How does this story end for Sam, Grace, Cole and Isabel?

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

The end of a series is always bitter sweet. I feel like I’m saying goodbye to a sweet friendship that I have come to love over the time that it takes to read the books. I started with Shiver, not knowing anything about it, except that the literary blogging world was going insane talking about it. Every blogger was reading it and loving it. So I picked it up, then I waited for Linger, when it came out, again all the rage on the blogosphere, then I waited again, finally Forever is here.

Grace has now been a wolf for two months. Two months that Sam has not been a wolf. Sam has been under investigation for Grace’s disappearance and maybe even murder. Sam has been walking around trying to act like nothing is wrong, when everyone he has ever known and loved is now a wolf in the woods outside his adopted father’s home. Sam is displaced and going through all of these trials without Grace and Beck. He has Cole, the suicidal rock star who spends all of his waking hours trying to be like his dad the scientist and find a cure for the werewolf issue. Even though Sam did not shift for the first time in 10ish years, he is still is not living without Grace.

Of course this is a book that you have to remove all logic and just read. There is no infection that is acting like malaria and makes you turn into a wolf during the cold months of the year. But, if you can look past that, this is a great story. One of love, passion, friendship, and a world of asking questions even when it hurts and it’s hard to hear the answer.

I have heard many people say that they did not enjoy this book or even the one preceding it (Linger) as much as Shiver the original book. I can appreciate their comments and as a lover of books and literature, I will have to respectfully disagree. The magic of the first book was something of another world. It was magical, it was moving, and it had a beautiful ending. The second book still had the magic, but it didn’t have that spark that the first did because Sam and Grace were already in love and that was what was so great about Shiver, the love story. Now here comes Linger it’s all about figuring out what’s going on, what’s causing this and how can we stop it. Grace has had some of Sam, now she wants it all, marriage, family, everything. I can see why Shiver was everyone’s favorite, but Linger had some great stuff in it and Forever was a great end to the story. The way I see it is that I love these characters. Sam, Grace, Isabel, and Cole all of them have a special place in my heart and I think that is why I have nothing bad thing to say about the books, it’s because I love these fictional friends.

Stiefvater has a way with words that I have been in awe of since Shiver. She uses analogies like they are a long-time friend of hers and they don’t even mind being used by her because of their special relationship. One of my favorite lines is about the middle of the book. Grace has recently shifted back to human and she wakes in Sam’s bedroom before him for the first time ever. She walks to the basement with the coffee pot and looks around Beck’s library and just visually takes in the room. She sees the tidy shelves of books and guesses that there must be over one thousand books in the library and in her head she makes this comment. “I wanted a library like this by the time I was Beck’s age. Not THIS library. A cave of words that I’d made myself. I didn’t know if that would be possible now.” I just think the way Stiefvater words this idea is so beautiful. A cave of words that I’d made myself. It’s a true enough statement. I love inheriting books, but my most precious books are the ones that speak to me and maybe no one else likes them or reads them, but for this time and this place in my life, I loved these words and this book and it spoke volumes to me. I can see what Grace dreams of, a library of her own that she has put together. Love it!

As discussed in the previous Shiver blogs, these books are very emotional for me. I have rolled my eyes, laughed, and cried with every one of the characters. This series takes you on such a rollercoaster ride of emotion in such a short time that I hang on every word.

Well I guess that is the end of this blog. Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. What did you think of the ending? What do you think happened if there would have been one more chapter?

As their world falls apart, love is what lingers. But will it be enough?

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater


Grace and Sam can finally be together without the fear of Sam leaving forever. It’s March, still winter, Sam doesn’t always believe in his cure, but as the story progresses, he wants to for Grace. Grace is happy, not just happy, she’s thrilled to have her winter wolf by her side. Now that she knows that Sam will be with her forever, she starts to have an even less certain picture of what her own future looks like. Cole, the rock star turned werewolf, wants the escape, but he’s phased early and can’t figure out why he can’t just stay a wolf always. Isabel is still messed up over the loss of her brother. She blames herself and can’t shake the feeling that she killed him.

If you read Shiver, you know that it had a dual point of view, Linger has 4 different points of view. I have read that some find it distracting and not as good of a read because of so many characters being intimately involved in the main story line. I disagree, I enjoyed the multiple view points. I liked getting to know Cole and Isabel more intimately, know what they are thinking in the different situations. Isabel is a character that you love to hate and hate to love. I like the character because Grace does. She’s different and doesn’t quite belong to the group. Then here comes Cole, and they have an incredible first encounter, and then it seems they always have unforgettable meetings. Most of them include Cole being naked, not like that of course, because he’s a wolf and the wolves don’t wear clothes. It was nice to know what was going on, the chemistry between the characters from all of the perspectives.

One idea that I find confusing and it runs through both books is whether the wolves have their human brains or not. All of the characters do not remember most things when they are in their wolf form, but there is a string of things that take place that makes me think that before all of this is over, there is going to be some huge revelation about how the brains of the wolfs work. My two examples are, first Jack, Isabel’s brother, knew that Grace knew that he was a wolf. At that time the only confrontation between the characters was while Jack was a wolf, but he told Isabel that Grace knew his secret and where he had been disappearing to. In this book, Isabel confesses something to Cole and he doesn’t think it’s the first time she had told him that bit of information, and he’s right, she told him while he was in wolf form. So, just an interesting thought that may or may not turn into something later as the series progresses.

The last concept that I want to throw out there is the emotions that this book takes you through. I laughed, I wept, cried out in disbelief, I love Maggie Stiefvater! She is an incredible writer. She has a way with words that most authors don’t. She gives me inspiration to write. The emotional journey that she takes the reader on is incredible. First in Shiver, I remember laying the book down on my chest and balling, and again with Linger, I could not stop crying. I couldn’t believe how much power her words had over me. While nearing the end I was very thankful that I’m not one of THOSE people that read the ending of the book first. I had no idea what was going to happen and there were so few pages left. I kept turning and the resolution wasn’t coming… well you’ll just have to read it to find out what happens.

I can’t wait for the next installment! Any thoughts? Have you read this series? Do you want to? Leave me a comment!

Winter Approaches...

Shiver by: Maggie Stiefvater

What does it take? What is the recipe to write an epic romantic novel? What does it take to delve into a story so rich that it changes your very state of being? Is it that the author has never been touched such a love, or is it that they have experienced the deepest love that a person has ever experienced and must share such experiences with the world?

Maggie Stiefvater has reached into the very heart of what is binding and undying for the reader. As an author she has reached down into her very soul and pulled out the purest form of love where nothing else matters, but the oneness of the characters. From the first moment that I opened the front cover I was swept away in the consciousnesses of Grace and Sam. The riveting characters draw the reader into their web from the first sentence. It is a story of love that is in reach but cannot be obtained. Shiver is a simple story with no twists or turns to speak of, but the reader follows the story as Stiefvater leads us down a path of no return.

Grace and Sam have never thought of love as something that they can grasp, Grace has her 2 best friends, her distant parents, and the wolves. Sam has his pack and the girl. When Grace was eleven years old, she was attacked by the wolf pack that lives in the woods behind her house, only to be saved. As she grows up and the wolves are always present in her life, she never realizes what the future will bring. Sam and Grace are meant to be together, but the end is coming. As they struggle to hold on to their love, the past, present and future are always questions in their minds.

The absolute most amazing part of the book was the author’s way of description. I could not believe how riveting the explanation of the smells and sounds and sights that the lovers had for one another and their surroundings. Examples being, “In an overstuffed closet that smelled of stale memories and mothballs, I found a puffy, bright blue jacked that made me looked like a blimp…” The amazing attention to detail had me locked into the story, so much so, that I finished the book within 24 hours.

Another aspect of Stiefvater’s writing that I enjoyed was her character development. It only took her a sentence or two at a time to tell us exactly what was going on with a character. It was great going back and forth between Grace and Sam’s mind, she did that very well.

I happened upon another reader’s blog after finishing the book and I had to strongly disagree with her opinion. The blogger said that she didn’t like the fact that Grace fell for Sam as a wolf before she knew that he could turn into a man. I think that it is the most beautiful aspect of the story that she could fall in love with him in wolf form. There was not a lot of description about how Sam looked, and I believe that it didn’t matter what he looked like to her because she loved his soul. I think that it made the story more beautiful because it was deeper than the physical appearance. I also think that she would have loved him all of her life even if he never turned into a man. It wouldn’t have turned into anything romantic of course, but I think that he would have protected her with his life if anything should have ever tried to harm her. He would be a great protector even if their relationship was nothing physical or human. I believe that it went so much deeper than that.

Plenty of bloggers have said this was one of their favorite books of 2009, what do you think? Do you want to read it? If you have read it, what did you think? Leave a comment below!