February: I FINALLY Read This Book!

Okay, if you read January's post, then you should know that I was a very busy college student. Yes, I took classes, but I was also involved in clubs and organizations as well as completed two internships.

With that, this particular book has been sitting in my collection for quite some time. It is the last book in a series by Maggie Stiefvater. I read the first book of the series, Shiver, when I was still in high school. I read the second one, Linger, my senior year of high school, to be exact. I read them both pretty quickly, too, because I was so into them. I took the last book, Forever, with me to college thinking I'd read it the first semester. I was wrong. Actually, the sad truth is this isn't even my copy of the book. I borrowed it from my best friend, and either she forgot about it or is just the greatest friend ever (probably a mix of both), and has managed to let me keep it all these years.

I finally decided I had to read this book this year. No excuses; it was going to happen.

I started it while on my honeymoon, reading a few chapters while at the pool. When I got home, life became busy again, but I didn't let that deter me. February is always a shorter month, but my goal this year is to read at least one book each month. This book would be February's book, and so it was.

The book was phenomenal but also emotional--old characters I hadn't engaged with in a while were back. The raw love of Grace and Sam as well as the emotional woes of Isabel and Cole were pressed into my brain again. I am happy with Stiefvater's choices in her conclusion of the story, but certain parts were still sad--wolves dying, the ever-growing tensions between Culpepper and the wolves, etc. True book lovers know what it's like to connect with citizens of a story, and somehow, those connections are often deeper within a series.

I am so grateful I finished the series--I would suggest reading all three books if you appreciate a good story. It is filled with love, romance, heartache, confusion, tensions, family, and so much more. I fell in love with Shiver, I cried at the end of Linger, and I endured a sense of hope after reading Forever. Only true story-tellers create emotions like that within their readers.