Harcover: 400 Pages
Price: $11.46 from Amazon
Summary: For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf--her wolf--is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. In summer, a few precious months of being human . . . until the cold makes him shift back again.
Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It's her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human--or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.
Rating:
Review: I don’t know what to say about this book except that I. LOVED. IT. I’ve seen both sides to the argument concerning Shiver, and I think it’s pretty much you love it or you don’t, there’s not much in between. That’s only my view of it, but I can definitely see why.
Reason to love and save forever on your shelf: the story is beautiful. There is that lonely, waiting wolf with the yellow eyes in the woods, then the yellow-eyed boy with the sad smile who’s been waiting six years for the girl. I thought the book was very romantic, and I loved how the author developed Sam and Grace’s relationship and she made me love Grace and Sam themselves too. The concept was great and the execution was perfect. Sam and Grace’s points of view were put together well, and their experiences were bittersweet. I actually ended up crying a little right before the the end, but the story was definitely worth it.
Reason to dislike: the questions I was left with. A minor complaint I have is that I still had a couple questions at the end, but the engaging story was enough to cover those for me. The biggest problem I had was that the cure seemed pretty obvious for me, and I didn’t see why Sam and/or Grace didn’t realize it earlier. I’m guessing it was to allow time for the relationship to develop, but it still annoyed me a little. Another issue I’ve seen is language, so I’m going to touch on that really quickly. I, personally, loved the author’s language. I thought was flowing and descriptive and was a nice touch to the already beautiful story. It very rarely appeared to be too flowery for me, but I’ve read that it detracts from some people’s reading experiences.
And as an extra note, I liked the ending! It was pretty open-ended and left me wondering what was going to happen in the future, but it still gave me a sense of closure and I put this book down with a smile on my face.
Bottom Line: Again, restatement: I. LOVED. SHIVER. With well-developed characters and such a bittersweet, romantic story, I couldn’t help but sit down and devour the book in one sitting. I would definitely recommend this book to those that are big fans the paranormal and “intense relationships” (ie. Twilight) since the book is basically all about Sam and Grace’s relationship. Shiver left me wanting more, and I’m definitely going to pre-order the sequel, Linger, before it comes out in Fall 2010! That is, if I can shiver my way through this winter...
