Book Nerds Across America

Book Summary
For years, Gansey has been on a quest to find a lost king. One by one, he’s drawn others into this quest: Ronan, who steals from dreams; Adam, whose life is no longer his own; Noah, whose life is no longer a lie; and Blue, who loves Gansey… and is certain she is destined to kill him.

Now the endgame has begun. Dreams and nightmares are converging. Love and loss are inseparable. And the quest refuses to be pinned to a path. 

Flo's Review
There is always that nervousness that comes with reading the final book in a trilogy or series. Unfortunately, this book can have the power to make or break everything that has come before it. (No pressure! Lol). So I was both excited and nervous when I picked up The Raven King. But I had no cause for worry. Honestly, this book may have been my favorite of the four. I was really into the character's relationships, dynamic, growth. I tweeted Jacque at one point that I had so many feels about this book. I simply loved how the relationships progressed, especially one that I did not see coming. (Even though it was hinted at in the other books. I just missed it.) The end was realistic, painful, and honest; and I appreciated that about it. It was also complete. I closed the book happy to have left everyone in a good spot. (Although one I still hurt about.) Then Maggie tweeted about this coming up:

It's a companion Ronan-centered trilogy that takes place after TRC. New characters! New themes! The rest is secret. https://t.co/ZFpKEVFvPz

— Maggie Stiefvater (@mstiefvater) August 23, 2016

Eeeep! Sign me up!! 

Overall, I was super impressed with this series. Because when I started it I was like, "It's pretty good, I guess, but a little odd." By this book, I was all in. The writing is beautiful and lyrical, the characters are hopeful and flawed, and there is enough to make the imagination smile. If you are looking for something completely different from anything you have read before, then I'd recommend you pick up this series.

On a side note, if you have read the first three books of the trilogy and just need a refresher before you start TRK, Maggie wrote summaries of The Raven Cycle on Recaptains that are past awesome: 

The Raven Boys
The Dream Thieves
Blue Lily, Lily Blue

And here are our reviews of The Raven Cycle:

The Raven Boys
The Dream Thieves
Blue Lily, Lily Blue

Read our other reviews about The Raven Cycle:
The Raven Boys: http://www.booknerdsacrossamerica.com/2012/10/the-raven-boys-by-maggie-stiefvater.html

Flo Loves Adam Parrish: http://www.booknerdsacrossamerica.com/2012/12/12-days-of-fictional-boyfriends-day-8.html

The Dream Thieves: http://www.booknerdsacrossamerica.com/2013/12/the-dream-thieves-by-maggie-stiefvater.html

Jacque's Review: 

The Dream Thieves is the second book in the Raven Cycle series.  The series is about a few boys from Aglionby Academy, a private boarding school, who are looking for Glendower, an ancient Welsh king, who they believe is buried somewhere near their school in the town of Henrietta.  Gansey has spent the better part of his seventeen years researching and traveling the world in pursuit of Glendower.  He came to Aglionby Academy solely because of its location on the ley line, an electrically charged current, which is where Glendower is believed to be buried.

As I noted in my review of The Raven Boys, I felt the first two thirds of that book were very slow.  The ending, however, was action packed and left me anxiously anticipating the release of this book.  While The Dream Thieves did not take off with the same energy level, I did not find this book to be slow in the least.

The focus of this book was more on Gansey's roommate Ronan and his family.  We discover why he has a long history of insomnia and why his father felt it was important to teach his boys how to fight.  We also discover why his father left a large share of his estate to his sons, but forbid them from ever returning to their family home.

There is a new character who is referred to as The Gray Man.  He was hired by someone several years ago to find the Greywaren.  He has no idea what the Graywaren is, but he believes it is in Henrietta because of the same electrical charge The Raven Boys are tracking.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book.  Since the very beginning of this series, I have been on Team Gansey.  I love his character and hope the psychic's predictions are 100% incorrect.  There needs to be a loop hole for him as well as Blue.

The ending was very mysterious.  Once again, Maggie did not leave many clues as to what direction the story will take next.  I think the Raven Boys quest may expand to include one additional element, but this is purely speculation on my part.  I will definitely read the next book in the series as soon as it is released.  I desperately want to know what happens next for Gansey, Blue, and the rest of the Raven Boys.

Flo's Review
Funny story about this one. Remember how when we reviewed The Raven Boys, Teri said, "Ronan did little for me, maybe his purpose in the story will be clearer in future books." She must be a psychic like Blue's family! I kept thinking about that as I read this one. I got this ARC at BEA and was super excited to dive into it! It was my first BEA read actually.

...but I felt like it was...so...slow....

I mentioned this on Twitter and one of my blogger friends told me that she agreed that it was a slow pace, but that was part of the charm. I am glad she found it charming. I just found it slow.

This book, however, did turn me from Team Adam over to Team NOAH! I mean, I'm not sure he can even be a Team, but I'm making him one. No offense to Jacque and Tee, but Gansey just doesn't do it for me. I did like learning more about both Adam and Ronan in this book.

Final Flo synopsis? I made it through, but only because I kind of had to push myself. I'll keep on with the cycle, but I hope that the pace picks up a bit in Book #3.

We LOVE LOVE LOVE our Fictional Boyfriends and we thought it would be nice to do a "12 days of Fictional Boyfriends".  It is like the "12 Days of Christmas" but with hot men!

Because I am having fun loving on the guys that my fellow Book Nerds will not, today's pick is...

This is from a Raven Boys dreamcast I grabbed from graceroths.tumblr.com.

Jacque's Review:

The Raven Boys is the first book in a planned four book series.  I really enjoyed all of the characters, but there was something missing.  Perhaps it was the third person narration, but I'm not really sure that was the problem because I enjoyed hearing the story from the different characters' perspectives.  I just never felt a true connection to the characters or the story until the last quarter of the book.

The first 270 out of 408 pages were very slow for me.  We learn about Blue, a high school girl, and her relatives who are all psychics.  We learn about "the raven boys" (Gansey, Ronan, Adam, and Noah) personal histories.  They are all from privileged families with one exception, but they are all attending a prestigious boarding school in Blue's hometown of Henrietta.

Gansey recruited all of his friends to help him explore the "ley line".  He has conducted research around the world and has come to the realization that Henrietta has the most powerful ley line and Glendower, his ultimate quest, may be buried here.  He just needs to find out where.  Their investigation breaks wide open once they meet Blue.  The closer they get to finding the ley line the more dangerous things become.  They make an unusual discovery, which directly impacts their circle of friends.  Once this discovery was made, I really started to enjoy the book.  I just wish we were given this piece of information sooner.  It shed light on many of the events that happened earlier in the book.  I actually went back and reread several sections to better appreciate and understand them.

I am anxious to see what happens in the second book.  Now that we are past all of the history and build up that was required for this story, the next book should pick up where this one left off.  There was a lot of excitement and energy the last quarter of this book, which I hope Stiefvater will be able to build upon.

Teri's Review

I was able to read part of this book on a blog tour. Unfortunately somethings happened at work and I was unable to finish it before having to send it on its way to the next person. I have been waiting patiently ever since to get my hands back on it .

I was instantly drawn into the beginning. Blue seeing Gansey on the corpse road, knowing he will die within 12 months, wondering if she will be the cause of it. What is not to love right? And the whole St Mark's day background was fascinating to me. We get to meet Gansey a bit later, along with Adam, Ronan and Noah. Tho I found all these characters interesting to some degree I found the character building and the story building a bit slow in the middle, and at sometimes confusing. Thank goodness I have a Scot/Irish husband who has a fondness for Celtic Mythology and was able to help me understand the ley lines in more simple terms.

The characters are good, even if a bit strange. A few that stood out to me were Persephone. She reminded me of Luna Lovegood of Harry Potter. Maybe it was her odd ways, or her mass of blonde hair, but everytime she spoke in the book, I heard it in Luna's soft spoken childish voice. Maybe that is why I loved her so. I admired Adam and his determination . A poor boy trying to make it in a rich boy world. I did at times, however find myself telling him to stop being so full of pride and just take Gansey up on his offer. Ronan did little for me, maybe his purpose in the story will be clearer in future books. I just sort of found him strange and weird. I loved Noah, and how Stiefvater composed his character. You really pay him no attention until a bit later in the book, but she ties him in amazingly . Maybe the star of the book is suppose to be Blue, but for me it was all Gansey. From the moment she sees him on the Corpse Road, seemingly confused and defeated I was hooked. I loved all about him, his need for knowledge, his constant journal keeping, his quest, his description of his apartment, his polo and boat shoes and even his junky Camero.
Despite the slow middle, the book really picks up about 250 pages in...about the time my Nook needed to charge ..naturally. It ends on a good note. You could totally walk away and leave it, but nope not me. I can't wait to see if Gansey finds his grail.

Me and Maggie Stiefvater, author of Forever, at This Is Teen

Authors are my rock stars, to steal a quote from a magnet I have on my fridge and a conversation I had with the MIA Crew at the Carrie Ryan book signing. And those of you who know me know that I tend to get a little mute and tongue-tied and weird around my faves, even though I know they're regular people and all that. Anyways, this goes to explain why upon meeting Maggie Stiefvater at the This Is Teen event in Miami back in July, I decided to tell her that her books made me cry in public when I read them over my lunch breaks. To which she let me know that Forever would certainly make me cry in Burger King. Thanks Maggie.

I'd heard mixed reviews about Forever, so I wasn't sure what to expect going in. And WOW. I think it 's my favorite of the trilogy. Maggie doesn't just write scenes, or write a narrative. She writes poetry that weaves together to form a plot line. I can honestly say that I wasn't sure whether I wanted to read her next book, The Scorpio Races, and now I know I will for sure. Just to experience again the song that is her writing style.

But back to Forever. I have another confession to make. Unlike pretty much everyone else I've talked to who has read this series, I was not really a huge fan of Cole. (This even includes Maggie who told us at This Is Teen that Cole surprised her and was really fun to write.) I could take him or leave him. Eh. But by the end of this book, he won me over.

And then, at the end of this amazing book which, Maggie added an Author's Note that included this:

"Many, many readers have written me asking wistfully about the nature of Sam and Grace's relationship, and I can assure you, that sort is absolutely real. Mutual, respectful, enduring love is completely attainable as long as you swear you won't settle for less."

Ok, how much do I love Grace, Sam and Maggie?! A lot.

~Flo~

OK, I know it's not Sunday or even Monday, but I'm (Flo) having the BEST In My Mailbox week and I just have to share! In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren.

Here's why my IMM is so fab this week -- first, I won a couple of awesome contests right before I went to Australia for a week, so I knew the prizes would be waiting for me when I returned. Secondly, I got goodies from the awesomest co-admin ever Mary for this blog, and lastly, because I splurged on some international books, which are just so neat! Here, let me show you....


The top three books are the UK editions of The Hunger Games trilogy. Splurge! I saw The Hunger Games and thought I should at least get the first book. Then the only other one that store had was Mockingjay, which was my favorite read of 2010, and one of my favorite books overall. I had to get it, too! I found Catching Fire at another bookstore, and, you know, I needed to complete the trifecta.

Next to Mockingjay are some of the new Book Nerds cards! You'll see these when we send you prizes =) The second row starts with the special edition Twilight, with the red pages and white cover. It's gorgeous. I kind of regret not getting the rest of the series. The middle book is The Key to Rondo, and I got it because it's a short-listed book from The Children's Book Council of Australia. It looks like a Chronicles of Narnia type adventure. Above it, though it's a little hard to see in this picture, is my new "I'm a Book Nerd" keychain. Fitting, huh?!

The Hunger Games is for the winner of our First in a Series contest. Bottom row: an autographed audiobook of Linger by Maggie Stiefvater!! =D I won it in a Twitter contest. Finally, Playing the Field is Australian chick lit.

Most fun IMM ever.

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, who says, "The idea of In My Mailbox is to bring books to the attention of our blog readers and to encourage interaction with other blogs."

Several of us Book Nerds have recently gotten or are about to get new ereaders. I have to admit that I've kind of went on a downloading spree (Free - $3! Count me in!) this past week. These are the titles I downloaded today...

 




I had checked out the audiobook of Shiver from the library, but decided to buy it so I can read it. Reckless, Black Silk and Child of the Northern Spring were all free Nookbooks that sound pretty good.

Happy Friday, booknerds!

A little background....#FridayReads was started by Bethanne Patrick (@thebookmaven) on Twitter to promote.....(wait for it.....)  --- reading. (Because it's awesome!) Quite simply, people will tweet the hashtag #FridayReads and let everyone know what they're currently engrossed in.

So, all us booknerds are tweeting away, and it turns out that 3 of us are reading the exact same book! Unplanned! It's like the time we were all reading & talking about Mockingjay (aka The Best Book Ever!)

What book was it that caught all three of our attentions? Drumroll.....


Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.

You know what this means: multiple reviews of the same book at the same time! Fun, right?! It's the beauty of blog collaboration: different views, one webpage :)