then.
When Sam met Grace, he was a wolf and she was a girl. Eventually he found a way to become a boy, and their loved moved from curious distance to the intense closeness of shared lives.
now.
That should have been the end of their story. But Grace was not meant to stay human. Now she is the wolf. And the wolves of Mercy Falls are about to be killed in one final, spectacular hunt.
forever.
Sam would do anything for Grace. But can one boy and one love really change a hostile, predatory world? The past, the present, and the future are about to collide in one pure moment - a moment of death or life, farewell or forever.
(Summary from GoodReads)
Every time I pick up a Maggie Stiefvater book, I get nervous. I love Shiver and The Scorpio Races so much that I worry that the next book will be the one that I dislike that taints my overall image of her work (this totally happened to me with Lauren Oliver’sbooks). While Forever isn’t one of my new favorite books by Stiefvater, I still find it an emotional read that felt like an appropriate ending to the trilogy.
There is a lot going in Forever. In addition to Sam and Grace sorting out their issues, Isabel and Cole are trying to sort out what exactly they are. Stiefvater created great, complex characters with Isabel and Cole, and I loved the chance that we got to see more of their story. After I finished Forever, I couldn’t help but think that I’d love to find out where their story goes from there, and .
By this point in the series, we know Sam, Grace, and Grace’s family pretty well, and that’s what made this such a tough read for me. I genuinely struggled with how some of them acted, and I liked that it was never a black and white storyline. There was always a good amount of gray area involved.
While I appreciated Sam and Grace’s dynamic in earlier books, it was a little harder for me to buy here. Part of this has to do with my personal life experiences—I was nowhere near ready to get into a serious relationship at the age of eighteen, so even though I believed Sam and Grace loved each other, I knew they’d have obstacles to face. As I read how their story ended, I felt torn—like I should have been satisfied, but just wasn’t quite.
Overall, Forever was a lovely book, if not Stiefvater’s most exceptional. It ended the story, but left me wanting more in a good way. Readers who are big fans of Grace and Sam will be satisfied with how the trilogy concludes.
Disclosure: I purchased a copy of this book.
Other reviews:
I've read both Shiver and Linger, and while I know they are (and I hate it when other people say this!), well written, I never felt emotionally invested in them? Is that just me? it wasn't their age, nor the seriousness of their feelings at such a young age. I'm old enough to know a million people who married at 18 and 19 and spent (happily) 50 yrs together. I just felt this series while technically being good, wasn't getting to my heart. I DID find Cole and Isabell (sp) more interesting relationship wise, but I don't see myself finishing the Shiver trilogy, or buying the new one about Cole and Is. I just don't think I care. I like the Raven Cycle series very much, and my favorite of her books to date, Is Lament, although the ending hurt.
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