Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) by Maggie Stiefvater
Finally read the book (/series) that Maggie's most known for. I read (and enjoyed up to a point) The Raven Boys before this although these were the series of books that kicked off Maggie's career (from what I'd heard and read from other bloggers before reading the book).Maybe I've outgrown this particular genre of YA but I didn't enjoy the majority of this book. It felt like there was a whole bunch of nothing, relationship-angst-the-reader's-meant-to-care-about-but-doesn't, angst and a whole lot of nothing again and rinse and repeat up until the last 94 pages when all of the action happened all at once. It was all so... Stagnant that up until Page 340 I was still leaning heavily towards a did-not-finish for this book (Yes, that far into the book) until the last 94 pages, and even then I relied heavily on skimming through pages and skipping descriptions to finally finish reading the book. I will (try) and read/give the second book a chance, if only because I have the full series (it came in a boxset, and I kept reading how this was Maggie's best work) and also to see what happened to the characters after the way the book finished.
Linger (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #2) by Maggie Stiefvater
I was fully expecting this book to not live up to expectations again but it was (a lot) better than the first book (when usually it's the other way around), due in large part, I think, to supporting characters getting their own storyline and the storyline itself actually being something other than just focused on Sam and Grace's "star-crossed" love story. I still skipped the lengthy descriptions and Grace and Sam's scenes but other than that it was a huge improvement on the first book (storyline and keeping readers' hooked wise)
Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #3) by Maggie Stiefvater
The third book in the series (that was meant to be a trilogy but a companion novel was published so maybe it's not? I'll let you know when I've read book four).
Book three again, was better than book two but this time, storyline-wise and not character-wise. Again, Sam and Grace's relationship arc wasn't interesting to me so I skimmed their relationship-y bits and the lengthy descriptions but overall? A good book, the best out of the trilogy to be honest but what was that ending? Like WHY would you do that to your readers Maggie? 😩 I'm hoping the 4th book explains the after of it all.
Sinner (The Wolves of Mercy Falls 3.5/Companion Novel) by Maggie Stiefvater
Oof I'm EXHAUSTED. I was looking forward to this book and I liked it but it was HEAVY, especially on the angst. Cole’s better in small doses rather than all at once 🤣...
There wasn’t enough storyline to justify the length of the page count, could have easily been 60 - 70 pages shorter than it was without losing any important scenes or taking away from the atmosphere the book had created for itself. The last couple of chapters were a struggle to read through, the pacing had gotten that slow (and the storyline that repetitive).
As with previous books though, this one was filled with description-heavy paragraphs as well - which again, I skim read through. I wish that these paragraphs would have been replaced by some more (meaningful) story instead.
I enjoyed books two and three (the majority of the meaningful storyline/arc takes place in these books), books 1 and 3.5/4? Not so much. I think the author could have easily condensed this four-book series into a duology instead without (even) losing any of the important parts. In fact, I think making it a duology would have helped massively, especially in tightenening up the pacing (therefore helping to keep readers, like myself, interested in the storyline throught).
Even though I think I've had enough of The Wolves Of Mercy Falls series for now, I would love for Sofia to get her own happy-ever-after some day 🤣...
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