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

Grace and Sam share a kinship so close they could be lovers or siblings. But they also share a problem. When the temperature slips towards freezing, Sam reverts to his wolf identity and must retreat into the woods to protect his pack. He worries that eventually his human side will fade away and he will be left howling alone at the lonely moon. A stirring supernatural teen romance.

For years Grace has watched the wolf who would sit in her backyard and he watched her back. Sam is a werewolf and after being jolted back to his human state by a bullet, he and Grace get to spend time together as human and human. However, what seems perfect is hardly that as these star-crossed lovers have to face opponents such as a volatile young werewolf, the biting temperatures of winter, and the knowledge that the time they have now will most probably the only time they have together forever, as Sam knows that the next time he turns lupine, he is never going to turn back.

Sam is one of the most angsty characters I have ever encountered. To be fair, his plot in life is pretty lousy, what with his humanity running away from him, but the dude is way more emotional than any other straight guy in literature. The only reason why I put up with him was because Grace balanced him out perfectly with her sensibility and pragmatism. The only thing that got Grace emotional was Sam, which rounded out her character nicely. Each of the pair kept the other from being totally unreadable.

Instead of being rooted in magic and fantasy, Maggie Stiefvater tries to provide a scientific and biological explanation for all of the mystical happenings in her book. Rather than attribute the wolves' shifting and nature to magic, she paints lycanthropy as a disease, one which the characters are frantic to find a cure for. I know this isn't the only book of its genre that claims to be scientific and not necessarily magical, but the difference between this book and all the rest is that the biology in Shiver actually seemed realistic and wasn't a weak explanation that attempted to make some sort of sense.

I love epilogues. I love reading about what happens after the events of the book are over and everyone moves back to their normal but now changed lives. Shiver had something better though. While reading the last chapter I resigned myself to the events of the book and was prepared to write it off as an angsty read and nothing more, until I reached the last page. I don't want to give it away but this book is totally unpredictable and I advise any potential readers not to give up in the middle.

4.5 stars.