the longing.
Once Grace and Sam have found each other, they know they must fight to stay together. For Sam, this means a reckoning with his werewolf past. For Grace, it means facing a future that is less and less certain.
the loss.
Into their world comes a new wolf named Cole, whose past is full of hurt and danger. He is wrestling with his own demons, embracing the life of a wolf while denying the ties of being human.
the linger.
For Grace, Sam, and Cole, life is a constant struggle between two forces - wolf and human - with love baring its two sides as well. It is harrowing and euphoric, freeing and entrapping, enticing and alarming. As their world falls apart, love is what lingers. But will it be enough?
I would like to first mention something that is totally superficial: I loved loved loved the green print used in this book. It's one of those little details that seems like it shouldn't be a big deal but when I first opened Linger and saw the green ink, I was delighted! What a nice touch.
I'm kind of relieved that I've finally read
Linger. It had a LOT to live up to, didn't it? I wondered what would happen in this book; would it be as awesome as
Shiver or would it disappoint, a la
Eclipse? What would happen to Sam and would he stay a boy or go back to the wolf? Would he and Grace stay together? On and on and so forth. Well, don't worry because I was
not disappointed.
I think the biggest focus in this book was about Sam and his learning to cope with being a REAL LIVE BOY. He keeps testing himself to see if it's still true that he's no longer a wolf - jumping into snowbanks or standing outside in the frigid Minnesota temps in just a t-shirt just to see if anything will jump-start a change. Sam now has a future where he can do almost anything and he can't believe it. Maybe it's more correct to say that he won't let himself believe it. He also is having difficulties figuring out his place in the Pack; he's become Beck's heir-apparent and he's not ready. He's also no longer a wolf but he's now their caretaker, the one the werewolves come to when they need some help. Sam has reluctantly inherited Cole, a new wolf that Beck made at the end of
Shiver. Cole is a handful and Sam has no idea how to deal with him.
On the Grace front, Sam has more worries. There's something wrong with Grace, something really wrong health-wise. Her parents have now decided to be parental and are putting their foot (feet?) down when it comes to Sam. Parents of teenage daughters tend to get a little touchy when they find their daughter's boyfriend in bed with her. At night. Under their noses. Being apart from each other takes a toll on Sam and Grace and drives a wedge between Grace and her parents.
Maggie Stiefvater manages to cram lots of story into 360 pages. She also manages to make the relationship between Sam and Grace sweet and loving without being icky. I love Isabel as well and without her,
Linger wouldn't be nearly as good as it is. Sarcastic and snarky to the core yet totally vulnerable, Isabel brings along a breath of fresh air and a captivating subplot relationship with Cole. She's become the voice of reason and reality too.
I'm not going to spoil the ending other than to say that I wasn't all that surprised by it (but not unaffected) and thought that it definitely complicates things. While that last part isn't all that astute it's a whopper of an understatement for what's to happen in book three. I was proud of Cole for stepping up the way he did. I do like to see a boy use his brain :) Sam and Grace seem to have an undeniable fate and I will be very surprised if they get their HEA. I don't believe that Stiefvater is the kind of meanie to split them up Romeo and Juliet style, but I just can't see them growing old together as humans.
I have to say, I'm pretty much in love with Sam. He writes songs that are full of love and hope and sadness but he's not emo. He works in a bookstore. He's insightful but not snotty or pretentious. He's kind but not a saint. Plus, he's cute. *sigh*
I spent the better part of an hour this evening reading Maggie Stiefvater's blog,
Words on Words by Maggie Stiefvater, and LMAO. I can't wait to see what this chick comes up with next. The third and final installment in the
Shiver trilogy,
Forever, won't be out until July 2011.
Other reviews:
http://presentinglenore.blogspot.com/2010/05/book-review-linger-by-maggie-stiefvater.html
http://www.devourerofbooks.com/2010/07/linger-by-maggie-stiefvater-book-review/
http://dirtysexybooks.com/2010/08/02/review-linger-by-maggie-stiefvater-2010/
Potent Pleasures by Eloisa James is written in James’s typical engaging style but her protagonists are utterly maddening to the point where this book almost became a wallbanger. I wanted to shake Charlotte vigorously and kick Alex in his private parts. Why in the world would James have these characters make such hideous choices? Worse than any plot of Three’s Company, the misunderstandings and assumptions made – mostly on Alex’s part – caused a disgusting amount of unnecessary heartache for everyone involved. By the end, I wanted to spit. The worst part? I want to read book two in this trilogy, Midnight Pleasures. Starring Charlotte’s good friend Sophie and Alex’s twin brother Patrick, I am confident that these two might not be so awful.
Nicole Peeler’s Tempest Rising, the first in her first series about a girl named Jane True, is a refreshing urban fantasy novel with lots of romance and has a likable heroine who is vulnerable yet resilient. Jane is introduced to the world of supernatural creatures, many of them right in her backyard. The town outcast with a painful past, Jane lives a quiet life of caring for her father and working in the town bookstore. A murder throws Jane straight into the investigation and a relationship with a vampire named Ryu. I liked Tempest Rising enough that I went out and bought book two, Tracking the Tempest, before I was halfway finished. I am curious to see what happens next between Jane and Ryu AND Jane and Anyan. Something tells me that the vampire won't be here to stay. Not for very long anyway.
Pride Mates by Jennifer Ashley was an ebook I got through my nook when I saw B&N had cut the price to $2.62 (it has since gone up to 5.59). I have only read one book by Ashley - a historical romance - and I wanted to see how she handled the pararom genre. No surprise here; she handled it just fine. This was a good paranormal romance about werewolves and how they're integrated into human society with some social commentary on the side. Set in a version of our world where werewolves are "out" but not really "in," Pride Mates is about a defense lawyer who is given a murder case involving a shifter and how she gets dumped into the middle of shifter politics. She also ends up mated to one. I am mightily looking forward to the next chapter in this series, Primal Bonds, that focuses on Liam's brother Sean. He carries a big sword and knows how to use it.
In the Woods by Tana French is an unusual pick for me. A murder mystery written by an Irish woman is something that generally makes my eyes cross. That's my issue not theirs; fiction like that is too dense for me and makes me give up way too easily. In the Woods sounded promising with a cold case of the unsolved disappearance by two children from a group of three where the third was found in a wood, catatonic with no memory of what happened and blood soaked into his sneakers. This third grows up and becomes an incognito detective who catches the new murder case of a teenage girl who is found pretty much where he was twenty years prior. I loved French's style but with a frustrating ending and somewhat obvious mystery, In the Woods disappoints.
