The Dream Thieves Review

Hi! So this week I will be reviewing the second book in the Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater called The Dream Thieves. If you haven't read the first book, The Raven Boys, I highly recommend it and you can find the link to my review (where there is a non-spoilery section) here.

If you have read The Raven Boys and you're wondering whether this book is worth reading, it most definitely is, and you should go get yourself a copy, read it, and then come back here to discuss!

***SPOILERS***
Ok. So in this book, Ronan was probably the main character and focus, and I always liked Ronan, but throughout this book, I think my love for him has grown even stronger, and I feel connected to him. Sometimes, it was annoying to read from his point of view, because he's such a hard to read and distant character, but I feel like as the book progressed, his character grew and we got to see much more of him.

I think that because Ronan was the focus of this book, there just wasn't enough space to put in many Blue/Gansey moments, which I was kind of very looking forward to. There was that scene where they were on the mountain and they sort of admitted that they liked each other but they wouldn’t do anything about it because of Adam and such. Ah, Adam. Let's discuss that.

We always knew that there was going to have to be a moment between Adam and Blue where she told him that she didn't like him, but it was such a hard scene to read and be in the moment with because she said it so harshly. However, I don't think there was going to be a non-harsh way to say it. But when he was saying "prove it then, kiss me if I'm not your true love" and she was trying to get through to him that she didn't actually want to, I felt sorry for Adam, possibly for the first time in this book. For some reason, during this book, Adam felt more distant than before, more hard. I'm not sure whether it was Cabeswater or him realising that Blue didn't actually like him, but he was certainly different.

I'm really confused about the whole Adam/Cabeswater thing. Is he Cabeswater in human form? Is that why Cabeswater is missing, because Adam is Cabeswater and only he has the power to get it back? Is he controlling Cabeswater, or his he just a tool it's using to scope out everything else in Henrietta? It's all very confusing and I'm extremely eager to see everything connect maybe in the next book or two.

There were so many confusing new elements to the huge puzzle that this series is introduced in this book, so I'll go through them now. When Blue and Orla went diving for the things at the bottom of the lake, and they found a tyre off the same type of Camaro that Gansey owns, I thought that maybe when Ronan destroyed the Camaro, one of the tyres had ended up in there because of all the time warp-y things? Or that maybe future Gansey threw a tyre in there as a sign to past Gansey. But still, that remained mainly unsolved.

Ronan's father and the whole Graywarren dreaming thing. I'm still a little confused as to why Ronan's father died, why the Gray Man killed him. And Kavinsky, how has Kavinsky managed to achieve the dreaming thing as well? Is Kavinsky a dream creature? I feel like he might be, and I'm not sure who dreamed him and if that's even possible. I also doubt whether he's dead or not; the ending was a fuzzy mix of confusion for me.

The Gray Man. The Gray Man started out as this character, a hit man, someone we thought would be a bad guy, someone who we were super-wary of. And to be honest, I still am a bit suspicious of him, but I know that he loves Maura, it's quite clear. It was also nice to see him try to fit in to life in Henrietta, to start to appear more soft and warm to us as the audience. I think I want him and Maura to be together, but there's still the issue of Butternut, or Blue's dad. At first, I thought The Gray Man might've been Butternut, but then I remembered that he was frequently visiting a bunch of psychics who surely would've known. It's all very confusing.

I think Blue was, in this book, a much more open character. In the first book, she was very up tight and sensible, and it was nice in this book to see her being more accepting of truths about her and others that weren't necessarily things she wanted to accept, like the fact that she likes Gansey, like her admitting she doesn't like Adam, like her telling both Adam and Noah her secret, like hinting to Gansey that she likes him. She was a lot more there  if you know what I mean… it's hard to explain, I guess, but it felt like she was starting to get more comfortable with the boys, getting more comfortable with herself and things about herself.

I think in this book, we were really made known to the fact that this is a whole lot bigger than just Gansey wanting to find Glendower. It involves Blue, and all the psychics, it involves people like the Gray Man, and Mr Whelk from the last book.

As always with this series, I am left extremely confused but extremely intrigued, and I will definitely be buying and reading the next book as soon as it comes out.

Share your thoughts in the comments and leave your twitter name there as well and I will shout you out/follow you (:

Thanks and have a lovely day,
lily xo

Sisters Red- Recommendation

So this week I will be recommending a fantastic book that I read called Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce.

This book is about two sisters, Rosie and Scarlett, who think they have one heart, who have an unbreakable bond (or so it seems). But their past is violent and bloody, and their occupation is even worse. They hunt werewolves. When Scarlett's hunting partner, Silas, returns from a year away, emotions stir again, and Scarlett is oblivious to the chemistry between her partner and her little sister. The things they find will threaten to tear their bond apart.

Remember when I did that review of Beastly by Alex Flinn here?? Well, if you did read it, you will know that I love modern fairytale adaptations. I loved the idea of Beastly, but it just didn't hit the mark of what I was expecting. Sisters Red, however, cleaned things up and neatened off corners where Beastly did not.

The sisters have a wonderful relationship, co-dependency and all those perfect sibling character traits, and it is quite a beautiful thing to read, because it is clear that they would both die to save the other, without a question. And I think that even though the prose is quite casual and laid back, it adds to the feeling that the girls are really telling you everything in their narration.

All in all, it is a fabulous book with a fabulous story, and you should definitely pick it up. If you do read it or have already read it, tell me in the comments and I will write up a proper review that we can discuss the book on.

Also, I haven't told you the fairytale that this book is based on, so if you've guessed it (it's fairly obvious) then type your answer in the comments and there will be an internet prize for you!

As always, comment and add your twitter name and I'll shout you out/follow you (:

Have a splendiferous day
lily xo

The Hunt Review

Wow… So I just finished reading The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda and it was one of those books I could not resist doing a review for, and a good review at that. This was a fantastic book, and to start the non-spoilery section, I'm going to tell you why.

So in this book humans are no longer the general population, and even though it never actually says the word "vampire", it's quite obvious that all the humans have been eaten by these vampires who are now populating and ruling the country. Everyone thinks that the only humans, or hepers as they are called, left are the ones in the Dome, in the Heper Research Institute. But Gene, a human boy of 17, living in this community, knows better. He's always been careful, always brushed his fake fangs and lathered on sun-repellent products to prevent a tan or sunburn, always made sure he had deodorant on to mask his heper smell. But when things start to go pear-shaped, people start to suspect him, and hiding has never been so difficult.

The best way I can explain this book is by saying that it's very Hunger Games-esque. Except with vampires, which sounds cheesy, but really, it's not, it's dark and violent and scary. I felt like I was walking on a tightrope whilst reading this book, walking next to Gene, and I was experiencing everything he was. I suggest you go read it and head straight back here to discuss!

***SPOILERS***
Phew. That book was so stressful, so tense, I'm still shaken up by the ending. I really did like this book, and I'm super excited to read the next one, which has been released thankfully! So I'll start with my personal favourite thing in this book- the writing.

I haven't read many books that have writing like this. Writing that is so sophisticated but still grabs you, writing that is so poetic that even humans being devoured sounds beautiful, which makes it so much creepier. The scene where they were eating dinner at the Institute, and explaining the drip cups, and the raw meat, I was so repulsed and grossed out, but when I think of this as a movie scene, I see cheesy blood and almost shlock horror style scenes… I really do think it's the writing, hauntingly beautiful and disgusting, that sets the scene.

But then we are shown that this writing isn't inconsistent, when he uses the same writing style for all the romantic scenes between Ashley June and Gene, and I certainly wasn't feeling repulsed and disgusted during that scene.

Besides the writing, I think the whole plot was fantastic, and there wasn't a moment once they were in the Institute that I wasn't worried for Gene, empathizing with him, going through the same things he was. It was a little slow at the start, but once we got into it, the pace notched its speed up by about five hundred. It was very clever, investing us in this tightrope-situation Gene was in, where one bad move would make him dead.

The plot twists in this were rather predictable, well, that was what I was thinking when Gene got selected for The Hunt, and also when Ashley June revealed herself to be a heper too. It didn't take a genius to guess that he'd get selected, or that the one girl who seems to like him and the one girl he seems to like is human. But I certainly did not expect the bombshell at the end- that the scientist appears to be  his father. I don't know how that will all work out, but I cannot wait to pick up the next book.

Okay, now onto my general thoughts. There were some really creepy scenes in this book, like when he wakes up and finds all the hunters in his room, and the sunlight streams in. At first I thought that maybe he was dreaming, but no, he wasn't. I was so worried that they'd wake up and realise he was a heper and they'd eat him. And as I've already mentioned, the idea of poor Gene having to eat the raw meat an drink the blood made me feel sick, and I was certainly sure that this wasn't a cheesy vampires-versus-humans book.

It was also interesting that unless you read the blurb, which some people don't, you wouldn't have known Gene's name until he told it to Ashley June, in fact the whole name thing was interesting to me, because in this book, most of the characters have names that Gene has given them, like Gaunt Man (who I had suspicions about being a heper), Crimson Lips and Frilly Dress. I found that really interesting, but not only that, it isolated these other characters from Gene, made them seem more distant. Particularly when he went into the Dome and the other hepers gave him their names, it really made a clear separation between hepers and the others in my mind.

Gene as a character was not a stereotypical YA boy. If he was, I can just see him standing up against all the vampires with Jace Wayland-style bravado, confronting them. He is very quiet, and pushes everyone away to prevent anything bad happening, like them finding him out and trying to kill him. He also seems to try and convince himself that the other hepers are savages, even though he is one, and he's almost stuck up, but then, when he reminds himself that he is a heper himself, he says things like "I am a fake person" which I don't see stereotypical YA boys saying. They'd say something along the lines of "I am a human. And I will avenge our race". I thought, however, that he was the perfect character for what he was and the setting he was in. I also thought that his character perfectly balanced against Ashley June's, and also Sissy's, but I'll get into the complex, hidden love shapes soon.

Ashley June, who's name isn't really Ashley June, but that's just what Gene decided to call her. I liked her from the start, defending Gene and helping him out of difficult situations. At some points, I was sceptical about my heper-suspicions for her, but they still stayed strong, and when she was in the library and taking out her fake fangs, I almost whooped in triumph. Not only because she's a very interesting character, but because Gene needs someone like her to push him into doing things. Gene, who isn't very loud or controlling, needed Ashley June, an assertive, strong and brave companion. Gene is smart, yes, but without Ashley June, I doubt he'd have been able to pull off anything to get him out of The Hunt alive and well. Their characters balance perfectly, and they work together well. I'm hoping for a sweet reunion in the next book.

The hepers in the Dome were very interesting characters, and seeing Gene interact with them had to be one of my favourite scenes (despite me stressing continuously about someone finding him there), and I think there are some interesting love triangles forming. Well, not even love triangles, a love square, I guess. Epap, the annoying, distrusting older boy is quite obviously in love with Sissy, the fearless leader. Obviously, Ashley June and Gene are somewhat together, but I'm sensing some connection between Sissy and Gene. Maybe it's nothing, but Sissy and Gene would work well together as a couple, and particularly while Ashley June's not there, I think there will be some tension between Sissy, Gene and Epap. Just a suspicion, I'm not sure.

What I'm most concerned about is that Ashley June is still stuck in the Institute. Gene will go back for her, in the next book, I'm sure… I hope… And if he doesn't, what will the people at the Institute do with her? I think she'll have to live, so I don't think that she will be killed or anything, maybe she'll escape?

I'm also worried about that scene where the guy was creeping them out by explaining about the Heper Farms and stuff, and even though I'm fairly sure he was lying, what if he isn't? What if there is thousands of hepers in farms? Gene would be very tempted to free them, I'd think, and of course, we've got to worry about the general population trying to eat them.

So that's what I thought about The Hunt, and I can't wait to grab the next one and start reading that, and finding out how Gene's father fits into this.

So please share your thoughts below, and leave your twitter name as well for a shoutout or follow! Have a great day!

love,
lily xoxo

Stargirl- Recommendation

Yes, yes I know I've been super-slow with posting and the intervals between posts are really irregular. I'm actually so sorry I've been super-busy; just hang in there and I will reward the loyal!

So today, my recommendation is one of my all-time favourites, a book called Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli. I first read it almost four years ago now, and loved it, and finally got my own copies two years ago for Christmas. I haven't seen them in any other book store since then.

Stargirl is a reality-based book about a girl who's different, a girl who wears florals and plays a ukulele on her first day of school, in the middle of the cafeteria. She's a girl who sees the world differently, who people don't know how to treat her.

And then there's Leo. Ordinary, quiet, reserved. And he's completely and utterly captivated by her.

Stargirl and Leo must figure out who they really want to be, and if the other can fir into their world. They must work through the people who stare, their little quirks, and they must try and fit into the world. Or so Leo thinks. Does Stargirl really want to fit in at all?

This is one of my favourites because it's timeless. I've read it countless times and every time it means something different to me. When I first read it, it was a cutesy tale that I really enjoyed. But every time I read it, I see in between the lines, the underlying themes of love and all the mistakes everyone makes in this book fit together and mean something I'll leave for you to figure out.

Stargirl is one of the best characters ever. She makes you feel free, makes you feel like you can do things you couldn't before. Makes you feel, however hopeless you are, that there is hope. And this definitely shines through in the sequel, Love, Stargirl, which I also recommend you read.

So please, please, please read it, come back and start up and conversation with me about whether you liked it or not and we can discuss :) I'm also willing to reread it again and post a review if that's what people would want. As always, if you leave a comment, add in your twitter name and I will follow or shout you out.

Have a lovely day!
love,
lily xoxo

What I Read Over December/January

Hey! Yeah it's been forever and I am infinitely sorry... I've been so busy, please forgive me!

So today will be sort of like a reflection of all the books I read over the December-end of January period. I've been conveniently keeping track of every book I've read over this period, and if you see a book you've read or want to read, feel free to leave a comment requesting a review or a proper recommendation where I can explain it in more detail.

Anyways, my goal for this period was twenty books… which means twenty books to two months, twenty books to nine weeks, which averages to two books per week… and I did it! *throws confetti in the air over you and starts singing Planetary (GO!) by My Chemical Romance* Let's get into this.

The first book I read was Allegiant, by Veronica Roth. Allegiant is the last book in the Divergent trilogy, and I have a review for it here if you missed it [http://mywordsarearrows.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/allegiant-book-review.html]. I really liked this series, but I must admit that this is my least favourite book in the series. I give it 3/5 stars, but I do recommend the series as a whole.

Next I read Beastly, by Alex Flinn, which was a book I picked up from my library when they were giving away some books for free (you can imagine my excitement at free books). I also have a review for this book, and you can see it here [http://mywordsarearrows.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/beastly-book-review.html.] This is a story about a boy who thinks looks are everything, and learns the hard way that they are not. I wasn't blown away with this book for several reasons you can see in my review, but overall it was a good story and a great idea. I also give this one 3/5 stars.

After Beastly, I picked up another book I managed to grab from my library, The Declaration (review for it here: [http://mywordsarearrows.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/the-declaration-book-review.html]). This book was probably my Christmas book for the year, as it was fantastic. It's a dystopian novel about a girl in a world where adults live forever and youth is illegal. Not only was it fantastic in terms of writing and plot, I was in awe of the subtle love story behind it, the innocence of two fourteen year olds finding comfort in each other. The author, Gemma Malley, now follows me on twitter, and I may or may not have squealed. I highly recommend it. 5/5 stars.

This book I grabbed from K-Mart because it was on special and it looked like a book I read a while ago that was fantastic. It's called Here Lies Bridget, and it's about a girl called Bridget Duke, rich girl, queen of the school, and notorious mean girl. The book follows her journey and her realisation that she's made huge mistakes. I liked this book, and it was a quick, nice read that has good morals behind it. I recommended it a while ago here- [http://mywordsarearrows.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/book-recommendation-2.html]. I give it 4/5 stars.

There's a store I found that has second-hand books, and quite cheap, as well. So you can imagine that I had a field day sifting through the books and buying just a few… maybe more. One of these books was Betrothed, and it's about a girl who's always been different. She has many severe allergies and her ears are slightly pointed. Not to mention the fact she's adopted. She finds out she's a faery, and that she's betrothed to a handsome faery prince. I didn't like this book at all, but it was so cheesy and soppy that I found it hilarious, so it gets 1/5 stars for being entertaining.

The next books I read were a series, from the same book store as above, with four books, called Beautiful Dead series, by Eden Maguire. I did enjoy these books, because they were fun to read, however, some times plot convenience was just a little too unbelievable, and they weren't exactly intellectually stimulating. It's about a girl called Darina, and at her school, four kids have died over the last year, the fourth being her boyfriend, Phoenix. In a desperate and heartbroken attempt to find him again, she starts seeing visions of him. But are they just visions? She gets caught up in the world of the Beautiful Dead, and has to solve the mysteries surrounding their deaths. The four books are called Jonas, Arizona, Summer and Phoenix, after the dead kids, and in that order. I give the series 3/5 stars.

After Christmas, I spent Boxing Day reading the rest of the series after The Declaration, which I got as a present (yay!). The next book is called The Resistance, and although I still loved the series, this book was probably my least favourite. Peter was being mean and annoying, and nothing was going right. Maybe it's just me and my inability to accept any sort of change. The next book after that is called The Legacy, and although it was better than The Resistance, the first book will always be my favourite. I give the series as a whole 5/5 stars, still.

Next, I read a book my sister bought for me, called Just Like Fate. This book is about a girl called Caroline who has to make a huge decision, one that will affect the whole of her life from then on. The book follows the storyline of both outcomes, and I did like it, because it was different and fun, even if at some points it got a little slow. I give it 3/5 stars.

My sister also bought me a book called Seventeen and Gone, by Nova Ren Suma, who wrote Imaginary Girls. It's about a girl who starts to see other girls who've gone missing, seventeen year olds just like herself. I didn't really like this book; it was a struggle to get through and it really didn't grab me. I think for me, the characters were too distant and there was nothing that helped me invest myself in the story, even though it was a good idea. I don't think that Nova Ren Suma's distant writing style grabs me unless I'm invested in the characters, and in this book, I just couldn't. I give it 2/5 stars.

Next, I read another one of my holiday favourites, Angelfall by Susan Ee. This book follows a girl in a post-apocalypse world where angels rule. It's dark and interesting and awesome. I seriously recommend it because I really, really loved it. I recommended it a while ago, you can see it here- [http://mywordsarearrows.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/book-recommendation.html]. I give it 5/5 stars.

I continued my Angelfall streak when I ran out to the nearest bookstore the next day to grab World After, the next book. I loved this book just as much as the first one, and I won't spoil it, but the ideas in it are genius and particularly one of the locations. I also give this one 5/5 stars.

Ah, Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. It took me a while to get into this book, but once I did, I tore through it. And as I say in my review (here- [http://mywordsarearrows.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/the-raven-boys-review.html]), I felt like I was on a boat. The story follows a girl, who's a psychic's daughter, with a strange and dangerous prediction hanging over her head, and a rich boy, with everything he wants and a strange obsession with the supernatural. Their worlds collide, and they discover that things are much, much darker than they originally thought. I give this book a 4/5 star rating.

Next came Sea of Monsters, the second book in the Percy Jackson series. I read The Lightning Thief, the first book, just over a year ago, and I didn't really like it. But my friend made me continue the series, and I made a promise, so I shall fulfil it, and continue the series. I liked SOM a lot more than the first one, but it still isn't totally engulfing me. I will continue reading, and if you want, I can publish shorter reviews of all the books as a side-thing, Lily's Journey Through The Percy Jackson Series. I rate this book 3/5 stars.

It was a mistake to give me Christmas money, because after the next shopping day I went on, I came home with four books. Yep, four. The first of these that I read was These Broken Stars, which was recommended to me, and also the cover is beautiful, so I bought it, not expecting much. But I actually really liked it! It's about a girl, the richest in the galaxy, and a boy, a war hero, following a rags-to-riches story. They unexpectedly get thrown together, and have to survive, alone, on an abandoned planet. My recommendation for it is here- [http://mywordsarearrows.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/book-recommendation-4.html]. I rate it 4/5 stars.

Another book I managed to grab was Pawn, by Aimee Carter, and although it was a good idea, I didn't love it as much as the previous book I read. It's set in a dystopian world where everyone is ranked based on usefulness on a scale of one to seven. When Kitty is offered to change her three for a seven, a rank that can only be inherited, she jumps at the chance, sacrificing many things and starting up something she would never have guessed. I rate this one 2/5.

My twentieth book was The Hunt, by Andrew Fukuda, which I have a review coming up for. I really liked The Hunt, because it was different, the characters are different and it was spectacularly written. It's about a world where vampires are the general population, and they have almost sent humans, or hepers, into extinction. Little do they know that Gene, seventeen, normal human boy, is living among them, right under their noses. In an unexpected change of events, Gene is thrown away from his home, and people start to suspect him… I rate this book 4/5 stars, and I suggest you go and read it so that you can tune into the discussion on my review soon!

So that's my twenty books, and now I'm moving on to read The Dream Thieves, by Maggie Stiefvater, the second book after The Raven Boys. Hopefully I can be putting up a review soon! I'm also going to try and get my hands on a copy of The Prey, the book after The Hunt. And then I have even more books that I have ordered so there is going to be lots more reviews and recommendations soon!

As always, leave comment and your twitter name and you'll get a shout out and a follow from me :) Have a lovely day!

love,
lily xox

These Broken Stars- Recommendation

Okay, I am totally aware it's been forever, but my last post couldn't go up because I was having major
technical issues... but here's the new recommendation! as always, leave a comment with your twitter name and I will shout you out and follow you :)

So this week's recommendation is a book I managed to read in one day, called These Broken Stars. A book that I thought would take me a few days, but it certainly did not. I sat down to read and just kept going until I was on the last chapter, and it was wonderful.

This story follows a socialite, Lilac, the daughter of the richest man in the galaxy, and a soldier, Tarver, a war hero following a rags-to-riches story. They are both on board Lilac's father's ship, the Icarus. Lilac and Tarver automatically feel a connection, but being around someone of Tarver's class would make Lilac's father displeased, so she rudely pushes him away. But then, through a horrible accident, Lilac and Tarver get thrown into the same pod and are completely alone on an abandoned planet. Or are they? As Lilac and Tarver figure out more about themselves, the planet and everything around them, they change and evolve as characters. If they do make it off the planet, they will be completely different people.

But don't be fooled by the starry, romantic façade, because on this planet, dark things are happening, fiddling with their brains, making them think that they're going crazy...

The thing that struck me most in this book was the subtle but dramatic character building. Lilac and Tarver are completely transformed as characters during the course of this book, but you don't notice, because through the action and everything else, the changes are so subtle and discreet, but you can see them happening.

This book is perfect for people who love a good sci-fi romance, a love story with dark themes running through it. I recommend it to fans of The Host, I Am Number Four and books of that nature, even fans of movies such as Pacific Rim.

So if you're interested, head off and read it and if you want, leave a comment asking for me to publish my review of it on this very blog! Add in your twitter name and I'll shout you out and follow you :)

Have a great day!
lily xoxo

The Raven Boys Review

So for this week's post, I have a review of a book that was recommended to me by my good friend, Renee, called The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater.

I really liked this book, and particularly when I think of Shiver, the first Maggie Stiefvater book I read, it is so much better in contrast. The book is about a girl called Blue and a boy called Gansey, to be short. Blue is a psychic's daughter who has a strange prediction following her around- when she kisses her true love, he will die. She is incredibly sensible, and refuses to fall in love or even make friends. Gansey is a rich young boy who attends an elite private school, one whose student s have a very infamous reputation for being rich and stuck up. But Gansey is different; his obsession with the supernatural world and odd friends keep him grounded from being too up himself, a trait which he is determined not to acquire. As Blue falls into the world of Gansey and his friends, the Raven Boys, she realises that things are a lot bigger than any of them thought.

It's not a funny book, but it is full of twists and plot bombs that are virtually impossible to see coming, and it reminds me of the Mara Dyer series; dark, twisted, hard to predict and engrossing. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a good tale of adventure and fans of psychological thrillers.

So go read it and then come back and we can discuss!

***SPOILERS***

Okay, let's get started. This is a bit of a long one, and I haven't done separate character or scene sections in this review, I've tried to incorporate it all into one solid review. Comment which way of reviewing you like better if you have read some of my other ones.

Shiver was the first book of Maggie's that I read, and it was okay story wise, but the characters were not very bright and neither was the writing. I remember thinking that I liked the background characters, Cole and Isabel, a lot more than the main ones, Sam and Grace. I also remember Maggie writing in a way that was very descriptive almost distant, which I found made me enjoy it even less, despite the writing being beautiful. So when my friend told me to try this book, I was a little hesitant (not to mention the fact that my copy had pages thinner than my Bible and was heavier than a book of its size should have been). However, now I am rather happy that I picked it up.

This story was very intricate, different pieces that seem unrelated that fall together unexpectedly. I have a feeling more pieces, like Ronan's dad, Blue's dad and the fact that Ronan appears to be supernatural will all fit together in the coming book/s. The whole idea is very interesting, and seeing how it will all untangle is something I am very much looking forward to.

So in this book, I think my favourite thing about it was that I felt like I was on a boat. At the start, I knew that this was no ordinary boat (just stick with me I promise I'm going somewhere with this analogy). A psychic's daughter paired with a dark, twisted, dead-king hunting rich boy? I was quite intrigued. Then, as I got deeper into the book, waves came and started hitting the boat when I least expected it. Glendower is still alive; Blue being a sort of battery when everyone expected her to be a psychic as well; Blue seeing Gansey on St Mark's Eve; The trees knowing Ronan and Blue and speaking Latin; Noah being dead; Whelk looking for Glendower; Whelk being Noah's murderer and more. And whilst these waves were hitting me, I realised the boat I was on was nothing like the boat I'd thought I'd stepped on in the first place.

Gansey intrigues me because of the whole hornet thing. He died, but then Noah, who was on the ley line when Gansey died, then was sacrificed so that Gansey could live, which is odd already, even before you add in the fact that whilst he was being brought back to life, Gansey was told that he would be the one to find Glendower. This cleared things up for me, because as interesting as the whole Glendower thing is, it was a bit unclear to me as to why Gansey was so caught up in it. I mean, how does one find this out and just believe in it enough to devote one's whole life to it? I know that people do it with Atlantis and finding ancient tombs and such, but for someone so young to be working on something so old and obscure with so little believers, I was lacking assurance as to what his motives were.

To be honest, the whole ley line thing gave me heebie geebies from the start. I was sure that Henrietta was on a ley line, because of the psychics refusal to move and because of the whole corpse road thing, but it still made me think that bad things would happen if Gansey messed around with them. It also made me worried that Gansey would meet his predicted end by trying to fiddle with one.

The whole predicament with Blue's father is something that played on my mind throughout the story and even after I finished the book. It's even more suspicious that his name is Latin… I have a few theories about what he might be, like that he might have been fiddling with the ley line, possibly even working with Ronan's dad, and had some sort of power in him , which he passed on to Blue, which is why she is like a power-enhancing battery. He might have disappeared if he got caught up in something supernatural somewhere, but Ronan's dad left him. Then maybe Blue's dad got out of whatever trouble he was in, came back and tried to get back at Ronan's dad for leaving him. That's probably not even close but that is one of my theories.

When they found Noah's bones with his driver's license, my immediate thought was that because of how the time is really weird and creepy in Cabeswater this was Noah's dead body from the future maybe? But no, Noah was never alive throughout the story and he was in fact Whelk's best friend and the victim of Whelk's murder. I don't think anyone, even with the subtle hints left throughout the book, would've guessed that Noah was never alive.

I actually really liked Whelk at the start and I don't know why, because by the end I felt betrayed and sad that he'd been so horrid the whole time. When we found out that Noah's head had been smashed in and that he was in fact Czerny, I immediately knew Whelk had killed him. That was when I realised just how bad Whelk was. He was already talking about how much he hated Gansey and such and that was already ticking me off because I love Gansey a lot, and when I was reading another review, it commented on that maybe Gansey was shaped off Gatsby from The Great Gatsby, which them made so much sense in my brain because I love Gatsby, he's one of my favourite characters of all time, and that makes why I loved Gansey so much clearer.

Ronan is also very interesting in my mind because now it's apparent that he is also possibly supernatural, and somewhat similar to Blue, because the trees in Cabeswater knew him as well. He also has the tattoo on his back that seems to change, according to Gansey, and Chainsaw, his pet raven (beautifully ironic, seeing as though he's referred to as a Raven Boy). I think adding in this raven was a beautiful thing for Ronan's character, because through the moments he had with the raven, you could see that he was capable of being gentle and kind and loving, and that he did actually feel. Also at the end that line where he says that he got Chainsaw out of his dreams, I was and still am very confused at that and I can't wait to find out how that clears up in the next book. The scene where Gansey is staring at the wasp in his room and where Ronan kills it is another scene that allows us as the audience to see more deeper into his character, and to make us see that he really does actually care for Gansey. Their friendship is really interesting and wonderful, and I love how dynamic their relationship with Adam is as well.

Adam. There's a character I haven't talked much about. Adam was super cute from the start, but my mind was pushing him out of the way because of my strong feelings of affection for Gansey (sort of like my feelings towards Nick in The Great Gatsby wow what a surprise). I never really saw him and Blue going any further into their relationship. I am anxiously anticipating the moment where Blue leaves Adam for Gansey, because I think, ultimately, that's what's going to happen, and I'm not sure what will happen to Adam when that does.

I think that one of my favourite things is how well Gansey and Blue interact, and seeing them develop together. The way they started to tell each other things was really sweet and I think as a couple, they would work well, and it's not one of those relationships like Patch and Nora in Hush, Hush where the girl is super-dependant on the boy; but a strong, working together relationship like Anna and Peter in The Declaration. I was a bit disappointed when Gansey saw Glendower in that thing that they saw the dream-type things in, which I didn't really understand other than it showed either their future or most ideal future, instead of Blue. When Blue saw herself with Gansey, I started hoping that it showed the future, because as you probably already know, I love Gansey to the moon and back.

I can't wait to start the next book, which I believe is called the Dream Thieves, which might have something to do with the idea that Ronan pulled Chainsaw from his dream? I can't wait to see how the rest of the story is going to unfold and the waves that await me as I continue the Raven Boys journey in my ever-changing Raven Boys boat. I hope to get my hands on a copy soon.

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Have a lovely day!
love,
lily xoxo