The Books of Fell by M.E. Kerr

The Books of Fell, which includes Fell, Fell Back, and Fell Down is a trilogy by M.E. Kerr following the unexpected and life-changing events in John Fell's life. John is a young working class man from Brooklyn living in a small, touristy ocean town after his father's death. With a passion for food and cooking, John has hopes of opening his own restaurant someday, but with his little sister to take care of and his mom's massive credit card debt, his plate is pretty full. Then a fatal fender-bender on the night of his prom with one of the towns elite residents changes the course of his life forever.

John is offered the chance to attend a prestigious and elite prep school, posing at the man's son, Ping. While John completes Ping's education, Ping will be attending an elite culinary school and earning John his ticket to owning his own restaurant someday. The offer is too good for John to refuse, and so assuming the identity of Ping, he leaves, but that's when things begin to unravel. He is accepted into the mysterious, cult-like club, called Sevens, which practically runs the school and pledges to protect its members for life. His life gets very interesting when one of the Sevens members mysteriously dies, and being ever the detective that his father was, John feels that he must investigate.

I think that this is probably the only book that I love and hate with equal amounts of passion. First, the things I love: The characters are probably the first that come to mind, especially John, since it's hard not to fall in love with him, since you are reading about his life. The plot and the twists that M.E. Kerr puts in, I would never have been able to guess by reading the synopsis on the back of the book that so many twists and turns would be in these books. And lastly, I have to include the mysterious Sevens! Sevens, the elite club whose members stand above and apart from everyone else. There is just something so alluring about seeing inside, or at the very least, trying to see inside a secret society.

The main reason I hate these books is strongly tied into why I love them, since the main reason I hate them is because I want so much for there to be a fourth book. I don't like the way the last book ends at all!!! I won't say more than that, for fear of giving away spoilers.