I have never been a huge fan of Maggie Stiefvater, although I will admit that I have not given her much of a chance. I read The Raven Boys about a year ago and I was just not overly impressed. However, I have had The Wolves of Mercy Falls series on my shelf for over 5 years, so I figured it was time to give it a shot. I was honestly pleasantly surprised by Shiver, enough so that I continued on to finish the series in less than a month. Yes, this book is juvenile. Yes, it is a victim of the werewolf craze of 2010. Yes, I can shamelessly say that I enjoyed this book. 

     Okay, so the basic plot of this book is that a girl falls in love with a boy who happens to be a werewolf in the cold weather and is only human in the warmer weather. I know, I rolled my eyes too, but this is a fun book for what it is. It is very reminiscent of the early 2010s, but it does the werewolf trend in its own unique, albeit kind of weird, way. I went into this book knowing that it wasn’t going to be a Pulitzer prize masterpiece, and I think this is what helped me to enjoy this book as much as I did. 

     Visiting the world of Mercy Falls felt very much like visiting Forks, Washington, in that very small-town feel where everyone knows one another. Mercy Falls is definitely a little bit bigger than Forks, but it just had the same feel to it. Maybe it’s just the wolves though, I honestly don’t know. 

     While I find both Grace and Sam to be more than a little bit melodramatic, their story is very sweet. There is never a question about how one feels for the other and there is no temporary breakup that I find to be kind of annoying in most romance series. Nobody cheats, nobody flirts, nobody even thinks about another person which could only add unnecessary drama and tension to the story until they finally realize they do not want to be with anyone other than each other. It’s refreshing really to have 2 characters realize they only love each other and want to be together more than anything. 

     The secondary characters are actually also pretty entertaining. Isabelle, Jack, Olivia and Beck are all interesting characters to follow and they are all clearly in each scene for a reason. Their presence makes sense and I don’t think the story would work the same way without them. In a lot of YA romance novels like this, the secondary characters are usually placeholders which is why I liked the secondary characters in this book so much. 

     I have finally read a book with excellent pacing! The last few books I have read have all had terribly slow pacing, but this book is exactly as long and as short as it should be. Nothing is really dragged out and nothing is skipped over, it is perfectly paced. 

     If I am being honest, the magic system in this series is kind of dumb. Wolves that only shift in the cold weather? Makes no sense to me and most of the time just makes me a little angry. There is a lot of gray areas involved in this and I have a lot of questions. If a wolf stays inside all winter with the heat on high, will it stay human? How does it work in the summer with the rain? I just think the magic system could have been fleshed out a little better. 

     One thing that I really appreciate about this book is the fact that the stakes are high and there are real consequences at stake in the conflict, and this is not one of the series that everything is always rainbows and sunshine and the major fights end up with no one getting hurt. I really respect when authors are not afraid to make lasting consequences for the choices the characters make. 

     I think that is all that I have to say about the first book in this series. I will be reviewing the rest of the series as well, but I can safely say that this is my favourite of the three. High stakes, developed characters and well-paced, this book was fairly entertaining and I am glad that I read it. 4/5 stars to Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.