(WOLVES OF MERCY CHASE #2): LINGER.

LINGER by MAGGIE STIEFVATER.

BACK COVER BLURB: Grace and Sam must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping dangerous secrets. For Sam, it means grappling with his werewolf past ... and figuring out a way to survive the future.

But just when they manage to find happiness, Grace finds herself changing in ways she could never have expected...

FIRST SENTENCE {PROLOGUE. GRACE}: This is the story of a boy who used to be a wolf and a girl who was becoming one.

MEMORABLE  MOMENT: Sorry folks, I seem to have lost the bit of paper on which my Memorable Moment was written and as I've already passed the book on cannot even bring you a Random Moment.

SOURCE: A charity shop buy.

READ FOR: The 15th of 24 books read for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge 24.

MY THOUGHTS: A book began in late February, alas circumstances meant I didn't finish reading the last few chapters until May - I know can you believe the whole of March passed without my picking up a single book? - by which time, having read several other books and finally remembering about this one, I found myself re-reading several of the chapters as I'd forgotten much of the finer points and, more worryingly, several of the characters which is never a good sign.

Essentially an OK read. The second in the series, I dare say I might have found it more satisfying if I'd read the first book in the series first. As it was a Blonde/OAP (call it what you will) moment saw me mistakenly reading it thinking it was book one.

That aside ... 

A bit of a traditionalist when it comes to these things. I think the main problem I had with Linger was that, like some recent novels featuring vampires, the rules regarding the werewolves of Mercy Chase seem to have changed. Changed in that rather than leaving it that here were some supernatural beings, here it was all explained somewhat ... scientifically???? Changed in that here we have werewolves who once 'created' are able to control their wolfish selves (to one degree or another) by ... temperature? Indeed the book begins with one of the characters (I won't name any names for fear of a spoiler) in the months since he'd 'lost his lupine skin', telling how he'd 'tried to learn how to be a boy again'. 

Then there was the fact that what could have been a good story of growing up, of finding oneself. Of making the decision as to whether you follow your own path or merely travel that that is expected of you was spoilt by the 'romance' elements .. or is this just me finally becoming too old for the Young Adult market? 

Incredibly slow (especially at the beginning). Narrated chapter by chapter by several different characters. I'm afraid to me this did nothing for the flow of the story. Indeed I felt that to do away with the point of view of several of the characters would have proved beneficial.

Soooo, with an ending (something of a whopper of a cliffhanger it has to be said) that will doubtlessly have fans howling for more or, yet again, maybe not, its not like everyone is a fan of the cliffhanger after all, the question is, am I so interested in the trilogy as to want to read the final instalment (of which I have a copy awaiting reading) .... or indeed start at the beginning and read the first instalment for that matter?

Do you know, I'm not at all sure that I am.