"Shiver"...What did I really think?

This past weekend I finished "Shiver" by Maggie Stiefvater. I had really looked forward to reading this book. I had heard many good things from my friends who had already read "Shiver". For those of you who have not heard about "Shiver" or have not had a chance to read it, here is the blurb about it...

"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. "

Here is an excerpt from the book; the beginning of chapter one:

Chapter One Grace

15°F

I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves. They were licking me, biting me, worrying at my body, pressing in. Their huddled bodies blocked what little heat the sun offered. Ice glistened on their ruffs and their breath made opaque shapes that hung in the air around us. The musky smell of their coats made me think of wet dog and burning leaves, pleasant and terrifying. Their tongues melted my skin; their careless teeth ripped at my sleeves and snagged through my hair, pushed against my collarbone, the pulse at my neck.

I could have screamed, but I didn't. I could have fought, but I didn't. I just lay there and let it happen, watching the winter-white sky go gray above me.

One wolf prodded his nose into my hand and against my cheek, casting a shadow across my face. His yellow eyes looked into mine while the other wolves jerked me this way and that.

I held on to those eyes for as long as I could. Yellow. And, up close, flecked brilliantly with every shade of gold and hazel. I didn't want him to look away, and he didn't. I wanted to reach out and grab a hold of his ruff, but my hands stayed curled on my chest, my arms frozen to my body.

I couldn't remember what it felt like to be warm.

Then he was gone, and without him, the other wolves closed in, too close, suffocating. Something seemed to flutter in my chest.

There was no sun; there was no light. I was dying. I couldn't remember what the sky looked like.

But I didn't die. I was lost to a sea of cold, and then I was reborn into a world of warmth.

I remember this: his yellow eyes.

I thought I'd never see them again.

As I have read reader's reviews on goodreads.com, I noticed most of the reviews were "I really loved it!" to "I didn't like it at all". I am truly somewhere in between. This wasn't a bad book, but it didn't leave me with that "WOW" factor that I would recommend this book to all of my friends . I was instead left with a "ho-hum" attitude. I have been trying to put my finger on how I feel about this book. The premise is great and I like how the temperature affects when a wolf changes into a human and then the human changes back into a werewolf. I just felt like more could have been put into the plot. I also didn't like the fact that the werewolf is not a supernatural being that does anything exciting; it's just a wolf. At least in the Twilight series the werewolves have incredible strength and have the same awareness that they had when they were human.

Another problem I have with this book for teens, was how easy and "right" it was for the main characters to sleep together and eventually have sex. This is not the message I want to send to my daughter or to other teens. I also hated how Grace's parents had no clue that she had Sam in her room all of those many nights/ weeks. **sigh**

I know that I will read the sequel, "Linger" when it comes out soon.{I have the book on hold at the library} I am hoping that it has more of a storyline to keep me interested. I really wanted to like this book a lot, but it truly was missing something for me; so this book gets 3 stars.