. It was a gateway into discovering that not all faeries are going to be flower fairies or friendly forest spirits, and that even the good faeries could be vicious. I like to think of it as true faerie nature, but that's just me.

anyway, it's a light yet memorable read and I recommend it if you haven't read it yet. the ordering is The Hunter's Moon, The Summer King, The Light-Bearer's Daughter, and The Book of Dreams. The book beneath called The Chronicles of Faerie has the first three books, as the fourth one hadn't been released yet, and then the fourth was released alone in the same format. there is one book with all four called The Golden Book of Faerie, but I think it's out of print.

here's her website, http://www.ormelling.com/index.html