Genre: Young Adult

#2 Wolves of Mercy Falls

362 pages

Kindle

Amazon

book received from publisher for review

In Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. Now, inLinger, 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 Isabel, 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.

Linger pulls you in within the first line:

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

Linger picks up right after Shiver with Sam and Grace going about their daily lives. Sam, remains unsure if the ‘cure’ really works still shivers when the temperature drops to freezing. New characters, or new to me characters, since I have a bad memory – are introduced. Former musician Cole and tough girl Isabel are added to the list.  Much as I liked the first book, Linger is told from multiple point of views, at times only brief paragraphs of Sam’s feelings about Grace, or whole chapters devoted to Cole’s flashbacks with addictions. I haven’t read many books where authors can pull this off without getting nausea and throwing off your pace. This is one book that really pulls this off.

A majority of the book focuses on Cole and why he wanted to become a wolf. I’m always surprised when the young author adds adult themes like addiction, promiscuity and suicide. All topics that seem to work for Cole’s character as a transformative platform illustrating what he used to be to what he has now become. Cole is definitely one of the more interesting characters in this ensemble cast. Meanwhile, the precocious Isabel, who lost her twin brother to ‘the cure’, – finds herself oddly enamored of the mysteries Cole. But there’s trouble ahead,  Grace is starting to show signs of wolf; her scent starts to change, her sense of smell grows stronger, and then she gets the ‘fever’.

Linger is eloquently written about a wolf who became a boy and fell in love with a girl. For most of the book the pacing is a bit slow, which I didn’t mind but I think you definitely have to be in the mood for this style of writing. Maggie Stiefvater has one of the more interesting paranormal shapeshifter series out there. If you were hoping to learn more on how the Wolves of Mercy Falls came to be, sorry no such luck in this one perhaps in her next installmet.

If you loved Shiver you can’t miss this one. I mean it!

Other Reviews

My Friend Danny 4/5

And the winner of the Linger Giveaway is Chelsea, lucky SOB. I will be in contact with your shortly. Thank you all for entering and I will have more giveaways in the future *coughAugustcoug*

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Erotic Paranormal Romance

#3 Lucani Lovers Series

125 Pages

Purchase @  Ellora’s Cave ebook

book received for review from author

Etruscan wolf shifter Kaine Giliati has longed for John Simmons since he willingly agreed to wipe all memory of her from his mind. The pain in her heart is only magnified by terror—the ability to call her wolf appears to have deserted her, as well.

For months after he and his sister escaped a crazed kidnapper, John has been dreaming about a beautiful woman he’s never met but who seems so familiar. A woman he’s shocked to find in a dark bar one night. A woman who agrees to come back to his apartment for raw, passionate sex.

Edge of Moonlight picks up where Moonlight Ménage leaves off.  Kaine is heartbroken after John, a human, willingly agrees to have his memories wiped after the events leading up to his sister’s capture and exposure to the Lucani.  Smokinhot Cliff Note: In book #2 Kaine and John meet when his sister Evie was kidnapped. Horrified when he finds out that Kaine is a werewolf he shoots her (that bastard!). Forbidden to make any contact with him, Kaine can’t stop thinking about him until fate decides to intervene.

Meanwhile John is having odd, erotic dreams about a woman with multi-colored hair.  After a crap day he winds up at a local bar, only to see the woman he has been dreaming about.

All Kaine wants is just one night with John only their hot hanky panky sessions begins to unravel the memory spell on John and he starts to remember…

This is the most emotionally gripping out of the 3 books so far and my favorite.  If you’ve read Kiss of Moonlight and Moonlight Ménage , Edge of Moonlight stands out ahead of its class. Stephanie Julian really hit all my hot buttons:

1. Humor

2. Just the right about of relationship/emotional angst. i.e. not too much, not too little, just right.

3. Suspense

There is quite a lot going on in this latest installment so I’m going to diagram it all out for you. I’m talking flow charts, excel spreadsheets, and pie charts (nah, just making sure ya’ll are awake).

-          Kaine suddenly is unable to shift after her night with John

-          Evie (John’s sister) unleashes her unstable powers and only the wolves can help her

-          John starts to  remember…Everything!

-          Knowing John will be disgusted with her after he ‘remembers’ she is a wolf; Kaine decides to go after Evie’s kidnappers to make everything all right.

Edge of Moonlight is my favorite out of the series.  Kaine is one of my favorite types of heroines to read about; funny, self deprecating, and a lady that can and likes to kick a little ass.  At times I got a little lump in my throat over her worry when John would find out about her being wolf and his interest would turn to disgust. And there were times when I got a little turned on when they had hot, passionate nookie on the kitchen table.  Edge of Moonlight has all the right erotic ingredients and I’m looking forward to more Lucani wolves books.

Rating

P.S. Isn’t the cover? Why can’t I have bangs like that….

Other Reviews

Anna’s Book Blog 4 /5

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Genre: Young Adult

Release Date: August 1st 2009 (392 pages)

I think Target is my lucky book charm. For those that know my back story – it was a cold rainy day…sorry tangent. Any-hoo I was broswing the Target bookshelves , I was only supposed to be in the Home Good Section oops, and saw Shiver  a Young Adult book about snow and werewolves.   Of course I had to buy it!

Ever since I was a little girl I’ve been fascinated with books with winter settings, snow, ice, blizzards, I swear I was born in Alaska in a previous life.  Since I grew up in Chicago (Go Bears), I’ve associated snow/winter with my childhood. Shiver takes place in chilling Mercy Falls, Minnesota where wolves rule the woods.  Grace has watched the wolves from her house since as long as she can remember.  On a cold winter day, Grace(age 6) dragged from her swing by wolves, shredding and ripping her apart.  As she lays dying, she catches the gaze of the only yellow-eyed wolf.  The wolf regains what little humanity he has left and saves her.  She is never the same again.  Meanwhile Sam lives two lives: in the summer, only a few months,  he is human until the cold makes him shift into a wolf.  Grace (age 17) longs to see her yellow-eyed wolf again.  When a freak wolf attack kills a local teenage boy, a hunting mob is rounded up to kill the wolves in the woods.  Grace is frightened her wolf will be hurt.  As she rushes home, she finds a boy naked, on her back porch.  It’s her yellow-eyed wolf, bleeding from a gun shot wound.  As winter nears and the summers become shorter, Sam must struggle to say human or risk losing his human side and Grace forever. Grace is the only one to survive an attack by wolves and still remain human.  Is she the key to the wolves humanity?—> I’ve got goose bumps reading this.

My Thoughts

This is my 3rd YA novel I’ve read this year (Stephanie Meyers broke my YA cherry) and thought Shiver was written beautifully. If you’ve read the Time Traveler’s Wife, Shiver mimics a similar writing style with the hero and heroine points of view.  The chapters are labeled by temperature, adding a chilling and suspenseful timeline till Sam changes into a wolf. Most werewolves books these days seem to focus on the moon as the change agent, Stiefvater’s adds a creative spin by using the season and cold for her wolves. Although this book was way more serious than Intertwined by Gena Showatler and lacked sparklie vampires,  this is one book that will stay with me even after “The End.”

Rating 4  Smokin’ Smooches

Amazon

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