Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

[description from Amazon]

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.

Review:

I think I need to read summaries more closely before I ask for a book, because I did not realize how romance-y this book is. For some reason it never occurred to me that this was a big romace book, so if I used my brain a little more and figured that out, I might have liked it a bit more. Not to say that I didn't like this book- I did- but I definitely don't like it as much as some other people.

I liked the multiple points of view in the book, as it allowed Sam in particular to become a more developed character. Often in paranormal books the mythical creature person does not get a say, so they come off as too perfect. But because Sam also got to speak, more of his flaws- and Grace's as well- were able to be seen, so he was more realistic. One thing that did bother me about the multiple POV was that if I somehow skipped over reading the name of the person narrating on the first page of a chapter, I couldn't tell who was speaking. I don't know if I was reading too fast or what, but I couldn't always tell the difference between the voices.

The romance in the book is enough to keep things interesting, even though the romance is sort of dragged out. There are some cheesy-but-still cute parts during the development of Sam an Grace's relationship, but overall the romance is completely adorable. I liked how they actually had a connection that was apparent and seeing them fall in love was sweet. I had problems with the non-romance part of the plot, however. It seemed like bits of action would just pop up in between the romantic bits, or it would go "action-romance-action." The more adventurous parts of the story were exciting, but if a little more time were spent on them they could have been much, much better.

And I must mention that the writing is lovely- this is one of those books that sounds wonderful out loud.

Shiver will definitely appeal more to romance fans, but it can still be enjoyed, if not loved, by most readers.

Somewhere in the realm of 7.5-8/10

Links: Maggie's site/blog/twitter/the awesome Shiver stop motion trailer

Scholastic/Hardcover/$17.99/Amazon/B&N/Borders/IndieBound