Am I glad I took that chance? Well, it's sort of hard to say.
First off, Shiver is by no means a bad book. It has an intriguing and refreshing take on werewolves (something which should be saluted) and a narrative style which, while it might not be everyone's cup of tea, flows well and is dreamy to read. Unfortunately, what lets it down is its characters.
Let's start with the main characters, Sam and Grace. Sam is certainly likeable enough-he's a typical indie dream boy perhaps but he gets decent development and is easy to empathise with. Grace on the other hand...she's presented as the sort of girl who is reserved and private with her emotions, which is certainly a nice change from the usual whiny female protagonists that seem to plague these types of books. However, this does mean that you reach the end of the book without really getting the sense that you know her-not great considering she's one of the narrators. She's not a terrible character but she's not terribly compelling either. She's just sort of...there.
The side characters in Shiver are also ridiculously flat. Apart from Sam's 'family', every other character basically amounts to little more than a plot device. They have the shadows of a personality but nothing that really brings them to life.
As I said earlier, I bought the whole Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy at once, and after reading this book I was surprised by the fact there were two more. The book seems to come to a natural conclusion and one which works well. Does this bode well for the sequels? Probably not. Further books have the potential to seem like padding if there's no substantial plot to carry them. However, I have optimism for this series and as far as paranormal romances go, you could do a lot worse.
Overall Score:
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