Memory Lane Monday #31 ~ Review ~ Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Memory Lane Monday is a weekly meme that Amber at Paradise of Pages and I, Kristalyn at The Sarcastic Palmtree, came up with. We have been wanting to re-read some of our favorites but feel overwhelmed by all the other new books coming out that our re-reads get put to the side. We have decided we don't want to put them aside anymore, so we will be taking turns putting up our reviews on our blogs throughout the month. This does not mean we won't keep up with recent releases, it just means we will make more time for those we have read before as well.

In Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other. 
Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. 
For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack. And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

You can read my memory post of Linger here.

At First Sight

I love the covers in this series.  I actually love the old versions better than the new although this is one cover change that didn't bother me too much.  I found Linger's cover to be very fitting.

Characters and Relationships

In Shiver we get to know Sam and Grace really well and while this is essentially their story, I absolutely love the relationship that is brought about with Isabel and Cole.  I think without their striking personalities and histories this book would have been very flat.  I love Isabel for her snark and quick thinking and Cole for all of his self-centered attitude.  It was so interesting to watch the evolution of Isabel and Cole from the beginning to the end of the book.  Cold especially is trying to escape a life he hated yet finding a way to actually help others in the one he has ended up in.  

Sam and Grace continue on in much the same fashion as in Shiver, their relationship being tainted by whatever illness there is plaguing Grace and also by her parent's disapproval of Sam in her life.  I actually can't stand her parents for the sole reason that they have been so absent from her life and I believe at 17 they can't just expect her to suddenly do as they please suddenly.  They are the poster children for absentee parenting at it's finest.  

Is this a kissing book?

Some kissing...yes, but the story isn't driven by the romance element of this series.  Nothing that I would consider inappropriate for anyone under age 12.

Don't leave me hanging

This is book 2 out of a 3 book series (with also a spin off book) so obviously we are absolutely left hanging at the end of Linger.

The Best Gems

• Resoluntions
• Paper Cranes
• Bad Kisser
• "The Boy"
• Seeing the doctor about wolfism
• NARKOTIKA

The Sum Up

Linger was is an excellent book and quite a great book to continue this series.  I loved it the first time I read it and I think I may have enjoyed it even more this time.  I think the first time around I didn't appreciate Cole for all he was and because I knew this time more what to expect from his personality I was able to fully appreciate him better.  

I would obviously recommend Shiver to most anyone age 12 and up.  I love this series so much and look forward to moving on to Forever and then I am excited to finally get to Cole's book Sinner soon after.  I truly forgot how much I love him as a character!

Here's how Memory Lane Monday works:

• Each week the co-hosts will trade off with recapping when it is a re-read or what they have heard so far about the book and the other co-host will put up their review. 
• The participants can read anything that they remember reading in the past, or something that they have wanted to read that has been around for a while and just haven't gotten around to reading it yet for whatever reason.
• Participants can decide if they want to recap the book before reading it or just put up a review of what they read.
• Anyone can join in, just please link back to our blogs as well as add your name to the linky so we can hop around and see what everyone is reading.
• Please put our banner on your post as well, so we all look the same!
• We ask you kindly to follow BOTH of our blogs.
• Most importantly remember to just have fun! :)

We will be providing each week a linky that you will be able use to link your posts for us and everyone else to see as well. All we ask is for you to put up our banner as well as a link back to both hosts on your post. 

#TGIT Recap Week 4

 To see last week's post click here!

Shondaland's Thursday Night Lineup continues.  We know that there's a lot that goes on each show, which means that there's a lot to forget each week. Here's a good summary for each so you can be ready to watch the next episodes tonight!  This #TGIT Recap starts in 3... 2... 1...

To start things off...

Grey's Anatomy

Only Mama Knows

  This episode focused a lot on what happened back in 1983 when Ellis got pregnant.  Ellis and Richard decide to tell their spouses that it's over.  Only Ellis ends up doing so and on the following day they meet at the carousel and break up.  Ellis tries to kill herself, but 5 year old Meredith calls 9-1-1 and saves her.  Why did Richard spontaneously break up with her?  He didn't want to live in jealousy in whole life, which is respectable.

  At the beginning of the episode, Meredith is watching her mom's Harper-Avery Award acceptance speech.  The next morning, they talk about D.C. once again and Meredith tells him again to take the job and go so they can both shine.  He ends up saying she's just like her mother, which doesn't go over well and later on she does the same thing to him.

  Despite the fact he lost the fight for the board seat, Ales is still hired again.  When he finds out the vote was unanimous, he asks around trying to find why.  Arizona ends up telling him that it's so he can take her job while she's a fellow.  Meanwhile, Maggie has told the board she's quitting.  Bailey, the new board member, keeps questioning Richard about it because they've been hanging out a lot.  He gives in and tells her Maggie is his daughter, which gives Bailey relief. 

  Derek is also on a mission to find out why Maggie is leaving.  She keeps on telling him to talk to Meredith about it.  After many times of asking, she finally just tells him that she's Meredith's sister.  He immediately welcomes her warmly into the family by giving her a big hug.  This weirds her out a little because she hasn't had this happen yet.

  Meredith gets one of her mother's journals from Richard to help with putting things together.  She shares what she found with Maggie at the end and they have a cool half-sister bonding time.  At the very end, we go back to Ellis' speech.  The question "Where were we?" follows a long pause.

Image: @GreysABC

*Spotlight*

Scandal

Like Father, Like Daughter

    First Daughter Karen, now played by actress Mary Mouser (who did a really good job BTW), calls Olivia to pick her sorry drunk self up at a party.  On the helicopter ride home, they discover a sex tape starring Karen and two random guys from the party.  When they find the one boy's parents, they ask for money in return for deleting the video.  When they meet again to make the deal, they ask for more money. Olivia ends up threatening to press charges for child pornography, and they immediately get rid of it and end up losing their $2.5 million in the process.

  Mellie is back to her new norm.  When she sees Olivia in the White House, she freaks out and goes to argue with Fitz in the Oval Office.  He gives her a nice long rant, as you can see in the picture above.  Once Fitz and Olivia get their first moment in the Oval together, he asks her why she'd leave everyone all by herself.  She made the mistake of not going along with it.  That's okay though, because once they kiss she tells him Jake went with her.

*Quick Advertisement!  Gettysburger has an awesome promotion right now:       When you buy 4 burgers, you get the 5th one for free!  :D

  Tom and Rowan have a nice meeting in the park.  Tom has to kill Jake because he knows too much, and if he doesn't succeed, he'll take Jake's place.  Jake goes to sit with Tom once Rowan leaves in order to get him on his side.  After this, Jake goes to visit David and asks him to reveal the B613 files to the public if anything happens to him.

  Uh Oh!  Red flags go up concerning Tom's whereabouts on the campaign trail.  He gets taken in for questioning and no more than a minute into the interrogation, Rowan walks in.  Tom is forced into telling the truth since there is solid evidence he killed Jerry.  What he lies about is Jake Ballard giving him the order to get the virus.  Jake is obviously arrested ASAP and sent to some secret location we don't know about yet.  It'll probably be the same place that they sent Huck to in season 2 for "attempting to kill the President".

Images: @ScandalABC

 What are the last 9 words? 

How to Get Away with Murder

Let's Get to Scooping

    Defending Rebecca seems pretty hard right now since she was forced into confessing for a crime she didn't commit.  Throughout the episode, Bonnie tries her hardest to get the confession tape.  She finally has to get it through blackmailing the guy in charge of evidence.  What did she blackmail him with you ask?  Well, she just happened to see Keating's ex boyfriend snooping around in Sam's car.  Once they get the tape, it's quickly proved that it wasn't the truth and the good guys have one again!
  This episode was focused more on Connor, mainly on the flash back side of the story.  On the flash forward part of the story, he cheats on his IT guy with another one in order to get information on the current case that day.  That guy shouldn't be a problem anymore because he killed himself shortly after he was made.
  Flashback Connor has completely lost it!  He's acting very crazy and he's just being weird right now.  The next morning, he heads over to IT guy's house and starts having a panic attack, saying he's completely screwed up.
  Back to the flash forward side of the story.  Wes finally found out was was on Lila's phone from Rebecca.  He decided to take it to Keating after that, and she makes it clear that nobody but the three of them can know about it.  After a whole minute-long dramatic scene of her taking off all her makeup, Sam walks in and she asks him her last nine words of the night.  I'm not going to tell you what they are though because that kind of ruins the mystery of the nine words.  Plus, if you already seen it... you know what they are.  

Image: @HowToGetAwayABC

There you have it!  Now that you're caught up, don't miss TGIT tonight starting at 8/7c on ABC!

Top Ten Tuesday ~ New Series I Want To Start

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by 

The Broke and the Bookish. 

This weeks topic: Top Ten New Series I Want To Start
in no particular order:

This is a 4 book series that only has one book out right now.  Book 2 comes out November 11 and I sure do love my hockey books especially by Lindsay Paige and Mary Smith!


That's my top ten list this week.  Leave me your links so I can visit and see what series you are looking forward to reading!