Forever by Maggie Stiefvater: Review

Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #3)
by Maggie Stiefvater
Expected publication: July 12th 2011 by Scholastic Press
Pick up your copy today at Amazon,B&N, or your local indie!!

Synopsis borrowed from Goodreads:

The thrilling conclusion to #1 bestselling Shiver trilogy from Maggie Stiefvater


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 love moved from a 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.

Darkfallen's thoughts:

With ta-tings & jazz hands compliments of Greta!!

*~*~* WARNING IF YOU HAVE NOT READ SHIVER & LINGER DO NOT READ THIS!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST 2 BOOKS. HOWEVER I PROMISE THAT THIS IS A SPOILER FREE ZONE WHEN IT COMES TO FOREVER *~*~*

Darkfallen: Maggie won over my heart in Shiver. Shiver was my first werewolf read and I have never looked back.

Greta: I think Shiver was the first teenage werewolf book that stole my heart ;) Hunger Like No Other was my first werewolf book.

Darkfallen: Then there was Linger that took things to a whole new level and Maggie seemed to perfect the art of the evil cliffy!

Greta: Oh snap!

Darkfallen: I mean in Shiver you’re on the edge of your seat at the very end, biting your nails, tears are disobeying your cease and desist order, and then….Sam steps out of the woods, very solidly human and more importantly alive!

Greta: Squee!!

Darkfallen: But OMG in Linger you meet Cole which can I just take a moment to drool over him here?

Greta: Dude... DUDE..... DUDE!!!!

Darkfallen: Ok I’m Back!

Greta: Took you long enough!

Darkfallen: We meet Cole and we get a deeper look into Isabel. While Isabel is still the resident bitch you find you kind of like having her around, maybe you even start rooting for her a little bit. Cole intrigues you and you want more, need to know more! And Grace and Sam are as sweet as ever. You can’t help but love them, and now the tears stream down your face off and on the whole time. You cry for Isabel. You cry for Cole. You cry for Sam & Grace. And you don’t ever bother with the cease and desist order anymore. You just let it happen. Letting Maggie grab your emotions and take you where she wants you. Only she leaves you standing on a blood smeared floor in a hospital room, staring out a broken window. Glass shards crunching beneath your feet as the tears pull and mix with the blood on the floor. Your frozen there with the book in your hands staring at a wolf…staring at Grace…and inside you die a little....lots..

And now everything we have been waiting for…

All the answers we have been searching for…

Everything we have been waiting forever for…

Comes down to this!

Greta: Will there be puppies?!!!

Darkfallen: ? What?! NOES!!

Again Forever is written from four points of view and while most would say “Isn’t that confusing?” I have to tell you it’s not. Not even a little. In fact I wouldn’t want it any other way. I learned so SO much about Cole and Isabel in this book. I loved every minute that I got to spend inside their head. And yes I swoon for Cole even more now. Now that I know, that I finally understand the man behind the mask that is Cole St. Claire.

He is broken and twisted. Lost inside himself and it is killing him, but we see him grow, see him change. In the end we couldn’t have asked for a better person to be in Sam & Grace’s life.

I get it now... Why Beck picked him.

Greta: Yes sir re bobby!!! It totally makes sense now.

Darkfallen: Isabel also seems to thaw a lot more in this book and now I DO love her and I have no problem admitting it. In fact…I even cried for her.

There I said it!

And I’ll say it again. I turned my emotions back over to Maggie and she lead to a place I least expected…

Crying with Isabel on a bathroom floor.

(once you read it you’ll understand. NO I was NOT actually on a bathroom floor *winks*)

Greta: Are you sure? You sure did sound echoy the last time I called ;)

Darkfallen: Why do I always feel the need to slap Greta? lolz

Anyways where was I?

Oh yea...

Then with Sam & Grace…what can I say? Their love is so perfect, simple yet complicated, innocent, and all-consuming that you can’t help but feel it. It’s that I-will-do-anything-include-die-for-you kind of love,

Greta: That reminds me of Robin Hood. (fun fact: Greta loves "Prince of Thieves")

Darkfallen: and while in some series the author strives for that but it never quiet makes it. They always fall just short of believable…NOT here.

You believe every part of it and take it all with you when long after you have read the last page. I especially love how Grace & Sam finally handle her parents. I wanted to hug them both for that.

Greta: I loved the slow blink of Christmas lights and pizza flavored........

Darkfallen: SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

*smacks Greta*
I do want to say this though…

A long time ago I made predictions for how this series would end. I was right about so much, yet wrong about EVERYTHING!

Greta: I on the other hand had EVERYTHING wrong and not a dang thing right!

Darkfallen: With that being said I say this: From a writers point of view the ending is flawless. Most writers can’t find it in them to leave it the way Maggie did, and for that I applaud her. It’s not all nice and neat, perfectly packaged and tied with a pink bow.

It’s more like she put everything in the box, left out the tissue paper, handed you the wrapping paper, ribbon, tape, and scissors, and said “Here ya go,” and walked away.

Greta: Most awesome!

Darkfallen: From a readers point of view, my imagination is getting the better of me and I’m slowly tearing apart all of the possibilities, knowing that this is it, I’m not getting another book, but in its own way Forever leaves you with, maybe not an evil cliffy, but definitely a tormented one…

I find myself here knowing that it’s time to let them go. But I can’t and I won’t …not ever!

Greta: Let's read it again!

Darkfallen: Yes, yes lets!!!

Until next time...

*wipes tears* *cries I can't believe it's over* *throws herself in Greta's lap*

Omph! Sorry guys I gotta take care of this. Darkfallen has a hard time with goodbyes;)





Waiting on Forever - Day 4 - Our Forever Predictions

Are you on the edge of your seat?

Are you howling with anticipation?

Have you been told to calm down by your husband like a jillion times because it's only a book?

Well, you've come to the right place, then!

Because here at Paranormal Wastelands we can't WAIT for FOREVER to be released.

And in honor of our awesome skills of sitting on our hands, squirming a bit, and looking at the calendar to change to July 12th we have come up with a whole week of Wolves of Mercy Falls Extravaganza.

So, sit back my girly girls and enjoy!

~*~ What We Think will Happen in Forever ~*~

Have you read the back cover for Forever by Maggie Stiefvater?

NOES!! Don't tell us!!!

Cuz we totally haven't! Not at ALL! Well, as we write this post we haven't. Its probably pretty likely that Darkfallen has already gobble Forever up ;) Greta on the other hand is waiting till she can stand still long enough to read without being interrupted.

So, today we bring you what WE at Paranormal Wastelands believe will happen in Forever (written before either of us have read the book)

Darkfallen's Forever:

Sam is lost without Grace. Unable to find her since that day she shifted into her wolf and jumped out the window at the hospital. Now he is left to protect the pack, with no will to do anything but miss her, and Cole.


Cole who seems to have so much trouble staying the wolf he desperately needs to be. He needs to forget himself, lose himself to the beast, but he can’t seem to make it stick. Tired of always being the broken screw up he dives into his head, trying to find a cure. To give Sam some hope, to give someone something for a change instead of always taking. Maybe then he can have something for himself…Isabel.


Sam praying that he can find Grace. Praying for the shift of the warm summer to bring home his summer girl. For once he finds himself yearning for his wolf, at least then he could find her. You always want what you can’t have. But what is Grace doesn’t haven’t any summer’s in her. What if all those years of never shifting means now that she is a wolf she will never be human again…just like Sam can never be a wolf. Why does it feel like the world always pull them apart?

Sam will find himself at a crossroads. His choices are: Give up the war he has been fighting. The only life he has ever know...fighting to BE SAM not wolf, or to never have Grace. Because Grace can never be human again. The only way for Sam to be with her is as a wolf. So he will take the bite from Cole to re-join his wolf and live with his summer girl. Surrendering all that made Sam, SAM...forever

Greta's Forever:

I think Forever will be set in the future. Sam will be 25 and I guess that will make Grace 24 and they will still be hunting for a cure. Sam is still cured but trying to figure out ways to dodge the cold for Grace, who is falling more and more in love with the idea of staying a wolf forever.

Olivia will have been caught in wolf form and Cole's mad scientist Daddy's creepy (let's assume) laboratory will have been used for tests but in the process of not enough time and not enough trail runs they will have killed her.

In the end there will only be enough of the cure for one person. Grace looks at Sam. Sam knows that look. Knows the only way to promise her forever. And the cure is given to Cole.

But before Cole takes the cure he has to bite Sam. He has to give him the gift that he thought was a curse.

Grace and Sam shift into wolves to live out the rest of their forever days in the free form of the wolf while Cole and Isabel take over Beck's house just in case they ever come back and to keep the pack alive.

Now, that we've squeed you ours... if you don't know what's going to happen... Predict the future and tell us what you think will happen in Forever.

Random Fact # 4: Isabel and Jack moved to Mercy Falls from California.

(Yes there will be a test on this later *winks*)

HEY!! And make sure you stop by Paranormal Wastelands on July 12th for a review and an EPIC ONE OF A KIND GIVEAWAY that will be full of all sorts of Squees, Howls, and OMGS! *hints* Pay attention to the random facts for xtra points!!