Linger by: Maggie Stiefvater

Linger
By: Maggie Stiefvater

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past...and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabel, who already lost her brother to the wolves...and is nonetheless drawn to Cole. At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love--the light and the dark, the warm and the cold--in a way you will never forget

Rating: A+

Source: Received from the publisher for review.

Review:

Oh my WOW! I loved Linger and I'm having a hard time expressing in words how much I loved it. I'm amazed and in awe at Maggie's writing, and completely blown away by the emotions that still rage inside of me when I think about this story.

This book starts out shortly after where Shiver leaves us and I had no problem at all reacquainting myself with the characters. Sometimes in series I find it hard to reconnect to the characters I know and love, but Maggie's writing was so beautiful and completely gorgeous that I instantly reconnected and it was like the first one had never ended.

Not all is right in Mercy Falls. This story is told in four points of view and each one of their stories leave me with such high emotions it's unbelievable. Sam, Grace, Cole, and Isabel's points of view all involve such struggle and growth! It's beautiful to read Maggie's words and it's amazing the emotional ties I felt while reading. Cole is a new character and he is far from perfect. One thing I love about each one of Maggie's character's is that none of them are without some type of battle to overcome inside themselves, and Cole is no exception to this. He's messed up on the inside and outside with no idea about what to do about it. His story was one I instantly became fascinated with and can't wait to revisit in the next book.

I loved the new voices in this book, hearing from Cole and Isabel gave us two new completely different stories and two new struggles to become acquainted with. Yes, it's still primarily Sam and Grace's book but it goes so much deeper than that now. Two more people's feelings and emotions become known to us which only allows us to understand everything better. We see Sam not only through Grace's eyes but through Cole's too, we learn about how Isabel feels on the inside and why she puts up such a harsh front all of the time. We get to know them in a way we didn't before.

The only thing I didn't like was the cliffhanger ending, but that is because it left me wanting more.

In the end it was an emotional ride, but Linger was more than worth it.

If there is one piece of advice I could give to any of you it would be to read Shiver and Linger very, very soon.

-Christina