Waiting on Wednesday

Every week Breaking the Spine hosts the bookish meme for book bloggers to share what books they are waiting on to be released!  This week I’m waiting on: 

Release Date: September 10, 2013

Mac can’t lose another friend. Even if he doesn’t want to be found. 

The ripple effect caused by Mac’s best friend Amy’s murder has driven Mac’s new love, Kyle, to leave Hemlock and disappear from her life forever. But Mac knows that Kyle plans to enroll in a rehabilitation camp, where he can live with other werewolves. She refuses to accept his decision, especially since the camps are rumored to be tortuous. So she sets out in search of Kyle with a barely sober Jason—and Amy’s all-seeing ghost—in tow. 

Clues lead Mac to find Kyle in a werewolf den in Colorado—but their reunion is cut short by a Tracker raid. Now Mac and Kyle are trapped inside the electric fences of Thornhill, a camp for young werewolves. As she devises an escape plan, Mac uncovers dangerous secrets buried within the walls of Thornhill—and realizes that the risk to the people she loves is greater than ever before.

Book Review: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

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. In summer, a few precious months of being human… until the cold makes him shift back again. 

Now, Grace meets a yellow-eyed boy whose familiarity takes her breath away. It’s her wolf. It has to be. But as winter nears, Sam must fight to stay human—or risk losing himself, and Grace, forever.

Shiver was good.  It wasn’t great.  But it wasn’t bad either.  I think that I have read so many good books lately that this one just didn’t quite compete with those.  What I liked.  I liked the idea behind the book.  That once a human is bitten the do not turn in to a werewolf on a full moon or when they are angry.  It has more to do with the time of year, when it is cold specifically.  Cold brings on the wolf.

I also like the idea the as a wolf they retain little to none of their human thoughts, morals, or beliefs and vice versa.  That is an intriguing concept.  I mean how much more freedom do you have as a wolf if you do not retain your humanity.  You are not concerned that you just killed Bambi or little Jonny from across the street.  You are just glad you got some meat.  So that is pretty cool.  I also like the concept that you eventually fully change into a wolf and never return to your human nature.  That puts a timeline on what you want to accomplish in your life time.  I thought it was good that Maggie Stiefvater explained that moving to a warmer climate did not work to hold off the wolf part of you.  In fact, it makes things worse.  Your body adapts and is more sensitive to the weather changes.

 

What I didn’t care for.  The parents are totally oblivious to the third person living in their house.  Come on now.  I think even the most spacy parents would notice that.  Also I wasn’t a huge fan of the POV switching.  I found it to be slightly confusing.  Also the “cure” seems a bit dangerous and very reckless.   But the ending, oh boy, well played. That almost has me wanting to read the rest of the series.  Almost.  Be warned this book does have some sexual content so I would say it is appropriate for 16 and older. 

3.5 Bards

This review was submitted to A Midsummer Night’s Read by Missy