Sunday, June 19, 2011

Shiver series

The Wolves of Mercy Falls
When Grace falls in love with Sam, a boy who must become a wolf each winter, they must decide how much they're willing to risk in order to be together. 
Shiver
For years, Grace has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—is a chilling presence she can't seem to live without. Meanwhile, Sam has lived two lives: In winter, the frozen woods, the protection of the pack, and the silent company of a fearless girl. 
 
Shiver is of my favourite books, the series is way up there with the Fallen series in my opinion (above Twilight). I think this is because it is more real (well not exactly with the werewolves) but it has a story line- from Graces point of view which I am sure a lot of teenage girls can relate to with their parents always busy at work and needing to look after themselves.  
Shiver is primarily told from Graces point of view- where you can relate to her life of being a teenager at secondary school that needs to revise, has over protective parents and has a thousand other things troubling her mind. But we also get to see the story from Sam's perspective. Although he is content with his life, happy about being who he is- a werewolf. Because he is completely grateful and loyal to the pack leader who had been like a father to him. After having parents like his own, who tortured him when the curse first took over him- held his down in the bath while they cut his wrists and tried to bleed the curse away- he is left a tortured young boy and loves the winter when he is a werewolf and can not remember those days. 
The popular girl at school has a brother, one day he goes missing and his father leads a team to hunt down the werewolves sure they are to blame. Her brother has been infected and is running around the woods, lying on the floor naked in his human form, unsure of what is happening to him. Sam is losing friends to the hunters, trying hard to escape their bullets. A bullet in his body leads him to Graces back door.
The story is slightly slow, but that makes it even more better as the love that grows between Grace and Sam- the young boy who works at a book shop with golden yellow eyes, who plays guitars and write songs, who has a haunted past and scars all over his wrists, who has a deep secret; a family different from most; a pack his werewolf family- you feel their love touch your own heart and you feel you're apart of the story, apart of the love. So when that love falls apart your heart will break with it.  
Grace was actually bitten when she was younger, but her father left her in the car by accident on a hot summers day and they believe this is what caused her. So a cure is suggested, it is Sam's only choice. His pack are slowly dieing of because of something they do not know and he wants to be with Grace. Himself and the popular girls brother are injected with a disease which is thought to counteract with the curse, raise a high temperature like when Grace was left in the car and kill the curse. But after weeks of suffering from the disease the brother dies. Grace hasn't seen Sam since his werewolf form ran off and thinks the worst, believes shes lost him forever.
But then he emerges from the woods behind her house and he is cured. 
They can be together.  

 Linger
This is the story of a boy who used to be a wolf and a girl who was becoming one. Just a few months ago, it was Sam who was the mythical creature. But now it is spring. With the heat, the remaining wolves will soon be falling out of their wolf pelts and back into their human bodies... 
 
In Linger Grace and Sam are happy, moving on with life. But Sam is finding hard to adjust to a werewolf free life. He is still worried about the rest of his pack, about what is killing them off. The sister of the brother who died is finding it hard to cope.
A new character is introduced, a new werewolf turned by the leader. The sister realises what he is, but can't help falling for him, even though she hates what he is because the curse took her brother.
But nobody realises who he is, Cole is really a celebrity, a singer from a famous band who is missing. If anyone realises who he is now, all of the werewolves are damned. But Cole doesn't care, he doesn't care about anything; he used drugs in his former life to escape and now he uses his werewolf side to forget his human life.
Grace falls seriously ill and no one knows whats wrong with her, she's on the verge of death. Cole is smart, he figures it out after hours, hours Grace does not have to spare. The werewolves are dying off because of the curse, it shortens their life. Grace had been bitten around ten years ago and the curse is still in her blood. The only way to save her is to refresh the curse. Cole lets the curse run into her blood and werewolf Grace runs off into the woods while a cured (for a few years) Sam is left as the human this time.

This story is thrilling, amazing, hooking. It shows you the length people will go for love, to protect them, to keep there memory, to save them. I can not wait for the third book of this series (Forever) to come out because I am truly in love with Grace and Sam's story. If you love the Fallen series, the Immortal series, Twilight then this book will blow you away. 
It is different, a heart aching love story that will leave you wanting more.

1 comment:

  1. This book had a tremendous amount of potential, but it fell way short of a Twilight or other paranormal read. The writing is fairly strong, I suppose it's the main character and her relationship with her parents and the wolves that's beyond incredulous. Don't know how I'd get away with a boy sleeping in my house without the parents knowing.

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