Book Review: The Scorpio Races

The Scorpio Races is written by Maggie Stiefvater.

The Summary:
Every year, in November on the island of Thisby, the Scorpio Races are held. These races consist of riding the vicious water horses that come out of the water every October to the end of the race. People die every year.
This year, Sean Kendrick plans to win for the fifth time in a row. He will ride the horse he loves to the finish. He will not care about any of the other riders. Until, he sees a girl on the beach training to ride in the race.
Puck Connolly, has to ride this year. For her family. She is the first girl to ever ride in the races, and she is totally unprepared.

Violence:
Between horrific water horses... and more horrific water horses, there's a lot of blood and stuff. Someone dies, and a horse is maimed for life.

Language:
Some crude slang.

Romance:
A few kisses.

Suggested Age:
12+

My Opinion:
I have a really hard time getting into books when the theme has nothing to do with romance for the majority of the book.
So, I did not have high expectations of this book.
I was blown away.
At one point, the author said something that I have said so many times, but never knew how to put it into words so I didn't look like lunatic.
That being said, I would have loved a) a teeny bit more romance and b) some more background on the island/water horses.
I'm a big background person, so the fact there was literally no background sort of bugged me.
But, it was an amazing book. :)