Linger (Book 2, The Wolves of Mercy Falls)
Maggie Stiefvater

“This is the story of a boy who used to be a wolf and a girl who was becoming one. Just a few months ago, it was Sam who was the mythical creature. But now it is spring. With the heat, the remaining wolves will soon be falling out of their wolf pelts and back into their human bodies…”

Grace and Sam are finally together, both human, after Sam is cured. Sam still feels vulnerable being human, and is struggling to adjust to his new body and the idea of being head of the human pack. Grace is friends with Isabel, and dealing with her parent’s sudden interest in her life. Plus, one of Beck’s “recruits”, a wolf named Cole, is causing trouble.

My expectations for this book were SO high because I loved Shiver so much (I still say it’s the most romantic book I’ve ever read). As much as you want Sam and Grace to be ok, a sequel where everything is happy would be boring.

I kept thinking of The Empire Strikes Back. Because this is the second story of a trilogy, and you just know something bad is going to happen to one of the characters you love and you’re just dreading it. But what you think is going to happen doesn’t exactly happen like you thought it would and you’re left thinking “oh holy crap!” When is Forever coming out again?

We see Grace and Sam apart more this time around, because of the way life is pulling at them. There are still those beautiful moments that prove how much Grace and Sam love each other, need each other, without being over the top, but there is so much more going on this time around. Cole and Isabel both narrate as well.

I didn’t enjoy this as much as Shiver, but I think that has more to do with not liking seeing these characters suffer. I did love seeing them grow, and will be re-reading it again very soon. My only real caveat was I wanted to hear more about how the rest of the wolves were doing. There isn’t as much wolf-brain action in this one, and there was one wolf in particular (who I won’t mention for spoiler reasons) that I really wanted to see more of.

Overall, this is the perfect sequel; it has everything that’s great about the first one, taken to another level.

P.S. According to Maggie (via her blog) Sam actually sings on the audio book. Just thought you might want to know 🙂