"The king sleeps still, under a mountain, and around him is assembled his warriors and his herds and his riches. By his right hand is his cup, filled with possibility. On his breast nestles his sword, waiting, too, to wake. Fortunate is the soul who finds the king and is brave enough to call him to wakefulness, for the king will grant him a favour, as wondrous as can be imagined by a mortal man." 
 Although Blue Sargent belongs to a family of psychics and clairvoyants, she is a fluke, an outsider to the vibrant conversation her mother and aunts and cousins held with a world hidden to most people. So, although she has been told many times that if she was to kiss her true love, he would die, Blue doesn't really consider this very likely to happen; until one night she meets the spirit of a young boy, who is bound to die soon. His name is Gansey and there is only one reason why she should be seeing him; she's either going to fall in love with him or kill him. In the meantime, real-life Gansey, and his friends are on a quest to find Glendower, a Welsh King of old, and wake him from his eternal slumber. Blue is soon going to cross path with them, and things are going to get complicated. 
 I really liked this book. I know that from the blurb it sounds like an angsty teenage romance, but believe me when I say that The Raven Boys is nothing like that. Actually, there is little to no romance in this book, although I can see it coming in the next ones. It is such an atmospheric, quirky read. The writing is pretty good and the descriptions are really captivating. The story is set in the fictional town of Henrietta, Virginia, a magical place, close to tall, looming mountains -a choice which perfectly suits the mythical aspect of the story; if you were looking for a sleeping King, that would be the place to find him. 
 But the best part of this book is, indisputably, the main characters. Each and every one of the Raven Boys stands out. They are not the typical, one dimensional ya-characters. Well, maybe Gansey is a little cliched; a rich, eccentric boy who wants to prove himself as something more, but whom everybody loves and follows no matter what. Still, even he has his own nightmares and struggles. But it is his friends that make me love this book so much; bright, brave but poor Adam who strives to make his own way in life, resentful of his privileged surroundings; mysterious Noah, who is always around but prefers to stay quiet; and of course Ronan. Angry, broken, troubled Ronan. Blue's character on the other hand is somewhat flat, since she serves as the reader's ticket to the fictional world. Her traits are not that pronounced because her main use is to observe; she is part of the story, but at this point she's chiefly tagging along, not morphing it. But even this is rather refreshing from the typical hero, for whose favour everything happens, and I have high hopes that Blue is going to evolve in the next books. After all, the story isn't told from her perspective only, which I really appreciated. 
 The only real problem with The Raven Boys is the plot. It is a character- driven book so a problematic plotline is not such a big deal, but still, it feels like Maggie Stiefvater used all her creativity on her characters and thought very little about what these characters were supposed to go through. Ley lines, sleeping kings, magic forests; they all sound very intriguing and peculiar, but after finishing the book I can't really tell how the "magic system" is supposed to work. The worldbuilding seems a bit sketchy, like the author kept improvising as she went on. On the other hand, as I've already mentioned, you get to care more about the heroes and their real- life struggles, than about their encounters with the metaphysical, so these weaknesses can be overlooked.