ARC Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

So if you’ve read my reviews of The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves, you could probably tell that I LOVE The Raven Cycle series. I was super excited to get approved for an e-ARC of Blue Lily, Lily Blue, and I was not disappointed.

Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Fantasy, young adult
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: October 21, 2014
416 pages, hardcover

WHY? WHY IS IT OVER??? WHY DO I HAVE TO WAIT SO LONG TO FIND OUT WHAT’S NEXT?? Ahhh.

Okay. Breathe, Stefani. Breathe.

If you haven’t read either of the other two books in the series, this review might contain some spoilers. If you haven’t read either of the other two books in the series, what the heck are you doing with your life?? Seriously. Drop everything, and go read them.

This book picks up where The Dream Thieves left off. Everyone is heading back to school. Blue’s mother is still missing. The Gray Man is still in Henriette, but now so is his employer, Greenmantle. I don’t want to give anything else about the plot away, so if you need more, check out the synopsis on Goodreads.

This book was all about character development. Stiefvater continues to develop the characters in these books in such a subtle and careful way. The characters develop in ways that make you wonder if you haven’t always known that about said character. Stiefvater is a master of her craft.

The Raven Cycle series hypnotizes you when you turn the first page. The books put you under a spell. I don’t think about whether the book is good or not. I completely forget that I’m even reading a book and I float through the pages spellbound by the magic and power of Stiefvater’s words.

The pacing in this book was perfect. It had me on the edge of my seat or relaxed and grinning like a fool when I needed to be. This book had more Gansey and Blue moments that the other two, which was lovely. SPOILER if you haven’t read: I wish it had a few more Ronan and Adam moments. I ship them SO hard.

Even though there’s A LOT happening in this book (mysterious caves, lawsuits, missing people, new characters, tombs, death) this book is about friendship: the friendship between five people who are all in love with each other in different ways. The friendships between the Raven Boys and Blue are beautiful, obsessive, loyal, and downright real. Love love love.

Also, the ending.

The bottom line: My only complaint is that I read this book on my Kindle. I wish it had been a print book so I could flip its pages and feel the magic brushing off on my fingers with each turn. I will most definitely be buying a print copy of this. I cannot wait to reread The Raven Cycle books.

Rating: 9 – practically perfect

Book Review: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: Fantasy, YA

Publisher: Scholastic

Publication Date: September 2013

439 pages, hardcover

Check out the synopsis on Goodreads.

I cannot fathom reading a series more powerful, magical, spellbinding, or beautiful as the Raven Cycle books. Diving into one of these books is a completely mesmerizing experience. These pages don’t want to let you go, and honestly, I don’t want them to either. It’s hard to put into words how absolutely amazing these books are. I love Maggie’s Wolves of Mercy Falls series too, but the Raven Cycle series perfectly fits her writing.

The prose (and book and characters and settings) feel otherworldly in a way that other books just don’t for me, even if they are about aliens or fantastical creatures. I said this in my review of The Raven Boys, but it’s as if you can feel the magic rubbing off the pages and settling onto your fingers. The experience of reading a Raven Cycle book is completely and utterly magical.

Okay, so I should probably talk about the plot, right? I don’t want to give too much away that could be potentially spoilery, so this review might just be super gushy about why I love everyone in this book. Ronan, who I think you’re meant to be uncertain about in the first novel, is the focus in this one. I really came to adore him throughout The Dream Thieves. I didn’t feel that warm and cuddly toward him in the first, but I just wanted to hug him a lot in this one. Also, Gansey. Oh, dear God, Gansey. I liked him in The Raven Boys, I think, in part, due to the fact that I could really relate to his passion, his need to find Glendower. But in The Dream Thieves, I fell in love with him. He’s so…swoon-worthy.

In The Dream Thieves, we get dream thieves. Shocking, I know. This is such an interesting idea! People who can pull things from their dreams. I loved that, even after we found out that sometimes it can be dangerous, especially when the ability is abused.

Like in my review of The Raven Boys, I want to give you a few examples of just how beautiful Maggie’s prose is. I reread these sentences a few times because they were…amazing (which feels like a completely inadequate word to describe this book).

“Anything that didn’t impale itself on the sharp line of the sleeping boy’s cruel mouth would be tangled in the merciless hooks of his tattoo, pulled beneath his skin to drown.” – 34

“It was a sort of ferocious, quiet beauty, the sort that wouldn’t let you admire it. The sort of beauty that always hurt.” – 364

“And Ronan did. Because Niall Lynch was a forest fire, a rising sea, a car crash, a closing curtain, a blistering symphony, a catalyst with planets inside him. And he had given all of that to his middle son.” – 370

I can’t tell you how many times throughout this book that I went, “Jesus. That’s good” or “Ugghhh. I will never write something as beautiful and lovely as this book.”

The bottom line: Read it. Do it for your soul.

Rating: 10 – Perfection. One of the best books I’ve ever read (one of the super rare 10s I give out on my blog)

Reading next: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater. Thank goodness I had an e-ARC of this.

Teaser Tuesday: The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Teaser Tuesday is a meme hosted by Should Be Reading. It’s super easy: open your current read to a random page and share two sentences from that page – but make sure you don’t spoil the book!

I thought this sounded like a lot of fun, so here we go!

My current read is Maggie Stiefvater’s The Dream Thieves. I opened it to a random page – 218 – and these are the sentences I’d like to tease you with:

But Ronan felt nothing but that fiery, empty cavern in his chest. He slid himself into the driver’s seat as Gansey shut the passenger door.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to read more. I’m just starting this one, so I’ve got those sentences to look forward to.

 

If you participate in Teaser Tuesday, link me up! Or if you don’t, tease me with your current read in the comments!

Waiting on Wednesday: Blue Lily, Lily Blue

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine in which we share a book that we are eagerly anticipating!

Publisher: Scholastic
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Release date: October 21, 2014

Synopsis from Goodreads:

There is danger in dreaming. But there is even more danger in waking up.
Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs.
The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost.
Friends can betray.
Mothers can disappear.
Visions can mislead.
Certainties can unravel.

Why I’m excited: This series is absolutely magical and I can’t wait for another book. The cover is gorgeous; the title is wonderful; the summary is amazing. I’m really looking forward to this one. How about you guys?

Book Review: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: The Raven Boys

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Supernatural/Paranormal

Publisher: Scholastic

Publication Date: September 2012

Paperback: 408

Stand alone or series: Start of a series

How did I get this book: Bought

 

Let’s start with a brief synopsis (from Goodreads):

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

What I thought:

It took me about 30-40 pages for me to get into this book, but once I did, I was hooked. I couldn’t read this book quickly, like I usually do, but it wasn’t because it was hard to read. It was because the prose made you slow down to savor the words and feel the magic surrounding them.

The Raven Boys is just gorgeous. There were several times that I got goosebumps because I could actually feel the magic in the book. The prose was absolutely beautiful. Let me give you a couple examples of this:

“This was a beautiful, old wood, all massive oak and ash trees finding footing among great slabs of cracked stone. Ferns sprang from rocks and verdant moss grew up the sides of the tree trucks. The air itself was scented with green and growing and water. The light was golden through the leaves. Everything was alive, alive.” – page 219

“The air moved slowly around his body, somehow tangible, gold-flaked, every dust mote a lantern.” –I’ve lost the page for this! L

“When Adam got to Cabeswater, it felt like a living being. The wind through the leaves was like the bellows of an exhaled breath and the hiss of the rain on the canopy like a sucked-in sigh.” – page 381

Asdfjkl; – so pretty! Safe to say I was captivated with the prose and it drew me in and wrapped around me like a warm blanket.

As for the characters: I loved them all! Stiefvater has a way of writing each of the characters so carefully that each of them feels developed even if they aren’t central to the story. Blue was fascinating: the daughter of a psychic who doesn’t have the abilities of the rest of her family, but amplifies the abilities of those who do. She was different and strange and wonderful. I found myself wanting to go on these adventures with the Raven Boys, and I was glad to put myself in Blue’s shoes to do so. And the Raven Boys – oh, man. They had such an air about them. They were real, quirky, relatable, sarcastic, and I loved them. Even Ronan.

The story was so unique and interesting, unlike anything I’ve ever read before. Maggie Stiefvater is a master storyteller, and I was very excited to read another book by her (I loved her Wolves of Mercy Falls series). I liked that though the romance was central to the summary, it was more like an underlying theme throughout the book. It was there, but it wasn’t being thrown at you. It made it more beautiful that way.

I will say that the book is one of those smoldering, slow to burn novels. It never feels boring or sluggish though. It’s just not going to give away its secrets all at once. This may bother some people, but I really enjoyed it. It felt even more powerful because of that. But it does take a bit to get into the story and might make it seem confusing at time because there is just so much happening.

Also, I won’t give anything away, but that last line?! I literally said “What?” out loud about ten times when I finished. You can ask my family. They were just staring at me, but they’re so used to outbursts like this that they just let it go. I can’t wait to get my hands on the sequel.

The bottom line:

Magical, beautiful, smoldering, lovely. All words to describe this book. You can feel the magic in the narrative coming off of the book’s pages.

Rating: 9 – Practically perfect

Reading next: Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

 

Have you read The Raven Boys? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!