Blue lily, lily Blue

This book is a massive improvement over the preceding two, as evidenced by my reading it in one day rather than over months. It has none of the pacing problems of the first two, and doles out its adventure evenly, with excellent character moments in between. The villains are entertaining and the story is engrossing.

It's not perfect, though. A few things stuck out as odd, (Glendower's banner did not have ravens on it, but an A to Moe Dee for sticking to themes) but nothing really took me out of the story as much as Adam's conflict with his father. While realistically written on an emotional level, I couldn't really understand the legal aspect of the conflict. If Adam was 17 when his father was arrested, he would not be able to drop the charges against his father, because of his status as a minor. Regardless of his age, he probably wouldn't have been needed as a witness, since the police officer at the scene of the crime would have been enough of one.

However, these failings in minor research detail don't detract from the emotional power of the novel. Maggie Stiefvater has really come into her own during the writing of this series, and it shows with how she handles her characters. I look forward to the next in this series.