Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

ISBN-13: 978-1407121086
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: July 2010
432 pgs
Series: Wolves of Mercy Falls #2
Source: Personal Library

Have you read Shiver where it is about a love story between a wolf boy and a human girl? I really enjoyed reading that book, and suffice it to say there was a lot of tension and intrigue in there. I was hooked by Stiefvater's worldbuilding of the wolves and not to mention the romance between the protagonists Sam and Grace.

Needless to say when my copy of Linger arrived, I devoured it the moment I had unwrapped the package and the other book which I'm currently reading has to wait, unfortunately. I'm not implying that the other book is uninteresting, but the anticipation of reading Linger is too great and I couldn't trust myself to wait any longer. Thus, it is no surprise that I began reading Linger with a much higher expectation, after all the waiting and many of the rave reviews I read over the blogosphere.

I have to admit Linger was not what I had expected and by saying this, I meant it positively. For starters, I was delighted that Maggie Stiefvater had added Cole and Isabel as the narrators, besides Sam and Grace that is. I find it great to hear from Cole's and Isabel's perspectives, after all I think they played an important role not only to the story but to Sam's and Grace's life as well.

If you have read Shiver, you'd be able to remember Isabel. She is the sister of the deceased Jack; a girl who is gutsy and never afraid to speak up her mind. Cole, on the other hand, has character and though he has issues, he is another character that I have grown to like as the story progress. Perhaps one reason I find him likeable is he is indifferent to his rock star status, and the more I read about him, I wished Maggie Stiefvater had introduced him earlier in Shiver.

Sam and Grace seemed to have much more time together this time around, but unfortunately for Grace, this was also the time when her parents started to care and to take note of her whereabouts. They weren't pleased to see Sam and Grace being with each other most of the times, and their sudden and overly concern has infuriated Grace. But there are certainly worse things to come and once again, Sam and Grace have to fight to be together for an unexpected circumstances have drove them apart.

There are certainly a lot of emotions unleashed by the four narratives in Linger, but all of them shared a common emotion - frustration. There is also a lot of uncertainty here and in spite of this, they are not giving up hope, yet. And this is what made the Wolves of Mercy Fall series such a compelling read. I cannot wait for the final instalment, Forever, to be released next year.

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I figured I have to give my Wordless Wednesday post a miss this week, considering I haven't gone through my photo archives yet. Plus, I have lots of catching up to do, work wise and blog hopping. Also, I will be away on Thursday and Friday for a seminar, so it looks like I will have more catching up to do next week... oh well, that's life.

Hope everyone has a great week!