The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Rating : 4 / 5

Goodreads : It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.
Some riders live.
Others die.
At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.
Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn't given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen. 


My review : This is Maggie Stiefvater's new book so of course I had to buy it since she is one of my favorite writer. And I loved this book. Well I was disappointed about certain points (and that's why I didn't give it 5 stars) that i'm going to talk about in this review. 

So first I was so happy to read a new book written by Maggie because i'm in love with her writing... I loved it here even if it was different because it's a wold more tough but still mesmerizing. 
I especially loved the tone and the ambiance of the place where The Scorpio Races is set. This island Thisby, the fishermen, boats, beach, sand, smal village, nature, weather ect...
I also loved that we don't really know when it is happening. We know that it's in our present (represented by the tourists coming from the mainland and America) but it's an entirely different world in this island away from the present. They lived in a simple way, kind of away from civilization for some of them (especially with Puck and her brothers because they are really poor) with religion still really present...
I also loved  that there is a lot of celtic and faeries references. At first we don't really know what the capall uisce (so difficult to remember how to pronounce it!) is. I know the kelpie but here Maggie Stiefvater creates her own mythology (and that's what she explains in her author's note which is really interresting).
It was really interresting to know about The Scorpio Races, the festival just before ect... 

Again we have a double point of view just like in her others book with a male and female point of view. 
It was kind of weird at first to know that one of the main character Kate is nicknamed Puck (like in the Midsummer Night Dream and The Iron Feys series by Julie Kagawa which in those books is a male name). 
One of the best thing in Maggie Stiefvater books is her characters and I was not disappointed by them. I loved them all especially Puck's younger brother Finn. And of cource Sean <3. But also the horses obviously are really important characters in this book. 

But yes I was disappointed by certain things. First a huge part of the book is really slow. The book is about The Scorpio Races that are happenning at the end during a few pages and before that there isn't actions (except for the last 150 pages or so when I was really hooked). I know that Maggie's book are not known for having a lot of actions it's more about feelings and ambiance but here I really didn't see the point at first of the plot since also it's a stand alone novel. 
And second I was disappointed by the romance. If you think Sean and Puck are going to be the new Sam & Grace you'll be disappointed. The connexion between them is building slowly and there isn't much for most of the book (so it added to the slowness of the beginning). And I was surprised because Maggie said before the release of TSR that it was a book about "beach blood and kissing" and there isn't much of the last part (it's actually pretty non existent).
And maybe this book would be less tough with a little more romance because there is a lot of blood and death and the tone is often heavy for most of the book...
In fact this book focus more about the love between the characters and theirs horses (well especially between Sean & Corr and Puck & Dove) than between them. And I was really moved by that.
But there is some beautiful scenes between the two of them. I especially loved when they ride Corr perhaps my favorite scene of the book, there is a lot of tensions between them...
 Even if there isn't much romance this book is about the difference between wanting and needing, family, happiness and there is some beautiful quotes about it. 

I just admire Maggie Stiefvater and I really hope that some day I could write and imagine such stories. She won me and again I cried at the end just like in her other novels.
I have to admit that I wanted more of this book at the end and that my head is still full of this story...