"Forever" by Maggie Stiefvater

From Goodreads: "The thrilling conclusion to #1 bestselling Shiver trilogy from Maggie Stiefvater

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 moved from a 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 killed in one final, spectacular hunt.

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 are about to collide in one pure moment - a moment of death or life, farewell or forever."

For the last few years Sam and Grace have occupied a large part of my heart, they are most definitely one of my most favourite YA couples and I have always rooted for their happy ending, however I must admit that when I first started reading this book and saw that they did not play as large of a role in it than they had in the previous books I wasn't as heartbroken as I had thought I would be. Why would that be? Because of Cole. While in the previous book he was totally swoon-worthy with his bad-boy behavior he was even more so swoon-worthy in this book because he showed a completely different side of himself- a gentle, caring, and selfless side- while still maintaining his trademark sarcastic edge.

In the parts that Sam and Grace were the focus of the story you couldn't help but experience the emotional turmoil that they were feeling alongside them. From Grace transforming back to a human and trying to remember who she was- let alone remembering who Sam was, Sam frantically trying to find the now-human Grace before the cold took her away from him once again,and the realization that no one was safe with Jack Culpeper in town.

What I also loved also appreciated about this book was how humorous it was, when you were in the pits about the Grace and Sam situation, someone would come along (usually Cole) and do something to really uplift your mood- for instance, all of the voicemails that Cole left on Isabel's answering machine, Sam and Cole bonding as Cole tried to teach himself how to play guitar, Isabel and Cole dancing around the kitchen, and Grace bugging Sam when he was in the shower.

I think that my largest complaint about this book was the ending. I am the sort of person who needs an epilogue that spells everything out for me (for instance in the epilogue of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" we find out which characters married one another, their occupations as adults, their children's names, etc.), I hate things that are left up in the air, and therefore not knowing what truly happens to the characters, specifically Grace, eats me up inside (especially when taking into consideration that THIS IS THE LAST BOOK IN THE SERIES! *Fingers crossed that Maggie extends the series a la Cassie Clare and her "Mortal Instruments" series, or that she writes a spin-off a la Richelle Mead with her "Vampire Academy" and "Bloodlines" series).

All in all, aside from the little problem I have with the ending of the book, I think that this is a perfectly written finale to such an amazingly emotional series. In this book there is so much well thought humor and character development that it is truly unlike anything I have ever read of before, I highly recommend this series to anyone who has yet to read it, I don't think that you will be disappointed with it one bit!

Rating: 10/10

Memorable lines from the book:

"Sam.
His name returned suddenly, and with it a thousand other things: poems whispered uncertainly in my ear, his guitar in his hands, the shape of the shadow beneath his collarbone, and the way his fingers smoothed the pages of a book as he read" (pg. 6).

"Voicemail #1: Hi, Isabel Culpeper. I am lying in my bed, looking at the ceiling. I am mostly naked. I am thinking of... your mother. Call me" (pg. 23).

"I stepped into the bathtub, my shoes squeaking softly on the surface. My heart hammered against my T-shirt. Bees hummed inside my head. One thousand minutes other than this one lived in here, minutes with razors, minutes where everything that was me gurgled down the drain, minutes with hands pinning me in the water. But there was also Grace holding my head above the surface. Grace's voice calling me back to myself, Grace taking me by the hand" (pg. 158).

"I sleep naked," Cole said. He put both milk and sugar in my coffee. "As the day goes on, I put on more and more clothing. You should've come over an hour ago" (pg. 244). 

"I felt a tickle on my skin; it took me a moment to realize that Cole was driving his die-cast Mustang up my arm. He was laughing to himself, hushed and infectious, as if there was still any reason to be quiet. He turned the car around at my shoulder and headed back down toward my hand, the wheels skidding on my skin a bit when he laughed.
I thought that it was the truest thing I'd even heard from Cole St. Clair" (pg. 262).