The Cruel Prince: The Folk of the Air, Book 1

The Cruel Prince: The Folk of the Air, Book 1 by Holly Black

For a romantic-ish fantasy, this book was surprisingly readable. A girl has an interesting family background with plenty of death and destruction. She is a human that later goes to live among he fairies. Things are bad there with a pretender to the throne managing to sneak around a curse by killing the leaders in the process of transition. In the middle of this the girl escapes and has brief romantic flings. It isn't a great book, but it beats most of the other fantasy drivel out there. 

The Silver Mask (Magisterium #4): Book Four of Magisterium

The Silver Mask goes of the fantasy deep end. A previously killed protagonist gets raised from the dead. An army of zombies sets out to fight on the side of evil. There is a jailbreak and a recapture, along with plenty of violence. Meanwhile, the romance starts tipping up, with some kissing and breaking up. Though that all quickly comes to an end when the violence hits. The books does pretty well wrap up the story. But the afterward hints at something more coming on.

The Bronze Key: The Magisterium, Book 3

The Bronze Key is a an obvious middle book in a series. It ends on a big cliffhanger. In the process they discover that keeping secrets is not all that great. Call also learns that if he is not going to bother asking the girl out, somebody else will. The kids now become more comfortable with their school environment, but also realize there is more crazy stuff going on in the world. Like in Harry Potter, the "magic world" is "hidden in plain view" from the real world.

The Copper Gauntlet: Magisterium, Book 2

Lying to keep a secret never ends up well. In the second book in the series, conflict ramps up. It begins with the time between the first and second years of Mage school. Call's "dog" (a wolf) is missing. He is upset about this. However, he ends up finding the dog chained up in his dad's secret office, along with a place for him and instructions for some special magic. He does not like the look of it, and runs off to his rich friend's house in another town. He stays there until school starts.

They get to the school and more conflict breaks out. Eventually, Call tells his friends some of the experience with his dad. However, he does not tell the full story, and that makes things even worse. They end up on a big adventure. In the end, they find out more about who he and his father are and they decide not to keep secrets from each other.

The Iron Trial: Book One of The Magisterium

Iron Trial  is another spin on the Harry Potter school of fantasy. An outcast boy ends up at a magic school and bonds with another boy and a girl. It turns out they have some key powers that make them key in preventing a great collapse. They need to gradually learn their role.

Most everybody would love to pass for the "rewards" it entails. Callum Hunt has been told by his dad to stay away from magic, making him one of the rare people that want to fail the trial. Alas, a mage brings him in. He seems to have unbridled power. They want to help him control it. He can interact with other beings such as a "pet" he has. He is told that he may be much more than he thinks he is. 

The book ends with a "resolution" to a minor episode. It is pretty clear that there is much more to come in the future books.