The fourth book in Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle series came out last month. I had seen some buzz about the book, "The Raven King," on Twitter and Goodreads and decided to read the series. Lately, I've been reading series in one go, because if I read one and then go read a different book, I'm not as involved in the story and sometimes I even forget what happened.

So I picked up the first book, "The Raven Boys," with not a lot of expectations. I've read Stiefvater's books before and they weren't my favorite but everyone seemed to love these so I had to give them a try. And I was pleasantly surprised.

"Depending on where you began the story, it was about..."

The pros: 
-The characters. I cannot say enough about how awesome the characters were. It's so nice to read a book that doesn't focus on romance, but on friendship. The four friends, Ronan, Gansey, Blue and Adam; completed each other. The book actually made me laugh out loud because of their antics and jokes together.

-The humor. There are only a few books that make me laugh out loud. It was refreshing to see the characters in this book actually act and speak like teenagers. It was honest, and it was hilarious.

-The ending. I like when my books are wrapped up in neat little bows when they end, and this series definitely did that. There were a few...odd twists, but for the most part, I really did enjoy how the series finished.

The cons: 
-The world-building. I just wish there had been more explanation about the psychics in the book, and more about the ley lines and how they started. There were some details given, but not enough to really flesh out the world and understand the history.

-Some of the more random secondary characters. I like my secondary characters to be detailed and actually part of the story. I feel like a lot of characters were just thrown in to make the plot more realistic, especially in the fourth book. It just seemed like there were a lot of nameless characters floating around.

Favorite quotes:

“In that moment, Blue was a little in love with all of them.
Their magic. Their quest. Their awfulness and strangeness.
Her raven boys.”  --The Dream Thieves

“She wasn't interested in telling other people's futures. She was interested in going out and finding her own.” --The Raven Boys

"But what she didn't realize about Blue and her boys was that they were all in love with one another. She was no less obsessed with them than they were with her, or one another, analyzing every conversation and gesture, drawing out every joke into a longer and longer running gag, spending each moment either with one another or thinking about when next they would be with one another. Blue was perfectly aware that it was possible to have a friendship that wasn't all-encompassing, that wasn't blinding, deafening, maddening, quickening. It was just that now that she'd had this kind, she didn't want the other.” --Blue Lily, Lily Blue



Despite some negatives, I would still absolutely recommend reading this series. One of the best I've read in the past few years.