The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Psychics have always told Blue Sargent that her true love would die if she kissed him. All her teenage years, she spent swearing off on boys, especially the Aglionby boys or alias Raven boys. Standing next to her psychic half-aunt watching the soon-to-be-dead pass by, she sees a spirit for the first time, a Raven Boy. “There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve her half-aunt said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him”.

In Maggie Stiefvater‘s book The Raven Boys we follow Blue Sargent’s life as it tangles with those she dreads the most the Raven Boys. Being the only non-psychic in her matriarchal house she struggles with identity issues and her new-formed friendship with the rich, members of high-class society, the Raven Boys certainly is not helping. But she can’t help but be drawn to the four Aglionby Boys, Gansey who is on a quest that has encompassed the other three, Ronan, the strong hot-headed boy; Adam, the poor scholarship student who can’t fit in with the others; and Noah, the tacit member of the group.

The Raven Boys has been sitting on my TBR for as long as I can remember. And now, when I was in a reading block, did I pick it up and, to say I was entranced is an inadequate description of how I felt. This book, the first in the series (The Raven Cycle), is everything you can ask for in a fantasy novel. Stiefvater masterfully crafted the plot, which is simultaneously simple and complex and leaves you wanting more and more. The novel stands apart from others in the YA genre since it is written in the third person. The third-person perspective provides just as much information about the characters’ histories as the first-person-oriented novels do.

The book is not necessarily a plot-heavy book, but one that is more focused on the characters, that you will fall in love with. I’m currently on the third book of the series and I am obsessed. if you are looking for a book with mysteries, friendship, and the found family trope, The Raven Cycles is definitely a series you should read.

I rate it a 9/10!