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

WHAT AN AMAZING SERIES!!!! 

I fell totally in love with this story. My heart was so broken at times but it was so worth it. 

The conclusion, which really isn't, if you know about the newest Maggie Stiefvater book, Call Down The Hawk, then you know that there is another set of stories to tell. 

There is so much love in this book even as there is death and destruction. 

I don't know how much to say because I don't know if you are here because you are thinking of reading this or if you have and are curious to see what I thought. 

I will lean toward the cautious and avoid spoilers and specifics as much as possible. 

If you have watched Doctor Who you are familiar with the concept of time being wibbly-wobbly. That is the way it works here too. Time isn't a straight line happening in a neat progression, things have happened and happen again and are known before and after and there is a magic and energy to it that is part of the ley line. Death is known and unknown, monsters exist and both good and evil can be made and unmade. Trees have souls. Love and family are as much if not more about choice than bloodlines. 

Broken isn't the end, and what is broken can be fixed or at least mended. 

Adam and Ronan and Blue and Gansey and Henry have stolen into my heart and rival The Trio and Luna and Neville as my favorite group of magical friends turned family. 

Thank you Rachel, seriously, thank you, for putting this into my hands and shredding me in the process. I am so very grateful. (a high compliment from one bookish person to another)

(Finished November 26, 2019)

***I have Call Down The Hawk but need to read Queen Of The Conquered before I read it, it was sent to me by the author and having met Them at LeakyCon it feels important to me to do it this way. But I will be visiting the world created by Maggie as soon as I am done***

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

Third in The Raven Cycle, Blue Lily, Lily Blue picks up the story that started with The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves. The character development across the three books is incredible. The tension is amazing and painful. My heart has ached more than once and I have been told it will happen more as I read the final book in this part of the story, The Raven King.

Some of what I can share without it being too close to spoilerish is that we do see a bit of Adam's dad again. There will be some answers about Greenmantle but not enough to yet know the truth and depth of this character. The bond between Blue, Gansey, Adam, and Ronan grows and is tested. 300 Fox Way still plays a central role in the life of the story and I still really want to live there, or at least be a welcome visitor who never has to leave.

There is a new character, one who brings to mind Helena Bonham Carter's onscreen portrayal of Bellatrix. A mad as a hatter yet somehow charming person named Gwenllian.

I will admit that I am absolutely shipping Ronan and Adam. I love Persephone!!! I don't particularly like Orla but she isn't around too much.

I can imagine how hard the wait must have been for people who read these books as they were published because the cliffhanger (cave hanger?) this ended on had me screaming and all I had to do was come home from parent pick-up at my son's school and write this post before starting the next (last!!) book.

Yes, I know there is a side series that begins with Call Down The Hawk, which I bought and will read soon enough (or not soon enough depending on how this ends), but the next book is the end of this part of the story and I must admit I am terrified for Gansey. I want a happy ending for Adam after all the abuse he lived with. I want Ronan to smile. And I want Blue to feel like she can have a kiss.

(Finished Nov. 22, 2019)

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

I finished this one at work yesterday and started book 3 yesterday afternoon but didn't have a chance to come and put my thoughts down until now. I'm reading The Raven Cycle at the insistence of my friend Rachel. I got hooked pretty quickly into The Raven Boys and the love of this series only got stronger while reading The Dream Thieves. I want to live at 300 Fox Way. I want to sit and read under Blue's Beech Tree. I want to spend time with Persephone. I want to bake cookies for Adam. I want to slap and then hug Ronan. And Gansey!! I want to tell him to be a kid for a little while, he is like a little old man trapped in a teenagers body and he is something!! But oh, Blue, how wonderful she is for a female character. She isn't entirely comfortable in her own skin quite yet but she wants to be because she knows there isn't anything wrong with her, she is different sure, but that is ok. And she is loved by her mother and all the inhabitants of Fox Way. 

The story in book 2 as in book 1 starts to cause tension that increases as you read and takes you to breathtaking ending and an overwhelming need to dive right into the next book. I feel so much for those who read these as published and had to wait between books!!

We learn more about The Gray Man. We learn more about Ronan and his "talent" and his mother. Kavinsky is still just really awful but we learn more about how awful. Each set of answers seems to raise more questions. And I am fully engaged and loving this series. I love that it is magic and fantasy but takes place in the here and now. I love that there are strong female characters and that there are boys who understand that boy will boys boys isn't an ok attitude and a license for bad behavior. I love the network of women who love and care for each other. I love that I feel while reading this. As I have said I love stories that make me feel while reading. I love that the story feels like a roller-coaster ride, both pleasing and terrifying. 

For the record I DO NOT like coasters except in my books. I am a bit of a chicken. 

(Finished November 19, 2019)

The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

My friend Rachel said I needed to start this once I was done with the Arc of a Scythe trilogy. I was torn between this and starting Shadow & Bone.
And wow!! I didn't know what to think at first. I mean Liked Blue right away. And I found the world interesting because unlike a lot of fantasy novels this one takes place in the "present" in the world we know because it is the one we inhabit. But there is magic, and danger, and mystery. And it is kind of a slow burn until it isn't. You slowly get attached to these characters are you get to know them and start trusting some, pulling for them, not trusting others and hoping they get what they deserve.

And then the story builds and thinks get tense and reveals happen and answers come bringing even more questions and before you know it the book is over and you are left wanting, no, needing more.


I am excited and anxious to see where Maggie takes me next in the tale of Blue, Gansey, Adam, and Noah.


(Finished Nov. 14, 2019)

Me by Elton John

THIS WAS ONE OF IF NOT THE BEST MEMOIRS I HAVE EVER READ!!!!
It was exactly what you would expect and want from Elton John. It is campy, filled with over top stories, heartfelt, beautiful, musical, but not at all trashy. If you are looking for one of those nasty celebrity tell-alls filled with mean gossip and ragging on others or with lots of nasty and revealing for the sake of shock value then this is not the book for you.

If you want to read a refreshingly honest story of someone's life where they don't sugar coat it or try to make themselves look better than they are then you have come to the right book.

I loved Elton before this but now I LOVE him. I admire him and find him charming and smart and funny and talented and just so lovely and real.

His struggle with drugs, alcohol, and food addiction is no joke, it was pretty heavy and serious but he tells about how hard and ugly it is with grace and humor.

This also is not a sex book. There is talk of sex of course but it isn't a graphic glimpse into the bed of Elton. For someone who has spent their entire adult life making a name for themselves being flashy and over the top this book is dignified and, well, normal for lack of a better word. He tells what he wants to share and hold back what he wants to keep private but you still end up feeling like you walked in his garden with him as a confidant.

This was exactly what I needed to get over my book hangover after finishing The Arc of a Scythe trilogy!

(Finished Nov. 12, 2019)

The Toll (Arc of a Scythe #3) by Neal Shusterman

I think it will be impossible to talk bout this book without including ***SPOILERS*** for Scythe & Thunderhead. If you haven't read them you might want to stop here after I say that I loved this book, this trilogy, so much. I cried a little at the end and read the last two lines about 10 times before I closed the book and went to bed. I stayed up until 12:30am to finish.


Now, you have been warned that if you go on from here you may got ***SPOILED*** by details from  Scythe & Thunderhead. I won't be spoiling anything in The Toll.


The cloud has become Thunderhead. As a perfect entity providing for the needs of humanity and keeping some sense of equilibrium in the life of the living things on Earth it was proven that humans are still, even when they live in a world without want, without poverty, without racial and sexist and religious discrimination, with a balanced, equitable, system, people are still people. They are still greedy, power hungry, corruptible, and capable of terrible acts.

With Rowan and Citra we got to see inside the two different ways of being a Scythe. First during their time with Faraday and then Citra's with Curie and Rowan's with Goddard. It has become clear that Goddard will not stop until he is the supreme ruler of a world he has shaped to please himself.

Thunderhead plays a bigger role in this book, which is an incredible conclusion to the trilogy. There are moments of beautiful humanity, horrible acts by people who seem more monster than human, tension that kept me squirming, a few chuckles, and some coming into their own by some characters. We meet some new people, one of whom I totally, TOTALLY loved!!!

The plan that is the backbone of this story is surprising and fascinating. The insight we have come to expect from Thunderhead is still here.

There is a gender fluid character who comes from a place where a person isn't assigned a gender at birth and doesn't settle on a gender identity, isn't even allowed to do so, until adulthood and it is written beautifully and interestingly by Shusterman.

I have a major book-hangover!!!

(Finished November 9, 2019)

The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

While waiting for my copy of The Toll (Arc of a Scythe #3) to arrive I did what my friend and coworker Rachel asked me to do and read this because she needed to talk about the ending.
We had both being eyeing it on the YA table at work at our local Barnes & Noble and she went ahead and read it and passed it on to me...

...And right from the beginning it was one of those WTF crazy train rides. I had all kinds of anger and disturbed feels!! I hated one character so much that I couldn't even feel bad for her at any point.

There is a line in the book that sums up the premise this book is built on..."The sin of being born a girl."

Tierney is born into a world where men fear the power of women so much they think it is some kind of magic in them and that if they send these girls off into seclusion together in their 16th year they will burn off their magic and come back to be good wives, mothers, or workers in areas that support society (fields and factories and such). Good and controllable.

No one talks about what happens during the Grace Year but not everyone comes back, not everyone who comes back is in one piece, and no one is the same after...

What these girls go through is sickening. And some of it is made worse by their own natures/personalities. But the culprit is the way the men treat the women and make them feel about themselves and each other. It is the way we are set up in our world to not see each other as compatriots but as competition, for work, for men, for being the best of all things. No one expects men to be perfect but women have a different set of standards and expectations placed on them and this is a story that takes this to one extreme.

I am still processing this but I feel like it is an important read.

(Finished 12:01am November 5, 2019 )

Thunderhead (Arc of a Scythe #2) by Neal Shusterman

Following Scythe  this is book 2 in the Arc Of A Scythe trilogy. The final book comes out Tuesday and my special edition is on the way to me from Owl Crate.

My reaction at the end of this was a very loud OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK!!! This whole book left me feeling nervous and worried about how tech dependent we are as a society. Yes even as I make use of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram on a daily basis. And I track my books on Goodreads. And I post reviews here on a blog. And I can't remember phone numbers because I don't try because my smart phone has made me dumber. I do see the irony of this.


I feel like there isn't much I can say without spoiling someone who is still reading but I want to say enough to make sure if you haven't read this you start reading it.

The questions of good and evil, how much a perfect world is worth, can people ever really be truly good, are there those who are just born bad and no matter what kind of world they live in will that nature find its way out, questions of morality and who gets to decide what is right and just, these are just some of the puzzles Shusterman tackles in these books....I am just so sorry I waited so long to read, yet I am not because now my wait for the conclusion is only a few days away....

There is action, deception, a little bit of romance (very little) but a lot of love and hate and coming of age and just so many deep thoughts provoked...Please just trust me this is worth your time!!

Bottom line review if you need one- in a world made perfect is there really such a thing? Does the perfecting of health to do away with death and disease and all health (physical and mental) problems, no hunger, no war, no poverty, does that really mean life will be perfect? What does one do in a life that never ends but doesn't require one to have a job to get by, where you won't ever get sick, where everything is pretty much handled for you by a loving parent like figure evolved from The Cloud, no natural disasters to worry about...just really perfection....Is that sustainable? Is that desirable? Can technology really be a God replacement? That is the world of the Scythes.


(Finished Nov. 3, 2019)