5 STACK Friday, or something like it
*Five Star Friday is a meme hosted by Books Complete Me*
book: Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie, #2 by Maggie Stiefvater
publisher: Flux
street date: October 1, 2009
genre: urban fantasy, YA
The story (from goodreads): In this mesmerizing sequel to Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception, music prodigy James Morgan and his best friend, Deirdre, join a private conservatory for musicians. James’ musical talent attracts Nuala, a soul-snatching faerie muse who fosters and feeds on the creative energies of exceptional humans until they die. Composing beautiful music together unexpectedly leads to mutual admiration and love. Haunted by fiery visions of death, James realizes that Deirdre and Nuala are being hunted by the Fey and plunges into a soul-scorching battle with the Queen of the Fey to save their lives.
Why it’s worth reading: One word. JAMES. Sadly, he is a lesser known heartthrob *sigh* James is cool, musically gifted and an all around nice guy – which gets me here *pointing to heart* every time. I’m a sucker for the nice ones *coughPeetacough* Plus, this is a good fairy faerie story, and not a crappy one. Oh, and it’s written by Maggie, enough said.
For added fun, watch as Maggie tells me what’s in store for this series…
*note that in my orginal review I didn’t give this book 5 STACKS. Why? I’m not sure, that was almost a year ago. Maybe it was because I didn’t like Lament. Yea, I’ll blame it on Lament.
I’ve read both of the books in this seers and liked them a lot. For me, James is up there with Jay (Desires of the Dead) for sweet/great/wish-they-were-real book boyfriends. I found BALLAD to be a dense read and at times I got pretty impatient with it. I do wish there was another book in the series.
I didn’t love Lament, but maybe I should give Ballad a try. I do love nice-guy heart-throbs, lol. (I think I rebelled against reading it because of the cover — striking, and beautiful in a way, but for me as a Canadian, first impression was that the burning red maple leaf reminded me of flag-burning. SO not fair to the book, but there ya have it….)
@Shari – Lament wasn’t great for me either. But, and this will sound weird, I am thankful to have read it as I love Maggie’s writing SO much that it makes me think I have grown with her – writer reader thing. Told you it was weird. Ballad was really good and interesting though.
I have this series on my TBR list, but I can never find both of the books! When I go to a bookstore they have Ballad and not Lament. I guess I need to order them…
SO EXCITED to hear that. I have been anxiously waiting. Love both, but so loved James in Ballad. My favorite book of hers.
Shock! I loved Lament. I swoon for Luke and I can’t wait for another fey book from Maggie.
@jennifer hrmph, James up there with Jay? Let me think, yep. I agree!!!!
Someday, like 10 years from now, we may have our 3rd book.