Currently Reading :: 28 April

I’m not usually one to have more than just one book on the go, but this week I found myself partway through Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne (which was kindly sent to me by the team at Hachette) AND I wanted to reread The Raven Boys over the weekend, since the first scene is sent on St Mark’s Eve, 24 April.
Lucky for me we had booked a weekend away to celebrate my birthday with lots of reading time and relaxing (more about that on Friday!)

I know I mentioned The Raven Boys here when I talked about the tarot cards last Friday, but I’m surprised I haven’t raved about it a bit more! I really love this series – I find it such a fun easy world to fall into. The magical elements are just write for me, and I like the way the characters are written. Rereading it is quite a different experience than reading it for the first time, as there are some twists that surprised me on my first read that I found on rereading are openly to referred to by the characters before the reveal but I just brushed off as banter (does that make sense?). The Raven Boys is book one in the four book Raven Cycle series. Here’s the blurb from Goodreads:

“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

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I’m really enjoying Ariadne – I know comparisons to Madeleine Miller’s Circe and The Song of Achilles are pretty inevitable for this one, and to be honest I’m finding it an easier/more engaging read than either of those two was for me. To be honest, I can’t put my finger on quite what it is that is making this one a bit more my style – I’ll try and think about it before I post a review. Here’s the blurb for Ariadne (from the Hachette website):

As Princesses of Crete and daughters of the fearsome King Minos, Ariadne and her sister Phaedra grow up hearing the hoofbeats and bellows of the Minotaur echo from the Labyrinth beneath the palace. The Minotaur – Minos’s greatest shame and Ariadne’s brother – demands blood every year.

When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with him. But helping Theseus kill the monster means betraying her family and country, and Ariadne knows only too well that in a world ruled by mercurial gods – drawing their attention can cost you everything.

In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne’s decision to betray Crete for Theseus ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover’s ambition?

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I’d love to know what are you reading this week? And have you read either of these? Is Ariadne on your tbr list?
Let me know in the comments =)

xo Bron