For years, I had been a huge fan of reading, I remember a time when I would come home from the library with a stack of 25 books and finish all of them within 2 weeks. Those times are gone now, I just don’t get that interested in reading anymore, I’m either playing games, surfing the web, or watching tv. In fact, over the course of the last year, there has been just one book that I have read on my own and I had not gotten more than halfway through a school assigned book all year.

On the other hand, the 39 Clues is one series that I can never get tired, this is just one of two book series that I still like and it is my favorite series of all time, and includes 2 of my all time favorite books. Back in the 8^th grade, a friend introduced the series to me. I thought it would be lame, but when I checked it out I was instantly hooked. If it had not been for the fact that a new book is realized every 3 to 5 months, I would have gone crazy from not reading enough.

When the series first came out, it was so popular that it really hard to get your hands on a copy. The day the 5^th book was released, I requested a copy of it at my library. So many people had also requested that book that I ended up picking up the 5^th book and 6^th book on the same day.

The original series began in September 2008 and ended in August 2010, and consisted of 10 books. Every book was amazing, but by the time I finished the 10^th and the climax struck, I felt like I was there. About a month after the final book, it was announced that there would be a second series titled Cahills vs Vespers. The 11^th book of the original series was released early 2011 and served as the transition to the new series which began during the summer.

The second series consisted of 6 books and in my opinion, was much better than the first. There were a few new characters, many new villains, new locations, and much more drama. When I had read the final book in March 2013, I could feel the world collapsing around me. The book was superb and I right away classified it as the greatest book ever, and it should be considering it was written by one of the best thriller writers of our time, David Baldacci. A month before that book was released, it was announced that there would be yet another series titled Unstoppable that would begin towards the end of 2013.

I have read the first book titled Nowhere to Run and it is a VERY dark book, with WAY more drama than any of the others and again, took the place as best book I have ever read. I have read the 2^nd book, but not all of it because of library issues, and the third book was just released on April 28^th in America. The 4^th and final book of this series will be in September and I fully expect it to be even better than the others.

The original series is about Dan and Amy Cahill, two young American’s who basically go around the world to find various “clues” and find out that their family is the most powerful family in the world. The series has so many characters that it is almost impossible to name them all. There are so many, that the book can get away with killing off the character that the entire series is based on in just the 1^st chapter of the 1^st book.

Amy and Dan are competing against 6 or 7 other teams, who are all members of the family and there are 4 different branches of the family. There are the Lucians who are basically the secret scientists, the Tomas, who are the athletic strong types, the Ekats who are kind of smart, the janus who are the pop stars and celebrities, and the Madrigals who are where Dan and Amy fall under.

So far, the series has involved 11 authors and includes Gordon Korman, my favorite author, Rick Riordan the creator of Percy Jackson, and Margaret Peterson Haddix.

Maze of Bones. In the first book, the Grandmother of Amy and Dan dies and the hunt for the clues begins. Any team that chooses not to participate receives 1 million dollars. The book takes place mostly in Boston and Paris. There was a very dramatic scene as Dan is trying to climb off the underground tracks as a train is entering the station. This clue of this book revolves around Benjamin Franklin.

One False Note.  This book takes place in Austria and Venince. This is where they truly begin to realize the evilness of the Kabra family, one of the other teams which involves children Ian and Natalie, and their mother Isabel who is the main antagonist of the series and the second in command of the evil group of the 2^nd series.

The Sword Thief. This book takes place in Japan and South Korea in the Bukhansan mountains. This is the first book in which the children learn of the hidden Madrigal family.

Beyond the Grave. This book takes place mostly in Eygpt. They find old family members that used to know their grandmother but nothing else really happens in this book.

The Black Circle. This book takes place in Russia. In this book, Amy and Dan learn that their parents who were killed years before were involved in the hunt as much as they were.

In Too Deep. The 6^th book finds Amy and Dan with an uncle in Austrailia. This book revolves around Irina Spasky, former Russian spy and the only member of her team. Throughout the series, she had been either sabotaging someone, or trying to kill other members. However, at the end of this book, the house Amy and Dan are in burns down, and Irina is killed by the fire while saving them.

The Vipers Nest. A lot happens in this book that takes place in South Africa and Madagascar. During this book, they are wanted by the police, Dan gets badly poisoned, and they realize that they were Madrigals.

The Emporers Code. This one takes place in China and is probably one of my favorites behind book 1 and 10. After China, the pair end up climbing mount Everest in a special helicopter and near the peak, there is a huge battle between them and two other teams.

Storm Warning. The 9^th book takes place in the Carribeans. They find that their au pair, Nellie who had been travelling with them was working for their laywer who is the one who set up the the hunt along with their Grandmother. She is I believe 22 and yet she is a trained pilot and had been hired basically as a spy, but as in the form of keeping the kids safe. They learn that a man who had been following them for most of the series turned out to be a family member. At first they thought this person, named Fiske Cahill was evil. They saw their lawyer talking with him once which is why they assumed both Nellie and their lawyer were bad. They finally learn that the Madrigals are not evil, but instead were trying to reunite the other 4 branches of the family.

Into The Gauntlet: This book take place on an island that was once owned by Gideon Cahill, the founder of the family and there is one final standoff between all the teams as Isabel trys to take the serum that the ingredients are used to make. This serum would make any person the strongest and smartest person in the world. Can’t really give anything else away about this book.

Vespers Rising. This is the 11^th book and has 4 different stories each representing a different time period in Cahill history and involving another group known as the Vespers. The 4^th story takes place in the present and involves Amy and Dan encountering one of the Vespers.

The second series has so many different things taking place that it’s quite hard to tell which event takes place in which book. The group of 6 Vespers kidnapps a bunch of the family members including Nellie, Natalie Kabra, their uncle, and a few others. Throughout the series, all people who were against them in the 1^st series were either working with them or were kidnapped.

The series revolves around Vesper 1 trying to recreate Archimedes Doomsday Device, and Amy and Dan have to go around the world stealing priceless artifacts for the Vespers. Isabel Kabra had been arrested for her actions in the 1^st series but still manages to become the person right behind Vesper 1 in the chain of command. There is also another character, Sinead Starling who is one of Amy’s closest friends. She was on another team during the 1^st series, but late in the 2^nd series it is discovered that she had been working for the Vespers, as Vesper 3.

She did this for a reason though. In the very 1^st book of the 1^st series, her team which included her two brothers were involved in an explosion in Boston. They were all hospitalized. One brother became blind and was one of the hostages. The Vespers promised her that if she worked for her, they would give her some antidote that would heal him. She eventually rejoined Amy when they betrayed her.

In the final book, there are three main deaths. Evan, who is new in this series and is Amy’s boyfriend is killed. The final book is very dramatic, and towards the end, Natalie is killed. Isabel, who watches her daughter dies, drinks a copy of the serum that she took from Dan and single handedly Pulls apart the Doomsday Device, which kills both her and Vesper 1.

There is one chapter that I have to go into detail about, maybe two, that shows how smart Vesper 1 is. At one point, the hostages manage to escape the place they were held in, and they run into the mountains. The youngest member of the group, Pheonix Wizard, falls off a cliff into a river and is presumed dead. (No, he survived). One of the other members almost falls off trying to rescue Pheonix but is saved when a hiker comes out from the woods and helps them. A moment passes of them thanking the hiker and then the Vespers who were after them catch up and bring them back to the prison area. After shooting the hiker in the chest. The blind kid, Sineads brother, says he recognized the guys voice as a guy that he knew from a few years back.

In New York, Amy and Dan are heading to Colombia University for two reasons. Amy is going to get cluses, but without Amy knowing about it, Dan wanted to use the lab to make a copy of the serum. They run into a student from the college who helps them out. Guess what? It was Vesper 1 each of those two times.

Then we have the 3^rd series, which begins with Nowhere to Run. This book is even better than any of the other books and involves Amy and Dan going up against a powerful businessman who owns one of the largest companies in the world and is running for president of the United States. The two of them find it strange that he could do all of this just a year or so after being a nobody and they suspect that he has taken at least a part of the serum. They may be right, because he has attempted to kill them multiple times throughout the book in some of the darkest ways possible.

These are some of the best books that I have ever read and if you have never read one of them, I suggest that you do. I would give the overall series a grade of 9.8 and each book individually I would give at least a 9.5.