Sinner (Shiver) by Maggie Stiefvater (2014-07-01)

Cole St. Clair & Isabelle's story was worth the wait. Loved their back & forth banter, the L. A. setting & even Leon. Great ending to a fabulous series but Ms. Stiefvater, if you wish to write another, I would be more than happy to read it!

This one is different from the other three in the series because its just jumping back and fourth between Cole and Isabel and it gets very boring reading the same two names. It wasn't as interesting to me as the other 3 books where you had the perspectives of Sam, Grace, Isabel AND Cole. This just focuses on Cole trying to get his music career in order

Usually really enjoy Maggie's work, however, this one was a bit hard to follow and the subject matter was disinteresting. Not really a sequel to the Wolves series as much as a completely different storyline. Some may really enjoy it - my expectations were different than what I received from this book.

The writing style was great ..but the phase of the book was so slow ,not to mention that it didn't have much plot in the first place...to me Cole's and Isabel personalities were always sad/mad/depress/ confused...so if it looking for a nice ,love story this is not it....so I'm sorry but I couldn't like this...I loved the forever trilogy but this was just not what I was hopping...if I can say one thing I liked about it was the ending.

Ok, so I finished Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater almost 3 weeks ago but I was putting off actually getting online and typing up a review because I am exhausted. Well, I'm less exhausted now than I was before... but still. So, sorry there hasn't been much activity on the blog as of late.

I was super stoked when I heard Sinner was coming out. I loved the Wolves of Mercy Falls series and I was so sad when it was all over. I was even more stoked when I learned that this one would be following Cole and Isabel. I love the Grace/Sam story with all my heart, but I wanted to know where Cole's story went.

Cole has gone to Los Angeles to find Isabel. In the process he's also supposed to be filming some kind of reality show and making a new record with a new band. Or at least, mostly new. Isabel is happy to see him, and she isn't happy to see him at the same time. She doesn't want to fall in love with him because she doesn't want to be hurt and she thinks that Cole is definitely the kind of person who is going to hurt her.

I have to admire Cole and his persistence. And the fact that even in the face of blatant temptation he didn't let his former addiction overcome him and cause him to undo all of the things that he's accomplished since becoming a wolf. I loved his carefree attitude and I loved being able to just be inside his head. He was trying so incredibly hard with Isabel.

Isabel kind of ticked me off a bit, but then I had to remember that she was putting up with a lot when it came to Cole's reality show. A lot that she didn't really have to put up with at all. And she was doing so quite well for the most part. I cut her some slack even though a few things she did still irritated me. Like insisting that Cole was doing things he shouldn't without really giving him a chance to plead his case.

She'd put up a wall though. One that she wasn't sure she wanted to put down for Cole. Well, in a way, she desperately wanted him to bust right through it and sweep her off her feet and carry her off in to the sunset with his mustang... but the rational part of her wanted to keep the wall in place because the lifestyle he was accustomed to (and she wasn't) was one that normally would have lead him to tear her heart to pieces and leave her broken on the ground. He had to prove himself. Over and over again. And I think he did that with flying colors. I love Cole. I really do.

And it doesn't hurt that when I read his chapters I hear Dan Bittner's voice in my head.

This was a great installment in the series. A definite deviation from the normal back and forth between Sam and Grace and their sort of ... innocence. Both Cole and Isabel are world weary and tired of the phoniness of people and the hurt they've gone through where as Sam and Grace were full of hope. Cole and Isabel hold each other up, though. They kind of find a new strength in each other and it makes the world not seem as bad.

If you've read the rest of the series, you should absolutely pick this one up. It's a fantastic read.

When the Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy ended, I was dissatisfied and I wanted more. I was eager to grab this one up because the author did the unexpected and despite feeling she was done with the wolves, she came back and gave more. Thank you so much, Ms. Stiefvater! This was a follow-up story that turned away from Sam and Grace to take up Cole and Isabel's story. And knowing that was enough to have me eagerly cracking open this story and diving right in.

Cole is making his comeback after two years of being off the scene when most people thought he was dead. He has chosen to make that comeback in a spectacular way by appearing on a reality show that will follow him through his first six weeks back into the music industry. But the choice of LA? Easy. That's where Isabel is. Cole wants it all his career and Isabel.

Isabel is going through the motions after moving with her mom into her aunt and cousin's LA home. Pre-med college work and moonlighting as an assistant to a fashion designer is how she spends her days. Then Cole St. Clair bursts back into her life and makes her feel and live again. Feeling and living are not good because falling for Cole is the worst thing she could do since he's a dangerous bet on a good day. She decides to try to straddle the line by being around Cole, but remaining aloof. And that turned out soooo well.

Cole picks his way around Isabel's trust issues and her poised and ready to run behavior even while realizing that being up to the schemes of the producer of the reality show whose goal seems to see him break and fall apart for all the viewers. He is determined that he's clean and he's changed, but nobody seems to believe him. And then there is the guilt over Viktor and the past. Cole faces so many challenges with most of them being internal, but the biggest one is still busting through Isabel's hard shell.

The story is one big long piece of the feels. Cole acts like a druggie swinging from highs to lows as he attempts to put the pieces of his life back together. Isabel goes for the 'avoid life' strategy that only works for so long. The two of them swap the first person narration back and forth with much of the story spent caught in their own heads. It gets pretty angsty and I confess that even though I was rooting hard for them to find a way to fight through their issues and make a go of it together; I was also pretty close to done with the 'woe is me' stuff. Granted they had tough rows to hoe, no doubt, but the downer 'tudes were just not something I was in the mood for I guess. The end came fast and I would have liked some stuff that was probably assumed to be verbalized particularly since Isabel spent a good portion of the book getting the wrong idea about Cole.

The character development, dialogue, the general plot and world of music setting were all really strong components to the story and really helped to make it shine. The romance is mostly spent apart and tentative two steps forward and one step back stuff so the reader definitely has to be patient for that to work through. The only sexy scene is fade to black so I suppose this would fall more into the sweeter end of the romance spectrum and appropriate for most YA age readers as well as adults.

I probably should point out that this book should be read in order with the Wolves of Mercy Falls series for the back history of Isabel and Cole.

To wrap it up, I thought it engaging and just what I needed for closure. It was just as difficult a romance as I imagined for these two though a bit more angsty than I care for. The book would fit for a YA audience, but the characters are NA age so its versatile. Fans of YA Paranormal romance should try this series.

My thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this one in exchange for an honest review.

I fangirled so hard when she first announced this book. The reason I kept reading the Shiver books was because of Cole and Isabel. No lie. He is one of my favorite male YA characters and for him to get his own book? Oh man, I was literally counting down the days. When I got my copy, I may have hugged it (actually, I did, I won't lie). But the big question is, did it live up to my expectations? Yes . . . and no.

We'll start with the no part first, shall we? I was expecting more paranormal but what I got was more contemporary. Not necessarily a bad thing except when you're a person like me who isn't the biggest fan of YA contemp. However, I said I didn't care because I mean, hello! It's Cole St. Clair and Isabel Culpeper. But really, this was my only negative thing about this book. I'd say that's a pretty good thing, right?

On to the good. COLE. Okay, so we got to be in his head in both Linger and Forever but having an entire book (okay, really more like half since it's split with Isabel but you get my point) from him and about him? Oh yeah, I'm all over that. I may not have loved the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, as Sam and Grace bored to me death but I liked it enough that the chance to read more made me do the jig. The one thing I loved most but also frustrated me the most about this book was the fact that both Cole and Isabel were dealing with personal demons. Isabel frustrated me more than Cole did but I think that's because Cole has such a laid back personality that you just shrug it off. Let's be honest, Isabel has family issues. We came across these issues in the previous books but you really see a lot more in these books. Because of this, she doesn't believe in love and definitely doesn't believe in marriage but yet, she can't escape these feelings she has for Cole, again.

There are random appearances, per say, of both Sam and Grace so fans of the previous books will get a little excitement out of those. They're both short but I enjoyed having them in there. Cole makes friends with one of the most random guys in this book and you know what? It's one of the best parts about this book. You don't have to be a somebody for Cole to take notice of you, you just have to hold his interest enough to care. I want to meet someone like him in real life, I just feel like it would be an adventure in itself.

For those who love romance and kissing, let me just say you will not be disappointed. There is so much kissing and Cole's version of romancing that it made me giddy reading it.

If you liked the Wolves of Mercy Falls series and especially if you're like me and a big fan of Cole, this is something you don't want to miss out on. However, if you haven't read the series, I feel like this could be read on it's own and you'd enjoy just the same. There's references to things that happened in the previous books but they tell you enough about what's happened that I don't think you'd be lost.

Reviewed by Jessica @ Step Into Fiction

3.5/5 stars

This fourth book was definitely my least favorite in the series, but I still enjoyed it. Even though I loved Isabelle and Cole in the original trilogy, as I had feared, they were a little bit easier for me to take in small doses. A whole book from just their two somewhat cynical and messed-up POVs was harder to swallow. This companion to the original series felt more like a New Adult novel to me, both in tone and subject matter and since I listened to it directly after the others, it was hard not to compare. Still, I did love the concept of Cole’s wolfishness being sort of like an addiction for him. And I also felt for him when no one seemed to want to forget his past and give him a chance at a future. This companion gets 3.5 stars from me.