Review: Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater
The Wolves of Mercy Falls #2
360 Pages
Amazon, Goodreads, Author Website

From Goodreads: 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.


Linger is everything a sequel should be, it continues the story while adding new elements into the mix. The relationship between Grace and Sam is as sweet as ever and I just wish they could be happy, but instead Sam has to deal with the new werewolves from the first book and Grace has some internal issues she hides and bears on her own. I never liked Grace's parents and the way they act in this book actually turned that dislike into extreme dislike. There was a certain air of tension while reading this book, I felt like everything was heading in a sad direction and I just kept hoping it wouldn't be too bad. Cole is a new werewolf who wants to be a wolf so that he may forget his own life, he relishes the mind set he has when he is a wolf and would do anything to stay as one. I could relate to the whole "wanna get away" idea, but at the same time I felt that he had a lot to offer as a human and I wished he could see that too. Isabel really steps her game up in this book and I hope she finds her happiness too, she has a lot to deal with (another set of parents I don't like) and is having some trouble handling it. The book moved at a good pace but again that tension had me wanting to skim (I didn't!) and get to the ending that I knew would be great, and it was. It was hopeful but a bit gloomy, I cannot wait for the conclusion to the trilogy! This book sheds more light on the "wolf virus" that is affecting the main characters. The character that figures it out impressed me. Now I am not rooting for just Grace and Sam, but I am now rooting for Isabel and Cole as well.

I give this book 4 stars!