The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Spunky, magic amplifying teen girl meets boarding school bad boys

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Published September 2012 by Scholastic Press

This is the first I've read by Stiefvater, upon recommendation by a trusted friend, and the trust was warranted! The Raven Boys is a young adult fantasy novel with a new and fresh premise that involves Celtic mythology, psychics, spellcasting, the spirit world, and other paranormal aspects that perhaps haven't been fully fleshed out yet (it's a series). The main characters are Blue, a 16 year old girl who has the gift of amplifying the paranormal gifts of others and paranormal energy in general, and The Raven Boys: Gansey, Adam, Ronan, and Noah, all very different and with their own developed backstories. It's been prophesied that if Blue kisses her first true love, he will die. Gansey's on a quest to find a mythical king whose legend says the one who wakes him from his very long slumber will get a wish granted. The others are all interested in the quest for their own reasons. The Raven Boys gets the tale laid out and peaks with some real world changing events, but doesn't answer every question and even adds new ones to be unraveled in the next book, which is called The Dream Thieves. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of The Raven Cycle series.