Our featured review for today comes from Fantasy and Science Fiction panelist Angie Thompson, who blogs at Angieville and is a round I judge for the YA division of the SFF category. She's also been a Graphic Novels panelist for the Cybils, and on her blog, she writes about YA novels, fantasy, urban fantasy, and news of interest to fellow enthusiasts of the same.
In her review of Maggie Stiefvater's Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie, a companion book to Lament, she describes the book as "a love letter to James fans"–James being the best friend of Dee, who was the main character in the first book. This time James gets to tell his story about following Dee to music school only to have their relationship get all…awkward. And of course the faeries are slated to return, too; not to worry. Angie says about Ballad:
Witty repartee and quirky t-shirts aside, Ballad brings us infinitely farther into James' mind than the brief but enticing glimpse we got in Lament. And what's there is richer and more painful than one might expect from his humorous exterior.
Click here to read the full review.