Blue Lily, Lily Blue

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater, 391 pages

Yep, this series is great. (series recap: magic happens, charming characters seek out magic, things get bad)

The 3rd book has a less traditional arc than the previous two, and I think it might be better for it. While you can pretty easily say that Blue is the main character of The Raven Boys, and Ronan is at least the focus of The Dream Thieves (if not the main character), by this point, the whole cast of characters take center stage.

You could argue that this is a bit of a transitional book. While some new conflicts do present themselves in this entry, for the most part, the focus here is on further exploring problems that began in the previous entries, with none truly "concluded." Even the new problems introduced here remain a "looming threat" for most of the book, until things come crashing down (sometimes literally) at the end. Some people might be disappointed, but when he plotlines are this interesting, and the characters this engrossing, it becomes a selling point.

I can't heap much more praise on this series than I already have in prior reviews (wait, did I even post those here? Imagine two super-cool, incredibly eloquent reviews, heaping praise via shovel). The characters are (still) great, and (still) develop in mostly believable ways (though as the plot becomes more and more magical, the characters change with it). There's a series of scenes in particular with such real, imperfect emotion, that I'd believe if it was adapted autobiography. Everything from the dialogue to the setting is pretty darn fantastic.

I don't think this series would work if you started on book two or three, and by this point, it doesn't even try to acclimate new readers. But really, you're doing yourself a great disservice if you start anywhere but the beginning.