From Vampires to Werewolves

I was running out of vampire books (good ones, that is) and remembered that I had read good reviews of Maggie Stiefvater's latest novel, Shiver. Wow. For the first 60 pages or so, I remember thinking, this is interesting, but I'm not sure where it was going and then, WHAM the plot took off and I was rapidly flipping pages eager to see what would happen next.

Stiefvater is a beautiful writer - so lyrical, so poetic at times - and her characters are well-drawn and extremely likable. The chapters alternate between Grace, the teenage girl who had been attacked by wolves when she was small, and Sam, the werewolf who saw his pack take her from her tire swing and ended up saving her life. Years later, she has always looked for "her wolf"- the one with the bright yellow eyes who saved her and has regularly appeared in the dark Minnesota woods behind her home, his distinctive eyes gleaming.

But a classmate has gone missing, turned up dead and then subsequently disappeared from the morgue and his influential family has pressured the local government to shoot the wolf pack since they believe them responsible. Shots are fired and a distressed Grace, worried about her wolf, comes home to find a boy her age shot in the neck on the back porch of her home. A boy with the same yellow eyes as her wolf.

What ensues is a beautifully written romance of the first water - one of the novels I categorize in my head as "true love" story. Sam and Grace fall head over heels for each other, knowing that in reality they have loved one another for years, yet the looming concern of Sam becoming a wolf again and never changing back is ever present. The tension of the missing boy, the other werewolves, the head of the pack, Grace's friends finding out, all contribute to a compelling subplot and are deftly woven into the main plot. I might have to buy this one to reread and sigh over periodically. True love. There's nothing like it.