Maggie Stiefvater's tales of winter werewolves have always been far more striking and poetic than any other werewolf books I can think of. And she brings the story of Grace and Sam to a close in "Forever," a hauntingly bittersweet, sumptuously-written coming-of-age tale with a somewhat flawed finale -- it's a bit too rushed and pat, but otherwise quite satisfying. 
 Spring has returned Grace to her human form, but she's still unstable -- she keeps turning back into a wolf and running into the woods. Sam has spent the whole winter waiting for her, despite the people of Mercy Falls thinking he's a budding serial killer. And Cole is hotly pursuing a cure for lycanthropy, using himself as a guinea pig. 
 However, Sam and Grace's idyllic reunion is ruined by another death -- another girl is found savaged by a wolf (pretty obviously Shelby). Isabel's father arranges for the wolves to be exterminated (with HELICOPTERS), leaving the teens only a few days to lead the wolves to safety. Otherwise, Grace may be among the dead. 
 Maggie Stiefvater is one of the rare young-adult authors who has lyrical, hauntingly lovely writing. Fragmented thoughts arrange themselves into minimalist poems, and mundane situations take on the delicate crystalline quality of a romantic dream ("it was just me, broken into pieces, slivered like glass, made into something new"). 
 "Forever" centers on three important subplots -- the need to save the wolf pack from Isabel's revenge-obsessed father, the quest for a lycanthropy cure (especially for Cole), and the teenagers shedding their childhood problems as they prepare to set out into adulthood. The story drifts along between these three subplots, with some bloody, tightly-paced action scenes (like the grand finale) woven in. 
 And her characters are just as brilliant as her writing -- four troubled teenagers, who are breaking away from their pasts and their weird parents. Grace and Sam settle into an idyllic little world of their own, but are haunted by the hostility towards Sam and Grace's feelings about her parents. And Stiefvater spends a lot of time focusing on Cole and Isabel's tumultuous relationship, as Cole goes all brilliant mad scientist. 
 One problem: the ending is rushed. Isabel, Cole and Grace take dramatic actions that seem like they should have massive consequences... but they don't. At all. Shouldn't Isabel's dad be having a rage-induced stroke or something? 
 The payoff feels rushed and a little incomplete, but otherwise "Forever" is a striking, romantic little finale for Stiefvater's brilliant trilogy. This is everything "Twilight" failed to be.