I tend to love the family relationships in Maggie Steifvater's books, but actively dislike the romances (they've always tended to jump to characters feeling fated to love each other or just falling in love absurdly quickly, neither of which ever rings true to me). This is the first of her books where I felt I fully bought in to the entire story, romance included, which is clearly why this is my favourite of her books.The story set up is original, the main characters are well-established and facinating, and even the side characters are interesting. Oh, and did I mention the violent, murderous horse-like creatures? Well worth reading. I heard a few good things about the Scorpio Races, so, when I got it from the library I had a few expectations.Did I like it? Yes.Did it meet up to my expectations? Sorta (mostly because I anticipated the race to be longer and more intense).Does it make my favorites? Probably not, but it was still a good read. The only cons were 1) Cussing -which I wasn't too fond of- and 2) A few inappropriate parts. That said, it's definitely for a more mature reading group. As other reviewers have stated the majority of the book is a 'set up' - technically, the races don't start until after a hardy 380 pages - but in some odd way, I almost think it was a bit necessary. So in conclusion, the Scorpio Races was good.Good, but not great.
