Shiver

Not gonna lie, a couple chapters into this and I started thinking, “What the hell am I doing?” This is about a teenage girl and teenage boy falling in love and not much else. It doesn't even pretend to be about much else, the wolves, the cold, they're just set dressing. Do I read books about teenagers falling in love and not much else?Apparently I do, and I enjoy them too. Or at least this one. Though I should clarify, Sam and Grace do not in fact fall in love. They already are in love by the time they meet in human flesh. They've pined for each other for years through different kinds of eyes and between trees. Sam as a wolf, Grace as a human girl who should be a wolf and still kind of is. Shiver is not quite as lush as [b:The Raven Boys 17675462 The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle, #1) Maggie Stiefvater https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1370659760s/17675462.jpg 18970934], the prose not as flashy, but it is a quieter, more simple story after all. The characters are likeable, and for Sam this is particularly remarkable, considering the pedigree of supernatural male love interests he has behind him. He's a sweet, intelligent, loving guy. Grace I don't entirely get. If the other characters didn't so frequently reiterate how rational and efficient she is, I never would have noticed. Likewise, her best friend Olivia I never felt like had much of a personality outside of her very last moment on page. Isabel I enjoyed thoroughly though - her acidic but self-aware dialogue reminded of the moments I like so much in The Raven Boys.And like that only other book I've read by Stiefvater, Shiver doesn't really have a core plot. It meanders in the same way. There are some attempts at an antagonist (Shelby I feel like exists entirely to set up conflict for later books), but mostly it's just Sam and Grace and their efforts to huddle close and keep out the cold. Despite this, it's not at all a chore to read. It's honest and sweet. It's a nice little something to curl up with when it's snowing out.