Another Jekyll, Another Hyde by Daniel and Dina Nayeri

Another Jekyll, Another Hyde by Daniel Nayeri
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

First I want to thank both Netgalley and Candlewick Press for the chance to read this egalley. I don't think I reviewed either of the first two books on Goodreads, you'll have to go to my blog at http://misclisa.blogspot.com/ to find those reviews. But I really enjoyed the first two: Another Faust and Another Pan by Daniel and Dina Nayeri. And so, I was so excited when I saw this 3rd one on Netgalley, I immediately requested it. It seems like it was forever before they accepted my request, I began to get worried I wouldn't be approved, but I was, and I'm so happy, because I was NOT disappointed in any way, shape, or form!
Let me say this was a perfect ending to a great series! The books are modern day versions of some classic tales, which you can tell from the titles: Faust, an old German tale about a man who is unsatisfied with his life, so he sells his soul to the devil; Peter Pan, a boy who stays a boy forever, and has a band of boys who follow him, and then there is Wendy too; and finally, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the story of the man with the mild doctor personality by day, and the monstrous personality at night. All stories are well updated in this series. They are also some of the most original teen stories out there.  They're not the usual paranormal romance, I believe they could get teens inspired to go back and read the actual original stories they were based on. 
We started in the first book meeting Madame Vileroy, the beautiful and mysterious governess/guardian of 5 teens, all who have in a way sold their soul to her for what they want, beauty, success, smarts, athleticism, etc. However, she is basically like the devil, in that their wishes don't quite turn out the way they want, and she is almost defeated in the end, and three of the teens escape. Oh, and this story takes place at the prestigious Marlowe school in NYC.
In the 2nd book we meet the Darlings, Lucy and John, who go to Marlowe because their father is a history professor, and researches into ancient Egypt. Because of some ancient artifacts that are loaned to the school for a special exhibit, the underworld is let out to take over the basement of the school. The new mousy school nurse seems to be a part of it, and we learn that she is Madame Vileroy, back to seek bone dust, the stuff that makes her immortal and beautiful. Peter is a new kid at school, there because he follows these artifacts, because he too has an interest in the bone dust, and the mousy nurse.
And finally, the 3rd, and what seems to be the final installment. Thomas, who used to date Belle, one of Madame Vileroy's charges, before she dumped him, now has to deal with Vileroy and his father getting married. Of course she isn't who you'd want for a stepmother, one reason for Thomas is that he is heartbroken and confused at Belle leaving, and what he thinks he saw before she left, and part of the reason is that she needs her son to be "re-born" in order for her to regain what she needs to be her normal, beautiful, immortal self. And she has chosen Thomas to be the "vessel" I guess you would say. Which leads to a whole Jekyll and Hyde scenario, and Thomas begins to have blacked out times that he cannot remember.
(Spoiler alert!!!)
In the end, I think there is no way you can say that the evil isn't destroyed. I believe this villain is gone, they defeated her. And that is the way that I want some stories to end. I want there to be an end to the evil. Kind of like Harry Potter destroyed Voldemort. Sometimes it is okay for evil to really go. And this is the perfect way it was done.
This goes in on my A-Z Challenge as my "A" entry.

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Another Pan by Daniel and Dina Nayeri

Wow! I haven't gotten to blog in forever! Hate being so busy.

Finally got to finish this book when we got it into the store and I was able to check it out. When I first started reading it, I wasn't sure if I would like it, it didn't sound like as good of a story as Another Faust was. But once I got into it, I actually liked it even better!

The Pan they're talking about is Peter Pan. Our main characters are Wendy and John Darling. Sound familiar? And their father is an Egyptologist who is currently teaching at Marlowe, the private school we learned about in Another Faust. He has a theory that he was basically laughed out of the Egyptology community for. He said the god of death was actually a woman, and that there were 5 myths/stories that were true. And there was a book of them that he studied. Turns out that this "Peter" is almost immortal, he is looking for the mummy/bone dust from these stories, and has already partaken of some of it. Our lady death is Madame Villeroy from the first book, or her true self. Only now she is back as the sickly, plain looking school nurse.

The Egyptology and myths really sucked me in. I loved the stories. Probably because I have always been such a huge fan of Egyptology. One of my dream careers would be to be an Egyptologist. Right behind being a Paleontologist and a Librarian.

Another thing that I loved was the scene that is so recognizable for anyone who knows the Peter Pan story, where Peter takes Wendy and John Darling out their bedroom window. That occurs in this book, and I love that it was a part of the modern story.

It says this is the 2nd in the Another Series, so surely if it is a series, that means there will be more. I just wonder what the next story they will re-do is. I will have to do some internet research.

Another Faust by Daniel and Dina Nayeri

I'm a bit behind on my blogging, teaching two online classes and no snow days last week left me kinda too busy to blog. I promised myself if I actually got a snow day this week, I'd get my book blogged. And I have two to blog about, but I'll just do this one today, so let's see how much I remember.

We start the books off learning about 5 children who are all about 10 years old. Four of them all want something more than they have. One night, they all disappear. Five years later they reappear in New York at a very exclusive school with their "governness," Madame Vileroy. Madame Vileroy has given them all gifts, but she expects something in return. Whether it be inside information about wealthy people, or to sabotage even each other's goals. Victoria can read people's thoughts, she calls it "cheating," to find out what she needs. And what she wants is to win all the awards, be the smartest, be the best. Bice and Belle are twins, who look NOTHING alike. Because what Belle wants is to be beautiful. As a girl, everyone always fawned over Bice, and Belle just wanted to be pretty, but no one fawned over her, because she was so plain as a girl. Christian wants to never have to be homeless or steal, which is what we saw him doing at the beginning of the book. And his dream is to be an athlete to do this. So his gift is that he can steal from other people, their energy, skills, etc. But he hates himself for doing this, because he doesn't want to steal. And Valentin can stop time and go back and do things over and over to try to get what he wants to happen, or get the best outcome he can. What he wants is to be a poet, a good one. Bice, she only wants to hide and learn as many languages as she can. Her gift is to slow time down so she can learn what she wants.

Madame Vileroy wants their souls, and they must decide if their gifts are worth giving up their souls and doing the evil things she wants.

I enjoyed the story. I think it had some clever twists and ideas in it. I liked it enough to go ahead and start reading the 2nd in the series, Another Pan. Unfortunately, I had to turn the Nook back into the store, and we didn't have any copies of the book in the store, so while I wanted to read both and post one blog about both, I will just have to wait until I get the other book to finish it.