Call Down the Hawk, by Maggie Stiefvater

I've been a fan of Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle series since the first book came out back in the early 2010's. This was a world that was mysterious and magical and, quite literally, the stuff of dreams...but without being exaggerated and over-the-top like, say, Harry Potter (which I also love, but sometimes it's all just too much). So I was absolutely thrilled when a spinoff trilogy was announced.

Call Down the Hawk is the first book in the Dreamer Trilogy and focuses on Raven Boy Ronan Lynch, a character who can take objects from his dreams and bring them into the waking world (awesome superpower, by the way). And I'm happy to announce that this new series is shaping up to be just as good, if not better than, the one from which it spawned. 

In Hawk, the reader learns that there has been a dire prophecy: A Dreamer, the technical term for what Ronan is, will somehow manifest the End of the World. As in Actual End. As in Apocalypse of Flames. The agency that learned of this prophecy has no specifics on who and when, so they've been dispatching bounty hunters to locate and dispose of the world's Dreamers (Surprise! Ronan is not the only one). Ronan must team up with rogue dreamer Hennessy and the mysterious Bryde if he is to stop whatever dream entity is waiting to escape and make the prophecy come true.

In Hawk, the reader gets to know Ronan and the Brothers Lynch better (the Raven Cycle focused more on other characters). We're also introduced to Dreamer Hennessy, who is living with a death sentence of a recurring dream that will eventually kill her... To Jordan, a literal dream girl that wants nothing more than to break away from her Dreamer and become an independent, living and breathing person... To Carmen, a bounty hunter who is starting to question the motives of the agency that hired her.

The characters, the plot, the world building, and, of course, a killer cliffhanger come together to make Call Down the Hawk a book you won't be able to put down. The only drawback will be waiting a year (or more) for the next installment.

--AJB