I liked this book A LOT better than The Raven Boys. There was something about the first instalment in this series that just didn't click with me. But The Dream Thieves totally made up for the disappointment I felt after reading The Raven Boys.

A major strength of this series is the strength of the relationships in it. I'm not talking about Blue/Adam or Blue/Gansey (I'm actually not a major fan of Blue, I find her a bit of a vacant moan. She doesn't fill the page the way Gansey or Ronan do.) It's the relationships between the boys which does it for me. The connection that Gansey has with Adam, and then the frayed but forever strong link with Ronan.

I actually find Ronan really intriguing. There is something so dark and terrifying about him, and a very...intense relationship with Gansey. I had wondered before if he was possibly gay, and then when Kravinsky came along, I thought I would find out if he was for sure. But I think Ronan, if anything, is asexual. He is simply a creature of the night, who walks in dreams and takes what he wills.

The magic about this book is not Cabeswater or the ley lines. It's the joining of one word to another, from Ronan's knife of a smile to the smudginess of Noah. Maggie has a way of making magic out of descriptions, and she allows something ordinary to become extraordinary. It's a pleasure and a privilege to read the words she's created