Book Review: Ballad

Ballad is the second book in a trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater.  It is yet to be finished, but she's at work on Requiem.  The first book, Lament, was good, but not her best work.  Ballad is better, but I feel like by having a different character narrate, we lost a lot of the action and got out of touch with Dee, who I would say is the main character.

Ballad takes place a couple months after Lament.  James and Dee have decided to attend Thornking-Ash, a school for the musically gifted.  James went to follow Dee, who he loves even though she doesn't love him back.  Dee is the cloverhand, which means she attracts fairies and is pretty much disliked by most of Them.  James is psychic, and also a fantastic piper, which draws Nuala (pronounced Noola), a Leanan Sidhe (pronounced Len-an-shee) to himself.  Nuala is there to make a deal with him- give him amazing music and take years off his life.

Over all it's a standard book, there's romance, action, and music (Maggie Stiefvater style, of course).  It took a while for me to get into it, but that happened with Lament, too, so it may just be I need to warm up to these stories.  Once I was in the thick of it I didn't want to put it down.  I even found myself losing track of time as I read it.  It was really great to be immersed in the story.

Now I've read every single Maggie Stiefvater book and am quite proud of the fact.  I don't own them all (my next goal, of course), but having read them is great.  I wouldn't really recommend this series unless you're a fan of Stiefvater or of Fairies, because in the end, there isn't some special draw.