Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) by Maggie Stiefvater

Soo first review!

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (The Wolves of Mercy Falls: Book #1) actually came out in 2009 and there is a sequel (Linger) and a new book coming out soon (Forever) and it's going to be made in to a movie! I remember hearing about Shiver two years ago, but I could never get my hands on it (or I never really made the effort to lol). I did, and I am so glad that I finally got the chance to read it :)

Let me just say that I am pretty much over vampires (I was pretty over any other mystical creature-teen novel- of the sort too :P). For some reason, I really did enjoy this book though. It was intriguing and interesting, and definitely hard to put down. I probably wouldn't read it again, but I would read the other books in the series. And I am definitely team-werewolves now! None of these silly undead vampires for me! Haha ;)

Something that I did find a little strange was how she and Sam have supposedly loved each other even when he was in his wolf form. Which means that she was in love with a wolf? And a wolf was in love with a human? I just didn't really understand that part of the story lol.

I also had some unanswered questions, such as the ENDING! The ending was way too mysterious for me, but at the same time I liked it because it gave me something to think about. I was left wondering what had happened and how it happened. But I was happy that the characters got their happy ending after all :) Even though I would like to know how exactly it had happened because the author was pretty cryptic haha. I would also like to find out more about the "cure" and the wolves and their stories, and what made Olivia so different, and Grace's human-with-a-little-wolf-in-her. Maybe the other books will go into more of the details about those topics and answer my questions.

Now, the characters. I didn't really find myself relating myself to anyone in this story, except for the romantic bits with Grace and Sam (and this is only because I have a boyfriend and all these little moments make me be like "awwww!" and then sad because I wasn't with my boyfriend lol). Grace and Sam's backgrounds should have been explained more and all the other characters' parts really aren't that big so it's almost like they aren't even there. In the beginning of the story, it talks about Grace's friends, but after talking to Sam, she gets lost in Sam-world and her friends basically are absent from the story.

Also, for a story with werewolves, it was pretty action-less. Like there wasn't any huge fighting scene or anything that was a little disappointing :/ But it was a little suspenseful when they were always fighting to keep Sam out of the cold.

I did like the overall story though, and the interesting take on werewolves and how they change due to temperatures and such. I also must say that I am a bit in love with Sam, possibly because he seems so sweet and tormented (and he writes songs!) and he reminds me of my boyfriend. <3 hehe **sigh**

I really did like this book, and I look forward to seeing what will happen to Grace and Sam in Linger and Forever. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a non-human romance and to Twilight fans (who aren't totally love struck for vampires so that they'll have some love for werewolves too!!)  I would give it a 4 out of 5 stars :)