**3.5 STARS**Forever by Maggie Stiefvater is the conclusion to the Wolves of Mercy Falls series. Its always hard to review a finale because there's so much to be said about how everything turned out. Honestly, I feel like I just became a wolf like Grace and Sam and all my human thoughts have abandoned me. I can only think in short thoughts right now so I'm just going to go with it. What I Liked:1. The imagery was top notch as usual. Maggie Stiefvater has a way of describing things that makes them feel so visceral and exciting. 2. Isabel and Cole are life! They are infinitely fascinating characters and I can't wait to read their spin off novel. 3. Sam and Grace being in wolf love is the most adorable thing I ever read. I'm just picturing them touching snouts and its wonderful.4. The open-ended, bittersweet ending really fit the series as a whole. I don't usually like endings like this but in this case, there was a strange sense of hope about the whole thing that I really loved. What I Didn't Like:1. Shelby is just a monster and I hate her. I wish there were more chapters than just one from her perspective. Maybe it would have given me some kind of empathy for her. 2. The pacing felt off. I don't know... at times it felt stagnant and slow and at other times it was everything happening all at once. However, it wasn't as stagnant as Linger so there's that at least. 3. There wasn't nearly enough Isabel and Cole chapters!4. Why are all the parents in Mercy Falls a bunch of buttholes? Occasionally, I sort of liked Isabel's mom but she's not winning a parent of the year award by any means. Overall, I enjoyed the finale to the Wolves of Mercy Falls series. I got what I needed out of it to feel like the story was complete and I was happy with how things turned out. There are some loose ends that were never addressed but they were just the minor practical things like are they selling Beck's house and moving to the lodge or what are they going to do in the future for money and whatnot. Really, I'm more excited that the spin off is a primarily Isabel and Cole story. I can't wait to get into that one.

Buddy read with Claudia <33.5I love Maggie Stiefvater, I truly do. She's not my favourite author, but she is among my favourites, and her Raven Cycle is one of my favourite series of all time. And I fell for The Scorpio Races when I read it. The Wolves of Mercy Falls isn't a disappointment, because I expected not to like it like TRC and at some point I had even decided not to read it, but I can't give it more than 3 stars. I couldn't help but notice that this Stiefvater is different than the one I've come to love. Some things are already there - the writing is beautiful, the characters are well developed, as always - but the plot is rather...flimsy. And there are more tropes. Take Grace's parents, for example, and you have one of the most common tropes of ya literature: bad, absent parents. I guess it's normal, because Shiver was Maggie's debut, but still, these are things that bothered me in her (unfinished, dammit) series about Fae and they bothered me in this one too. I still liked the series, but I'd recommend her latest books more.I liked Sam and Grace. I think it's wonderful that Maggie can portray different characters and stories, and Sam and Grace's story is extremely different from Puck and Sean's or Blue and Gansey's. I can't say that I liked Sam and Grace as much as the others, because I find very difficult to imagine a love story like theirs, but I do find them rather cute and romantic. And for all his flaws, I like Sam too. He's not your average ya male character, and I liked that. I also started to appreciate Cole. I definitely saw how much his character has grown and I liked reading from his POV so much that I could try to read Sinner because of that. His friendship with Sam and Grace was quite cute, I have to say that.The bad stuff has a name: Isabel. Isabel is everything I hate thrown into a single character. She's one of those people who think that being bitchy is being funny. She's a whiny, self-centered asshat who just insults people and then doesn't do anything. People could die and all she does is be mean and complain because her parents could be angry with her. And I could keep going about this. She's the reason why I don't know whether I want to read Sinner or not. The plot was rather flimsy. Everything was based on this big, final scene that was rather anticlimatic in the end. Before that nothing happened to be honest.This is why Forever doesn't get the fourth star. It's good and it flows and the writing is great. But it's not enough.

DNFI don't now why I even bothered with this book after the whole fiasco with Linger (Book 2). These last two books are a complete change of dynamics from Shiver (Book 1). It went from a sweet magical romance to a typical young-adult fantasy series with characters an plot-lines I couldn't care less about or find less interesting. The romance is what I loved so much about Shiver, it was beautiful, slow-building and tragic. That air of melancholy, that bubble of magic went away completely in the last two books.If you love romance I would recommend to read just the first book, it works perfectly as a standalone and it's charming.Shiver (Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) - 4.5 starsLinger (Wolves of Mercy Falls #2) - 2 starsSo, I went and read the following installments. Saying that I regretted it is an understatement. For a long time I was very angry about how this series ended up being. I thought that the two following installments weren't loyal to the first book and they were a mayor disappointment for me.Today (August 17, 2018), I answered a friend's comment that got me thinking. I realized that what I found with Shiver and did not find with the following books had more to do with me and who I am, than with the actual books. My friend AussieMum wrote in a comment about Wolfsong (Green Creek #1), a book she absolutely loved: "[...]The funny thing is that I'm reading the sequel now and not loving it at all. [...]. Gonna put it down and read something else, clear my head before I give it another go. It's funny how one book can speak so much to you and another makes no impact whatsoever." Reading her last sentence got me thinking. I saw myself in the same situation as her with The Wolves of Mercy Falls series. So I shared that common experience with her and told her that for whatever reason I found Shiver mesmerizing and utterly amazing, that the way it was written, the story and its characters got to me (which I believe was also how she felt about Wolfsong). And that yet, when I moved on to the second installment I couldn't be more disappointed, that it was such a let down, I had to force myself to finish it and I ended up wishing I had never read the second one and to have consider Shiver as a stand alone. After that, I had my realization:The thing is, I think, occasionally, we find a book that matches with us deeply, with our mood, situations, wants, dreams and personality so much that we see something entirely different from what other people might see, something even different than what the author intended for us to see. We miss other aspects of it, directions the writer wants to take us towards. So when we get the sequel we expect the same as before, the place where the first book took us. But the story has moved on in another direction, a direction we missed the first time because we took our own particular turn, a turn that made us read a completely different book that what it was intended to be. This realization makes sense to me and it has helped me to come to terms with my feelings towards this series. I am not angry anymore, or disappointed. Now, I just understand myself better.

Let me say this.. Just because I didn't like this book doesn't mean I'm telling everyone not to read it. Everyone has different tastes and different opinions. And if your opinion is to come on MY review and tell me how awesome this book is and that I got it wrong. No I'm pretty sure I read this book correctly ..twice in fact. So keep to yourself, or write your own 5 star review so I can go on it and write "omg!! You are wrong this book it terrible!! You have to hate it to bc I do!"Giving it two stars but I will probably drop it down to one the more I think about this book and it's horrible ending. Did she forget to finish the book? Is there a chapter that they accidentally didn't put in the end? I felt like shiver and linger are two totally separate books from this one .. The first two were so good what the hell was this ?? I want my money back...and the more I think about this bull crap about the reader having to decide what happens in the end the more pissed off I get. No Maggie S I do not want to decide what happens in the end!! I want an ending..If I wanted to use my imagination I wouldnt have paid for a book!

:Spoilers:This series has been one long roller-coaster of pure emotional agony from the very first book till it hits the very last page in the third and final installment in, Forever. We have shared epic love, sorrow and an adventure with these characters that I have never had the pleasure to do with other books. The writing is truly like a piece of art work. I'm sad to see this gorgeous series go and while I had my moments, both the good and the bad, these books will always be treasured in my heart.I swear, there is nothing like reading a Maggie Stiefvater book. Her whimsical words are like magic to a drowning person, desperate to finally get what we've been craving for nearly a year. Maggie's writing is pure art, pure poetry and I'll never get tired of it.I love these characters, but I think Cole should take a bow in this book. I actually got to liking him much more in this round, he's still erratic and a bit of a punk, but I admired his dedication and strength and when honest, is truly something to witness. Isabel will always be a character that I will enjoy, I love her stubbornness and fire. I wish we had more scenes between Sam and Grace in the beginning. The wait was truly painful. But what moments we did get were well worth the wait.I don't have to much to say about Grace's parents, except that they got more then they deserved in my opinion. As for Beck? <3!!!!!!Sam and Grace is a couple that will always be unforgettable in my eyes and heart. They have such a passion and such a love that people only dream about. I have never wanted so much for one couple before and never knew one that deserved it as much as these two.Reading this book was slow exhausting torture, but in the sweetest way possible. My stomach was in knots wanting so desperately for it to turn out with a HEA, almost needing it to the point of physical pain. I kid you not.Ever page was laced with a teasing tone of uncertainty which made the experience that much thicker, richer and earned an appreciation I didn't think could exist even more then what I already feel for it.As for the ending, well, I feel that I should be truthful. Was I satisfied? Yes and...no. I'm content, lets put it that way, but I feel that the biggest question still lingered and I hate that I'll forever be thinking about it every time I visit this world again. It ended on the tone that pretty much described the entire series. With mystery and suspense and above all, hope. So if your looking for an ending with absolute closure, you wont find it here my friends. I wish there was a few more pages or a few last final lines that would make it all okay. But there wasn't and apart of me is very sad about that.So...I'm just going to have to hold on to what Cole wisely said;"The thing I was beginning to figure out about Sam and Grace, the thing about Sam not being able to function without her, was that that sort of love only worked when you were sure both people would always be around for each other. If one half of the equation left, or died, or was slightly less perfect in their love, it became the most tragic, pathetic story invented, laughable in it's absurdity. Without Grace, Sam was a joke without a punch line."...and so with that, I believe Grace and Sam do get their happily ever after...cause it would be wrong to imagine anything less.They will be missed.Congrats to Maggie on the success of her The Wolves of Mercy Falls series. I will never forget them and look forward to your next new adventure.Bravo!