Maggie Stiefvater is a favourite of mine. I've read all of her books (Lament, Ballad, Shiver, Linger, Forever, The Scorpio Races) now, but my favourite has always been Ballad, and then Lament. I wasn't so keen on the Wolves of Mercy Falls. I don't know why, but I ... meh. They weren't my thing.

Lament, on the other hand, was the last book I read before my first NaNoWriMo and influenced me a lot. Ballad was the last book I read before I started writing my novel 'Watching', and in the first draft there were a lot of similarities. Luckily, by the fifth draft I'd cut most of them out ;)

I spoke to Maggie at a signing and she said that Ballad had been her favourite of hers until she wrote the Scorpio Races, so I had a pretty good expectation of it. I wasn't disappointed.

I won't spoil the plot here for those that haven't read it yet, but I think it ended the only way it could have ended. She didn't want it to be entirely depressing or entirely unrealistically happy, so she compromised, and it worked.

Ballad is still currently my favourite. Then again, I've read it about twenty times, perhaps more, and the Scorpio Races is still relatively unbent on my shelf (and SIGNED! as are all my books by her!). After re-readings, perhaps I'll love that one just as much too.

Has anyone else read this, or are you reading it? What did you think?