The Bursting Bookshelf

Review:
Well, I finished this series. After planning on giving up, I won a signed copy of Forever. I decided to just finish the series off to be able to say I had and also to see where Sam and Grace's relationship finally went. I am pleased to say that I did enjoy this book more than the previous two by a ton. Character-wise, I enjoyed Cole the most, with Isabel being a close runner up. Cole was intelligent, defying the celebrity stereotype and making a real difference to the characters in the book and the plot. Isabel was my second favorite because she wasn't afraid to say what was on her mind, and she was much more relate-able to me than Grace has ever been. Speaking of Grace and Sam, this time 'round, their relationship made more sense to me. The love felt more mutual than before, but ironically, I didn't like Cole and Isabel's even when I enjoyed their characters more. Between Cole and Isabel, I found the relationship, not just romantic, to not gain much ground or work very well. In terms of other characters, I would have liked to see more variety, but overall I was fairly satisfied with those involved.

The story was my favorite part of this book, there was true danger and a timeline to escape. This created suspense and kept me flicking the pages to see how it all would end. As well, the fact that the multiple points of view really worked was a benefit. The writing style Maggie has is a very interesting one that describes everything in crystal clear detail. Altogether, this was a book that I would recommend to fans of the series or Maggie Steifvater. The conclusion will not disappoint fans of the series, a mix of cliffhanger and happy ending. I give Forever a 4/5 for being a great finale to the Wolves of Mercy Falls series.

Title: Linger
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Release: July 13, 2010
Rating: 3/5
Pages: 362
Series: Wolves of Mercy Falls #2
Synopsis:
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 Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.


Review:
Linger is the sequel to Shiver. Shiver was OK and I wanted to know what happened next so I picked up Linger right away. I started Linger. I read 18 pages. I stopped Linger. I went back two months later to finish it and did so successfully. And that's my story of how I got Linger.

The cover of Linger is my favorite part of the whole book. It's following the same theme as the first with the all green colour scheme in the text inside and on the cover, but the cover has a slightly different picture. I really like the font for the title that's used, as I said about Shiver. I also like the little blood splat that dots the 'i' of the title. It also stays consistent with the first book in that way as well.

The writing in this book, and the first one for that matter, are just too poetic and lyrical for my tastes. I really didn't care for the way that Sam was always coming up with bits and pieces of songs about Grace all the time. It just threw me off a little bit and I didn't really care for it that much. That kind of writing is actually one of my least favorites unfortunately. I really have never cared for poetry at all and this book was getting a little too close to poetry for my liking. But the story in this book was interesting and it does make me want to read the last book, Forever, when it comes out. And the ending really was something. It built up from the start of the book just to have a cliffhanger of equal value to the one at the end of Shiver.

The characters in this book did stay pretty much the same as how they were in the first book other than some growth in relationships and introducing of new characters. Though this story was told from four different points of view instead of the two that were used in Shiver. At times the multiple points of view did make the story a little choppy, but for the most part it didn't really take away from the story all that much.

So overall the cover and the storyline were my favorite parts of this book. I will be reading Forever when it comes out but until then, linger got a 3/5 in my opinion.

This week for WoW I have chosen...

Title: Shiver
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher: Scholastic
Rating: 3.5/5
Release: August 1, 2009
Pages: 390
Series: The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1
Synopsis:
For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf - her wolf - is a haunting 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 and the temperature drops, Sam must fight to stay human or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

Review:
Yes, it's about werewolves. I just thought I should put that out there now so that those of you with an opposition to werewolves because you're 'Team Edward' can leave. Now that you know that (if you couldn't guess from the summary :P) we can get on with the review.

Sam was only OK to me. As a love interest, I feel that the reader should understand the attraction to another character. I didn't understand why Grace liked him at all. He watched her get attacked and bitten by his own pack and then he shows up and everything is just perfect. I mean she watched for him every night out of her window in the winter and I felt she did it for the wrong reason. If it had been me, I would have watched in fear, not in curiosity. That brings us to Grace. I just couldn't relate with her. She was very no-nonsense it stated how she didn't like fiction because it was too unreal. When I read, I really like to be able to relate to the main character, if I can't it greatly takes away from my reading experience.

If you guys haven't noticed, I buy books for their covers a lot of the time. I don't like to read a book that I don't like the cover of because it kind of ruins it for me. Especially if the main character is on a cover and I don't like it, that will drive me nuts. But that wasn't the case with these books. I just love the covers! They are simple yet they say a lot. And the coolest part is that each book is printed in their respective colours! Meaning Shiver is printed all in blue ink and Linger is printed all in green ink. And I'll bet that Forever will be printed in red-ish ink too. I really like the uniqueness that printing the book in colour gives it. The thing that threw me off on this cover, was that the title reminds me a lot of the Twilight font. See just look at it. It does doesn't it? Yes, I so told you so.

In this book, I felt like it was just a cute read and nothing really serious. It didn't stand out from a lot of other books. Just the whole forbidden love thing going on and it's a small town and all. Just really rung some bells. I really didn't mind the story at all, it was only the characters weren't my favorite ever, but they weren't the worst I've ever read either.

And so overall, this book was pretty good. I liked the story line and the pace it was set at. That's why this book get's a 3.5/5.