The Sprite Sisters: The Secret of the Towers by Sheridan Winn

From the publisher's site: The summer holidays bring excitement and adventure for the Sprite Sisters, who can each control an element of Fire, Water, Wind and Air. Together, they must discover the secret that Sprite Towers guards, before it falls into the wrong hands.

Although this book is written for younger readers, I still found myself enjoying it. Having read none of the previous books in the series, I was pleasantly surprised to be able to pick the story up so quickly and easily.

I liked all of the main characters, especially their names: Flame, Ash, Ariel and Marina. I also liked the idea of magic powers connected to the four elements, which isn't something I've encountered before. Their parents were also well written and were very British (polite and proper), which was nice to read. They reminded me of characters from The Famous Five series, which I read when I was younger.

At times, I found the writing style to be too simple, which I had a bit of trouble getting used to. I think the book is aimed at the 8-12 audience, so the style makes perfect sense in that respect.

I liked the mix of magic and fantasy, and would recommend this to younger fans of Harry Potter and Maximum Ride. It has elements of both, but is a fresh spin on powers and the supernatural. I'll definitely read the next book (The Ghost in the Tower, July 2009), as I'm now quite intrigued as to what happens next!