Look at her go; Reviewin' Reviewin': The Raven Boys

The Raven Boys- Maggie Stiefvater


1st Book in the Raven Cycle Quartet

☆☆☆☆/☆☆☆☆☆

So I was in a reading slump. For the past week or so, my brain seemed to be way more interested in watching past cycles of America's Next Top Model than working its way through my To Be Read pile. Which means it took me TWO. WEEKS. To make my way through The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. That doesn't mean I wasn't completely enthralled by the story of this book, it just means that I was stuck on page 52 for a looooong time. Alas, I finally finished it last night, and I have to say I loved the way the story progressed and ultimately ended.

If you're unfamiliar with this brilliant first book in an eventual quartet, here's a bit of groundwork for you. We have Blue, the female protagonist, eccentric and strong, who is the daughter of a psychic, but has no psychic abilities of her own. Then there's Gansey, the privileged but not pretentious student at the nearby private school, Aglionby Academy, whose students are also known as Raven Boys. Gansey has around him a colorful cast of close friends; shy, smart Adam; rebellious and impulsive Ronan; and quiet, mysterious Noah. These boys are on the hunt for a Welsh king of myth, somewhere along their small town of Henrietta, Virginia's powerful energy lines (called Ley lines), which also allow Blue's mother's psychic abilities to be strengthened. When their stories collide with Blue's, things get really complicated, and there are brilliant twists as the plot unravels.

So there's a synopsis. If you haven't read the book, you can go and get it and then come back and discuss once you have. I rated this book 4/5 stars on goodreads, and only because it took me awhile to get into the action. I would say this is a definite must-read if you're looking for something a little different, a little weird, to throw into the mix.

Find this book on Goodreads

Sunday Summations: 11/17

I'd like to introduce a new weekly post here on Stardust and Words. I'm calling it Sunday Summations, and so every Sunday we'll sit down together and discuss what the past week has held and what the coming week will look like, book-wise.

Ok, so this week, I'm in a bit of a reading slump, stuck on The Raven Boys by Maggie Steifvater. I hope to finish this either tonight or tomorrow, then move on to the sequel, The Dream Thieves. After that I want to reread the Goose Girl and the Covenant Series, because the fifth book was recently released.

We shall see how far I get this week! Wish me luck.

xx
Sunny

Tip Top 25 Favorite Books/Series

This is probably one of the hardest things I've ever tried to do. Narrowing down the hundreds of books I've read in my life to a slim list of the top twenty-five books/series. I tried to be selective, at first only putting down the books that I would save if I only had thirty seconds to pick books, but then I couldn't leave out any of my other favorites, sitting there, staring at me with their sad book faces...
I went a little crazy, I think.
In the end, I came up with fifteen series and ten stand-alones, all of which I feel adequately represent my reading choices, at least for the past few years. If you haven't read one or many of these books, I definitely recommend every single one of them! It doesn't matter your taste in books, I truly believe that all of these books have something for everyone.

Bump In the Night Tag

As a bit of an introduction, one thing I'd like to introduce to this blog is the existence of book tags! Mostly taken from the booktube community on YouTube, they can be adapted into blog posts as well. Mostly, its just a series of questions that you must answer with the title of a book, name of a character, setting, etc. They're a fun way to talk about some books and elements of books that you may not otherwise think about!

This particular tag is more of a Halloween tag, but it's so much fun I'm going to do it anyway. *NOTHING CAN STOP ME* :D

October Wrap-Up

This will be coming a little late, seeing as how it's already November, but I thought it would be a nice first post, since I read quite a few books in October!

Coming in with a grand total of 11 books: reactions, summaries and ratings under the cut.