Shiver

I love original stories and books, and this book was seemingly a little too close to Twilight. Like Twilight, it is also a trilogy. It was a romantic story, with Grace and Sam as the protagonists. While Twilight has Bella and Edward. This story was about werewolves, while Twilight is about vampires. It seems like the author was trying to ride on Stephanie Meyer's coat tail here. While it's a great book for young adults, I suppose (teenage girls, especially), I found it very difficult to stay interested. While the plot was very intricate and the characters well developed, Grace and Sam's relationship seemed so romanticized that it was completely unbelievable. In my 30 years on this planet, I've yet to meet a guy like Sam, nor would I want to really. He was borderline obsessed with Grace. I like to read about characters with real problems. I guess I'm mostly partial to nonfiction or realistic fiction. I usually don't like happy endings either, because that's not how life usually turns out, but this ending was great. I was glad to see that Sam was able to come back to Grace. I think that the author has offers some good things to the readers in this book, like the way they value their education, or the way they portray sex as something special rather than something one just rushes into. The author also stresses the importance of good friends and family to offer support in times of need. I just feel like it sets teen girls up for an expectation of a relationship that doesn't exist.