Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater

From Goodreads,

"found.
Cole St. Clair has come to California for one reason: to get Isabel Culpeper back. She fled from his damaged, drained life, and damaged and drained it even more. He doesn't just want her. He needs her. 

lost. 
Isabel is trying to build herself a life in Los Angeles. It's not really working. She can play the game as well as all the other fakes...but what's the point? What is there to win?

sinner.
Cole and Isabel share a past that never seemed to have a future. They have the power to save each other and the power to tear each other apart. The only thing for certain is that they cannot let go."

Goodreads - Sinner

This journey with the Wolves of Mercy Falls is finally coming to a close.  Sinner is the last book in this series and it is finally time to give it a proper review after reading it.

Sinner takes place in California following the rockstar Cole St.Clair.  Cole is madly in love with Isabel and he is trying to fix his mistakes and win her over.  Isabel is busy trying to create a new life in California while she works at a boutique and goes to school to be a doctor.  Everything is centered around their relationship and if they can finally make it work.

This was the first time that I had read this book and frankly, I wish I hadn't.  I'm not entirely sure why Sinner was included as a part of the Wolves of Mercy Falls series because it had no connections except for the crossover of characters Cole and Isabel.  The entire book is from their rotating perspectives, and Grace and Sam were only briefly mentioned.  I absolutely hated this book.  I really thought there would be strong tie-ins to the original three books, but Cole randomly turned into a wolf to get a sort of high from it.  This book should not have ever been written.

I also hated that this book had no plot.  The plot is all about the roller coaster that the characters and the reader go on.  This book was like being on a merry go round.  It was in a circle with no excitement.  There were no climactic points in the book that made me unable to put the book down.  It was quite the opposite and I struggled to pick it up and read it.  The characters were secondary characters in the main series, and they were forced into being the main characters, but there wasn't enough dimension to them to keep them interesting.  Every aspect of this book was lacking. 

I absolutely hated this book and wish that I hadn't read it.  I also wish I hadn't wasted my money purchasing it.  The book was so flat and boring that it took me two months to read it.  I honestly don't recommend this book, even if you have read the other three in the series.  It is not worth the time and effort.  I give it one sad star because this book was awful. 

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

From Goodreads,

"then.
When Sam met Grace, he was a wolf and she was a girl. Eventually he found a way to become a boy, and their love moved from curious distance to the intense closeness of shared lives.

now.
That should have been the end of their story. But Grace was not meant to stay human. Now she is the wolf. And the wolves of Mercy Falls are about to be killed in one final, spectacular hunt.

forever.
Sam would do anything for Grace. But can one boy and one love really change a hostile, predatory world? The past, the present, and the future are about to collide in one pure moment--a moment of death or life, farewell or forever."

Goodreads - Forever

Awards and Nominations:

• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2011)
• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Favorite Book (2011)
• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Goodreads Author (2011)

Welcome back to a third week with the wolves of Mercy Falls.  I read through the first two books fairly quickly, but I really struggled with this book.  It took me exactly a month to get through it and finally say that I was done.  That being said, let's move forward into the review part of this post.

Forever picks up with Grace as a wolf in the woods and with Sam as a human in Beck's house.  Sam soon finds out that the wolves will officially be hunted and killed by helicopter.  Sam must work with Cole and Isabel to figure out a way to save the wolves, especially Grace. 

This book moved very slowly for me.  It took a lot of willpower and forcing myself to finish it.  I felt like this book was thrown together at the last minute.  The chapters felt choppy and scattered.  I also felt like there wasn't a solid plot to this book, and trust me when I say I know plot.  Books need to have up and down movements.  Things to excite the reader and keep them reading.  Things that will keep hurtling the reader toward a fantastic finale.  This book just puttered along until it finally reached the hunt on the wolves.  Everything before that was completely anticlimactic. 

Aside from the book being terribly boring, I felt like there was too much focus on Isabel and Cole and not enough on the main characters Sam and Grace.  Shiver started with the love story between Sam and Grace and continued into Linger.  Linger really introduced Isabel and Cole into the series, and it was a perfect balance between all the characters.  However, I feel that Forever should have focused on Sam and Grace and what their forever meant.  Unfortunately, I read a lot about Isabel and Cole and their strange love-hate relationship.  I felt like Sam and Grace were somewhat put on the backburner.  I definitely feel like Stiefvater set this book up this way so that she could lead into the next book Sinner, which focuses on Cole and Isabel. 

Overall, I was really disappointed with this book.  I remember reading this book and absolutely loving the series.  I actually went back and looked at my past star rating on Goodreads and I gave it a whopping 5 stars.  Unfortunately, I just can't do that.  I have to give this 2 sad stars.  The book was a huge letdown and disappoint.  I feel like it didn't properly conclude the storyline with Sam and Grace.  

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

From Goodreads,

"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 a human. 

the linger.

For Grace, Sam, and Cole, life 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?"

Goodreads - Linger

Awards and Nominations:

• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fantasy (2010)
• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Favorite Book (2010)
• Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Goodreads Author (2010)

Welcome back, everyone!  Last week I reviewed the book Shiver, which is the first book of the Wolves of Mercy Falls series.  This week I am moving forward to review the second book Linger.

Linger picks up where Shiver left off.  We find out that Sam has finally beat the dreaded werewolf curse and Grace is as happy as ever.  Things start slowly spiraling as Grace starts coming down with a "bug".  It starts as headaches and spins into raging fevers.  Sam hates he can't fix what is wrong with Grace, but he decides he must try.  With the help of Isabel and the new wolf Cole, they decide to try to figure out what is wrong.

I have found that most "middle child" books or the second in a trilogy, are kind of terrible.  This book definitely fell into that middle child mold where it didn't leave a great vibe or resonate with me.  The story moved very slowly for this book.  I also didn't like that the book was told from.  The first book was from the perspective of Sam and Grace.  This book was told from Sam, Grace, Isabel, and Cole.  It felt like there were way too many voices trying to be heard.  Also, the fact that they switched characters in the middle of a chapter made it somewhat frustrating as well.  I don't remember being so irritated when I read it the first time, but maybe it is because I'm older and my reading preferences have changed.

While there were a lot of minor problems that added up to a general dislike, there was a quote in the book that really made me stop and think.

"She'd told me once that you could completely psychoanalyze someone on the sort of books they read."

This really got me to thinking about the books that I read and what it says about me.  I read a LOT of books.  I have shelves and shelves of books and a couple boxes full.  I have some books that are autobiographies.  I have books that are award winners.  I have a lot of books ideal for middle school-aged kids.  I have books that vary on topics from death to mental illness to adventure to dystopian.  So what does all of that say about me?  I honestly feel like my book choices vary so much that it would be hard to analyze me.  If anything it would show that I love to read.  But I also started thinking about students that I have had and how I could understand them better when I knew what kind of books they liked.  Knowing what books someone reads will really give you some insight as to who they are.

This book was just okay in my book.  It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't fantastic.  It was as I mentioned before, the middle child in this trilogy.  This book continues the trilogy so I definitely recommend it if you have read the first book.  I have to give it 3 stars.  

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

From Goodreads,

"For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without.

Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human… until the cold makes him shift back again.

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human—or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever."

Goodreads - Shiver

Awards and Nominations:

• Georgia Peach Book Award (2010)
• Children's Choice Book Award Nominee for Teen Choice Book of the Year (2010)
• Florida Teens Read Nominee (2010)
• Teen Read Award Nominee for Best Read (2010)
• The Inky Awards for Silver Inky (2010)
• The Inky Awards Shortlist for Silver Inky (2010)
• Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award Nominee (2011)
• Lincoln Award Nominee (2012)
• Missouri Gateway Readers Award Nominee (2012)

Rereading a book or series always makes me a little nostalgic.  It makes me think about when I first read it and how I have changed.  This book definitely brought back some memories, especially since I read this book when I was in high school.  I remember we received this book in library club just a year or two after the Twilight saga had concluded.  Everyone was still on that vampire and werewolf high.  While I enjoyed the Twilight saga I found this book and the rest of the series more intriguing and enthralling.  

Shiver is a book told from two perspectives.  One is from the human girl named Grace who was bitten by a wolf as a child.  The other perspective is told by Sam who is torn between being a human when it's warm and being a wolf when the temperature drops.  The two have a connection that goes back to the day that Grace was bitten.  The longing question is whether they can be together when they live in two different worlds of being a human and being a wolf.  

Rereading this book was an experience.  There were parts that I remembered, but a lot that I didn't.  One of the things that I didn't remember was how quickly the relationship between Sam and Grace progressed.  I feel like ten years ago I was all heart-eyed and thinking this was what love was all about.  But now?  Now I'm just unsettled at how quickly they progressed and they were hooking up.  Grace, of course, had seen Sam as a wolf for years, but never knew him as a human until he showed up at her house after being shot.  Grace was just madly in love with him despite knowing NOTHING about him.  That was bothersome.  "Love" doesn't work like that.  You don't just lay eyes on a human and think "We're going to be soulmates for forever."  You have to get to know that person and learn about them.  You don't just decide like Grace did.  The fixation was very unsettling and I think the progression of their relationship was just too quick.  

While I hated the quick and strange relationship that formed between Grace and Sam, I was extremely pleased with the way this story was written.  The story went between Grace and Sam.  I liked having both sides of this story because I was able to understand what both characters were feeling and dealing with.  Most books like this do an even balance and go back and forth every chapter, but Stiefvater opted not to.  Instead, the chapters could be told by Sam for a while and then it would switch to Grace.  Whichever character had the more important role and thoughts in the story is the one that got to tell the chapter.  I just felt it was a good way to give the reader the full picture. 

I really enjoyed rereading this book even if I was disturbed by their speedy relations.  While I was updating my progress on Goodreads I realized that a LOT of people despise this book and thought it was terrible.  I, of course, don't know their reasoning, but I really enjoyed it and have to give it 5 stars.  If you enjoyed Twilight you will probably enjoy this, especially if you liked the werewolf part of it.