Spoiler warning: This will give away spoilers for the first book in the series, Shiver, but no spoilers from Linger.

In this follow-up to Shiver, the roles have reversed. Sam is human, and Grace can feel the wolf trying to break out of her. For the first time, she’s getting sick, and some of the wolves are dying. There are new wolves around, and one of them – famous rock-star Cole St. Clair – is an incredibly volatile person who may blow everyone’s cover.

I read Linger and Forever (book three, review to come tomorrow) back to back, so I honestly have a hard time distinguishing what happens in each book individually. Therefore, I’m just going to list a few things that I loved and a few things I disliked that may or may not be specific to Linger.

1. Cole is awesome. I don’t really like him as a person, but he and Isabel both brought this book to life in a way that Sam and Grace as narrators never did.

2. There’s still too much love-story emphasis, but not as much as the previous book. Better.

3. I was surprised, but not unhappy, that certain characters didn’t really show up again, or at least very little.

4. I was also surprised by the transition of Grace’s parents, especially her dad.

5. The scientific study aspects were very interesting. Another point to Cole.

6. I never really got much out of Sam and Grace’s relationship, which seemed idealistically unrealistic. Cole and Isabel’s dangerous flirtation was fun, though.

Okay. I think that’s all without going into spoilerific territory. The last thing I want to note is that this book was an improvement over the last in character, pacing, and depth. Spoiler alert for tomorrow’s review: Forever improved even more.