When Dreams Become A Reality

"But this version of Gansey was Gansey the boy. 
This was the Gansey who bought the Camaro, 
the Gansey who asked Ronan to teach him to fight, 
the Gansey who contained every wild spark so that it wouldn't show up in other versions."
--Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

Genre: YA Paranormal

Publisher: Scholastic, 416 pages

Publication Date: September 17th, 2013

Source: Publisher via BEA
Goodreads
Previous Books in Series: The Raven Boys

Goodreads Description

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life. Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after...

My Thoughts

Ummm...I'm kind of really sad right now. I absolutely LOVED The Raven Boys. I thought the story was so unique and interesting and intense. The writing was like a perfect cadence of a highly enjoyable but not rushed story. And a LOT happened...and while The Dream Thieves does highlight fantastic writing and great characters, the pacing and plot fell short for me. Let me break this down.

After snagging a copy of this at BEA I could not wait to get back into the world of the raven boys. RONAN! I was SO excited to see more of him! Get his back story, what makes him tick, what is really going on in that head of his. And get this we did. His part in this book was obviously the biggest and it was by far the best. His special talents and getting more of his family background was amazing! Blue is so hilarious to me in the most subtle of ways. She is very direct and amusing in a way that you know she isn't trying to be. She just is. Her sensible ways always kept me entertained. Gansey--I just adore him. We don't get as much of him and Blue as we did in The Raven Boys but what we did get was so enjoyable. I want more Gansey...all day...every day...ALL the days. Noah continues to be adorable and Adam continues to annoy the hell out of me with his 24/7 pity party. Ya know, the party he doesn't want anyone to throw for him but he keeps sending out invites to. I don't get it. 

The writing is beautiful. Maggie Stiefvater can do no wrong in the visual area of writing because she really puts you right into the setting. She also writes in a way that is so verbosely twisting I am grinning like an idiot while reading. Her ability to convey character's personalities with a single look or short sentence description is incredible. You always get a feel for her character's quirks and nuances and what makes them tick. It is all in the details for this lady and is works wonderfully.

My biggest issue with the book is the plot development. And I know I won't make a lot of sense because I did like this book overall. I loved Ronan's story and we did get a lot of progression with him. However, the overall progress of the main plot--Glendower, Cabeswater, the epic search--I felt didn't really go anywhere, We did move a little bit but overall I felt like nothing happened in over 400 pages. I actually don't really know what happened in all those 400 pages. The story kept my attention definitely but it was just odd that I felt like I was buzzing through reading page after page but not a whole lot got resolved. I don't know. It just didn't give me a whole lot of plot excitement like the previous book.

Should You Read This?  Yes. If you liked The Raven Boys-definitely. I had high expectations going into it so maybe it was my own fault but I just feel like the TBR pile shouldn't be pushed over to get to it. Maybe you'll love it!! I hope you do! But I just was disappointed and it overall fell a little flat to me.