Shiver

Stiefvater, Maggie. Shiver. 2009. 390p. ISBN 0545123267. Book 1 of the Mercy Falls Trilogy. FIC STI on the library shelves and as an eBook on Overdrive.

A pack of wolves has always been present in the small town of Mercy Falls. Grace remembers being attacked by wolves when she was young, and ever since she’s been fascinated by them. Especially the gray wolf with the yellow eyes. She’s always looking out for him, feeling a connection she doesn’t understand.

When Grace enters the local bookstore, she notices that the clerk has similar yellow eyes. She meets Sam, who lives two very different lives. In the warm months, he is all man, working in the bookstore and spending time playing music. In the cold months, however, he becomes a wolf, hunting in the woods of Mercy Falls with the rest of his pack, the family he now lives with.

Grace and Sam are in a race against time, trying to spend as much time together as they can before the inevitable takes place and he turns into a wolf again with the impending winter. Can they stay true to each other, or will Sam finally be lost to the wolf pack forever?

Told from Grace and Sam’s point of view, each chapter tells the weather and hints at Sam’s status. The race to find a solution to their love before it vanishes is on. The story continues in Linger.