ASH AND QUILL, by Rachel Caine

The story: Jess Brightwell and his fellow team members from the Great Library are trapped in Philadelphia--a near-ghetto run by the Burners, who hate the Library and everything it stands for, and who would think nothing of killing them all unless they can offer a suitable bribe. When that bribe is found, it's out of the frying pan and into the fire as the group makes a getaway, only to fall into the clutches of Callum Brightwell. Callum might be Jess's father, but he'd never let family ties stand in the way of making a killer business deal...accent on killer.

June Cleaver's ratings: Language PG-13; Violence R; Sexual content PG-13 (fade-to-black sex that younger kids probably won't notice, if they ever even get as far as book 3); Nudity PG; Substance abuse PG-13; GLBT content PG-13; adult themes (political intrigue, family scheming, betrayal, difficult concepts) PG-13; overall rating PG-13.

Liz's comments: Another series I've been waiting a long time to read in order...imagine my chagrin when I realized, about 1/3 of the way through, that there's no way the author was going to be able to wrap things up by the end of book 3. Truthfully, this series is probably better for 9th-up, due to its denser prose and its challenging concepts, but for the 8th grade GT kids in any middle school who are looking for the next thing after Harry Potter--here you go.