Summary from Goodreads:
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.
Although I enjoyed it, I feel very conflicted about this book. Here are some of my thoughts:
** I really like Sam- maybe more than Edward Cullen. Sam is much less selfish. HOWEVER, I hated the "song lyrics" he made up throughout the story... seriously.
** Isabel is a very interesting character- I enjoyed reading about her progression through the book. I hope that she is present in Linger.
** The end made me really depressed and grossed out. Without giving things away, I was unhappy even with the attempted resolution of conflict.
** Maybe Grace is the cause of my discomfort. I'm afraid that the other characters are better developed than Grace is. I just don't really empathize with her. I'm curious to know if other people relate better to her.
** Did anyone else notice the sentence with both the words "shiver" and "linger" in it? This reminded me of how excited I was when The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy used "hagrid" and "dumbledore" as words on the same page!
I will give this book 4 stars. I might change it to 5 after I think about it, but right now, I'm feeling 4 stars. Shiver was a great combination of action, drama, intrigue, and romance, and the plot premise seems very unique to me now that I have read the book. The summary from the book jacket did not really appeal to me. The book was edgy with respect to thematic elements (by which I mean it might not be appropriate for younger or queasier readers).
All in all, I drove to the library within two hours of finishing it to pick up the sequel, Linger.
Let me know what you thought about this book! Do you agree with my comments, or did you have a different perception?
I really wasn't the biggest fan of Shiver. There was something about it that I didn't connect with, and I thought the romance thing was a bit too formulaic. That said, I had an ARC of Linger, and I liked it a lot better. I still don't think Shiver needed a sequel though.
ReplyDeleteGreat review :)
I enjoyed Shiver. It did a great job setting up the mood of the novel and the writing was absolutely beautiful. Grace is a little hard to get behind because all she really likes to do is sit around and watch the wolves and after Sam isn't in wolf form, she sort of sits around and watches him. So what I'm trying to say is I understand why you didn't love her. She wasn't enough to drive me off the novel and it's still one of my favorite because for me, the good far outweighed the bad.
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