Shiver

Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater

the cold. 
Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn't know why. 

the heat. 
Sam has lived two lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace...until now. 

the shiver. 
For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But once it's spoken, it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human—and Grace must fight to keep him—even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future  From Good Reads 

I don't remember how I found this book.  But I saw it and wanted to read it.  Of course, in a post-Twilight world there are lots of comparables.  But Maggie Stiefvater says she wrote this before Twilight was written (who knows) and I didn't see enough similarities to think anything.  Vampire and werewolf stories have been around for a really, really long time.  I think it's funny how Stephenie Meyer gets credit for the current craze of paranormal romances when Dracula was written in 1897 and Anne Rice has been making money off this stuff for decades too.

Anyway.

I listened to this book on audio.  It was read by two actors, which irritated the heck out of me.  The book is told from two perspectives, Grace and Sams, so I guess that's why they did that.  But oh my the reader for Sam ... his inflection was not good.  So that made it difficult for me to like him as a character.  Eventually I had to focus on the words and less on the person saying them.  And I was able to get passed it and enjoy the story.

To that end, I really like the middle and end sections, the beginning was wicked slow.  And it seemed like there were a ton of story lines introduced with very little explained.  I think that will be rectified some in the later books (it's a triology).

By the end of the book I really liked Grace and Sam.  But my favorite character would have to be Isabelle.  She's hillarious.  I'll probably read Linger.  When it's available at the library.

Fans of Twilight will really like this book, I think.  But I'd stay away from the audio version.  The readers' distract from the story.