Linger (Wolves of Mercy Falls Series #2) »

Maggie Stiefvater's life decisions have revolved around her inability to be gainfully employed. Talking to yourself, staring into space, and coming to work in your pajamas are frowned upon when you're a waitress, calligraphy instructor, or technical writer (all of which she's tried), but are highly prized traits in novelists and artists (she's made her living as one or the other since she was twenty-two). Maggie now lives a surprisingly eccentric life in the middle of nowhere, Virginia, with her charmingly straight-laced husband, two kids, and neurotic dog.

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 Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love -- the light and the dark, the warm and the cold -- in a way you will never forget.

Publishers Weekly

This sequel to Shiver is a bridge book through and through, designed to push the story forward, presumably to the third and final installment of Stiefvater’s bestselling series about werewolves. But whereas Shiver was tight as a drum in its focus on the intense, star-crossed romance between werewolf Sam and Grace, the ordinary girl who loves him, this book meanders. Again Stiefvater switches points of view, but between four characters now: Sam and Grace, still in love and still facing threats to said love; Isabel, who recently lost a brother to the wolves; and Cole, newly a werewolf. Sometimes these switches occur multiple times within the same chapter, which can make for confusing reading with respect to who is doing or thinking what. Stiefvater expands the story to include complications with Grace’s health and her parents, Sam’s reluctance to care for new werewolves, and Isabel’s growing connection to Cole even as he desperately seeks escape from his old life. While this book does not stand on its own, it sets the stage for an explosive third installment. Ages 13-18. (July)