The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, Book 2) Kindle Edition

Spoilers if you haven't read The Raven Boys yet!Ten Likes/Dislikes:1. (+) Ronan, the protagonist - I always thought Ronan was a really well done "bad" boy so to speak. His tortured past, his anger, his violence, his tough attitude, and his tenderness - all of this felt so very palpable, so very real to me in ways that other stereotypical presentations did not. As with Gansey, Ronan presents a facade to everyone else - that he doesn't care, that he doesn't need anyone. But he does. His pain and past are as skillfully explored and textured as the unveiling of his sexuality and the small acts of kindness that he'll perform. His emotional growth is sure-footed and astounding - from near-the-edge to fully fledged hero. If you were not a fan of Ronan in the first novel, you'll be sure to understand and empathize with him in this one.2. (+) World-building - Have you ever been curious about street racing? I have. On occasion, I hear drivers zooming on the street below, and I'll find drag marks the next day. What happens during those races? Well, Maggie Stiefvater not only makes that environment come alive but also the nightmarish dream environment that Ronan explores and the dreamy magic behind the powers of ley line and Cabeswater. I don't read a lot of magical realism, but Maggie Stiefvater makes me want to believe in magic, believe that magic is real with the world she's slowly building. Plus Stiefvater has introduced even more subtle details to highlight the opportunities that privilege offers - truly yet another wonderful exploration of class.3. (+) Romance - I don't think there's anyone else who can make me root for a romance that I know is doomed yet can't help but love. Ugh, I know that somewhere along the line, my heart is going to get broken. So there wasn't much romantic action in The Raven Boys. Does that change in The Dream Thieves? A little. And the slow-build? (!!!) I'm frustrated and in love with this portrayal all at once.4. (+) Character Cast - If I've read your review, you've undoubtedly gotten a comment from me on how the CHARACTERS make this series. How Maggie's made all of them so real by enhancing their character quirks - how Gansey rubs his thumb along his lips, how Adam stays quiet, how Blue scowls, how Ronan curses over and over, how Noah's got that smudge on his face, how Persephone speaks in that quiet little tone, how Calla practices air yoga while mocking the boys, etc. All of these quirks especially show in Will Patton's reading (of The Raven Boys), and I'm sure they'll show again in this audiobook - and that's what also makes the series unique: that it provides enough information for Patton to give accurate and wonderfully realistic depictions of the characters. The only other writer who made characters feel this real (for me) is J.K. Rowling. Even better, this book not only expands on old characters like those in Blue's and Gansey's families (Gansey's primarily to continue the class tension in the first novel.) but also introduces us to some more like those in Ronan's family.5. (+) Plot - This is Ronan's coming-of-age tale mixed with some of the series plots introduced in The Raven Boys. The main plot is his learning how to control his powers before X and X happens, and in order for that to happen, he's got to learn about himself and his family. The quest for Glendower, the problem of the ley line, and the ominous kiss prophecy for Blue are still there, but they get a lot less focus in this one.... yet in the end, Ronan's plot converges with the series plots in wonderfully unpredictable but beautiful ways. Again there's another open ending that'll leave you puzzled and frustrated but still eager for the next title, still eager to see how Maggie will complicate these plot threads even further.6. (+) Villains - I was slightly disappointed in the villains of The Raven Boys. They were very real people, but Barrington Whelk was so pathetic, I had a hard time taking him seriously and Neeve was too mysterious for me to understand (her danger). The villains in this book? One of them is so ridiculously charming that I honestly can't compute the violence that he/she commits with his/her personality. Psychopath? Potentially. And yet somehow I'm still rooting for him/her? The other was damaged and used to great effect to highlight Ronan's own character growth. A foil but a dangerous foil. A wacky foil who you'll never be able to predict.7. (+) Character Growth - The best part about this is that MOST of the characters grow in this novel even though it's primarily centered on Ronan. Adam, you remember what happened to him in the previous book? Well, he'll have to deal with the consequences. Gansey, you remember how Blue compares the vision of him at the beginning to how he seems at the end? Well, his facade is starting to crack. Blue, you remember how she wasn't quite sure of her place until she joined the boys? Well, that's even more evident now. Ronan will obviously have to deal with the problems his power presents... and the other characters? Maybe they don't grow so much as you learn more of their secrets. And my, what complex people they all are.8. (+) Writing - Oh, how I love Maggie Stiefvater's writing. This woman is so talented. She can go from humorous to sweet to tragic in one scene. And always I shall repeat: no one can create as atmospheric of a mood as she can. Here's an example of the kind of scene she can set: "At that particular moment in time, Richard Campbell Gansey III was ninety-two miles away from his beloved car. He stood in the sun-soaked driveway of the Ganseys' Washington D.C. mansion, wearing a furiously red tie and a suit made of tasteful pinstripe and regal swagger. Beside him stood Adam, his strange and beautiful face pale above the slender dark of his own suit. Tailored by the same clever Italian man who did Gansey's shirts, the suit was Adam's silken armor for the night ahead. It was the most expensive thing he had ever owned, a month's wages translated into worsted wool. The air was humid with teriyaki and Carbernet Sauvignon and premium-grade fuel. Somewhere, a violin sang with vicious victory. It was impossibly hot" (255).9. (+/-) Pacing - As I've said before, I do find character-driven stories to be paced slightly slower than others, and I think my perception of The Dream Thieves and its pacing was also affected by my preference for the plot in the first book. I just wasn't as captivated and it seemed the pacing was slow in the beginning -- probably for that reason, for that personal preference.10. (+) The Cover - I still prefer the one for The Raven Boys, but having read The Dream Thieves, this one is so utterly appropriate that I cannot complain.(For those curious -- why I didn't like this one as much as The Raven Boys. This, I believe, is all personal preference. This book is executed wonderfully, but I'm more of a sucker for the tension that drove the beginning of The Raven Boys. And also a sucker for the quest plot vs. the harness-your-power plot.)Maggie Stiefvater has produced a sequel full of her usual charm and wit, beautiful writing and realistic characters--a sequel full of magic that's sure to enchant readers of all ages. Highly recommended. I can't wait to read the next book!PS - For those of you who have read The Dream Thieves, there's a wonderful discussion thread on Wendy Darling's Goodreads review. It made me realize that I'd missed some of the nuances in this story. So much fun to guess what'll happen in the future books.

If you love words, you have to read this book! Second books are traditionally the character development tomes that are not normally as exciting as book 1 or book 3, but are needed to round out the story. Since Maggie Stiefvater excels at both character development and plot advancement because of her masterful use of words, book 2 is not just a filler but a brilliant work of art.In the first book we got the object of the mission (finding Glendower) and who was the leader (Gansey). We also got the budding of an attraction between Adam and Blue, but the foreshadowing that Blue's real true love would be Gansey whom she saw herself lovingly kissing in a vision. And let's remember, Blue's true love will die when she kisses him. In The Dream Thieves we get a better perspective on some of the crew making up the expedition that Gansey is leading, specifically Ronan. While, in my opinion, the story still centers around the group, we are given little tidbits of information about Ronan specifically that help us to understand his "viper in the grass" persona. We are also introduced to a new bad guy (the previous one was killed off) named the Gray Man, who was just as fascinating as all of Maggie Stiefvater's other characters. Here's what we learn:The Grey Man: has been hired by Professor Colin Greenmantle, for the last five years, to find the Greywaren which he believes is an instrument or relic that allows the owner to take objects out of dreams. We learned that Ronan can do this and suspect that he is the Greywaren that the Grey Man is looking for. While mysterious, he is as forthcoming as Noah was when he said, "I have been dead for seven years" and no one took him seriously. The Gray Man is asked his job and he truthfully declares, "I am a hit man" and apparently the truth is stranger than fiction because no one is phased by his words. For a bad man, you really want to like the Gray Man and find him suspiciously charming. It's like he half-heartedly struggles with deciding to be good himself, but never really puts any effort into it.Ronan: Ronan can bring things back from his dreams and knows how his father made all his money beacause: "I am just like my father" page 37. Ronan feels that "All of his secrets felt dangerously close to the surface". We discover how important Ronan is to the search for Glendower as he discovers his abilities to bring things out of his dreams and what that means for Cabeswater. We really get to know and even like Ronan as we watch him make mistakes and learn to like himself.Adam: Made a deal to be the hands and feet of Cabeswater at the end of The Raven Boys. Now he is feeling the effects of his sacrifice which has got him all out of balance and hallucinating. He has to discover how to deal and communicate with Cabeswater and finds that his relationship with all the group has changed drastically, but not as much as he has himself has chaanged.The Beginning of Blue and Gansey's romance: While Blue and Gansey did not change much in this story they are still struggling to find "that more" that each of them feels they are capable of, while at the same time discovering "more" in each other:"Gansey who prized honesty above nearly every other thing, knew it (a lie) when he heard it. Blue Sargent cared whether or not he was interested in Orla. She cared a lot. As she whirled toward the truck with a dismissive shake of her head, he felt a dirty sort of thrill". page 195Blue crumpled the edge of the (Gansey's) sheet against her nose. It smelled like mint and wheatgrass, which was to say, like Gansey."I have a crush on Richard Gansey".In a way, it was easier than pretending otherwise. She couldn't do anything about it, of course, but letting herself think it was like popping a blister.Of course, the opposite truth also seemed self-evident."I don't have a crush on Adam Parrish"Maggie has admitted to wanting to make her readers "feel" enough to cry and my instincts are that just like Noah and The Grey Man being very direct about who they are, Maggie is not fooling around when she says that Gansey will die (and from Blue's Kiss). Every bone in my body wants to rebel against her taking the story in this direction and I grasp at the fraudulent belief that she will "bring him back" somehow for a happily ever after, but I don't believe it in my soul. I believe I am on a journey that I have been told will end badly, but I have refused to take the warnings seriously and will have no excuse when the prophecy is fulfilled as defined. Blue and her mother experience the same fate: Missing loves.A lot more profanity than the first book (because it is Ronan!) (sh**t, gd, JC, MF, f-word), divination, psychics and overall creepy people that really make this story come alive. (smile).Would I/Did I buy it? Yes HardcoverWould I read it again? YesWould I recommend it to friends? YES!!!!!

The Dream Thieves brings us back to Blue Sargent and her Raven boys, Gansey, Ronan, Noah and Adam. With Adam still recovering from the trauma of activating the ley line and with power surges all over town as a result, the group are still on their quest to find Glendower. But that's not the only thing they're dealing with - Ronan has revealed a secret - when he dreams, he can bring something back with him. Is this related to the leyline or something else entirely?I think I enjoyed this book more than I enjoyed book 1, The Raven Boys. I will that this book is more centered around Ronan's story as we didn't get to find out too much about him in book 1 and his character has a fantastic backstory. With lots of family drama, the mystery of his gift and how it links back to his father Niall Lynch. I will say there are parts of the story that still make zero sense to me as I feel like it needs to be dumbed down for me to really get the whole ley line thing!My least favourite character so far is Adam - I'm so fed up of his woe is me rubbish. Yes, he's had some serious trauma in his life but there's no need to take it out on Gansey who is clearly doing his best and is going out of his way to help him. I can honestly say that if his character was to die off tragically in the next one I don't think I'd be all to bothered.Looking forward to Blue Lily, Lily Blue as the story is getting very interesting with Ronan's gift as well as getting closer and closer to Glendower.

For those who haven’t read any of this series, it is so quaint, quirky and unique. It follows 4 boys and Blue, collectively The Raven Boys who are searching for Glendower, an Ancient magical welsh king.This book is quite slow paced compared with other YA fantasies, with not a lot seeming to happen. Indeed when you actually consider the main Storyline (the search for Glendower)… their quest progressed no further forward in this bookWhat it did focus on was character development and filling in their histories especially Ronan’s. The Characters are deep, complex and really well written. Although my god I just want to give Adam a hug and tell him everything will be ok! Life is not fair on that poor boy!! Although it is infuriating when he won’t ACCEPT help! SERIOUSLY!!I also found myself a little confused. Its been a while since I read The Raven Boys and I cant for the life of me remember how Ronan found Chainsaw but I didn’t think it was the way this book said.Writing is great, I love the Virginia setting. The atmosphere the Author creates with her writing is perfect, It’s a really Eerie, slightly spooky, weird world shes built and that goes great with the whole Ghosts and nightmare creatures thing!Overall I enjoyed this book but it didn’t blow me away. I Will be carrying on with the series .

The Dream Thieves was not at all what I was expecting for book two in The Raven Cycle.I love that it stayed on Glendower but also dug deep into Ronan and Adam's stories.Ronan's being the most surprising. I love him so much, his joy, his pain, his fear, everything about him is so intense I couldn’t help feeling it all with him.At first The Gray Man kind of bored me, but once his story started to unfold I found myself looking forward to his chapters so much. My heart hurt for him.Adam irked me for a lot of this book. I get his urge to be independent and to make it on his own, but quite often he’s an ass about it. Like it’s not Gansey's fault they were born on different sides of the tracks.Noah and Blue’s day together when everyone else was away from Monmouth was absolutely epic. It was fun, and sweet and full of feels.There's so many other moments, so many times when I laughed, gasped, screamed, cried.. I loved every second of it, even when it was so intense I couldn’t stand to listen to it.Speaking of, Will Patton is a really enjoyable reader. I love that his accents for the main characters didn't change from book one. He’s incredible. He didn’t just weave the story into my mind like a movie, he made me feel it, every second of it.Here’s one of my favourite moments;“He was more profoundly uncomfortable with Blue being angry at him than he cared to admit to anyone, least of all himself.”

If you thought The Raven Boys was perfect, wait until you finish reading The Dream Thieves. Oh. My. Life. I am writing this review 30 seconds after finishing the book because I had to get all of my thoughts and feelings down. Maggie Stiefvater's writing is magical and it makes me feel all mushy inside.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…The Dream Thieves main focus throughout the book was Ronan's character which was very very interesting. After Ronan dropped that bomb on us at the end of the first book, it was nice to see it explored fully throughout the second. We also got to get a deeper insight into who Ronan is as a person and what makes him tick. I know he's violent, crazy and dangerous but there are times when you just want to give him a massive hug because he's so adorable *that time where he holds the mice*Even though Gansey is still on his quest to find the Welsh King, Glendower, that storyline almost took the back seat for this book as the main focus was on Ronan and his dreams. However, there was still plenty of Glendower hunting and Gansey being adorable about his fascination with the magical being and also Gansey just being Gansey - the mom of the group.I will repeat what I said in my review of The Raven Boys: a book about the friendship of four boys is so refreshing and how Stiefvater creates their friendship is breathtaking. I love each and every one of the characters so much - they each bring something unique to the friendship group. Gansey brings the levelheadedness, Ronan brings the attitude, Noah brings the dorkiness and Adam brings a little bit of everything. Though, at the moment, Adam has got to be my least favourite *sorry guys* He's just driving me insane. Hopefully, my opinion gets changed in Blue Lily, Lily Blue.“In that moment, Blue was a little in love with all of them. Their magic. Their quest. Their awfulness and strangeness. Her raven boys.”- Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream ThievesThere also seemed to be an underlying theme of homosexuality for Ronan or is that just me hoping too hard? I don't know... There were definitely times where I was reading his point of view and I thought that he might be gay.Also that moment between Noah and Blue... Can we all just have an hour to think about that and cry? I genuinely thought that I was going to burst out crying because of how cute it was.Blue wasn't really the main character of this book was it beautiful to see how her relationships with each of the raven boys grew and blossomed; it was also nice to see how she finally admitted to herself something that was long overdue: she had a crush on Gansey. Well about time, missy!Overall, I think that The Dream Thieves was better than The Raven Boys. The first book laid out the foundations of the friendship and the search for Glendower, The Dream Thieves was just pure magical character development. If anything is going to make you want to read this series, please let it be this book!

Even though most of the time I have no idea what is happening or why I simply can't help being entranced and swept away by the writing style and the magic and the strangeness of it all. It holds me.I like almost all the characters, I have no clue what they are doing, no clue what they all mean to this unfolding story of history, vague time travel and magic dreams and places. It is fantastical. I keep reading because I have to know how it all ends, what it all means and ultimately to find out what the fluff is going on. Because I got no clue.It's like I took a bunch of drugs and started hallucinating or dreaming and this is all the kind of strange path a dream would take. A little unstable, a little off-kilter, blurred reality and awesomeness.On to number 3 I go!