Review: The Raven King

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This just about sums it up – how this feels to me:

He was a book, and he was holding his final pages, and he wanted to get to the end to find out how it went, and he didn't want it to be over.

I have seen a lot of reviews for The Raven King and many of them are disappointed fans – I didn’t get that feeling. Maybe it was because I read the series from start to finish in a matter of days so that all of it was so very fresh in my mind when I got to the final instalment. Maybe it was also because I didn’t expect the demon to be that overtly threatening.

C’mon, let’s face it, Piper Greenmantle was something terrifying in her own right before the Unmaker decided to favour her, she was probably one of the antagonists that seemed the most despicable in my books. LOOK WHO SPAWNED HER!!!!! The man who kidnapped poor Henry Cheng (I have a terrible soft spot for him now, you have no idea!) when he was an itty bitty child because of his robo bee. Niall Lynch, you asshole! *coughs*

So, let’s get to this then…

Adam & Ronan

Adam smiled cheerily. Ronan would start wars and burn cities for that true smile, elastic and amiable.

Oh no, no, NO! That’s not all!!!!

When Adam kissed him, it was every mile per hour Ronan had ever gone over the speed limit. It was every window-down, goose-bumps-on-skin, teeth-chattering-cold night drive. It was Adam’s ribs under Ronan’s hands and Adam’s mouth on his mouth, again and again and again. It was stubble on his lips and Ronan having to stop, to get his breath, to restart his heart. They were both hungry animals, but Adam had been starving for far longer.

I do... I just have a lot of feelings! So, soooooooo many feelings!!!! This is what I was waiting for - this confirmation of love from Adam and Ronan, this confirmation of need and attraction. We knew Ronan loved Adam for so long, to know the state of how deeply he felt:

His feelings for Adam were an oil spill; he'd let them overflow and now there wasn't a damn place in the ocean that wouldn't catch fire if he dropped a match.

HE BURNS FOR HIM!!!! That my friends is so damn fiery, passionate lust! And yes, it is a FOREVER love and that is all that I ever wanted for them!

Blue & Gansey

There’s going to be life after he dies. You have to think about what you’re going to do after.

Life after... Life after he dies... Sometimes word choices are excellent, and Maggie Stiefvater does an amazing job of choosing her words throughout this series. Blue and Gansey are fated since the first time we see his spirit on the Corpse Road, but they aren't just fated for her to watch him die and to bring about his end with a kiss. Oh no, they are fated for more - so much more!



This one is it - this one ends with all the feelings, it ends with all the hopes and it leaves a door open that this may not be the very last time that we see Gansey and his magicians. That's what I'm hoping! Somewhere down the road, there's something else that ties them all together again. That is a day that I will dream of...


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Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Yes, we're almost there, almost at the end and yes I am DREADING IT!!!!!

“What do we do now?" Gansey asked.
From the other room, Calla bellowed, "GO BUY US PIZZA. WITH EXTRA CHEESE, RICHIE RICH."
Blue said, "I think she's starting to like you.”

I've always liked Gansey, but then considering how gruff Calla can be, this really was a moment that couldn't be forgotten. Calla has always been gruff - in fact, that Mr. Gray is the one person she seems to truly like (especially because he's a hitman and can show her how to kill someone effectively, but again, I digress...) of the newest members of their little family. That's really what they've become over the last few books - a family. And now that family is about to be torn asunder by Colin Greenmantle and his ridiculous wife! I like Piper about as much as I liked Neeve, which is to say, not a whole heck of a lot.

It was possible that there were two gods in this church.

See Adam, see!!!! You are full of the Ronan love and admiration, I KNEW IT!!!!!

Watching Adam coming to grips with himself, who he is and what that means has been a beautiful thing. He hasn't quite gotten there yet, but he's a hell of a lot closer. If this series does not end with Adam and Ronan being happy and together I might crumble into a million little pieces!!

“Blue,” he warned, but his voice was chaotic. This close, his throat was scented with mint and wool sweater and vinyl car seat, and Gansey, just Gansey.

She said, “I just want to pretend. I want to pretend that I could.”

Yes, they are there... Pretty much. The only thing that's left is to be honest with everyone and to show the group that they are meant to be together. THIS SERIES IS KILLING ME!!!!!

Read it if you want your heart to just burst with all the potential and the love! Maggie Stiefvater has woven such an intricate tale full of romance, intrigue, and a lot less actual cursing than you would expect for YA fare. Maybe that has to do with the Scholastic publisher, maybe not, but I know that as it starts pouring in (because as the books go by, the curses do start to come) they don't feel senseless. They don't feel like just there for shock value. The context is there, the usage is correct and feels natural. Where the language does not turn "blue" and it is hinted at feels natural too. Masterful prose! This is quite the series and I'm just going to be lost when it ends...


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Review: The Dream Thieves

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In that moment, Blue was a little in love with all of them. Their magic. Their quest. Their awfulness and strangeness. Her raven boys.

I am probably the worst person because I have devoured these books in the matter of a couple of weeks (with a few others throw in for good measure!) and I almost feel like every review may be coloured by that, by the fact that I am half way through the next (or finished the entire series) and I don't want that to happen, but it's going to be hard. I am a little enamoured by all of them, just like Blue is, and I am loathe to see the series end now the further we delve in to the magical mysteries of my favourite - Ronan.

And Ronan was everything that was left: molten eyes and a smile made for war.

Oh Ronan!



I want to throw my arms around him, wrap him bubble wrap and protect him from all the awful things that are coming their way. Can I tell you how happy I was that Ronan was really explored throughout this book? Adam is important, Gansey is important, Blue is important but Ronan... He was hidden in the shadows throughout the last book. We barely got to know him at all but we did get to know everyone else, this - THIS was Ronan's time to start shining! Or at least, be a little less in the dark than he already was.

Confirmation my friends comes in many different colours
(and shapes and nightmarish configurations like the night horror but I digress...) and this was a moment that I was waiting for.

She wore a dress Ronan thought looked like a lampshade. Whatever sort of lamp it belonged on, Gansey clearly wished he had one.
Ronan wasn't a fan of lamps.

Ronan, the precious snowflake is beyond gay and I AM HERE FOR IT!!!!!! Though Adam may be his other secret, the one that he holds so close to his heart, I am here to see where this is going to go. The only other person in the whole series who truly doesn't wholly know who he is and what he wants is Adam Parrish and I believe that boy is definitely going to realize he's feeling some serious love for Ronan. And while I want these two to be happy together, there's these other two...

'I wish you could be kissed, Jane,' he said. 'Because I would beg just one off you. Under all this.' He flailed an arm toward the stars.

Blue and Gansey have been dancing towards this for so, so long. After all this time, Blue is truly falling for Gansey and now I have to know - how will this all end? Will he ever be able to kiss her? Can they live without kissing? There is something so intimate about a kiss, and how could they possibly live without that? I don't want to colour this part either with what I know, but, just LOVE.

Read this book and be happy to live in the glory of Maggie Stiefvater's prose.

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Review: Throne of Glass

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I need to process this before I share my thoughts ... But STELLAR!

UPDATE

I think I am finally able to process my thoughts on this book, and OMG I just... YES!!!!!!!!



I tried to read this book twice before. I honestly thought that I was going to give up on the hope that I would ever be able to read Throne of Glass because every time I picked it up something else would distract me. I don't just mean other books - I mean EVERYTHING! I always imagine that good story telling will pull me in from the very first page, and generally it does. This is not a weak story, it is not weak prose, but it didn't quite hook me right off the start the other two times I tried to read it. I don't know why, maybe it was that I hadn't experienced the beauty that is Sarah J. Maas's world building and character development, that is, until I finished reading A Court of Mist and Fury in all its glory and wondered how I was to survive without more of her glorious words for the next year waiting on the next instalment. It solidified the need in me to know the tale that would be spread before me here, and I am so very glad that it did!

Give me real men to fight. Then maybe I'll bother trying.

Celaena Sardothien is FIERCE and in control. Even when she was a prisoner in Endovier's salt mines she was in control, or as in control as she could possibly be. Who hasn't wanted a strong, fierce female assassin? Who hasn't wanted Cinderella to be something more than the belle of the ball? Celaena is both the beauty and the beast within. She is more regal and graceful and more lovely than any true high bred lady. She is also more dangerous and deadly than a viper. I am taken with the Celaena - I can't even describe how much I adore her strength and determination. She has her eyes on the prize - freedom - and yet she has time to entertain not only one potential love interest (who is the Crown Prince of Adarlan no less!!!!) but two!

Her doorknob clicked and her heart leapt into her throat. Was it time to finally sign her contract with the king? But it wasn't Dorian or Nehemia, not even a page. The world stopped when Chaol entered instead.

I don't honestly know who I want to see her with more! I felt the attraction to Chaol more than that to Dorian throughout the story, but I felt the pull of the love triangle and it is a heavenly triangle. Somehow, I think that it is not at all so neatly resolved as it appears by the end of the text. I'm relieved that Celaena seemed to feel this too.

I'm ready to find out just how she's going to fulfill the need of healing the people of the world, saving them like Elena told her she would. I know that Celaena is destined for great things and when I get finished devouring The Raven Cycle, I will continue along with her tales until I'm as caught up as all the rest of you!



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Review: The Raven Boys

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My words are unerring tools of destruction, and I’ve come unequipped with the ability to disarm them.

I have seen so many people blogging about The Raven Cycle and I kept saying, oh I'll get to it... But now I am very glad that I have finally gotten to it! I have fallen in love with Ronan, Gansey, Blue, Adam and oh sweet Noah! I had always thought that they would be more on the youth side of YA, but Maggie Stiefvater's writing is fluid, suspenseful, alluring.

I have a thing for tortured souls, I know I do. I always seem to latch on to the one in a story that is the most downtrodden or the baddest good boy you can find and I think that easily explains why I have fallen in love with Ronan Lynch and want to wrap him up in blankets and protect him from all the terrible things in this world! Noah has, by the end of Raven Boys, essentially been protected and wrapped in the bubble wrap of the power of the ley line, and though you spend a lot of this book worried about Noah, I have to say that it's Ronan that has the most dramatic pull to me and I am very excited to see how Ronan develops.

Gansey and Blue have only to get together - their fate is kind of laid bare in the first chapter and since we've been told how this is going to end, I really just have to wonder how they get there. Adam, well Adam I didn't see that coming but he's still alive right? I mean, that's the best way to look at it he hasn't died (sobs Noah) to activate the ley line, he gave all of himself though. He gave himself away for the greater good of their goal to find the sleeping king, but Ronan... He's so closed off, and that declaration at the end! How did he do it????

I'm dying to know about Blue's father. I'm dying to know how Ronan pulled Chainsaw from his dreams... I'm dying to know where we go from here!!! I'm glad that all I have to do is pick up the next book!



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Review: Girls Night

Girls Night by Stef Ann Holm
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received my copy of this eBook in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Girls Night was a decent distraction, fairly quick and honestly predictable yet sweet at the same time.

Jillene McDermott is a young widow with two precocious matchmaking preteen daughters, a faithful dog, and the proud owner of her late husband's floundering coffee shop and a mountain of debt. Vince Tremonti is a True Crime Author who's come home to escape the feelings of guilt that are plaguing him about his current tale. How they come together - first by chance and then an impromptu dinner by the matchmaking daughters - was sweet, yet predictable in this Small Town Romance all about (like the series titles) a second chance. This, to me as a single mom, sounded like it was going to be a great read! I can't relate to the widow aspect, but I can relate to a mom who has to try to find a way to make ends meet sometimes eating PB&J as a staple and definitely trying to stretch every last penny. Unfortunately, I just couldn't relate to her children...



Can you tell me what preteen wants to share a bath? With their mother or otherwise? Cause I don't know of any. In fact, that was the age where I remember becoming more and more secretive and less willing to share anything myself. They all at once seemed too old and too young to be whom Stef Ann Holm was trying to portray them to be.

Actually everyone in this novel was kind of conflicting to me - they just didn't fit their ages, but then, I also had to take in to account that there was a lot going (romance wise) with the subplot of Al Tremonti (Vince's father) and Ianella Sofrone. Sometimes I think you could almost pick father for son and change the names and their impressions on life and the world around them would have been similar. I think this also comes from the year in the book. - 2002. Every pop culture reference was hugely dated! I think that was part of the downfall to the test of time for it.



Too much going on, too dated, characters whose behaviours were incongruous to their ages... I really wanted to love this, but the tale wound up being mediocre. The blurb in the back for the next in the series felt a little better, maybe I will check that one out and see if the characterization is improved. I'm not giving up on the author - I'm pretty sure I've read something else of her's and enjoyed it, this one just didn't hit the mark for me.

3 stars for a quick distraction that was cute regardless of its flaws.

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Review: Four Chambers

Four Chambers by Julie Wright
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received my copy of this eBook in exchange for a fair and honest review.



This novel was ADORABLY sweet! In Four Chambers, Julie Wright delivers a story that will warm your heart, through and through. This book is part of the Power of the Matchmaker series, of which I have read one other offering Not Always Happenstance, in which Miss Pearl plays supernaturally talented matchmaker to her predestined couples spouting Chinese (and Swedish, etc...) proverbs on love and fate. This time it is Andra Stone and Everett Covington who will be her challenging pair, though this one worked a little differently than I was expecting from the series, which made it a little less predictable in the end than I thought.

The story starts in Andra's final undergraduate year at Boston College, in fact it starts as she has decided to spray paint 'TOOL' across the pick up truck of her lying, cheating, now-ex boyfriend Greg with her best friend Janette trying to talk her down from her sleep deprived thoughts. Here is where we first meet Everett, as well. It was really sweet and I was thinking by the end of the 'First Chamber' that the aspiring heart surgeons were going to be an issue. Julie Wright had created characters that were so clearly attracted to each other, how could she possibly make this book last another couple of hundred pages???? Everett survived meeting her family, was loved by both her brother and her Grams (the only people who's opinions really mattered to her), and he was clearly perfect for her, where could there possibly be any point in going on any further? Enter the angst and conflict!!! I should have known better, because up until that moment they were too perfect and we had yet to see Miss Pearl at all!!

Believe it or not, we don't actually see Miss Pearl, or at least Andra doesn't see Miss Pearl until further along in the story. Everett is the first recipient of Miss Pearl's attentions but Andra is the one that really needs the convincing that she could have the career she wanted and the love that she craved and was denying with Everett. In fact it takes them a little more than a decade and four times where they had stumbled into each other's lives to finally get it right.

This book was a clean, sweet romance and I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone looking for a quick diversion. The writing is clear and expressive, and really the only downfall is that the idea that the love she needed was right in front of her the whole time, she just didn't really realize it nor make room for it until the end was super predictable from the onset of the novel. 4 stars!

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