Blog tour stop: Maggie Stiefvater

Welcome to the next stop of maggie Stiefvater's blog tour for her newest novel, Linger!

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Release Date: July 13, 2010
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Pages: 368

Grace and Sam are back --along with a few new wolves. At the end of Shiver, Beck had created some new wolves with the intention for them to keep the pack strong. But he didn't know that Sam had been cured, no longer forced to shift between wolf and human, thanks to Grace and Isabel.

Now the new pack has become Sam's responsibility, and taking care of the new wolves won't be easy after Sam worked so hard not to be wolf. One of the newcomers is Cole St. Claire, lead singer of a popular band who wants nothing more to escape his life by being wolf.

Isabel feels wolves coming back into her life all over again when Cole shows up. With her brother's death in the back of her mind, Isabel is hesitant to have anything to do with the wolves beyond Grace and Sam, but she can't help but feel drawn to Cole.

While Grace and Sam are happy to have more time together now that Sam is no longer wolf, Grace's health has suddenly taken a turn for the worse. It starts off small but then her fevers get worse and Grace starts to reek of wolf, Sam fears this is no ordinary flu.

Linger seemed a bit slow at times, but halfway through, a new sense of urgency starts to take over. At first, I was not entirely sure what the plot was; it seemed that Grace and Sam's relationship was progressing and new characters were coming in. Things really start to pick up further into the novel.

Hopeless romantics, myself included, with be glad that Grace and Sam are going strong as ever, though sometimes their narratives got even too mushy and lovey-dovey even for me. Thankfully, this is balanced out by Maggie's expansion of the points of view to to include Isabel and Cole's voices. Cole may come off as the angsty teenager type, but it works with his extreme cynicism and arrogant charm. He and Isabel's POV's quickly became my favorite parts to read, especially when the two met. Isabel and Cole each struggle with their own demons, but their banter and how their relationship evolves was fun to read. It really helped balance out some of the sadness and urgency that started to grow as the story progressed.

Although I enjoyed Shiver more, most fans of the first book will not be disappointed. Maggie Stiefvater's fantastic ability to create unique characters that each have different but believable voices carries through in Linger. Ms. Stiefvater is able to portray images and emotions so vividly, it draws readers into her novels. Although the plot seemed much more evident in Shiver, I feel that the character development was much better and beautifully done in Linger, now that the focus is not just on trying to keep Sam human. I look forward to finding out what happens in the final installment of this series when it comes out!

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Maggie Stiefvater is the author of Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception, Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie, Shiver, and Linger.

Maggie Stiefvater's website (blog here) Shiver series Website Follow Maggie on Twitter @mstiefvater

Ms. Stiefvater has graciously taken the time out to answer a few questions!

If you could spend a day as any one of your characters, who would you like to be?
Well, they all have pretty tormented lives. I’d need therapy. I would like to be the girl from the candy shop in Shiver, because then I could stuff myself with sugar for an entire day and then abandon all those calories and stomach aches for my normal body the next. See my animal cunning there?

What is the most rewarding part about being an author?

I have a selfish thing and an unselfish thing. The selfish thing is when I get the first real copy of each book I write. I hug the cover and pet the pages and cuddle it and show it to everyone who can’t get away fast enough. The unselfish thing is when I get an e-mail from a reader whose life was really changed by reading the book in some unexpected way. I’ve gotten some emails that literally made me sniffly and you can ask anyone, sniffly is not something Maggies normally are.

What are your favorite childhood books?

I was a big fantasy reader as a pre-teen -- I would look for anything with the fantasy sticker in the library -- and as I got older, I decided Dean Koontz was da bomb. Then I gravitated back to YA fantasy again. I still love Diana Wynne Jones’ books.

What is your favorite word and why?

Revolting. Hey, you asked, not me.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
READ. A fantastic book is your best text book. Oh yeah, and google "how to write a good query."

Thank you so much for stopping by, Maggie!

Scholastic has graciously donated a finished copy of Linger for a giveaway! Interested in winning? Just fill out the form below!

Rules:
Open to US only (sorry!)
No PO Boxes please
Please only fill out the form once
Please enter by August 7th, midnight, EST.

extra entries:
+ 5 new or old follower of The Book Vault
+5 follower of me on Twitter (@BookVault01)
+3 if you tweet/post about this giveaway elsewhere (please include the link)
+2 if you comment on this post w/ your thoughts about the interview, Linger, or about Maggie's novels

Please fill out the form HERE to enter!
Good luck!