Two-fer Review-fer You

When It Happens and Shiver


I decided to couple the review of these two books together. They do have similarities. They have distinct differences as well. I’ll cover both in my review. Let’s delve right in.

When It Happens by Susane Colasanti is a story of first loves. Sara is in her senior year of high school and wants to get into the college she been planning on attending forever, and to find true love. She thinks that true love lies in Dave, a jock striving to hang with the popular crowd. Tobey is also a senior, he wants to win Battle of the Bands and for Sara to fall in love with him. It’s interesting that sometimes we want the very thing that is wrong for us. It’s Tobey, not Dave who understands Sara. He gets all the little things about her and they have tons of things in common. Will Sara allow herself to fall for the slacker musician? True love comes in the most unexpected packages sometimes. Both Shiver and When It Happens are stories of first love. They both have alternating points of view in different chapters. One difference in When It Happens is that the chapters were in different font depending whose point of view the chapter was written in. This book was lovely and both Sara and Tobey taste in music was fabulous. They would mention songs, groups, etc. and it would really take me back. It might be a neat reference for kids today, but it took me back because I’m old. ;) Okay, I’m not ancient but I’m getting up there. I felt like Tobey was definitely more of a dudes dude. I also loved the fact that despite their similarities, they each were their own distinct person and had interests outside of one another. It was really a great read and I highly recommend it.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater is also a story of first loves. Grace has watched the wolves in the woods surrounding her house for many years now. When she was younger she was attacked by a pack of wolves and remembers a yellow-eyed wolf who goes against the pack and saves her. Ever since, she feels connected to this particular wolf and he becomes ‘her wolf’. The wolves are there in the winter but mysteriously gone through summers. Grace longs for her wolf through summers.

She meets a boy, Sam Roth with the same familiar yellow eyes. Her wolf is Sam, who takes human form in the summer and is a wolf in the winter months. Will it be possible to actually have any kind of life with Sam? Sam has loved Grace from afar so long now and he’s determined to share his last weeks of being human with Grace in as normal a fashion as possible. Will he shun the pack in favor of his love for Grace? Will they have more than a handful of weeks to spend together? This is an enthralling story of love and its restorative power on the human spirit.

I wasn’t so sure that I was going to be into this book. I’m glad I gave it an opportunity. I loved the fact that it delved into Sam’s past dealings with abuse, his feelings about being human and being a wolf. It wasn’t just a love story that remained on the surface, it plunged deeper than that and held my interest right up to the end. I can’t wait for Linger now.

This book was also told in alternating points of view between Sam and Grace. Each chapter was labeled with whose point of view that chapter was told in. I loved that because it let me know what frame of mind to be in as I started reading. I felt the different characters were believable and likable enough. I also found myself quite worried about the temperature. ;) Highly recommended read.