Ashley Stoyanoff Review: Forever by Maggie Stiefvater.

★ASHLEY STOYANOFF'S REVIEW★

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater 

Title: Forever (Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3)

Author: Maggie Stiefvater

Number of Pages: 400

Publication Info: Scholastic Paperbacks; Reprint edition (May 2012)

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Werewolves

Shelf: Books I Bought

Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads: Here

Author Website: Here

Purchase: Here

Summary from Goodreads:

The thrilling conclusion to #1 bestselling Shiver trilogy from Maggie Stievater.
....
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 transformed from 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 hunted in one final, spectacular kill.
....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 will all collide in one pure moment - a moment of death or life, farewell or forever.

My Review:

Well, I’ve finished the trilogy, and a week after closing the last book, I’m still not sure how I feel about the overall series.  Each book was great.  I enjoyed every page, but the ending … well, it was just an ending.  Nothing overly spectacular, and completely left to the readers imagination, but I’ll get into that a little bit later.

Let’s start with the characters.  Sam and Grace morphed and grew throughout all three books. I love seeing solid character growth, and Stiefvater gives exactly that.  Just like real people, astheir circumstances changed, so did Sam and Grace.  But Sam and Grace were not the only characters that I fell in love with, and they certainly were not the only ones who showed wonderful growth.  Cole and Isabelle really held their own in this series, and they added aprefect mix to the sweet romance that Sam and Grace shared.

The plot was gripping, with lots of twists and turns.  Honestly, it was hard to put any of these books, especially Forever, down.  The POV changes added so much to the story.  I thoroughly enjoyed diving into each one of the characters heads, and seeing the different actions/reactions to the same situation.  It kept me invested.

But the best part about these books, was not the characters, nor was it the plot.  The best part was the writing.  Stiefvater is a master of the craft.  Without droning on and on about every little detail, she provides her readers with vivid and easily imaginable descriptions.

As for the ending, it really wasn’t all that fulfilling.  There were just too many details were left for me to figure out.  There was also one character that I really, really, really wanted to have an HEA, and I guess in a way that character got it, but even so, I wanted so much more.  Overall each character did receive some kind of closure/HEA, but still, after all the challenges they faced, the brief conclusion just wasn’t enough of me.

But even with my complaints on the ending of Forever, I still really enjoyed this book.  I would definitely recommend it to any werewolf and/or sweet romance fan.