This is a very engaging book that sends chills up your spine. I have read it multiple times and loved every minute of it, even when it creeped me out a little bit. The main character is named Cassidy and her best friend is a ghost.....no she is not crazy.....Jacob is a real ghost. Ever since Cassidy drowned and Jacob saved her life she has been able to cross between the world of the living and the world of the dead. She calls this 'the veil' because in order to cross over she pulls on a curtain in the air and enters the ghost world. Whenever a ghost is in the veil she hears a tap-tap-tap and is pulled towards it in order to pull back the curtain. Jacob does not like it when Cassidy does this, and neither does she, but 'the veil' calls to her and makes her wonder if there is something she should be doing in the mysterious place. To make matters worse, her parents decide to host a TV show on the most haunted places in the world, and they head off to Scotland, instead of the nice beach vacation that Cassidy had planned. She learns that Scotland is filled with ghosts and sometimes the pull of 'the veil' is too strong for her to resist and it sucks her into the land of the dead without her pulling on the curtain. Jacob gets dragged along, much to his irritation, and Cassidy meets another girl with her same talent, who Jacob doesn't like one bit. She realizes that she has much to learn about 'the veil' and that it is more dangerous than she initially thought. The girl informs her that she has a job to do instead of lugging her precious old-fashioned camera around and taking pictures in the hopes that one will turn out with ghost pictures instead of blurry shadows. This book keeps you turning pages so that you never want to stop. "The City of Ghosts" can get pretty scary, but not too bad, after all, I don't usually like scary books but this one surprised me and I love it a lot. I would recommend this book to middle schoolers who enjoy realistic fantasy with a little twist.

This book is wonderfully written and the story was absolutely amazing. I loved how the book was sort of a sci-fi and futuristic retelling of the fairy tale, "Cinderella." I am glad that I chose to read this book, because at first it didn't really look like a book that I would enjoy, but it completely surprised me and changed my view of the novel. The main character is named Cinder, that much you can gather from the title, and she is a cyborg, the result of a surgery when she was 11. Cinder has no memories from before the surgery and is currently living with her stepmother and stepsisters on Earth, in New Beijing of the Commonwealth, 125 years after World War IV. Cinder uses her talents as a mechanic to earn money, which she then has to give to her stepmother, Adri, because Cinder is required to "contribute" to the family's payments, when really she is earning all the money herself. Cinder and Adri's relationship was already rather strained, since Adri never wanted Cinder in the first place, so when an excuse comes for Cinder to be to sent away, to participate in something that no one ever survives, she doesn't hesitate. Cinder gets sent in for plague research, as a test subject for the disease, letumosis, and she proves more valuable than anyone thought, and Cinder isn't even given the full truth of her identity. To make things even more complicated, Cinder gets all tied up with the prince of New Beijing, who insists Cinder call him Kai, when he came to her booth in search of someone to fix his android. This provides a little twist of romance, with both Cinder and Kai keeping secrets and with both of them unsure of their feelings. This book is a mash up of so many genres; fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and the classic fairy tale, which causes you to never want to stop reading it and leaves you reaching for the next book of the series. This is a great read for teens with a preference of any genre or writing style, since this book has something in it for everyone.

This book is wonderfully written and the story was absolutely amazing. I loved how the book was sort of a sci-fi and futuristic retelling of the fairy tale, "Cinderella." I am glad that I chose to read this book, because at first it didn't really look like a book that I would enjoy, but it completely surprised me and changed my view of the novel. The main character is named Cinder, that much you can gather from the title, and she is a cyborg, the result of a surgery when she was 11. Cinder has no memories from before the surgery and is currently living with her stepmother and stepsisters on Earth, in New Beijing of the Commonwealth, 125 years after World War IV. Cinder uses her talents as a mechanic to earn money, which she then has to give to her stepmother, Adri, because Cinder is required to "contribute" to the family's payments, when really she is earning all the money herself. Cinder and Adri's relationship was already rather strained, since Adri never wanted Cinder in the first place, so when an excuse comes for Cinder to be to sent away, to participate in something that no one ever survives, she doesn't hesitate. Cinder gets sent in for plague research, as a test subject for the disease, letumosis, and she proves more valuable than anyone thought, and Cinder isn't even given the full truth of her identity. To make things even more complicated, Cinder gets all tied up with the prince of New Beijing, who insists Cinder call him Kai, when he came to her booth in search of someone to fix his android. This provides a little twist of romance, with both Cinder and Kai keeping secrets and with both of them unsure of their feelings. This book is a mash up of so many genres; fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and the classic fairy tale, which causes you to never want to stop reading it and leaves you reaching for the next book of the series. This is a great read for teens with a preference of any genre or writing style, since this book has something in it for everyone.

That was such a great video, it really makes you appreciate the service that these veterans have done for our country. I loved the line, "Land of the free, because of the brave." Thank you veterans!