Forever by Maggie Steifvater

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: July 12th 2011
Publisher: Scholastic Inc
Add it: Goodreads
Overall:  ♥♥♥

This is going to be an incredibly difficult review.

Shiver had me interested, however it wasn't my favourite, Linger was even better and again, Maggie had me a snivelling wreck throughout the book. As for Forever? Oh, I wanted to love it, I really really did. There were bits I loved but honestly, my emotions were ALL OVER THE PLACE whilst reading that I just can't love it the way I loved Linger especially.

Forever explores Isabel's and Cole's relationship, this really pleased me because Isabel and Cole are two of my favourite literary characters ever. They're both just so messed up in the head and real that I can't help but want the two to hurry up and be in a relationship. I was once again impressed with Isabel's character, due to the fact that she actually gave a shit that her brother died. In alot of YA novels, a character's family member or friend may die, and said character then finds true love and forgets all about their lost loved one. This seriously pisses me off and I'm so so glad that even though Isabel's feelings for Cole were blossoming, she didn't forget the fact that she just happened to lose her brother a few months earlier. Her inner dialogue really made me sympathise with her because in reality, which Wolves of Mercy Falls manages to portray, this very real depression happens.

As for Cole, I really grew to love Cole. His presence sort of annoyed me in Linger because I didn't know why he was even in the story and I thought that he was just added as a balm for Isabel's pain. However, Cole proved to be extremely intelligent and emotional in this installment and reminded me of many guys I know - not the whole rockstar thing, but the hiding the true emotion thing.

In regards to Grace and Sam's relationship. I was disappointed. If you happened to turn into a wolf and hadn't seen your love for months on end, would you not be DESPERATE to find them? I mean, I know Grace was a wolf and wolves forget their human memories and feelings and all that jazz but AFTER SHE TURNS BACK INTO A HUMAN, she FORGETS his name. WTF. She redeemed herself in my eyes when she finally went off her face at her dimwitted parents - her father in particular. As for Sam, well, if you've read my reviews of Shiver or Linger on Goodreads (or in the review archive) you will know how much of a Sam fangirl I am. That hasn't changed.

This installment took me an incredible amount of time to get into, I was over halfway the book when last night, I decided I was going to finished this series and because I found myself more invested in the book then I had the last couple of days. I  stayed up until 3 AM. The ball finally started rolling and I finally started to really get into this installment. When the ball started rolling, the tears started to flow. **SPOILER**Beck and Sam's conversation was heartbreaking and this quote undone me... "And it that split second, as Beck's face turned toward the ceiling, his eyes unchanging, I saw my own face". Really, this entire scene had me in tears, but that last sentence made me BAWL. **SPOILER ENDED**. At one point, after Cole was done waiting for the wolves to come and when he saw Sam and Shelby, I went crazy. These last few chapters had my emotions swinging one way to the other and I had emotional whiplash. One minute I was crying, then I was happy, the next minute I was angry at Maggie for ONE particular scene involving Cole, Shelby and Beck. After said particular scene, I felt numb and angry. I didn't even cry when I normally would have because I was in shock. THEN Maggie pulls another stunt, which made me happy again.

The entire second half of this installment had me going nuts with emotion and then, it just ended. Just like that. I was so so incredibly disappointed and I was extremely upset with the way it ended, because it didn't leave me with any closure, it just left me wondering if I had a dodgy copy and if pages were missing. I mean, I STAYED UP UNTIL 3AM FOR IT TO END LIKE THAT?. Due to that, and the slow beginning, it really pains me to give this a three star rating because if it ended differently, this series could have easily been up there with some of my other favourites. I'm afraid I can't say that anymore.

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: July 13th 2010
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Add it: Goodreads
Overall:  ♥♥♥♥♥

Let me just begin with by saying HOW FREAKING AWESOME IS THE GREEN PRINT?? And there is red print in the final book :D hahaha! Thankyou Jordon for buying this wonderful hardcover set for me :)
At first I wasn’t sure I would enjoy this book. I thought it was going to be similar to the first, just another paranormal love story but I loved it! It did take me awhile to actually get into the book in the first place, but I think this has more to do with the fact I’ve been majorly busy these past few days rather than not actually enjoying the book.

Ms. Stiefvater has done it again. She has made me a blubbering mess after I’ve finished reading. This is not good in this case as I’m writing this review on a 7 hour train ride home full of strangers and I’m REALLY freaking tired – I don’t appreciate getting up at 6.00am :| ugh.

So I’m not really sure as to how I should start this review… I’m not going to attempt to summarise the plot at all because I’ll just give everything away. SO. When I first started reading this I wasn’t sure what to expect because I was quite prepared for another “OMG I LUV YOOH” book about Grace and Sam. I mean I love Sam, and I love Grace but come on people! I was pleasantly surprised to find out I was wrong and to find out that a new wolf named Cole has been added to the mix in a non-love triangle way! Oh god! I loved this! I loved the fact that Cole and Grace didn’t even meet until the last 50 pages or whatever! I also loved that this book had four different prespectives and I love that Grace and Isabel are basically besties instead of Grace being all “zomg she is pretty and popular so she is evil” because you know what? Sometimes people from different groups in school are friends! THANKYOU Maggie for kicking this YA cliché in the gut!

Isabel is one of my new favourites; in fact I think I even prefer her over Grace (and my heart bleeds for Grace in this book, hence the blubbering messiness....). I found Isabel to be real and I really sympathised with her from her loss in the previous book, I'm so glad that Jack's loss is acknowledged and mourned. Maggie already started developing her character in the first book and I could tell that she planned everything for this series. Even little details from the first book are dropped in the second instalment. Cole being the main little detail! Cole was awesome, I loved how real he was – well as real as you can get for a rockstar turned Werewolf – and I loved his and Isabel’s relationship and how the two grew together throughout the book. Cole is basically an arrogant, selfish asshole and he knows it dammit! He is a bad boy through and through and I appreciate this. Thankyou Maggie for creating a bad boy that is not actually a wuss or secretly on the side of good or whatever.

I still love Grace and I still love Sam. Wait, no. I take that back. I love them MORE than the last book. If I met Sam I would fall at his feet. I am a fangirl for Sam. Also, I love Grace. They are both simply awesome. End of!

I felt all of the characters did some growing up in this instalment – apart from Grace’s parents because they’re idiots through and through in my opinion – Although Isabel told Sam to grow up in this one, I felt he had grown up more since the first one and his and Grace’s situation broke my heart.
*SPOILER!!*I want a REAL cure dammit! I feel for you Sam. I do! You poor poetic soul!!!*SPOILER ENDED*

I am definitely going to read Forever and I’m absolutely itching to find out what happens but it’s going to have to wait a few days because the latest instalment of The Last Vampire is waiting patiently (more like screaming READ ME. I’M HERE. READ ME!!)  and I’ll probably be done with that by the time this train arrives home or by tomorrow night. THEN I’ll start Forever :)

Something I love about Cole… (Sam’s POV)
“He looked back over his shoulder at Mr. Brisbane, who was looking at me with a complicated expression as I left. Cole pointed at him and said, “YOU’RE a son of a bitch. He belongs here more than you do.”

YEAH. Mr. Brisbane you ignorant man, take THAT!

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Release Date: August 1st 2009
Publisher: Scholastic Inc
Add it: Goodreads
Overall:  ♥♥♥♥

Alrighty, let me start off with a few things. I've read some reviews that either LOVE this book or HATE it. And generally every single review on Goodreads seems to think this is a Twilight ripoff. No, it is not a goddamn Twilight ripoff just because it is a paranormal romance. There are gazillions of books that have apparently ripped off Twilight when really, everybody only compares books to Twilight because it's easy and it was, and still is, extremely popular. ANYWAY, this is obviously a paranormal romance and I thought it was beautiful.

Grace was attacked by a pack of wolves when she was 11 years old, but one of the wolves, with his amazing yellow eyes helped her. Throughout the years that follow, every winter, Grace watches the wolf and the wolf watches her. A boy from Grace's school dies and Grace finds that the wolf she's watched all those years, has been shot and is laying helpless on the edge of her backyard and the woods, his name is Sam and his time as a human may run out soon. Shiver alternates between Grace and Sam's point of view which I found really refreshing because I like different POVs.

I found myself getting a tad bored in the middle of this book and I began wondering whether anything was actually going to happen. I mean, yes, the romance between Grace and Sam was one of the most beautiful I've come across in paranormal romance but there was nothing happening for a long while. Maggie's writing was incredible, the words jumped out at me and I found myself immersed in the world of Mercy Falls. How the temperature was described (which is a major component in this book) was amazing, you could feel the cold and could really picture the snow and the wind. Whilst I found some plot points pretty predictable, it didn't damage the book for me and I still found it beautiful and sad when my suspicions were confirmed.

To begin, I found our main protagonist, Grace, a little boring and dull but then as I delved further into the story, the more interesting and real she became. She had a personality, she had a hobby, she wasn't arrogant, she didn't describe what she looked like in great detail, she was intelligent and she read books! If you ignore the fact that she was in love with the wolf before she met the man behind the wolf (beastiality?), she is an extremely easy protagonist to love.

SAM. Sam, Sam, Sam. I love Sam. Why have I been falling in love with all of these boys in books all of a sudden? I shouldn't really be complaining though, I enjoy reading good books, I really do... Moving on, to everybody who thinks Sam is like Edward Cullen, I'm sorry but I have to disagree. Sam was incredibly sweet, somewhat vulnerable and intelligent. The story about him and his parents broke my heart and I loved how Maggie weaved this backstory into how Sam thinks, acts and feels in general. Sam's song lyrics sort of freaked me out for a little bit, but it grew on me. I mean, I can't really complain because *Fun Fact!* everything I do or talk about generally triggers a song of somesort in my head and then I randomly start singing, and I really can't sing. Everytime I read about Sam's time running out I got teary eyed and when Sam and Grace were apart toward the end of the book, I was also teary eyed (why is this happening so often lately?).

I've already mentioned that Ms. Stiefvater's writing is gorgeous and there are some scenes that I adored, I loved the sex scene in particular, I thought that was incredibly well done, I also loved it when Sam took Grace to the candy store, it made me think of the sweet shop here because it was so well described, I could smell the damn sweets. Finally, the way that Grace and Sam found eachother again made me cry... it was just so beautiful and personal. The ending in particular seriously touched me.

Overall, whilst this was generally a typical paranormal romance and some parts were boring, I loved the characters and I loved the ending. I would definitely recommend this to those who haven't read it yet!

One of my favourite moments....

"Oh my god, what is that?" .............

"In my language, we call it a hat. It keeps my ears warm."
"Oh my god," Sam said again, and closed the distance between us. He cupped my face in his hands and studied me. "It's horribly cute." He kissed me, looked at the hat, and then kissed me again."

Isn't that horribly cute! 

However....

"I nuzzled my face into his armpit. It smelled very Sam in there."

 ...freaked me out a tad.