Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3) – Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle #3) by Maggie Stiefvater
Publishing Info: October 21, 2014 by Scholastic Inc.
Source: Netgalley, Received from the publisher for review purposes
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Young Adult
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: September 14, 2014
Related Posts: Shiver (Wolves of Mercy Falls #1), The Scorpio Races, The Raven Boys (Raven Cycle #1), The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2), The Scorpio Races, The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1), The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2), The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4), All the Crooked Saints, Call Down the Hawk (Dreamer #1)

    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.

I actually had to wait a while after I finished BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE before I could form coherent thoughts (well, coherent enough to start actually writing a review). I waited until Nikki was reading so I could re-live the book through her because HOW was I supposed to write a review about this book? I really loved THE RAVEN BOYS and I fell in love with THE DREAM THIEVES, but absolutely everything in BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE was really stepped up a notch. My feels SKYROCKTED for just about every character and I was absolutely blown away by the things that went down in this book.

The character development for this book is out of this world. I absolutely love getting to know these characters more and more with each book I read in this series and of course, BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE was no exception to that. I think one of my favorite things is how complicated the relationship is amongst the friend group of Blue, Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah — that sounds like it’d be a negative thing, but it’s really not. It’s complicated because they really all are such a tight knit group that it’s like they become one entity. They always have each other’s backs, no matter the situation. They have such strong feelings for each other that they become so reliant on each person in the group and I love witnessing those bonds of friendship grown and strengthen with each book, and I’m so glad Nikki screen-capped this to me as she was reading because I had temporarily forgotten about it! (There is actually WAY more to that paragraph that adds to the LOVE but it’s long and you should read it for yourself :D)

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 any other.

BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE sure had its share of “OMG moments” too. The book is chock full of FEELS of all kinds — rage, excitement, fear, passion, suspense, confusion, love. I was basically on an emotion-high the whole book. I loved how many new ideas were introduced as well as how elements from book one are still being built up. Maggie Stiefvater is excellent at prolonging suspense and maintaining mystery and as much as I’m DYING for answers, I’m still loving the fact that I don’t know everything yet. Maggie is also fantastic at “atmospheric writing” (is that a thing or did I just make that term up? I’m sure there’s a real term. Someone correct me!) — she has a knack for describing characters and emotions and situations without having to directly spell everything out. She creates a mood and a setting that takes the characters and the reader where they need to be and I just love being able to feel the book.

The mythology, fantasy, and paranormal aspects of the story all get a great boost in this book too. There were hints in book one, explanations in book two, and EVENTS in book three. The explorations — both literally and figuratively — of these supernatural players really drive the plot forward in BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE, leading to some answers but even more questions too. Their presence floored me in many ways at many times and I cannot wait to see the reactions from readers as they discover them along with the characters!

Overall, BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE was absolutely a homerun for me. I absolutely loved every second of it and I already want to re-read it. I’ll probably have to re-read the whole series so far before book four comes out (to refresh my memory and just to enjoy them all again, especially knowing what I now know) and I am a ball of nerves until I get to read the next book! The wait will be long but no doubt worth it!

“The View from Goodreads” is a new featured section in my reviews that I decided to incorporate! I tend to update my Goodreads status a LOT when I read — reactions, feelings, notes — so I thought it would be fun to share the sort of “reading process”! All status updates are spoiler-free (no specific plot points will be revealed) but will contain reactions to certain pages and/or characters!

Gansey // Character Obsessions: Glendower, friendship, mysteries, Blue. I had some major Gansey feels in this book. I think he’s the character that I really connected with most in BLLB because I got to see even more of his layers. We knew right from TRB that Gansey has at least two sides — nerdy, Glendower-obsessed Gansey and President Cellphone — but there’s so much more to his character than that too. I loved how he connected with Blue even more in this book (HONESTLY THE FEELS. I DIE) and there’s that ever-nagging thought that he’s STILL PROBABLY GOING TO DIE. Like, honestly. HOW CAN ONE PERSON HANDLE THESE FEELS.
Blue // Character Obsessions: The Raven Boys, finding her mom, family, friendship, security. I felt like I saw Blue’s character a lot in this book too. Not so much that she changed but that I really connected with her a lot more than I had in previous books and I felt like things got a little more personal than just her interactions with the raven boys. I got to know even more about her family, her past, and her inner-desires and there were even some hints at MORE things, but that’s something for the reader to discover on their own!

Kept Me Hooked On: Shipping. Dear lord, my feels were a MESS with this book. So many feels for so many characters and I was shipping a few HARD.
Left Me Wanting More: EVERYTHING. OMG this book nearly killed me but I can’t wait to do it all over again. NEED MORE NOWWWW.

Addiction Rating
BUY IT

WHEW, what a wild ride this book was. I could not handle the feels but in a good way. I absolutely loved everything about it and I love how the series has progressed! Maggie Stiefvater fans, DO NOT WAIT TO READ THIS ONE!

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(Click the cover to see my review!)