Review: The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4) by Maggie Stiefvater

Book info:
Title:  The Raven King  
Author:  Maggie Stiefvater
Series:  The Raven Cycle #4  
Genre:  YA Fantasy/Adventure
Published:  April 26th, 2016
Source:  Purchased myself

This is a book that I am going to have a really hard time reviewing.  I love this series so much.  I love this author's writing so much.  The first book, The Raven Boys, was so good and got me so in love with this series.  What was so exciting about that first book is that my last name was almost a character's last name in the book.  Don't believe me?  Too crazy?  Well here is a picture I took of the actual tweets with the author about it.

I try not to be too annoying, but it's hard not to remind her of this and say how sad I am that the character ended up on the cutting room floor whenever I go to one of her events.  Book 2, The Dream Thieves, also blew me away.  And again, book 3, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, just great, and I loved it.  Now, I will try really hard not to give any spoilers with this book for those of you who are caught up, but, I can't promise that for the three books before this one if you haven't read them.  So if you are behind, click on the links for those books and read those reviews first.  Just know that while this was a good ending to the series, it's almost like the amount of extra time between when it was due out, October 2015, and when it actually came out, April 2016, built it up too much in my head and I felt a little tiny bit of something missing for that wait.  But still, so so good, and you need to read the series!

But now, on with my review of this one.  The last book left off with such a sad place, the death of one character I'd grown to really like in the short time we got to know them.  Some new characters showed up, including Blue's father.  To learn exactly who or what Blue is, that was really neat and such a great surprise to me.  The daughter of the lost king, such a quirky character, which totally brought in something we'd been missing since the death or loss of other characters from before.  The tension in Blue and Gansey's at first hidden relationship, to the will they or won't they kiss, when we've all known what that kiss is supposed to mean for Gansey since the very first book.  We learn just how much of Ronan's life is a dream, or came from a dream.  And then there is Henry Cheng, I love his character, and what his past brings to the story really did add a whole other aspect that made the story even better.  Ronan getting a chance at love and happiness, well as happy as Ronan ever gets, that totally brought a smile to my face and made me so happy.  Of course there is the king to be found to see what kind of wish Gansey could be granted, maybe so he won't have to die?  And then Cabeswater itself is in trouble.  There are just so many strings that intersect in so many different ways that I can't even really tell too much about any one event without giving away another major event or plot line.

Here's my thought on how it all ended.  I feel like Maggie did a great job, believable, and perfectly normal for her type of world ending.  There are things about it that almost felt a little too easy to me, but I can't even explain what about it made me feel that way, so I can't even use that as a negative for the book.  I didn't have any trouble enjoying the book, to the point that as I read I wanted to know what was going to happen, but unlike the other books in the series, I didn't have problems setting it down and going on to do other things.  So there was something missing in that aspect I guess. But it wasn't the characters.  As usual, the characters were the best part of the story, and I will be sad to be done with them.  I know the story is over, but I could totally read on about their lives after it all.  Ronan and Adam, Gansey and Blue, and what about Henry?  You must read this series, and you must see how it all ends if you've read all of it so far.  

Waiting on Wednesday: The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4) by Maggie Stiefvater

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  My pick this week is the final book in what will probably be one of my favorite series ever.  It's one that I know I won't be able to have a matching set of ARCs because it will probably not be available that way according to the author.  This is a series that is almost impossible to tell someone exactly what it is about, but it is sooooo good!  I love the characters, the mythology, all of it.  And such a cliffhanger at the end of the third one, I'm so ready to read and find out what will happen, and how it will all work out.  Here is the very little blurb from Goodreads:

The fourth and final installment in the spellbinding series from the irrepressible, #1 New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater.

All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.

In a starred review for Blue Lily, Lily Blue, Kirkus Reviews declared: "Expect this truly one-of-a-kind series to come to a thundering close." 



Have you read this series yet?  If not, you definitely need to pick it up and get started.  Have you read any of her books?  I love all of them. Every time I think one might not sound like my type of story, I pick it up and give it a chance, and am sucked right in by the wonderful characters that she writes.  And then all the stories are my type.  

What book are you eagerly awaiting this week? 

Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3) by Maggie Stiefvater

If you've been following me, you know the whole difficult process I went through in order to get a copy of this.  You see I got the very first book in the series, The Raven Boys, when I attended BEA in 2012.  And even though I was a big fan of the author, in fact there was almost a character with my last name in the first book, I didn't get around to reading it until January of 2013.  After I finished it I was so mad at myself for waiting so long to read it.  I figured they'd probably give away ARCs of the 2nd book at BEA in 2013, but I wasn't able to attend.  So I was lucky enough to find it on Netgalley.  But then I also wanted a matching ARC to go with the first one, so I found a copy of The Dream Thieves on YA Book Exchange.  Now I think when I got the ARC of it, it was already out in the stores.  Plus, I don't think I was smart enough to still go back and post my review on Netgalley where I had been approved for it.  I'm assuming that is one of the reasons they denied my request for the e-galley of this one.  I was heartbroken though when I got the email saying I'd been denied. So, even though it was a Friday night, and I knew probably no one was in the publisher's office, I found someone's email on the Scholastic website and I emailed them with links to all my reviews of Maggie's books, and pleaded my case for getting a copy since I have 3 ways to spread the word about books.  And the person emailed me back on Sunday and said they'd send me an ARC!  So happy!  When I got it, I was at work, and wanted so bad to dance and scream, but I work in a library, and so it wasn't quite the right place for it.  I picked the book up finally on Sunday, and I could barely put it down.  I was reading it so much that I even hurt my wrist again, and had to pull out the brace I got a couple years ago for supposed carpal tunnel on that wrist.  So now, on to the review, and if you haven't read the first two in the series yet, you should probably stop now, knowing the book is awesome, because I can't help if there are spoilers from the first two books.

Where we left off in book 2, Blue's mother, Maura, was gone.  She'd disappeared leaving only a note that she was basically going to look for Glendower.  Ronan had learned that he was basically the Greywaren and could pull things out of his dreams, as could his father.  Adam was living away from his abusive father, but still not with Gansey and Ronan.  Professor Malory, Gansey's friend has come to help with their search.  Mr. Gray is still around, although he's kind of come over to the good side you might say, even though now his boss has come to town, still wanting the Greywaren.  Blue is finding that she is attracted to Gansey instead of Adam, but knows that anything like this would mess up the friendship between the four of them, not to mention the original prediction about how Gansey would die from kissing her.  They have gone back to their cave, only to find a blocked passage, and now they must figure out how to get to the other side of the blockage, and soon they find a cave in a small town on a man named Jesse Dittley's farm.  I love Dittley, his character basically yells the whole time, as shown by the capital letters in the book.  There was at least one conversation between him and Blue that I laughed out loud as I was reading, then looked up to see if anyone noticed I'd done that.  Dittley says the cave is cursed,  his family members have died there.  At first he won't let them explore because of the curse.  But Blue convinces him otherwise.  And once the crew goes in to explore, many things are found, that show they are on the right track.  But there are supposed to be 3 sleepers.  Glendower, one who should not be woken, and a third one that is nonessential really.  In the end they will find two of the sleepers.  One which will help, one which will not, and that is where book 4 will go I guess.  We will lose another beloved character, even as we also get rid of a bad guy.  Kind of another cliffhanger.  And I guess I have to wait another year now to finish!  But that's okay, I'm so glad to have read this one.

I do have one complaint.  Adam has the court case with his father.  And while there might be some hints as to how it goes, it is never really said for sure.  And so I kinda need the answer to that.  Don't know if we'll get it or not, and I want to ask the author.  I will probably ask her when she comes to Kansas City next month.  Another great book from Stiefvater, another important part of the story has been unfolded, and now we just need to tie up all the ends and get to the prize.  If you haven't started this series, you really need to get going!  And thanks again to Tracy van Straaten, the VP of Publicity and Education/Library Marketing at Scholastic for taking my email seriously and giving me the chance to read this early. 

Waiting on Wednesday - Blue Lily, Lily Blue (Raven Cycle #3) by Maggie Stiefvater

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  This week I've chosen a book that I'd really, really hoped would be an ARC at BEA.  Instead we got another book in one of my favorite series by one of my favorite authors, Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater.  Two years ago when I went to BEA I got a copy of an ARC of the first book, The Raven Boys.  Now I didn't read it right away, even though I love this author's books.  But when I did read it, I fell in love.  And then last year, the year I didn't get to go to BEA, they gave away the ARC of the 2nd book, The Dream Thieves, which I traded for on YA Book Exchange in order to get an ARC, so I would have a matching set.  Now, I haven't heard of any ARCs of this third one though.  :-(  Anyone else?  If so, how can I get one?  

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.

I love that cover so much!!!  And I just need to read on and know what happens next.  Maggie Stiefvater is supposed to be in Kansas City again this coming November, so I'm hoping to see her then.  The book will be out by then. And I'll either have an ARC if I can find it, or will have purchased the book.  

Have you read this series yet?  Or anything by this author?  What book are you eagerly awaiting this week? 

And while you're here, you might want to sign up for the September is for Sequels Giveaway Blog Hop that I'm co-hosting with I Am A Reader. 

Review: Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

This is a book I got as a Christmas gift from my youngest sister's boyfriend.  I believe he said it was his favorite book.  I've read a couple books by Neil Gaiman and liked them.  So I figured this would probably be a good read as well.  I've not read any Terry Pratchett, although the titles of many of his books are pretty humorous.

This is kind of a fun look at the end of the world.  Now, I almost put the book down right away when it started talking about how old the Earth is.  When it said dinosaurs weren't real?  Well, as a former science teacher, I just about was done with that.  But, I gave it a shot, as I know it was supposed to be funny, and in a way, reminded me of episodes of Supernatural.  Which I guess that show would have to not think dinosaurs were real, and I love that show.  It also began by reminding me of another favorite book of mine by Christopher Moore, Lamb:  The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.  

The book begins with an angel and a demon, Azariphale, and Crowley.  I love the name Crowley too, as it is one of the big demon guys in Supernatural.  And they both get the message that it is time to start the end of the world.  By the delivery of the baby that will be the Antichrist, and he must be switched with another baby.  Well, the switch goes wrong, and the baby doesn't end up with the family it is supposed to be with. And so as certain people, nannies, tutors, etc., are sent to help get him ready to end the world, it doesn't seem to work.  Plus, the angel and demon we met at the beginning?  Well they both kind of like humans, and don't really want the world to end.  So the angel sends people to try to counter the evil of the nanny, etc.  At a certain age, a dog is supposed to go meet the Antichrist.  Crowley is waiting to see it, but it never shows up.  At least not with the child they'd thought was the Antichrist.  Instead we soon learn that the baby went to a small town and grew up pretty normal.  Now, things may happen that are unexplained, but nothing major.  And he does get a dog, but the dog isn't quite what is expected, or at least it changes.  Now, all of these events have been predicted by a witch named Agnes Nutter.  And some other characters in the story are Witch Finders, who are supposed to find them, and of course burn them.  And then we also have a witch that lives in the small town, or has just moved to the small town, where the true Antichrist lives.

It's a lot funnier than I make it sound. There were parts I had a little bit of an out loud chuckle.  In the fashion of British humor I guess you would say.  I did notice that one of my favorite authors, Maggie Stiefvater, gave the book 5 stars.  Which doesn't surprise me really, as her Raven Cycle books include ley lines, which it talks about in this book as well.  If you enjoy parodies of religious stories, and British parodies of anything,  you will enjoy this book.

The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2) by Maggie Stiefvater

Wow, just almost don't know how to start this review.  Once again I really loved a book by this author.  It was the one book that I really wish I'd had the money to go to BEA last summer just to get.  But I didn't.  And so I spent all summer entering every contest I could to try to win one.  But no such luck.  Then, finally, I found it available on Netgalley, thanks to the wonderful Scholastic!!  But shortly after that, I found it on YA Book Exchange, the ARC, so I had to come up with a trade for it, so I could have the matching books.  My saddest thought at this moment?  How long do I now have to wait for book 3, and I've finished this book the day after it came out?  Now, at first, I had a bit of trouble remembering every detail from the first book.  You see, it had been awhile since I'd read it, and Ms. Stiefvater's stories are so incredibly detailed, in a good way, that I took a bit to get into it.  I wish I'd read the author's update HERE, before I'd started.  But I didn't, and eventually I got it figured out, and was once again in the world and hooked!  If you want to read my review of the first book, go HERE.  I am really going to try to not do any spoilers, and really, it is kind of hard to do because after just one reading, there is such a complex story, that I can't really give much away.  But if you haven't read the first one, you may not want to read further.  Just know that this book was really good, and Stiefvater once again, does not disappoint.
What confused me to start with, was that we started off with Ronan.  Now, I don't remember Ronan having as huge of a part in the first book, I mean that we got to know his background or spent as much time just with him, and so at first I was thinking of him as Gansey, which was totally wrong.  I soon figured out my totally stupid mistake though.  Although at first I was thinking Gansey was Adam.  So you can see I had my character names all mixed up in my head.  I did definitely remember that Noah was the ghost though.  And he is still such a sweet guy/ghost, that you still will love him, at least I did.  And then there is Blue, as really the only female character, I wasn't at all confused about who she was.  But honestly, I really loved getting to know more about Ronan, and wow did that really play into the story!  In such a neat way.  Remember Ronan's bird from the first book?  The one he "dreamed" into being.  Well, turns out that really will play into how the story progresses.  And I won't say how.  But again, really, it is just wow.  There are two villains you might say for this story.  One is Mr. Gray.  The other is Kavinski, a guy from school.  And you figure that Kavinski is just a normal spoiled brat from Aglionby.  And that while Mr. Gray is evil, but seems to show some feeling for Blue's mom, Maura, you just know in the end he'll probably end up being really evil, no matter what.  I mean, just his name, and how he is described.  You know that there is no way he could really change, like you will hope, I promise you will!  I still had about 80 pages to go when I went to see Maggie Stiefvater speak last night, and so something she said about how she felt about certain types of characters, again I won't tell you the specifics, as I don't want to give anything away, but it gave me hope that what I really wished would happen, would happen.  And it did.  I was pretty happy with how all the storylines ended up for this story.  The most disappointing is part is just how far we are left hanging at the end of this book.  I want to tweet, and email, and Facebook the author, and say she has to give me some answer!  I need to know if that person is really who is gone, or what happened.
So good, I'm so in love with this series, and the characters, and I feel I may actually go back and re-read the first two books right before the third one comes out, hopefully sometime in 2014?  And I haven't really done that, due to lack of time, since the Harry Potter books, the Twilight books, and the Hunger Games books.  Of course, if I'm lucky, Maggie will just do another awesome re-cap for us before book 3 comes out.
My main point to this?  If you haven't read this series yet, you need to.  I love, love, LOVED it!  Have I said that enough yet?
Since I shared my picture with the author yesterday, today I'll share the autograph from her!

3rd Time is the Charm

So I still have 100 pages left to read of my ARC of The Dream Thieves, so I'm not going to be ready to write the review till tomorrow.  Now normally I can get through 100 pages really quickly, but even the fact that Maggie Stiefvater's writing hooks me and doesn't want to let me go when I pick the book up, her books take me longer to read.  Why?  Because they are so detailed and so much to read, so much to catch, that they are not books that I can skim over and skip parts.  I want, need, however you want to describe it, have to read every little detail, every word.  And so, like I said before, it'll be tomorrow before I'm done.  So, I guess to tie my blog over with a post till then, I'll just have to talk about going to see Ms. Stiefvater speak tonight about this very book!
It was so neat to see her again!  So thanks to Rainy Day Books for hosting her visit and kickoff to the tour for her new book.  While we heard some of the same stories, (the wolf trainer), we also got to hear many new ones.  And as usual, she is such a great speaker, so funny!  Someone I wish I could hang out with in real life.  One main thing she started off talking about is how people always want to know which of her characters are most like her, or are her.  So then she went through all the main characters in The Raven Boys.  Afterwards she did a fun reading of one part of the new book, and even had guest readers!  One was Tessa Gratton, another author I really enjoy, in fact, I got to be the host for her during the Authors are Rock Stars Tour.  Along with Ms. Gratton were her parents, her dad was also in the reading, playing Mr. Gray, which was quite funny, until the parts where it kind of became awkward, as Maggie was reading the part of Maura, Blue's mom in the story, who may be interested in Mr. Gray.  Here is a picture of that scene:

After the reading, there was time for questions.  I waited till it seemed most others had asked their questions, and also after a mention of a deleted scene from a story.  And then I asked if the character who had an afghan, and was supposed to have my last name, that was in the first draft of The Raven Boys, might make an appearance in the 3rd book.  Happily at that point she remembered me, and explained to the rest of the audience what I was talking about.  Yay!  Then, after about half the people lined up for autographs, the other half got to go outside and start spray painting the Mitsubishi that she brought, that from her stories, was probably purchased accidentally while she was doing research for The Dream Thieves.  If you haven't seen the video about it yet, check this out:

I forgot to take a picture of the car tonight, and by the time I got to go out and paint something, it was dark outside.  So nothing else to add for that.
But I was in the first group to get autographs, so I'll share my pictures with Maggie and Tessa.  I only wish Brenna Yovanoff had been there as well, like she was last time, I brought two of her books to get signed.  And I also forgot to bring the copy of The Scorpio Races I just bought specifically to get signed.  Oh well, I guess it leaves me something to bring next time I see her!  I also told her about how my picture of her and Brenna and Tessa from BEA 2012 is going to be in a biography book about Maggie that is specifically for school libraries.  And while she and Tessa both told me not to give up on maybe my last name being used some day in one of her books, to keep bugging her about it, they said now I was kind of connected with her in print!  Anyway, below are my pictures, first with Maggie Stiefvater, then below that with Tessa Gratton.

So it was another rock star night for me!  Which means I'm not too upset that I was unable to finish The Dream Thieves today.