Linger- Maggie Stiefvater

So … Linger has the opposite effect on me that Shiver did. I had been dying to read Shiver for months prior to its release, and then I started to hear a ton of hype about it, but one thing or another kept me from reading it until January of this year. I loved it, of course, but I couldn’t help by be a tiny-wee bit disappointed that it didn’t quite live up to all my expectations. If I’m really being honest here, I had built it up for so long in my head that it was probably impossible for it to do so. Then, when a few friends read ARCs of Linger I heard great things immediately, but also that it was “quieter” and a little slower, yet awesome in its own way. So, my expectations were lower. I knew it would be a great read, but I didn’t expect to be totally drawn into it.

Boy was I wrong. I got sucked in from page 1 and flew through it. The writing is gorgeous of course; the old characters and story lines are continued seamlessly and the new characters and their stories are introduced wonderfully. I LOVE the alternating POVs… oh and I love Cole.

The relationship between Sam and Grace is so super intense that I ached with them and really, really believed it. I loved getting to see the flaws each character had and just enjoyed reading about their relationship as they grow-up together. Some of my favorite parts of the book are just of Sam and Grace “being” together.

And Cole. Did I mention that I love him? I did? But seriously… for some reason I really wanted to hate him, but in the end I just loved him too much. And I just felt really, really bad for him the whole way through. Yet again, I fall for the tortured bad guy.

The book did end up in the direction I kind of assumed it would, but it was still great to go along for the ride and see how it ended up there. And I’m definitely looking forward to Forever. I want some closure for all the characters that I’ve grown to love.

All-in-all, a great story that was everything I wanted for this sequal…. and then some.