books by s.r.

THIS HAS BEEN THE YEAR OF NEW FAVORITE SERIES!!!

Oh my goodness.  So, story time: The Raven Cycle series has been on my TBR list for FOREVER.  It is my best friend’s favorite series, and she’s been nagging me about reading it for at least two years.  But, guys, you know all about my massive To-Be-Read list (or at least you can get a pretty good idea).  I never had the time.  Well, with Maggie’s new book, Call Down the Hawk, out this month and with it following one of the characters from The Raven Cycle series, I knew I needed to buckle down and get to reading.

AND OH MY GOODNESS.  *BOUNCES*

I love this series so so much.  I wish there were words to describe how much I’m in love with this series.

Below are my thoughts on the first two books in the series, and I hope you enjoy!  Fair warning that I’m going to do my absolute best to avoid spoilers, but there may be minor ones mentioned throughout.  Also, be prepared for lots of fangirling.  *shrugs*

The Raven Boys

“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.

THIS BOOK.  I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect, in all honesty.  I’d read the synopsis before, was constantly reminded of its amazingness by said best friend, and people on Pinterest apparently loved it with all the memes they were pinning.

But oh my word.

The drama and intrigue starts on page one and doesn’t stop until you finish the book.  The setting of Henrietta, VA steals your heart and gives you the ultimate mountain vibe, which was really cool for me since I live in a mountain town.  I could envision everything near perfectly.

AND THE CHARACTERS.  Gansey started off as the type of person that I don’t even like in real life — snobby rich, controlling, things like that.  But that’s what you see from Blue’s perspective.  When you reach the chapters told from Gansey’s point of view, you get to see more of his true personality, and I fell head over heels for him.  (Sorry, Hubby! *hides*)  And the other characters — Adam, Noah, Blue, and Ronan — are gems.  I wish I could do more than flail over them, but it’s so hard to do so.  Maggie Stiefvater is definitely a Queen when it comes to characterization, though.  She presents characters with individual flaws, quirks, and struggles; characters that have goals other than the main story goal.  It’s one of my favorite things about the entire book.

5 of 5 stars for this book, for sure.  And also, if you’re wondering just how good it is, I binged this book in two days.  So yeah, go read it.

The Dream Thieves

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after…

Lucky for me, I had the hindsight to borrow the whole series from my local library instead of the first book, because after The Raven Boys‘ ending, I NEEDED book 2 immediately.

Once again, Maggie draws you in with the continued intrigue and magical realism.  Ronan Lynch can pull things out of his dreams, which is both equally terrifying and awesome.  Learning about his magic and getting to see more of Ronan’s character (because he was a real jerk in book 1) was so, so cool.

Nothing is lost in this book; Maggie is a wizard at making sure all the elements you fell in love with in book 1 is carried over into book 2.  The character dynamics grow as each of their lives become more entwined.  Ronan is still a jerk, but I love him and would die for him.  For the love of God, someone just needs to give Adam a hug and they need to do it NOW.  Gansey’s personality is revealed more and more, and his boyish scholar side comes out, and it’s the most precious thing in existence.  Noah has an obsession with glitter that speaks to me on a personal level, and he’s such a doll.  He needs to be protected at all costs.  And Blue continues to become her own woman, even in the midst of the other boys’ startling personalities and her family’s extravagance.  It’s really wonderful to see.

5 of 5 stars for this book, too.  And I also binged this one in two days.  I seriously could not put it down.  This series is haunting me.

So those are my thoughts on the first two books in the series!  Hopefully you can make some sense out of them with all of my fangirling.  😉  If not, just know that you need to read them NOW.  I’ll be reviewing the other two books in the series really soon!

*NOTE that for those of you that may be iffy about language in books, there was a decent amount in the first two.  Just a heads up.

Have you read The Raven Cycle series?  What are your thoughts?  Who is your favorite character?