YA Review: Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3) by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Blue Lily, Lily Blue
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Series: The Raven Cycle
Book #: 3
Pages: 391
Reading Level: YA
Book Rating: 
Goodreads Rating: 4.37
Published: Oct. 21st, 2014

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.

Taschima's POV:

Click here to learn how you can get a copy of Blue Lily, Lily Blue signed by Maggie Stiefvater.

"Queens and kings,
Kings and queens,
Blue Lily, lily blue,
Crowns and birds
Swords and things
Blue lily, lily blue."

I don't think Maggie Stiefvater is capable of writing anything that isn't just wonderful and perfect and lyrical and just fucking amazing. All her sequels have packed a punch, and Blue Lily, Lily Blue is no exception. Everything is cranked up a notch, the romance, the mystery, the stakes... You will come out of this title not being quite the same.

"Three Sleepers--light, dark, and in between."

Blue and the boys are going back to school to finish their last year. Only, school doesn't seem as important when your mother has gone missing, supernatural forces are messing with your head, you have a dead best friend, and your king is still dead asleep. Everything seems normal on the surface, but it is anything but.

"If everything around Gansey was soft-edged and organic, faded and homogeneous, Ronan was sharp and dark and dissonant, standing out in stark relief from the woods."

Adam has changed, as has Ronan. Gansey is just Gansey, but even he is on the edge. Blue is learning things about herself that make her a much more stronger person, and a more bad ass chick. I think this book is equal parts Blue and Adam. I feel like Adam has been growing constantly through the series, so everything you see in this installment is how much he has come to accept not only himself but his friends. He is a more mature person, not letting the little things get to him so much and accepting the help of his friends more easily. Notice how I didn't mention Noah in this? That is because ever since the first book he is like not even there more than half the time.

"He [Noah] had been crying. That was what was wrong with his face, Blue realized. Nothing supernatural. "Oh, Noah," she said, crouching down."

It is sad, the only times he shows up is to show us how bad things are going for him as a ghost. Normally ghosts in stories just keep on "living" without much of a care, because they are dead so why SHOULD they care? They are jovial; eternally okay, nothing can touch them. Noah isn't, at all.

Maura is gone, and Blue is angry. Angry at her fate, at her curse, at her mother for leaving, at herself for liking Gansey as much as she does.

"Casually, out of view of Ronan, making sure Adam was still sleeping, Gansey dangled his hand between the driver's seat and the door. Palm up, fingers stretched back to Blue. This was not allowed...
...She would not see the gesture, anyways. She would ignore it if she did. His heart hummed. Blue touched his fingertips. Just this--He pinched her fingers lightly, just for a moment, and then he withdrew his hand and put it back on the wheel. His chest felt warm. This was not allowed."

She knows that kissing him might bring his doom, and yet she can't help getting close to him. This time around you get more delicious romantic tension as the two love birds try to be close (yet not too close) without anybody in their group (aka Adam and Ronan) finding out.  One thing is for sure, these two are killing me! Stealing moments, I love it. I am going to be so very upset if/when Gansey dies... but really, he has to come back, right? RIGHT?

#GanseyBetterNOTDie

[POSSIBLE SPOILER]"Maybe I dreamt you," he [Ronan] said.
"Thanks for the straight teeth, then," Adam replied."

"See, Adam Parrish is wantable, worthy of a crush, not just by anyone, someone like Ronan, who could want Gansey or anyone else and chose Adam for his hungry eyes. Maybe he was wrong. He could be wrong."

I want to belief so bad that Adam may be into Ronan; cause we all know Ronan is into Adam. Adam liked Blue, so supposedly Adam is straight. But maybe not. Maybe, just MAYBE he could reciprocate Ronan's feelings. But then again if Gansey can die then crushes can also be unrequited. This world that Maggie Stiefvater can be real and heartbreaking and raw, so crushes may not necessarily be reciprocated. Dreams may not come true in the end. [/SPOILER]

Ready as ever for the next book. I need to read more about Adam, Noah, Ronan, Gansey and Blue. I also want to re-visit the ladies at 300 Fox, and Mr. Gray (which is quickly becoming a favorite). This book packed a punch, a very emotional punch, and I bet the next one will annihilate us all. Call me a masochist, but I can't wait.

"P.P.P.P.S; Don't Wake the third sleeper."