Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3)Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I am lying on the floor, hours after reading Blue Lily, Lily Blue, wondering when enough is enough. Surely, why do we need a book 4! I expected the series to be over and done with already but it turns out, we’re just getting started. I am suffering from a serious bout of diminishing returns in the enjoyment department. The author opted for the scenic route to the climax with a lot of fillers in between.

A number of things were quite off:

Gwenllian
I honestly didn’t understand what Gwenllian was all about. Granted she’s batshit crazy, but I didn’t see much of her since she was rescued from her eternal grave and disappeared in the attic at Blue’s place. She’s there and yet she’s not, she gets it and then she doesn’t or plays coy. And suddenly bursts into song. Then she’s not in the picture at all. I don’t know, her character didn’t do it for me.

Colin Greenmantle
Now this was one badass of a villain since we got acquainted on the introduction of the actually badass hitman, Mr. Gray. For some incomprehensible reason, his character fizzles out into obscurity from the moment he steps into Henrietta. From an untouchable ‘spider-in-web’ mastermind event Mr. Gray couldn’t touch to an insignificant plot filler. How absurd. And just like Gwenllian, he’s unwanted baggage in the progression of the plot. The gigantic Jessie fared much better despite appearing only a couple of times.

Piper
Starting out as the harebrained wife to Colin Greenmantle, all of a sudden this unassuming individual graduates to the brains of the outfit. So unexpected is her transition that from then on out, the plot gets all wobbly. I kept wondering how she could get a drop on Mr. Gray who is so experienced a killer. I spat.

Frankly I am trying to think back at what really stood out in all this and nothing comes to mind. I am also scratching my head, wondering how far this bromance/orgy especially between Ronan and Adam is going to go.

“Adam was beginning to realize that he hadn’t known Ronan at all. Or rather, he had known part of him and assumed it was all of him. The scent of Cabeswater, all trees after rain, drifted past Adam, and he realized that while he’d been looking at Ronan, Ronan had been looking at him”

On a light note, finally we get to see Butternut, but is she what Blue expected? And is he some ancient magical creature like Gwenllian and Glendower? I can’t believe I am going to drag myself through another book in this series. Hopefully it’s the last.

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