Forever (Shiver, Book 3)

By: Maggie Stiefvater

Narrated by: Jenna Lamia, Pierce Cravens, Dan Bittner, Emma Galvin, Maggie Stiefvater

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. In Linger, they fought to be together. Now, in Forever, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in.

Listen to the previous books, Shiver and Linger.

©2011 Maggie Stiefvater (P)2011 Scholastic Audio

I loved this series!

I instantly fell in love with this book, and the woods, and Same and Graces love! I wish there was more too it, but it will be a series I remember forever!

Not as Good as I Hoped

I adored Shiver and Linger, the first two book Wolves of Mercy Falls series, and I’ve been looking forward to reading Forever for awhile. Only, I didn’t love Forever the way I did the previous two and I can’t exactly explain why. It might be because I tend to like the first few books in a series way more than I like the last one. That aside, Forever seemed to lack the magic, the je ne sais quoi, that had made me swoon over the first two.

So what was it that I didn’t like? Hmmm. It wasn’t the writing. No, Stiefvater’s prose were as eloquent as always and the tone continued to be distinctly bittersweet with a hint of melancholy. The characters were their usual selves. Sam was a poetic, loyal, and charming boyfriend while Grace remained cute, smart, and independent. Their roles were reversed this time and it was interesting to see the difference in their perspectives. Isabel and Cole were the same, fickle and snarky, yet at times redeemable. Nothing changed there. The overall story was good and intriguing. I honestly can’t think of any other way it could have gone.

Maybe I didn’t like the way the story told. It started off slow and then seemed to drag a little. I felt generally unhappy while reading it. If there were moments of happiness they were quickly ushered out to be replaced by serious, sad ones. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect everything in a book to be happy and perfect all the time but I missed having moments that made me smile or laugh. There were some of those moments, but they were rare and I can’t think of any off the top of my head. The ending also lacked luster and things didn’t feel wrapped up.

If you have read the first two books in the series, you definitely should read Forever. I recommend rereading parts or all of Linger before reading Forever. I wish that I had. I still gave Forever four stars because I still liked it. The overall story was good and as usual it was very well written. I love Maggie Stiefvater and it pains me to say anything negative about her stories but I was really hoping for a lot more.

Wish I knew this was a series lol

Whelp. I felt like I was missing info when I read this book and didn’t realize till half way through that I was. Either way this was a good story. I can’t speak for the other books in the series (obviously) but I can say I loved the narration of this particular audio! There were some slow parts in the middle and I almost didn’t finish, but I’m sure glad I did. The last hour of the book was in my opinion the best part. I’m sure if I had read from the beginning, I would have been more invested in the slower parts. Guess I’ll read in reverse!

Still Great

Read this in High School with my Gf at the time. it was good mellow in terms of action but good none the less.

Whun of Maggie's best book series.

I own her hardcover series and I adore them so much.. my favorites for sure!

Great!

Fantastic story with a sweet young adult romance! I wasn't as into the characters in this one, though. Sam was pretty weak. But I guess that was the point, he's weak without Grace.

I'm also pretty shocked that their love doesn't have more... hormonal urges, considering he's an 18 year old boy and a 17 year old girl. It was almost a pure, nearly chaste kind of love and that just didn't feel realistic to me at all since a huge part of romantic feelings and being IN love is craving the intimacy of sex and connecting with each other. Here, even sleeping in the same bed all the time UNSUPERVISED, they've basically done it TWICE in the entire series.

They were super sweet though and the plot fantastic. Cole even grew on me! Isabel still didn't, though.

Definitely a great series.

The Third Book Does Not Disappoint

Any additional comments?

My biggest problem with Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #3) by Maggie Stiefvater is the fact that there's not a fourth book in the series (at least, not yet).

With Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #1) and Linger (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #2), I enjoyed reading about Grace and Sam...the evolution of their relationship, love, and commitment. With Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #3), I found myself just as interested in Cole and Isabel and how they were going to react - or not - to each other.

As it has become customary, Maggie Stiefvater's description of the most mundane sliver of light or floating air particle made me feel like I was standing next to the characters in the middle of the story. As talented as she is with creating a setting, she's just as amazing at building relationships. She understands life-long love grows gradually with one tiny moment at a time. As the invisible bystanders, she allows us to experience those wonderful instants alongside with her characters. With each action, she creates a timeless world of true love, loyal friendship, and unconditional family. Maggie Stiefvater never disappoints.

This is a great series, and I would highly recommend it to almost anyone.

T. R. Graves, author
Warriors of the Cross (The Warriors Series, #1)
Guardians of the Cross (The Warriors Series, #2)
Enemies of the Cross (The Warriors Series, #3)

Maggie Stiefvater and amazng writter

Maggie Stiefvater has a wonderful imagination, the research she did while writing these books is evident. I fell in love with these characters

Different but Good

The one different thing about her books is that each character has a different voice. (different narrator) At first this was odd, but it really works well for the story. I thought the end was a bit open ended, but I'd heartily recommend it to anyone along with the other books in the series.
I read that someone thought Sam was a bit Emo but I didn't get that feeling at all. I thought he was sweet, but not soft, if that explains it correctly.

Best of the three!

First let me say that the only reason I am reviewing this after not liking Linger is...I bought the series at one time. And you know what!! As much as I didn't like Linger (gave it one star) I was pleasantly surprised that Forever was so much better.
In this book Sam and Grace are together (well kinda) and now they have a to save the other wolves and themselves from hunters. With the mass hunting date approaching it brings a new urgency to the characters.
Like in all the other books I did not like Sam at all! What is the point in having a main male character that never makes a decision, creates songs and sings when stressed, and makes origami cranes with every piece of paper he runs across. MAN UP!! Sam has no qualities of the knight in shining armor coming to save the day at all. He is so sappy that it makes him weak. Every single decision he has to make is made for him by someone else. Whereas Grace is a strong character that has a very strong opinion about everything except her weak boyfriend. She is always pushing him, protecting him, and helping him.
Jenna Lamia (narrator) as always pulls off a great read of Grace and I would have loved to have her read Isabelle's part as well. She did a wonderful job! She did not read the book but became part of the book.
The only reason I like this book better than Linger is the element of the hunters coming after the wolves. For some reason that part of the book got me caught up in the story. Finally! I wasn't second guessing what was going on. I wasn't hating on Sam and the story was really interesting. The hunt of the wolves was well written and the author made it real. But it took a long long while to get there.
This is the best book out of the three in the series by far.