Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

If you go into Shiver (Scholastic Press, 2009) thinking it's just another Twilight wannabe, you'll be pleasantly surprised. I'd heard there was a lot of buzz about this book upon its release, and now I understand why.

Yes, it's about werewolves. Yes, it's a star-crossed teenage love story full of angst (but not the whiny kind, which was nice). Yes, there is action and a bit of gore, and yes, the story transports you to a world where you believe that being bitten by a wolf could actually transform you into something you weren't before. But in the hands of author Maggie Stiefvater, Shiver absolutely stands on its own.

As a young child, Grace was attacked by wolves and dragged into the forest behind her Minnesota home. Somehow she survived and now, years later, feels a connection with those same wolves — well, one in particular. She sees him only during  the winter months, and pines for him until the weather turns cold again.

The autumn Grace is 17 is different. A boy in her school is killed in a wolf attack, but his body disappears from the morgue. His father organizes a hunting party and shoots some of the wolves, and Grace finds a wounded boy with yellow eyes on her back porch. She knows immediately that this is her wolf in human form.

The more Grace learns about Sam and his pack, and how he became what he is, the more she realizes she has a greater connection to the werewolves in her forest than she thought. The ending is somewhat of a cliffhanger, but odds are you'll have already bought the follow-up Linger (Wolves of Mercy Falls, Book 2) by then anyway. 4 bookmarks.