Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Title/Author: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Publisher/Date published: Scholastic, first published in 2009
How I got this book: bought it at a booksale, yay for booksales!
Why I read this book: I heard really good things about it and though werewolves aren't really my thing, I decided to read it anyway.

Goodreads summary: "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."

I'm not really into werewolves. I'm not sure why, I'm just not. So, even though everyone and their aunt has been raving about this book, I've put off reading it. Until I found it at a booksale and couldn't resist buying it (I have a serious book buying addiction and I can't for the life of me resist a bargain).

It seems that around the blogosphere, this is one of those infamous 'hit-or-miss' reads. And it wasn't for me, I think I actually fell right into the middle. While I didn't love it, I didn't dislike it. And the werewolve thing actually didn't bother me that much, so props to the author for that.

I thought the whole taking the werewolve thing literally (in Dutch it's called a weerwolf, which translates literally as weather-wolf) and making it be the cold that changes them instead of the moon was really interesting. I also appreciated the not going crazy killer of the wolves when they transformed. They just went canine, not killing machine. Definite yay for that.

Grace, though she seems like a nice girl, did not make me care for her. She felt a bit disconnected and even though she thought about how much she loved Sam, I just didn't really feel it myself. Her parents aren't very parental and because of this, Grace had to be the grown up in that family and does not appreciate her parents suddenly trying to tell her what to do when it comes to Sam. The only time I felt connected to her was when she let herself be real about the hurt her parents cause her by being so absent.

A rare thing for me, I actually connected more to Sam. I almost never connect very well to boys, it's easier with girls/women. Sam is a beautiful boy/wolf and I loved that he had lyrics in his head for the things that happened around him. He has huge emotional scars from his past and I felt so sad for him for what he went through. And I loved how he was trying to be such a gentleman around Grace, he seemed almost from another time.

It all went a bit slow for my taste, but the ending had a bit of an unput-downable factor, though not really edge-of-my-seat-oh-my-gosh-shut-up-I'm-reading!! quality. But it was an enjoyable read and I will probably read the sequel.

My rating: 3 stars