Book Review: The Raven Boys

-
I put The Raven Boys on hold at my local library back in April (after I heard how much Janssen liked it), so I was a little surprised when I was notified it was ready for pick-up. It took so long to come in that I had forgotten I'd requested it!

 The main character is Blue Sargent (strange name, eh?). She's a normal teenager, living with her psychic mom and four other clairvoyant ladies (Persephone, Calla, Jimi, and Orla) in Henrietta, Virginia. They've told her for years that if she kisses her true love, he'll die. Of course, that's not much of a problem for Blue because she's not interested in boys, especially the rich ones who attend the snobby all-boys academy in town, Aglionby. They're so awful that one even offers to pay her to sit at their table while she's waitressing one night. (See where this is going?)

 But there's a twist - one night, Blue is finally able to see a spirit (of that same boy who tried to bribe her into sitting with him) and talk to him. Her aunt says that means he is either Blue's true love . . or Blue killed him. 

 But I'm getting ahead of myself. The story was awesome - so good, in fact, that I read this entire book in one day - but the romantic side was not my favorite must-finish-this-book-now part. No, my favorite part was actually when Blue started to befriend some of the Aglionby boys and joined in their hunt for a dead Welsh king, Glendower. (And sidenote - I looked up Glendower on Wikipedia afterwards and he had a sister named Morfudd. Morfudd? Gah!) They think Glendower might be buried/hidden somewhere in Henrietta . . and legend has it that the first to discover him will be granted a wish.

 This book is the first in a four book series - and the ending shows it. But I'm loving the characters so far (and the plot!) so I don't mind have three more stories with these guys to look forward to. :)

 Read anything lately? Thinking about naming your next child or pet Morfudd?

Comments

  1. UnknownTuesday, March 04, 2014

    I have been meaning to read this! I heard that Maggie Stiefvater composes a piece of music with each book she writes - I don't know if they're just for her to listen to or if they're available anywhere, but it was really interesting to me that someone could be a skilled author AND composer. Anyway, this one's been on my short list forever. Glad you liked it; I'll have to bump it up! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AmandaTuesday, March 04, 2014

      Oh, how cool! I didn't know she wrote music. I will definitely have to google around and see if I can find the song for The Raven Boys. I hope you like the book :)

      Delete

Post a Comment

I love comments - please leave one (or twelve)!

Popular posts from this blog

Good-bye April, Hello May!

-
Image
April's finished . . so it's time for a goal update. Read an old book: I read The Little Prince and Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats . And several other "older" books are still on my hold list at the library. It was a nice change of pace to read something in which there's no mention of the internet, cell phones, or television. Take 200 photos: This was certainly made easier by the fact that my husband came home   (I think he needs a blog nickname, haha) and I live with two adorable cats.  Read 168 Hours:  Bleh. This review nails it. Craft something: Craft something, indeed. My mom and I made a quilt for my husband (at least 90% were her efforts). I'll be sharing more in a separate post! My goals for May? I'm taking a break and keeping it simple: GO OUTSIDE. This time of year is some of my favorite weather (not too hot, not too cold, medium amounts of rain and breeze, the air is filled with lovely smells). I adore it every year and...
Read more

Yummy Vegetarian Dumpling Soup

-
Image
Soup is one of my favorite foods (alongside rice) and such a versatile food that I never get sick of it. So I'm always on the look out for new soup recipes or ideas. (One I'm not sure I have the gumption to try -  cold soup . Have you had it?) Enter this Chickpeas & Dumplings soup  by Kiersten.  my small first helping - it smelled strongly of thyme and I wasn't sure I'd like it! It's the vegetarian version of Chicken & Dumplings soup, one of my top 5 favorites. We had almost all the ingredients on hand, so I made this the day she posted it. It was amazing! Even Mr. G, who was pretty certain he didn't like dumplings, loved this soup. The first picture is when I had just dropped in the dumplings. Second picture is 20 minutes of simmering later. So cool! I made a few small changes to the recipe: left out the chickpeas because we didn't have any in the pantry (thought about substituting edamame in their place, but the soup was hear...
Read more

Vegetarian Version of Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi Soup

-
Image
I love Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi Soup.  Love, love love!  In the past, I would gladly eat two bowls of it, about 5 breadsticks, and take my whole meal home!  But I've had to skip it since becoming vegetarian and that sucks.  So I found a copycat recipe online , and tweaked it to make it vegetarian.  (I am so grateful for copycat sites!) Surprisingly enough (not), the original recipe calls for chicken ... I added boiled potatoes to take their place.  You could probably cook the potatoes right in the soup - just make sure to add them early enough that they finish cooking before everything else goes soft.  That might be too much potato in one soup for some people (is that even possible?).  :)  You could bump up the amounts of the gnocchi or other veggies in the recipe, or add corn, bell peppers, or soy "chicken" if the extra potatoes don't float your boat. Any other ideas for taking the place of the chicken? Start by chopp...
Read more