The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 19th Sept 2012
Pages: 454
Synopsis:
Blue has spent the majority of her sixteen years being told that if she kisses her true love, he will die. When Blue meets Gansey’s spirit on the corpse road she knows there is only one reason why – either he is her true love or she has killed him.

Determined to find out the truth, Blue becomes involved with the Raven Boys, four boys from the local private school (lead by Gansey) who are on a quest to discover Glendower – a lost ancient Welsh King who is buried somewhere along the Virginia ley line. Whoever finds him will be granted a supernatural favour.

Never before has Blue felt such magic around her. But is Gansey her true love? She can’t imagine a time she would feel like that, and she is adamant not to be the reason for his death. Where will fate lead them?


Review:
Blue is a psychic's daughter. She see's Gansey's spirit on the corpse road, meaning he's going to die in the next year. When she meets him for real, he is not what she's expecting; him and his three friends are on the hunt for Glendower, a Welsh king buried hundreds of years ago but waiting to wake and grant a favour to those who wakes him.

All four Raven Boys were both annoying and likeable at the same time, but Adam stole my heart. He was proud and stubborn, shy and actually really poor but did not allow that to stop him. As for Blue, she wasn't the usual kick-ass heroine but still pretty awesome, not used to being able to see magic and definitely up for the ride when it started happening. Gansey as well wasn't what I expected, posh but not his fault that he used three syllable words in normal conversation. They both did make me laugh though.

I really wanted to love this and it actually took a lot longer than I thought it would for me to really get into it. Myths and legends and psychics? I would be all over that but it was about half way until I really got invested in the story. Maggie Stiefvater has a gift with words, which really struck me in this book, weaving between legends of ley lines and Gansey's car troubles with minimal effort. And yet there was the problem with prophecy's and knowing what was going to happen, as I was just waiting for Blue to fall in love with Gansey, for Adam to throw a fit after what he saw in the magic tree (don't ask, just read) and all that. Having said that, I'm glad to see Maggie had some tricks up her sleeve with the surprises and twists though!

All in all, a great book that didn't live to expectations but still an intriguing enough story that I have to know what happens!