Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

All I can say is this blogging business apparently takes a kind of dedication/discipline that I'm still working on developing but wished I was better at "right now".  I actually have been doing quite a bit of reading since I last blogged...I just didn't note them in the blog :(  ANYWAY since this school year has started and is settling a bit I thought I'd give it another try....

 I liked this story...one of the things I especially liked, was how easy it was to follow even though the storyline format is one where the story is told from the alternating points of view of two characters-- Grace and Sam.  This type of story device is often confusing for middle school readers, but this story flows seamlessly from Grace's telling into Sam's telling.  

 Grace is a self-reliant older teen who has in large part been raising herself since her parents are too involved in their jobs and own lives.  Grace is loved, but basically ignored.  One of Grace's longtime favorite activities been has been watching the wolves outside her Mercy Falls, Minnesota home every winter.  Grace is most drawn to one in particular wolf with amazing yellow eyes.  Grace is certain that this yellow-eyed wolf is the same wolf who saved her from a pack of wolves who attacked her when she was younger.

Sam leads two very different lives.  In the spring and summer, he's a human, but when the  temperatures cool in the fall and winter, he turns into a wolf.

When Grace meets Sam, they have an immediate connection and one look at his yellow eyes makes Grace  certain that Sam is her wolf because his amazing eye color is unforgettable.     Grace and Sam's connection is so strong that it doesn't take them long to realize that they've loved each other for years as impossible as that may seem.

As the temperatures get cooler, Grace and Sam struggle to keep Sam in his  human form.  The increasing cold threatens to take Sam  away from Grace forever  because the problem with being a werewolf  is that the longer you're a wolf, the less time you get to spend in your human form until one spring, you don't change back and are only a part of the wolf world for the rest of your life. One of my least favorite parts of the story is the way Grace goes about trying to keep Sam in his human form, but even then, I was amazed at her persistence and the lengths she would go to.

All in all an enjoyable read and I look forward to the next book in the series: Linger  which I've ordered for the library and should be arriving soon.

 My rating:

A good read.
Category: Fantasy/love story