The Review You've Been Waiting For....LINGER!!!

Hello my Bloggy Friends,
To start off, I apologize for my continued MIAness. A friend of mine was in town the other day, and I was busy. To make up for it, though, I have a special review for you! And, for the occasion, the review is GREEN!!!


Goodreads Blurb:
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.


My Review:
I was a little tentative to start Linger because of the multiple points of view. As you know, instead of Shiver's two characters-Grace and Sam-we have four; the original two along with Isabel and Cole.

I felt like the plot buildup was a little slow. It started out awesome; I had high expectations. Then something happened that made me really excited, but then it died down again very quickly. The main problem was something wrong with Grace, and I felt like this problem wasn't emphasized as much as it should be. This could be done on-purpose, but I felt like I was ignoring it, just to find out it was the main problem.
Instead, I found myself focusing on Sam and his problem with Cole, which didn't turn out the way I expected it to. Look to the right for a line graph I made on the buildup.
On to Cole. He surprised me. He started off as this obnoxious kid, doing idiotic things and being an overall jerk. But...he was really intelligent. The intelligence doesn't seem to fit with the image I have of him; and I don't like it. It's fun to watch him not be a jerk though, like with Isabel...
Which brings me to the romance. In Shiver, Sam wanted to stay human so he could be with Grace; the romance was a key part of the book. In Linger, I felt like the romance wasn't emphasized like it was supposed to be. There was no "I love you" and only a bit of "I miss you" when Grace and Sam weren't together. There was also very little kissing between the two. This brings us to the Cole-Isabel relationship. I was led to believe that there was something there but...there wasn't.
One of my favorite parts of the book was when Cole showed some of his genius and came up with a theory about the werewolves. It put a whole twist on the generic idea of why werewolves (or at least these werewolves) are the way they are.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading this part.
Overall, I think Shiver was better, but I enjoyed Linger too. I loved the ending, and now I'm dying for Forever. You may have heard "I now have to wait forever for Forever" so I'm going to spare you the cheesy lines. It was good. I look forward to Forever. I'm the type that when I finish a good book, I'm excited for the next because I liked it. But after a while, that initial desire fades a bit and my thoughts change to "I'm excited because I know I liked it." I know that I know that I want it.  After reading Shiver, I felt this way about Linger; the initial desire is slowly fading as I await book 3. I hope you enjoyed the review, and weren't annoyed by the length.


OVERALL RATING: ****/ 4 and a half stars, but because I'm prejudice nice, I'll give it 5.


Peace,
RR


Current Music: Love Drunk by Boys Like Girls (just the chorus. I hate the song.)
Current Mood: Tired, sick again