Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater  

Publisher:  Scholastic Press      

Publication date: October 21st 2014
My rating: 5 stars

The third installment in the mesmerizing series from the irrepressible, #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author 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.

She did it again. I never thought anything compare to The Dream Thieves or Sinner which are her best work yet, in my opinion. But she did it. 

The story picks up where it left off. Boys are starting school again and Blue's mother is still missing. They're still trying to find Glendower, the long lost king. Gray Man's employed is in Henrietta looking for a payback. Now, I don't want to reveal anything else about the plot cause even the blurb is rather vague. 

What I want to talk about are the characters. It seems Adam is the main one this time. Others all had their chapters but I feel as if he was in all of them a lot more. He's my favorite Raven Boy, like I mentioned a hundred times already. He's still hardworking as ever. Honorable, honest and proud. He's also spending more time with Ronan, if you know what I mean. *wink, wink* 

Then there's Ronan. *sigh* This guy! I mean, he's like a feral cat you want to bring home but are scared it's going to ruin your sofa. You never know what to expect from him. He's unpredictable, wild, but at the same time extremely loyal to his family and friends. There is still so much we don't know about him. 

Gansey is still a mystery to me. At times I think he has no personality and he's just there in every chapter. I know he's suppose to be the King of the gang but I don't see it. :/ Everybody likes him-boys in school, new people he meets and even Adam let go of his jealousy. He's helpful in a way a human can help a paranormal creature-basically not. I guess I'm the only one who doesn't care about his character. 

Blue's trying to find her missing mother and is dealing with her feelings towards Gansey at the same time. She was focused and determined throughout the whole book. She might even discover some hidden power deep inside her. 

If you're expecting kisses in this book, like me,  you'll just going to have to wait for the 4th installment. Even though the book was focused towards the character development, romance was pushed even further out back. There were some progress and Pynch shippers will be happy to hear it. I can't wait for the next book because I feel that's when Pynch is going to happen. 

The pacing was perfect and every chapter ended on a cliffhanger which made me scream. The book was unputdownable. And the writing is poetic. At times I had to go back and re-read parts because I thought there was something between the lines. How Maggie does this every time, I don't know. She'll always be on my auto-buy list. 

Cover is beautiful. I love the colors but I'm not sure who's on it. Blue? It could be her. 

Book review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Book:The Night Circus
Author:Erin Morgenstern
File Type: Paperback
Release date: 2012
Publisher: Vintage
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

synopsis:The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. 

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. 

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead. 

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart.

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

WOW. THIS was magical.

I don't know about the others, but The Night Circus spooked the hell out of me, right from the very first page. It was mysterious, dream-like, captivating, confusing and frankly, very pretty. It was black and white fused with a tinge of scarlet and I honestly, can't think of any other adjectives since my mind is flying in a totally different direction and in an absolutely different world with no relevance to the present context. So let's just stick with the aforementioned words that I've used to describe this beautiful book and lets begin.

The writing is exceptional.
Morgenstern's writing style is a visual treat to the mind. We're easily transported to the world of the protagonists and we can easily visualise ourselves as one of the many characters in the book, because the detailing is so vivid and brilliant, that you feel like you're a part of the whole cycle. The Night Circus captures your attention and keeps you suspended into it's gooeyness of magic and awesomeness.

The book's one and only negative was the disappointing way things in the story played out. According to the storyline of the book, we were supposed to witness a fierce competition between extraordinary magicians and were supposed to see how this competition affected the lives of not only themselves but also of those around them. I don't exactly know where those 500 pages went but when it came to the competition it all fell flat because I saw absolutely nothing competitive about the competition. I saw the gruelling aspect of the competition because it was pointed out to me in the book, but how does any of it matter when the foundation element of the storyline itself was so weak. The end wasn't the one I was hoping for. I felt that it was too convenient considering the events that happened in the book.

But while the plot failed to deliver the essence of the book, it did include some defining moments of awesomeness that absolutely took my breath away. The characters redeemed the book to an extent. Each had a story of their own and each one of their story's played a pivotal role in the storyline. The romance, for a change, was something I absolutely loved. It was subtle, slow and believable. Whatever happened between the two protagonists, Celia and Marco made perfect sense and I loved every bit of it.

The Night Circus was a book, I thoroughly enjoyed. Its beauty lay in it's writing style and the author's imagination. While I did have my issues with the plot, the pros outweighed the cons and in the end, I was surprisingly satisfied.