Book Review: Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Linger

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Publisher: Scholastic

Publishing Date: July 2010

Length: 416 pages

Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance

5/5 ***** Linger, the sequel of Shiver and awesomeness! After reading, go out at night, howl at the moon and hope for Forever answering your cries soon! This is a must read!

~ The Author ~

All of Maggie Stiefvater's life decisions have been based around her inability to be gainfully employed. Talking to yourself, staring into space, and coming to work in your pajamas are frowned upon when you're a waitress, calligraphy instructor, or technical editor (all of which she's tried), but are highly prized traits in novelists and artists. She's made her living as one or the other since she was 22. She now lives an eccentric life in the middle of nowhere, Virginia with her charmingly straight-laced husband, two kids, three neurotic dogs and a 1973 Camaro named Loki.

Author profile by Goodreads 

For further information check out http://www.maggiestiefvater.com/shiver/index.php

And to experience Maggie Stiefvater’s daily wit and humour visit her blog here: http://m-stiefvater.livejournal.com/

~ The Novel ~

Linger is the sequel to Shiver, the first novel in The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy (published in 2009), and was published in 2010 by Scholastic. Now fans are eagerly awaiting the third and last book in the trilogy, Forever, which will be released in July 2011. Shiver was over 40 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller lists and Linger debuted at #1. What do we have to expect of Forever then?

~ The Story ~ 

Grace and Sam must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping dangerous secrets. For Sam, it means grappling with his werewolf past ...and figuring out a way to survive the future. But just when they manage to find happiness, Grace finds herself changing in ways she could never have expected...

Summary by Goodreads 

Interested in more? Click here to read the third chapter of Linger! 

To hear Maggie Stiefvater read the Prologue and Chapter One of Linger, click here!

~ The Review ~ 

Linger continues the story of Grace and Sam just as beautiful and exciting as Shiver begins it.  The skilled writing style of Maggie Stiefvater as we’ve experienced it in Shiver, isn’t absent on one single page of Linger always drawing us deeper into the young love story.

Beside the perspectives and stories of Grace and Sam, Linger offers us two more point of views. There is Isabel, a sarcastic and rich girl who seems to snap at everyone who tries to get closer, just like a wolf-at-heart, trying to protect herself from being hurt.  Then there is Cole, the former lead-singer of NARKOTIKA who now tries to escape the fame and problems that came along with it by forcing himself into wolf-form.

Just as the love between Grace and Sam is very balanced and filled with emotions, the relationship between Cole and Isabel hasn’t been clearly defined yet.

While reading Linger I couldn’t decide if I was more interested in the romantic relationship between Grace and Sam or in Cole’s and Isabel’s desperate and wild one. Both still have to define themselves, their personality and to decide if they are capable of letting someone get really close (not to their bodies, they already showed they both are capable of THAT) but to their hearts.

I’ve always loved the winter, when the cold reigns, animals move to hibernation and I wrap into a cosy blanket, read a good book, drink hot chocolate and wait for the first snow to fall. After reading Linger, summer can’t come early enough, because I need to see Sam and Grace united again. We are starving for more Grace and Sam so don’t let us wait forever to read the final book!

~ We love this book because... ~

1) of its beautiful idea of paper crane memories

2) of our favourite wolf-musician. There aren’t many wolves able to play a guitar, are there?

3) of its melancholy

4) it shows that even sub-plots can be steamy 

5) it underlines that sometimes parents shouldn’t know every little secret

~ The Verdict ~

Although in Linger four young adults still have to find their positions in life, they’ve already found one in the middle of my heart. You love romances? You love wolves? Then you’ll love Linger aswell!

If you aren’t convinced by now, watch this beautiful Linger book trailer by the creative brain herself and you’ll be!