I JUST finished reading this FINALLY. I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy! A book about racing dangerous Kelpies!? YES PLEASE! Please note, this post contains some spoilers.

Here is the goodreads synopsis so you get the gist if you didn't already know what this book is about:
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.

What I actually really found fascinating about this book was the economy of the Island. You spend so much time waiting and anticipating the actual race ( which i didn't like really but that's what really keeps you reading!), that you learn so much more than just about the characters and the horses. I loved reading about the shops and when it was quiet and then busy when tourists came, and the bakery dynamic, and who can afford what, and which roles they play in the community, what jobs people had, etc etc. SO interesting how she wrote this well enough to spark my own aging imagination in a YA fantasy novel. I'm impressed.

Setting, Setting, Setting. I can just picture this being read in a middle grade English class, and the prof asking for a diorama of the island. It left a lot up to the imagination.

I thought the whole fictional island idea first of all was pretty rad on Stiefvater's part, and I love how she takes a story about water horse legend and makes it her own, but still sticks to some basic characteristics of the mythical creature she writes about.

I also really liked her female MC "Puck". Definitely a strong female character, and the world can never have enough of those. Sean wasn't my favourite male MC of all time ( I liked Finn & Gabe much better!) but I thought they were a nice pairing and I like how the focus of this book was not the love between the MC's as much as it was about the love of horses. We all need a good horse-loving book from time to time.


This actually wasn't a book that I can say I fell in utter love with. I'm giving it a 3/5, but I appreciated how Stiefvater told this story and I think for the YA fans out there- it's worth the read!

Goodreads Summary:
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.

YAY! I finally came around to this series! This book was WAY better than the first one. Less Sam and Grace awkwardly falling for each other and more story developing! I am actually looking foreword to reading Forever, and then Scorpio Races as well.

What really did this one justice for me was Isabel & Cole. Not only do I totally love their characters, but it was AWESOME to get their POV. The whole book could have been about those two and Id have been just as happy. I am totally pumped to see what happens in Forever! There is just something about Isabel I love. How she found out what was going on in Mercy Falls, tries to help, and gets involved even though she hasn't been bitten. I admire her. Shes definitely evolved from book one and I am totally into it!

Grace has never really done it for me but I am starting to like Sam a lot more too. His constant lyric writing kind of annoys me but I like how he's stepped into Beck's role a bit and I'm hoping to see more of that in book three.

As long as Forever is all about the torturous love between Grace and Sam, and actually has some beef to it, I think I'll like it.

AND THE PRINT WAS IN GREEN! I had no idea, and thought this was awesome.
3/5

Welp. It's been a busy week of work, and a little play here at my place. Oddly enough in one week the weather went from the high 20's to like 15 degrees. And it just keeps hammering down rain. The leftovers of the Japanese typhoon are being blamed, but who are we kidding? The Canadian west coast will be wet for another nine months!

With the sudden drop in temperature, I for some reason ( or because everything happens for a reason) read Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver. I love reading books that coincide with the weather. Makes them better.

Anyways, I really didn't like it. I don't see what the hype is about at all. I rolled my eyes at every conversation Sam and Grace had. I love werewolves but this book was just so.... young. The fact Sam made up lyrics about things made me gag. All I kept thinking was REALLY? the first third of the book I could pretty much sum up into " omg omg omg I want him to kiss me, omg he has yellow eyes, omg omg". I just didn't dig it at all. The characters sucked. I'm sorry. I know SO many people are into this book, but I just wasn't! .. AND the "summer girl" song? I could barely take it anymore by that point. haha.

That being said, I finished it, and I'll most likely read the other two just because I'm like that. Maybe by the third one they'll be more mature? I acted the way grace did when I was like 13-15 and maybe that was the target audience to begin with- but usually I can appreciate some good YA and this made me want to read something for adults for sure.

We'll give it 2/5.