Book Review: Forever by Maggie Stiefvater

No, no, noooooooo! Why, Maggie Stiefvater, WHY? I need more than a trilogy. I NEED more of Sam, Grace, Cole and Isabel and you tell me that I'll never get it? My dearest wolves of Mercy Falls what a great journey this has been. I love you, always!

Will it last forever, or not?
Cover:  © Scholastic Press, Inc.

Moping about
Excuse me for throwing a fit like a four year old but I'm just so sad to be leaving these fictional characters I've come to grow so fond of. Isabel, Cole, Sam and Grace all got under my skin. Thank heavens above that I yet have several more of Maggies books to read(like THE RAVEN BOYS thanks to The Norwegian Book Girl).

Not much of a review
To be honest this is not much of a review, this is just a "I love and loathe(not really!) you, Maggie", post.I have ambivalent feelings about the ending of this series, it was both perfect and annoying at the same time. In all honesty I love Maggie Stiefvater's writing and the trilogy couldn't have ended any other way.

This is how I picture Sam, Ulrik, Beck, Paul and the other wolves in the winter.
Photo: © Douglas Smith, National Park Service/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region/Flickr.

Reasons why I fell in love:
1. The language - Maggie you're a very talented writer and you know your way with words like Patrick  Rothfuss and Laini Taylor to name a few other master wordsmiths.
2. The character development - the characters change in a pace that feels so natural.
3. The story - oh so bittersweet.

By way of ending this little "nothing but a fangirling review" I'll leave you with a quote from Sam helping a customer in the bookstore looking for a self-help novel:

…I would have told her that every book ever written was a self-help book and could she be more specific?

How can this not make you love Sam(and Maggie Stiefvater)?

Have you read this trilogy, loved it, hated it or something in between? Leave your two cents in the comments below.

 

Memorable Monday - GIVEAWAY of The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater.

Welcome to a special edition of Memorable Monday where there will be a giveaway included! Join us this Monday and get the chance to win The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy(Shiver, Linger and Forever) by Maggie Stiefvater.  You can enter by participating in this Meme until Sunday, May 27th. The winner will be announced in Memorable Monday next week. This is a international giveaway.

 

Why am I giving away this trilogy? I've just devoured Linger and pressed play on Forever just moments after. I like these books A LOT and I feel they deserve a special spot in my Memorable Monday meme. Maggie Stiefvater writes in the most wonderful magical way and her books are full of quoteable passages.
I've been busy lately so both blog and fellow bloggers have been a bit neglected, but I guess that's what you call the real life ;) So I'm also trying to give a little something back Can't wait to read your Memorable quote this week!

“People shouldn't have to earn kindness. They should have to earn cruelty.”

“Are you high? Why are you never wearing a shirt?"

"I sleep naked," Cole said. He put both milk and sugar in my coffee. "As the day goes on, I put on more and more clothing. You should've come over an hour ago.”

I would love for you to join me with a Memorable Monday quote (or quotes) post of your own.

I don't care what anyone else says about Cole St.Clair, I LOVE him <3

Now it's your turn to add your MM link here:




Want to know more about this meme?
Just read this post. The short and easy guide? I started this meme because I was tired of memes telling me what page I should look up a quote from or just picking one from a random page. I wanted to share quotes that I really enjoyed. Want to join? Just write a blog post where you share a quote that you like, come back here and leave a link in the inlinkz widget below.

 

Book review: Linger(Wolves of Mercy Falls #2) by Maggie Stiefvater

Maggie Stiefvater writes lovely YA paranormal romance. That being said what really stands out for me is the excellent way Stiefvater writes; it's magic, poetic, heartbreaking and I didn't want it to stop. Welcome back to Mercy Falls. If you haven't yet read Shiver then I strongly suggest you skip this review and take a look at my review of Shiver instead. It's difficult to review this second installment without major spoilers from the first one.

Sam and Grace are planning their future together, life is good but soon enough there's trouble in paradise. One of the new wolves shifts back into its human form brining unexpected danger to the rest of the pack. Even more disturbing than the new wolf is the discovery of a dead wolf on the Culpepper property.

My thoughts: 
Maggie Stiefvater is a gifted writer but not only that; she is also a wonderful painter and writer of music. I listened to the audiobook version of Linger and at the very end the combination of Stiefvater's words and music brought tears to my eyes. The music gave the writing another level of depth.

Here is an example of how Maggie Stiefvater instead of saying just unattractive can convey that to her readers in a very interesting way(those doing my Memorable Monday Meme will remember this quote):

The door opened, revealing another Labrador, this one very much alive, and a twenty-something girl with a red bandanna tied around her head. She was so interesting-looking and unpretty that she actually traveled through ugly to someplace on the other side that was almost as good as pretty: huge, beaked nose, sleepy-looking dark brown eyes, and sharp cheekbones. Her black hair was pulled up in a half a-dozen interconnected braids coiled on top of her head, like a Mediterranean Princess Leia. 

For me the story in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy is about how precious life is. How you should treasure every moment with your loved ones and hold on to the good memories. Now I'm pretty sure none of us will ever experience having a boyfriend or a girlfriend turned into a wolf, but the wolf part can be used as a metaphor for a lot of other things.

Now for the characters; as much as I like Sam and Grace I'm sorry to say that they lose the battle for my attention to Isabel and Cole. I'm guessing that if you've read these books you know that all of Stiefvater's characters have serious issues with their families. Sam's background might be a bit to tragic and heartbreaking for me to really buy into his story and if I was Grace I would have acted out a lot more at home. So I guess I can easier relate to, at least, Isabel, without ever having been much of the rebel myself. Cole on the other hand I just like why I'm not even sure I could tell you. He's been quite the annoying type, but he had his reasons for it.

I would characterize this story as character driven. You connect with the characters on such a deep level that you don't need a neck-breaking adventure on how they're going to stop the sky falling down on their heads.

My rating of this novel:

/

Source:
Audiobook purchased from Audible.

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and on-line book stores such as Amazon and The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store does by the way have free shipping to about 100 countries.

Memorable Monday # - Linger by Maggie Stiefvater.

Welcome yet another Memorable Monday! This meme is all about sharing a quote that you've chosen yourself, a quote that for one reason or another spoke to you.

My quote this week is from Linger by Maggie Stiefvater, the second installment in the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy. I cannot believe how long I've waited to pick up this one. I very much enjoyed Shiver, but after a time I wasn't really sure if I loved it as much as I initially thought I did. Or if my love was affected by all the buzz by other bloggers and that it had made me blind to the weaknesses in the story. Well I must be a complete idiot for doubting my initial thoughts or Linger is even better than Shiver. Cause' let me tell you that this is all good. The quote I've chose today, I feel, says a lot about Maggie's writing skills. To describe a person like that takes skills I say, Maggie Stiefvater sure knows how to show instead of telling.

The door opened, revealing another Labrador, this one very much alive, and a twenty-something girl with a red bandanna tied around her head. She was so interesting-looking and unpretty that she actually traveled through ugly to someplace on the other side that was almost as good as pretty: huge, beaked nose, sleepy-looking dark brown eyes, and sharp cheekbones. Her black hair was pulled up in a half a-dozen interconnected braids coiled on top of her head, like a Mediterranean Princess Leia.

I would love for you to join me with a Memorable Monday quote(or quotes)post of your own.





Want to know more about this meme? Just read this post. The short and easy guide? I started this meme because I was tired of memes telling me what page I should look up a quote from or just picking one from a random page. I wanted to share quotes that I really enjoyed. Want to join? Just write a blog post where you share a quote that you like, come back here and leave a link in the inlinkz widget below.

News: New series from Maggie Stiefvater! The Raven Cycle

Author Maggie Stiefvater (yes, you know her! Author of The Wolves of Mercy Falls series and The Scorpio Races) recently announced that she will be publishing another young adult novel in September! The book is titled The Raven Boys and it will be the first of four books in The Raven Cycle.

Check out the brilliant cover and synopsis below!

Filled with mystery, romance, and the supernatural, The Raven Boys introduces readers to Richard “Dick” Campbell Gansey, III and Blue Sargent. Gansey has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on the hunt to find Glendower, a vanished Welsh king. Legend has it that the first person to find him will be granted a wish—either by seeing him open his eyes, or by cutting out his heart.

Blue Sargent, the daughter of the town psychic in Henrietta, Virginia, has been told for as long as she can remember that if she ever kisses her true love, he will die. But she is too practical to believe in things like true love. Her policy is to stay away from the rich boys at the prestigious Aglionby Academy. The boys there—known as Raven Boys—can only mean trouble. When Gansey and his Raven Boy friends come into her life, Blue realizes how true this is. She never thought her fortune would be a problem. But she was wrong.

The book will be published by Scholastic Press September 18th this year. Read all about it over at Maggie Stiefvater's blog.

Book Review: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

My thoughts:
I seem to be one of the few who didn't actually like Maggie Stiefvater's The Wolves of Mercy Falls, but since my problem was more with the werewolves than her writing I was still excited to read The Scorpio Races. (And even more excited that it's something as rare as a standalone book from a well-known author.)

I was not let down. Not only is the writing both unique and beautiful, but Stiefvater has managed to use two completely different, personal voices for Puck's and Sean's point of view. The chapters flowed together effortlessly, and I got so connected to both of the main characters that I often found myself wondering what one was doing while I was reading about the other.

Puck was incredibly easy to like. Not because she's perfect; far from it. In the beginning of the story she often comes across as both childish and petulant, and only thinks about how events affect her. Puck doesn't go through a huge transformation, but does becomes more sure of herself and her own aspirations, and picks up some of the empathy she's been lacking. What made me like her so much is that she's not the most beautiful, the smartest, or even the nicest, but she still comes across as a great girl, and you just want to root for her.

Sean quickly became a favorite of mine. His connection to the horses (both the water horses and the regular ones) was incredible, and through his gestures, whispers and loving touches I felt as if I really shared that connection. There was just something so different about him, not just from the other characters in The Scorpio Races, but also from every other male lead in YA. Instead of the author focusing on how hot, popular or cool he is, she shows us (and I mean she actually shows, not just tells) what an amazingly good guy he is.

My only problem with The Scorpio Races was the pacing. The first 350 pages or so of the story focused on the preparations leading up to the race, and so when the race finally began it ended up feeling a little anti-climatic to me. I wish there had been a little more action, and more about the origin and myths of the water horses, but other than that I really enjoyed this book. And if there's one thing I can say about The Scorpio Races, it's that it's hands down the most original Young Adult fantasy I have ever read.

Cover:
Simple, yet fitting.

My rating of this book:

Want to know more?

Add The Scorpio Races to your Goodreads wish list

Visit Maggie Stiefvater's website

Read Maggie's blog

Follow Maggie on Twitter

Full disclosure:
Checked out at my local library

This book can be purchased from a number of local retailers and online book stores like Amazon and The Book Depository (I'm not an affiliate of either). The latter store has free shipping to about 100 countries.