The Mediator (Series) by Meg Cabot

Book 1: Shadowland
Book 2: Ninth Key
Book 3: Reunion
Book 4: Darkest Hour
Book 5: Haunted
Book 6: Twilight

I picked up the first Mediator book just to see what it was like. I saw it and the first four sequels at my local half price book store, read a bit inside and thought it might be a fun read.

I was abosultely right.

Suze (short for Susannah), can see the dead. Not just see them, in fact, but talk to them and interact with them. And, when necessary, throw a punch or two just to show them who's boss. As a Mediator, she tries to help the dead with what ever is keeping them here. Sometimes it can be simple -- like making sure that a locket is given to the right person. Sometimes it's more complex, and sometimes neither she nor the dead know what it will take to get the ghost to move on.

At sixteen, this Mediator thing has caused some problems for Suze. Up 'till now, she's live in New York City, and she's been trying to be a good mediator, but sometimes being a good mediator has gotten her into trouble. Like, for example, getting brought home by the police.

But now her mom has remarried to a guy that lives in Carmel, California. And who has three sons. And now she's left the place she's lived her whole life and moved to Carmel. When she gets there, it's not that it's not a nice house, and they've given her a great room with a view of the ocean. There's just this one little thing. Her room happens to also be occupied by a ghost. A male ghost. A kinda hot looking male ghost name Jesse.

And so starts the first book of the Mediator series.

Suze is just the sort of character I love reading. She's spunky, funny, sarcastic, and does what she believes is right, whether or not people around her think she should. (She reminds me a lot of Max in the Maximum Ride series). Each book of the series has Suze working with a new ghost or ghosts, and each slowly expands and defines her relationship with Jesse, the ghost who was murdered in her room 150 years ago.

In the third book in the series, Paul is introduced. While he doesn't have much to do in Darkest Hour, in Haunted and Twilight he plays major roles. Paul is another mediator, but he doesn't act like a mediator. And Suze finds out there are things he can do that she had no idea were possible. While he's willing to teach her, he also seems to very badly want her as a girlfriend. He confuses Suze -- she doesn't like him, yet she finds him very attractive.

Suze is confused about her feelings for Jesse, about her feelings for Paul, about what Paul is doing and has done, and finds she can't tell the truth to anyone. This is all part of what makes the books fun. Suze is never really unhappy given what's going on inside her, just confused. And she's got reasons to be confused. She can't very well take Jesse to the prom. Even though she can see and feel him, no one else could, and she'd look more than a bit strange. On the other hand, Paul isn't really her sort of guy...

And so it goes.

The six books make up a single story. Probably the best way to think of them is that each is a novelette. The page count in each book may be more than 300, but that's with a large type face and wide spacing, so the actual length isn't that great. (I'm a medium to quick reader, and I can read one of these in less than two hours.)

You've probably heard of the movie The Princess Diaries. Meg Cabot wrote the novel that movie was based upon. (She also wrote quite a few sequels to that novel.)

These are just simply fun to read, with a lot of humor and a nice love story connecting them all. I highly recommend them.

Rating: 9/10