Info:
Title: The Dream Thieves
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Raven Cycle #2
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: September 17, 2013
Synopsis:
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...
Review:
After
my many questions and general confusion at the end of The Raven Boys,
The Dream Thieves brought me some answers, along with more questions.
Which is a good thing, since otherwise what would the next two books be
about?
The Dream Thieves opens and closes with prose about
secrets and we sure did get a few doozies along the way. Obviously I
can't tell you what they are (no spoilers here!), but I can tell you
that it will help you make sense of that very confusing final line of
The Raven Boys.
The Dream Thieves focused a lot more on Ronan,
who went from being my least favourite Raven Boy to my most favourite.
Through the book I fell completely in love with him. Not in the
I-want-to-marry-him-and-have-babies way. More in the way that I love
tigers or violent thunderstorms. Amazing, beautiful and terrifying and
you know if you get too close you will be destroyed, but you just can't
stop watching. I'm not a bad-boy-girl, but it would seem Ronan is that VERY specific type of bad boy that I do love. The type that is very nearly a villain.
At the end of The Raven Boys, I had no clue what
was going on with Adam. At the end of The Dream Thieves, I had a sliver
of a clue what was going on with Adam. Adam was a mystery to me the
entire book. We get a little bit of information, but not enough for me
to have a clear idea of what is going on. Gansey was the same Gansey as
the first book and Noah just made me want to give him a hug in nearly
every scene. Blue was much the same, although she began to comes to
terms with some things near the end that she'd really rather not. And
Blue's family continued to be awesome. So awesome.
We get a
couple of new characters in this book as well. The Gray Man was such an
interesting character. Exactly the sort of professional I like. And
Joseph Kavinsky. He made me feel all kinds of icky. He's sleazy and
spoilt and I kind of wanted to shake him, but at the same time I
wouldn't want to touch him.
Overall, The Dream Thieves had
everything I loved about The Raven Boys, combined with a more satisfying
ending. I am eagerly awaiting the remaining books as I'm falling deeper
and deeper in love with the amazing world that Maggie Stiefvater has
created.
Find the Book:
Goodreads | Amazon
| The Book Depository
Find the Author:
Goodreads | Web | Twitter | Facebook
Don't Just Take My Word For It:
The Daily Prophecy
I am meeting Maggie tonight! Cue awkward fangirling!
Info:
Title: The Raven Boys
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Raven Cycle #1
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: September 18, 2012
Source: Purchased.
Synopsis:
“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.
From
Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver
trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the
inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve
never been before.
Review:
This one would have been
five stars if it weren't for the ending! It's kind of a shame. I was so
into this one and then the ending really threw me for a loop. No
spoilers, but it was not at all what I expected and I still don't
actually know what happened. I'm very glad I have the sequel right
beside me, so I can hopefully figure things out!
I didn't have an
immediate connection with the characters, but by the end, I found
myself caring about all of them. Well, except Neeve, who gave me the
creeps. But all of the boys and Blue for sure. The boys are all
different and I feel like each one was his own cautionary tale, showing
the effects of traits like pride, obsession, recklessness and following
blindly. Of the boys, I think Gansey ended up being my favourite,
although there were aspects of all of them that I loved. Blue herself
was probably the main character I had the least connection with. I did
care about her, but I just felt she could be a touch blah. I hope to get
to know her better in the sequel.
I fell in love with the world
of Henrietta. I loved Blue's family, especially Calla and her snarky
attitude. I also loved the creepy vibe Maggie Stiefvater was able to
invoke. Probably not the best book to read alone in the dark. It's not
scary in a goes-bump-in-night-jump-out-and-grab-you way, but in a more
subtle way that still managed to send a few chills up my spine.
As
I mentioned, the one thing that knocked this one down from 5 stars to
only 4 was the ending. To give you a non-spoiler explanation, while I
was reading, I realized I only had 18 pages felt. It felt like there was
so much left to happen that I was sure it was going to end in a huge
cliffhanger. But it didn't. It just sort of ended and then had a final
chapter that felt like an epilogue. It left me a bit disappointed,
although I'm hoping to find out what actually happened in The Dream
Thieves, which I'll be starting next.
This one is worth the read
for the atmosphere alone. I know some people found it a bit slow, but
that didn't bother me at all. As I said, I'm excited to start on the
sequel and I'm hoping to get all my answers from the ending answered
shortly!
Find the Book:
Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depository
Find the Author:
Goodreads | Web | Twitter | Facebook
Don't Just Take My Word For It:
Xpresso Reads
Also, I'm super excited to be going to meet Maggie this week! Fellow bloggers Ambur and Lisa will be coming down as well, which is awesome, since I haven't seen either of them lately! Watch for my signing recap on Sunday!
