Forever - Maggie Stiefvater

Title: Forever
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Paranormal
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: 480
Date read: September, 2011

In "Shiver", Grace and Sam found each other. In "Linger", they fought to be together. Now, in "Forever", the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in.

Better than "Linger" but not nearly as good as "Shiver". It really is a huge disappointment that Maggie Stiefvater couldn't live up to the expectations she, herself, set in the first book. I think a part of it may be that she's just a tad too fond of open endings. Not that everything has to be tied up in nice little bows, but I do prefer that there aren't enough loose threads left hanging to risk the whole thing unravelling.

Also, I found it a shame that I ended up being a lot more interested in Isabel and Cole than in Sam and Grace. The two latter had become caricatures of themselves, with their Great Tooby Love(TM) being the only thing that defined them. Isabel and Cole were a lot more complex and interesting.

I did appreciate Grace's confrontation with her parents though. It was high overdue, even if there was a bit of it in "Linger" as well.

Ship of Magic - Robin Hobb

Title: Ship of Magic
Author: Robin Hobb
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 880
Date read: September, 2011

Bingtown is a hub of exotic trade and home to a merchant nobility famed for its liveships - rare vessels carved from wizardwood, which ripens magically into sentient awareness. The fortunes of one of Bingtown's oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia.

For Althea Vestrit, the ship is her rightful legacy unjustly denied her - a legacy she will risk anything to reclaim. For Althea's young nephew Wintrow, wrenched from his religious studies and forced to serve aboard ship, Vivacia is a life sentence.

But the fate of the Vestrit family - and the ship - may ultimately lie in the hands of an outsider. The ruthless pirate Kennit seeks a way to seize power over all the denizens of the Pirate Isles...and the first step of his plan requires him to capture his own liveship and bend it to his will....

It took me a surprisingly long time to finish this book - especially considering I ended up giving it 4.5 stars! But I find that's often the case when a book has many different storylines. I end up being so wrapped up in each of them, that I get almost disappointed when a new one takes over and it's therefore easier to put down the book, rather than just read on.

But Robin Hobb does spin a good yarn. I loved the Farseer trilogy, and so far this one hasn't disappointed me. I enjoy getting to know the characters (even if I wouldn't mind less of Kyle and Malta - those two infuriate me!) and am interesting in seeing what happens next.

It does frustrate me a bit that this first book was so obviously just seeing the scene for the two others - many issues were raised, but few (if any) were resolved. Fortunately I was aware that this would be the case before starting the book, so it didn't annoy me as much as it would otherwise have done, but it might have been a factor in how long it took me to finish the book.

But now that I have finished it, I can't stop thinking about it, and want to start the next one straight away!