The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

 

Blue has never lived the 'normal' life of a teenage girl.  How could she?  Raised in a house full of mediums and clairvoyants, she will always be considered weird by teenage standards.  Then there is the curse.  From a young age, Blue is told that she will kill her own true love and his death will come after kissing her.  That tends to make a girl standoffish as well.  Add in growing up poor and Blue doesn't have a covey of buddies.

But things are improving in Blue's life.  She meets four of the rich boys from the local private academy, Aglionby.  Blue has always avoided Aglionby guys or Raven Boys as she calls them from their mascot.  They are rich, entitled and only interested in local girls for sexual purposes.  But these four seem to be different.

Gansy is their leader.  He is confident and obsessed, determined to find an ancient king he believes is buried near this town.  Ronan has been Gansy's best friend since childhood but is grieving the death of his father and lashing out at all around him.  Adam is a local boy like Blue, also poor but on a scholarship to the academy which he views as his steppingstone out of his limited circumstances.  Nick is shy and on the fringes but Blue is comfortable around him.  Both Adam and Gansy seem attracted to Blue and she's not sure what to do about that.

As the five teenagers search for the ancient king, their search uncovers magic, real magic that they had hoped for but never really believed existed.  What secrets will the magic uncover and what danger will the five have to overcome?  Will they all survive?

This is the first book in the Raven Cycle series, a set of four books.  Blue is an interesting character, full of longings for a normal life and uncertain how to set about getting that.  The boys have very different personalities and one wonders what exactly has brought them together into the brotherhood they seem to have adopted.  This book leaves the reader interested in reading the rest of the cycle and is recommended for young adult and fantasy readers.