The Alchemyst

Scott, Michael. The Alchemyst. Book 1 of the The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series. 2010. 400p. ISBN 0552562521. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

Twins Josh and Sophie Newman have always been close. With their parents out of town for the summer, the twins each have jobs that keep them busy. Sophie works in a coffee shop, while Josh toils in a bookstore owned by Nicholas.

But when the bookstore is attacked by strange grey men led with Dr. John Dee, Josh and Sophie are thrown into a conflict centuries old. Nicholas is none other than Nicholas Flamel, famed alchemist who supposedly died in 1418. Dr. Dee is Elizabeth I’s spymaster, and he’s after the book of Abraham the Mage. Nicholas Flamel used that book to derive eternal life, but now Dee want to take it away from him. With it, Dee could literally destroy the world. And that’s exactly what he plans to do for his evil overlord, except that during the attack Josh managed to save the last two pages of the book. Without them, the book is useless. But now Nicholas is aging before their eyes.

Fortunately, both Nicholas and his wife Perenelle know of a prophecy where twins will awaken and save the world. Are Josh and Sophie these two twins, or will they join the countless other twins Nicholas and Perenelle used in the past in their vain hope of fulfilling the prophecy? With Dee hunting them all down, they may not live long enough to find out.

For a lighter tale of the paranormal, consider Paranormalcy, where Evie fight off faeries and other paranormal creatures while falling madly in love with Lend.