The Raven Boys - Maggie Stiefvater

I discovered Maggie Stiefvater's books about two years ago and was completely hooked. Her writing style suits me completely, and she pretty much covers every story theme I love and creates some brilliant fantasy elements. She's also a damn funny blogger and I'd recommend her for a follow.

The Raven Boys is the first of a new series and a book I had been looking forward to for quite a while (it had been nearly a year since her last release and I was having withdrawal trouble). This series, so far, seems to be based on Celtic folklore.
As with her other books, Maggie creates a vivid fictional setting for her novel - based in the real world but certainly not anywhere on a known map - this time a village called Henrietta. Perfectly created and with it's own specific atmosphere that seemed snatched from reality.
The characters all have their own little quirks, habits and twists (one a particularly big twist) , their own distinct personalities. We get to see from the points of view of several of them and get to understand their different motivations and back stories.
There's plenty of humour, healthy lashings of drama and still plenty of things still left to be unsolved (it's only the first book after all). A different tone to all Maggie's previous books, but the quality is as high as ever. Highly recommended.