Review by Lauren - Linger

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

First Impressions: I was beyond excited. I love Maggie Stiefvater's novels, and have been waiting for Linger since Shiver first came out.

In Linger, Grace and Sam's roles seem to switch places. Grace grows continuously sicker as Sam tries to find her a cure while at the same time trying to take care of the new wolves that phase back into humans as the weather grows warmer. Two new perspectives are added to the mix; Isabel, who plays a bigger role in Linger than in Shiver, and Cole, one of the new wolves with a troubled past he's trying to escape in his wolf form.

As much as I enjoyed Linger, it doesn't quite have the same effect on me as Shiver did. I read some things about people getting confused over the added narratives by Isabel and Cole, but I actually really enjoyed their perspectives, especially Cole's. It helped me understand them a lot better as characters in a way that wouldn't have been possible had they only been seen through Grace and Sam's perspectives. Cole was probably my favorite in this story, and I loved his inner dilemna and personality.

One thing I really missed in Linger - and it is kindof embarrassing and I hate to admit it - were all the... uh... intimate moments between Sam and Grace. There were, of course, plenty of adorable moments between the two of them, but I still was looking for a bit more. There was intensity, but a slight lack in passion... Grace and Sam's relationship was still great in this book, and I still love how cute they are together, but I wanted a little bit of heat :p

Final Impressions: Linger was adorable, but it felt more like a filler novel to me with quite a few unresolved issues at the end of it. It wasn't too much of a disappointment for me though, seeing as it is a trilogy (right?) and the second book usually has that kind of format to it. Great writing once again by Maggie, who remains probably my favorite author at the moment, and I cannot wait for the final book!