The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley

I was first introduced to this enchanting series a couple years ago by my niece Jordyn, who was reading them at the time.  The series follows 11-year-old Sabrina Grimm and her 7-year-old sister Daphne.  They have been in foster care since the mysterious disappearance of their parents nearly 2 years ago.  Sabrina is surprised and suspicious when an old lady claiming to be their grandmother (whom they thought dead) takes them to live with her in a little town called Ferryport Landing. 

Ferryport Landing is not like normal towns.  The residents are fairytale characters called Everafters who came across the Atlantic to the new world.  However, they are trapped in Ferryport Landing by a magical barrier put there by the original Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm to prevent the more mischievous and and sinister Everafters from escaping and wreaking havoc.  So thus Sabrina and Daphne Grimm are introduced to their family business of being fairytale detectives.

Adventure and danger abound in this series as they look for clues to their parents' disappearance and discover a more sinister plot that involves a group called the Scarlet Hand. 

Books in the series:
1 - Fairy-tale Detectives
2 - The Unusual Suspects
3 - The Problem Child
4 - Once Upon a Crime
5 - Magic and Other Misdemeanors
6 - Tales From the Hood
7 - The Everafter War
8 - The Inside Story

Look for Council of Mirrors, the final book of the series, coming out May 2012!

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent is about a 16-year-old girl named Beatrice "Tris" Prior.  Taking place in post-apocalyptic Chicago, the city is divided into five factions: Dauntless, Abnegation, Amity, Erudite, and Candor.  Every year, all 16-year-olds are given a test to see which faction they would best fit in with (which isn't always the faction they grew up in), after which a day of Choosing occurs, where the teens can choose which faction they want to join.  It is a time of unrest between factions and choosing a different faction from the one you grew up in is seen as a betrayal to the faction you're leaving. 

Tris leaves Abnegation for Dauntless.  She has a secret.  During her testing, her results were inconclusive - she could do equally well in Abnegation, Dauntless, or Erudite.  The ability to be like more than one faction is known as divergence.  And there are those who seek out and kill the Divergent. 

Go out and get this book!  If you liked the Hunger Games, you are going to love Divergent!  After reading a copy from the library, I went out and bought my own copy to have.