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

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.

My Thoughts:
I love how well-rounded a writer Maggie Stiefvater is. This book has humor and fear and sadness and pining and hatred and friendship and I just love it. So. Much. Love.

This book picks up a month after book 2 and everything is going a bit faster. We get more Blue and Gansey moments and they are so nice. I love how their love is unfolding. I grinned a lot during those parts.

I really liked how we got to know Ronan even more. I seriously love this character. You know that stereotypical lashing-out-at-those-you-love type of tough-guy that everyone loves to hate. You know. That's him. And I love it. Maggie (yes, we're on a first-name basis) has this really great way of writing characters as individuals. Meaning when a character says something it sounds like that character and it's not just everyone sounding like a different version of each other.

Adam makes my heart break a little every time I read him. Proud, serious, reliable, stupid, adorable Adam. I might be a little in love with him. And I love how he's finding himself more in this book and learning to let people in. Even with his friends he built up this crazy wall to keep everyone out and we see it come down more and more. It's nice to see.

Maggie brought some great new characters with this book: Jesse Dittley, Greenmantle and Piper. I loved all of them. The latter two in that love-to-hate kind of way. Just such good writing.

So, wow, I love Maggie Stiefvater's characters. She is a master character writer. But the plot is pretty darn good, too. Things move and twist in unexpected ways throughout the whole series. I never know what's about to happen. Which is frickin' AMAZING!! I love when a story catches me by surprise and this one has done it twenty times over. I'm sold on Stiefvater. I will now go read all her stories. If you like well-written, mildly creepy, melancholy, beautiful, emotional, paranormal YA books you'll love this. Go read it.

Sexual Content: Mild
Language: Heavy
Violence: Moderate
Drugs/Alcohol: Mild