10 Reasons Why: The Books of Faeries by Maggie Stiefvater

10. Bloodthirsty faeries. With all the fairy books out there, it's nice to read one where the bad guys are just deliciously evil. Voldemort was creepy, cold evil. The baddies here are fun, clown like evil. That's bad.

9. The characters. Eleanor, the creepy sadistic faerie mastermind who probably tortures people with a smile on her face, is my favourite. I love to loathe her; it brings a smile to my face to think of the possible ways to bring her down.

8. The descriptions. Oh god, the descriptions. There's one scene where a character is torn apart, literally torn apart. That's my favourite scene, which makes me sound like a mini sadist. It's not so much the brutality of the graphics that played through my mind, accompanied by the Psycho soundtrack. It's the shock factor. It worked very well, and the fact that it was that particular character that was killed... mhmmm.

7. The mythology. Gauging magic by the amount of musical talent you have. The more musical talent you have, the more magical you're likely to be. I feel kind of sad now; there goes my dream of being a witchard. (Yes, a witchard. The best offspring of a witch and wizard.)

6. Thornking-Ash. Only the coolest music school that ever existed in books. We were given a taste of it in Lament, and there's so much potential for more, which we were given in Ballad. But it's still not enough!

5. James, the Robin to Dee's Batman. Ballad is mainly James' book, and it's a great sequel/ companion novel to Lament. Where in Lament, you get Dee, a shy, angsty teenager who somehow changed into this high strung person after meeting her One and Only--you know, the usual--in Ballad, you get all the snarky sarcasm and humour you would ever want. It's refreshing.

4. Luke, the Romeo to Dee's Juliet. You probably know how this is going to turn out, BUT YOU DON'T. Because by the end of reading the books, you'll want more. We must totally bug Maggie to put the sequels (yes, there are sequels) first and foremost in her head!

3. Music. I can almost feel the music running through my veins while reading the scenes where it is being played. Maggie Stiefvater composed a few beautiful pieces on her website. If it doesn't make you want to start listening to those instruments, there's something wrong with you. I kid.

2. Getting to know more about Dee in Ballad than Lament, ironically. Seeing her go nutso in Ballad was just heartbreaking. When you read the unsent texts for James, which is the introduction to almost every chapter, it's just amazing to see how much 160 characters can convey. Maybe in the next book, they can tweet and retweet whatever their respective partners said. *snickers*

1. Ballad. It's the book that you didn't know you wanted to read until after you've read it. This is the book that I've been waiting for ever since I started reading romance novels in my early teens. You know, the book with the Happily Ever After (HEA) endings where you go "Hot damn! I can't believe the author wrote this. Why did she choose him? I want this heroine to regret her decision for the rest of her sucky, fickle minded life. If only there was such a book." You Jacob fans have probably wanted to read this type of book. Well, here's your chance!