3/40: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have mixed feelings about this book. I would have loved to give it 3.5 stars instead of 4, but it wasn't a 3 star book either.
Sam and Grace are in a peculiar situation. They only get half a summer after 6 years of watching each other in the winter. Sam as a wolf, Grace as a girl. It's a tortured love story about struggling against nature to stay together.

It may sound like the classic werewolf story, but the rules are different in everyone. Maggie's rules for werewolves are what bring about the tortured love story for Sam and Grace. He changes to a wolf because of the weather turning cold and remains a wolf until the weather warms up.  As I am Canadian this seemed really brutal to me. It's cold for 6 months out of the year! Particularily today.

I loved Sam and Grace's story. I loved the characters. I got a little bored through the middle after being sucked in, but the end completely redeemed itself. To the point where I wasn't planning on reading the rest of the series and now have them on hold at the library.

The writing was beautifully done. I love that the text is the same color as the cover of the book. You have to look very close but the writing is in fact blue. The same is true for the next two books. Matching text to cover color. Brilliant!

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