Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

The sequel to Shiver follows the story of Grace and the wolves of Mercy Falls.

Maggie says: "It's about after. What happens after you discover there are werewolves in the wood, after you've fallen in love for the first time, after you've lost what you think you can't live without, after you've become someone you can't live with."

This is the story of a boy who used to be a wolf and a girl who was becoming one.

Just a few months ago, it was Sam who was the mythical creature. His was the disease we couldn't cure. His was the good-bye that meant the most. He had the body that was a mystery, too strange and wonderful and terrifying to comprehend.

But now it is spring. With the heat, the remaining wolves will soon be falling out of their wolf pelts and back into their human bodies. Sam stays Sam, and Cole stays Cole, and it's only me who's not firmly in my own skin. 

{re: http://www.maggiestiefvater.com/linger.php}

It's been quite awhile that I have been anticipating the release of a book!  When I found out that Linger was going to be released a week earlier than the publisher's original date, I was ecstatic! because God forbid I had to wait another week ;-)  I popped in Barnes & Noble to purchase it, and began reading immediately that day.  Maggie Stiefvater is becoming one of my favorite authors.  Her words are so rhythmic to me.  Each story just as compelling as the one before.

Linger begins where Shiver left off.  Sam is now a boy & Grace has her one true love back.  Everyone should be happy, right?  Not exactly.  There is an unspoken change occurring within Grace.  Her past of once being bitten by the wolves has caught up to her.  What she thought may have been a cure, may not necessarily be the truth.  While Sam is struggling with the idea of being human again, of making plans, of living out his future that he thought was once lost.  Isabel is still coping with the death of her brother, and living with the guilt that it was she who killed him by injecting him with the meningitis.  A new character, Cole, is introduced as one of the newest wolves in the pack.  He and Isabel are drawn to one another immediately based on their damaged pasts.

The character relationships is what dominates this book, in my opinion.  There is so much raw emotion floating around that it is hard not to get sucked in.  Even though the outcome is obvious, it is still hard to believe once it occurs at the end (I will not say due to spoilers).  A part of me felt relieved because there was so much being built up to that point, but then another part of me was very saddened by the ending results.  Linger grabbed me from the beginning, and I found it very hard to put the book down.  Maggie's descriptive nature is mesmerizing and beautifully told once again in this novel.  I was very pleased with this sequel, and even more intrigued to read the 3rd and final installment to the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy (which I believe comes out in 2011).