Shiver - Maggie Stiefvater

Synopsis: the cold.
Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn’t know why.

the heat.
Sam has lived two lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace…until now.

the shiver.
For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But once it’s spoken, it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human—and Grace must fight to keep him—even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future.

Review: I loved Shiver. This book was so intense. It pulled you in from the very beginning and left you wanting more at the end.

This is the first book of Maggie Stiefvater’s that I have read, and I was impressed with amount of work she has put in to the character development in this book, which sometimes I find is not always at the same level in some other YA titles.

I really felt the connection that was built between Sam and Grace, and the sense of longing for each other when they couldn’t be together, as well as the urgency when they were. They made the most of every second they had with each other. It really had the same dynamics as a long distance relationship really, but played out in a different way.

I really loved that the book intensified with the situation regarding Jack. I love that there is a bad guy, but I also felt that there might be some hope left for him as well?

The storyline was fantastic, it left you on a little bit of a cliffhanger at the end though, so I am sure I will be starting the second book sooner than I had planned. But everything in the story had relevance and fit together. It was well written and the characters in the story as I mentioned earlier were well developed (not just Sam and Grace - all of them).

And it pulled at your emotions. It was relatable in a strange way, if you can look past the whole wolf factor, I know for myself, my boyfriend lives two hours away so when we see each other you make the most of the time you have. I bonded with that strongly. And I genuinely felt sad when Sam revealed to Grace that it would be his last Winter.

All in all definitely a fantastic read, I look forward to moving on to the next books in this series!

Rating: 5 out of 5

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