Title: "The Dream Thieves (Raven Cycle #2)"

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: YA contemporary, Magical Realism, Mystery, Paranormal, AWESOME

Publication Date: September 17, 2013 (Scholastic Press – North America)

Source: Publisher-provided ARC

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…

☆: 4/5 stars – Not quite as amazing as “Raven Boys”, but still pretty damn good.

Review: If “Raven Boys” was Gansey’s book/the intro book, “Dream Thieves” is definitely Ronan’s book,  100%. We also get a lot of juicy details about backstory about Ronan and his brothers, as well as some new characters, and new mysteries to solve in order to get the boys back together, and back to business at hand. Yes, while “Dream Thieves” had a little more introspection than its predecessor, it’s still a really good sequel, and it’s making me froth at the mouth for book three.

Title: “The Raven Boys”

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Genre: YA contemporary, fantasy, fairy tales retold, AWESOME

Publication Date: September 18, 2012 (Scholastic – North America)

Source: Publisher-provided ARC

Summary: “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.

☆: 4.5/5 stars – another hit from Stiefvater!

Review: You guys know I loved Stiefvater’s last effort, “The Scorpio Races”, and so of course when I heard about “The Raven Boys”, I just had to read it. I mean, I HAD to. Would it get my heart racing the same way it did for the last book? In a way, it did, and in a way, it didn’t – this book is a quieter, sneakier book than the fast-paced horse race that is “Scorpio Races”, but that doesn’t make it any less good. If you love epic bromances, pompous names, and obscure mythology retold into a new tale, you simply must read “The Raven Boys”.