Blue Lily, Lily Blue

 I've been putting off reading Stiefvater's Blue Lily, Lily Blue until I had time to savor it (also, as a reward for meeting some personal deadlines). And it was lovely and satisfying in a lot of ways--but I don't think I can rave about it like some reviewers have.

In this third book of the Raven Cycle, Blue and the others are coming closer to finding (and waking) the sleepers, including the mystic King Glendower who has driven Gansey's obsessions for the last seven years. Blue's mother, Maura, has disappeared, and her disappearance may or may not be connected with the sleepers. The Gray Man's former employer, Colin Greenmantle, has shown up in town looking for the Greywaren with his wife Piper (a seriously unhinged, self-absorbed beauty). To be honest, while the plot does move forward, it also felt like it moved in some circles. Some threads get resolved here, new mysteries open up. But I don't read these books for the plot--I read for the characters and the complex world and Steifvater's exquisite writing.

What fascinates me the most about these books are the characters: I think I would read just about anything with them in them. I love that they are all fully realized, complex, complicated, and still developing. In this book, we get to see Blue stretch and change in good and painful ways, we see Adam become a little less prickly and more accepting, we see Ronan still wrestling with his nightmares and Gansey--well, Gansey is still Gansey, kingly and imperfect and trying so hard.

And this world Stiefvater has written is so vividly depicted it feels as though you've been there: I come out of her books feeling like I've woken from a particularly real dream. Though this book didn't have quite the same urgency for me as the others, I can't wait to see what Stiefvater does next: it will be lovely, heart-wrenching, and surprising, at the very least.

Vodnik--a very different take on vampires

My sister recommended Bryce Moore's Vodnik to me, and I'm very glad she did. This young adult urban fantasy was a refreshing and fun blend of mythology and contemporary culture, set in Slovakia (Trencin, to be exact).

Tomas isn't sure what to think when his family moves back to Slovakia. He still harbors terrible scars from a fire when he was five (and remembers almost nothing about how he got them), but he's open to a new adventure, particularly when he meets his pretty new cousin, Katka. But he does not expect to find a mythological world come to life: the dapper-yet-creepy Vodnik who lives in the castle well (a Slovak take on a vampire, who drowns victims instead of--usually--biting them), Morena, the female version of Death, a fire vila who claims to have saved his life, an old crone, and a mysteriously disappeared Grandmother whom his mother refuses to discuss.

All of this would be more than enough for the average teen boy to absorb, but Tomas is part Gypsy. And what was only a mildly interesting ethnic background in America makes him the target of bullies and a span of racist prejudice that shocks Tomas. Add to this the fact that his cousin Katka is dying, and the only way to save her might be a bizarre agreement with Morena  (the agent of Death), and you have the basic ingredients for this delightful story.

The story started a little slow and it took a little while for me to get into it, but once I did, I tore through the rest of the book quickly. I loved the funny quirks belonging to the mythological creatures--I also loved that they were nothing like the usual span of paranormal creatures in urban fantasy.  I also liked the many different unexpected twists: that the pretty girl he meets turns out to be his cousin, not his love interest and that we never quite know which of the supernatural creatures to trust, as they all tell different stories. Refreshingly, Tomas has a mostly functional family, and I loved the vivid Eastern European setting. I lived for a year and a half in Hungary, which neighbors Slovakia, and this book transported me back there.

Really, though, all I need to say about this book is that Brandon Sanderson wrote an awesome blurb for it. Given how much I've loved all Sanderson's books (that I've read), his endorsement is all I really need to say.

Only Everything

 Only Everything, by Kieran Scott

Eros, the daughter of Aphrodite, has just been exiled from Mount Olympus--with her mother--for defying Zeus and hiding her boyfriend, Orion. Her task: make three human matches without her powers before her time runs out, or Orion will die. She enrolls in human high school, totally clueless about lots of human conventions (which suggests that she never really paid attention before). She meets Charlie, a charming drummer who's newly enrolled as well and struggling with expectations from his football coach father. With one half of a match in her sights, Eros casts around for a suitable match. Meanwhile, Katrina is struggling to recover from her father's unexpected death and to deal with her unpredictable boyfriend.

I liked both Charlie and Katrina a great deal, but I struggled to connect with Eros, who did not seem very divine (more immature and angsty). But I did come to admire her as she struggled through the task she'd been set. I never did really get the vision of her great love with Orion, and the flashbacks were my least favorite parts of the book. Overall, a cute, fast read, but not a lot of depth.