Back Cover Blurb:


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 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.

(Umm, theirs more and then I had to take the book back to the library and didn't finish writing the blub. I thought I did. Sorry. Now, I can't find the actual book summary that was on the book. So here's . . .)



Lynette's idiotic plot Summary:

Girl gets attacked by wolves. She finds strength during the attack by one wolf that is standing off to the side staring at her. They connect. He tells the other wolves to back off. They do. Girl's life is saved because of that one wolf. Girl grows up being fascinated by wolves and her wolf in particular who rooms the woods behind her home. Years later, a boy gets attacked by wolves and dies. Community is in an uproar. They want to get rid of the wolves. She tries to stop the vigilantes from shooting. She does. But one of the wolves gets shot and ends up in her backyard. Hey, it's her wolf. And hey, he turned into a boy. Turns out he's a werewolf. And as a side effect of being a werewolf, during the winter he's a wolf and during the summer he's a boy. They fall in love but winter is fast approaching.



LYNETTE'S TWO CENTS:

Before I begin my review, I have a Random Thought About YA Novels:

WHY, WHY, WHY do all the parents in YA's have to be idiots that should have never been allowed to have kids? That's very annoying. Especially as I am now a parent AND I'm pretty sure when my kids get older they're going to think that I'm a complete moron if they don't think that already! But still . . .. Be creative authors. Please. Let some of these kids have decent parents!

Anyhoo. I loved SHIVER. Loved it. I wasn't sure if I would at first because when it first started I was afraid it was going to have a Twilight feel. At first it felt like the author read Twilight, fell in love with the wolf pack and decided to write her own spin on that. I know that's not fair, but that's the feeling I had gotten, especially when two of the wolf characters had the same names as two of the wolves in Stephanie Meyer's series.

Those misconceptions fell away. Shiver is a slow build, but not in the way where you get bored put down the novel and want to read something else. It was a good build like s . . . oops, this is a YA review. Ignore that.

Anyhoo. Each scene builds upon the other. Usually, I'm annoyed with switching POV's between each scene or chapter, but I wasn't this time. It totally worked for the story. It didn't hurt that Sam and Grace were such dynamic interesting characters, that I longed to get deeper inside their head to get the other's take on the amazing things that were happening between them.

It's weird to say this about a YA novel, but the romance between Sam and Grace was very powerful. The emotional intensity was so well written. You could truly see why these two souls were moving toward each other and falling in love with each other. I really, really, liked that.

It also helped that Sam was the boy in high school that you should've dated but threw him over for the boy who ended up being a jerk and breaking your heart. That is to say, I had a major crush on Sam.

I also enjoyed Grace, which is weird. My experience with YA heroines isn't good. I loved that Grace was NOT a whiny emo baby like some heroines in YA series that shall remain nameless (cough –BELLA SWAN-cough, cough). Grace did have some annoying reactions but they were very minor, didn't last more than a paragraph if that, and hey, she's a teenager. It made her seem more real.

I really connected with the characters and was rooting for them to find a way to overcome the realistic conflict that prevented them from being together. Fair warning, they did have sex. It wasn't described in detail. The little that was there, was more about the emotions they felt than the act itself and it was very brief. Yet, it was powerful. I think the author should get major kudos for just that.

The middle to end of SHIVER was a roller coaster people. Seriously. I nearly cried when all hope seemed lost. To tell you more would ruin the plot, but it was very emotional when they were separated. I couldn't see how it was going to be resolved. Then the strong secondary characters that had been slowly weaved in came into play and really showed their colors. I loved that build-up.

I also have to say something other than loved right? I need a thesaurus or something.

The rollercoaster came to me when it looked like there was a resolution and then . . . (oops can't tell you that). Anyhoo, I’m like don't do this to me. Why are you separating them! Stop killing me!

Sidenote:
Yes, I do have a life. Yes, it's interesting. No, I shouldn't angst over fictional characters, but I can't help it.

Anyhoo . . .

It looks like all Hope is lost again. Then right at the end of the book something happens . . .and then the book ends.

Now, I'm begging for me.

Great, great story. Buy it! I am. Though I got this from the library, I'm totally going to buy it now anyway so ShaNayNay (aka Kindle) can have her turn.

WHERE PURCHASED:
Borrowed from my library, but I'm buying a copy. You should too. Scroll down and buy it!

RATING:
A