Winter Approaches...

Shiver by: Maggie Stiefvater

What does it take? What is the recipe to write an epic romantic novel? What does it take to delve into a story so rich that it changes your very state of being? Is it that the author has never been touched such a love, or is it that they have experienced the deepest love that a person has ever experienced and must share such experiences with the world?

Maggie Stiefvater has reached into the very heart of what is binding and undying for the reader. As an author she has reached down into her very soul and pulled out the purest form of love where nothing else matters, but the oneness of the characters. From the first moment that I opened the front cover I was swept away in the consciousnesses of Grace and Sam. The riveting characters draw the reader into their web from the first sentence. It is a story of love that is in reach but cannot be obtained. Shiver is a simple story with no twists or turns to speak of, but the reader follows the story as Stiefvater leads us down a path of no return.

Grace and Sam have never thought of love as something that they can grasp, Grace has her 2 best friends, her distant parents, and the wolves. Sam has his pack and the girl. When Grace was eleven years old, she was attacked by the wolf pack that lives in the woods behind her house, only to be saved. As she grows up and the wolves are always present in her life, she never realizes what the future will bring. Sam and Grace are meant to be together, but the end is coming. As they struggle to hold on to their love, the past, present and future are always questions in their minds.

The absolute most amazing part of the book was the author’s way of description. I could not believe how riveting the explanation of the smells and sounds and sights that the lovers had for one another and their surroundings. Examples being, “In an overstuffed closet that smelled of stale memories and mothballs, I found a puffy, bright blue jacked that made me looked like a blimp…” The amazing attention to detail had me locked into the story, so much so, that I finished the book within 24 hours.

Another aspect of Stiefvater’s writing that I enjoyed was her character development. It only took her a sentence or two at a time to tell us exactly what was going on with a character. It was great going back and forth between Grace and Sam’s mind, she did that very well.

I happened upon another reader’s blog after finishing the book and I had to strongly disagree with her opinion. The blogger said that she didn’t like the fact that Grace fell for Sam as a wolf before she knew that he could turn into a man. I think that it is the most beautiful aspect of the story that she could fall in love with him in wolf form. There was not a lot of description about how Sam looked, and I believe that it didn’t matter what he looked like to her because she loved his soul. I think that it made the story more beautiful because it was deeper than the physical appearance. I also think that she would have loved him all of her life even if he never turned into a man. It wouldn’t have turned into anything romantic of course, but I think that he would have protected her with his life if anything should have ever tried to harm her. He would be a great protector even if their relationship was nothing physical or human. I believe that it went so much deeper than that.

Plenty of bloggers have said this was one of their favorite books of 2009, what do you think? Do you want to read it? If you have read it, what did you think? Leave a comment below!

Dragons, Elves, Dwarfs, Strange creatures not of this world... What more could a girl ask for?

Eldest by Christopher Paolini

Eldest, the second book for the Inheritance Cycle begins with tragedy and is continued throughout with hard times for Eragon. Since Saphira picked him to be her rider he has had many hard times along the way, and they do not diminish as he grows.

Eldest is viewed from 2 sides. One side is from Eragon’s point of view, and the other is from his cousin Roran’s. Roran has quite an adventure ahead of him as he realizes that the Empire wants him for some reason unknown to him, he quickly realizes that it has something to do with Eragon. As we journey with Roran, we learn more about his love, Katrina. We also watch a small village ban together to save Roran from the Ra’zac. As he travels he is more aware of the trouble he is truly in and he takes matters into his own hands as he becomes, Roran Stronghammer.

Eragon’s travels lead him on a different path, as a Rider, he is required to go to Ellesmera to train with the Elves. Alongside him is the Dwarf Orik and Arya. Eragon spends much time with the Elves, many great things take place, but I will not go into all of that, the most important part is that suddenly he realizes that the Varden is going to war against the empire and he leaves the elves before his training is completed with a promise to go back. There is a great battle at the end of the book that if I give any details about it, it will ruin the story for you, hence the vagueness.

My opinion about Eldest is that it was a good read. For some reason this book and it’s preceding book took me some time to get through. When the author wrote Eragon, he was a young child. The writing style is very simple and hard to read at some points, but I couldn’t expect any better. It is a great story and Paolini does a great job of introducing the characters and leading us through Eragon’s journey. As the books go on, the story becomes more alive and interesting. I found myself trying to guess what was going to happen next. This blog is a little short because I have read a few books since I read this particular episode and I can’t quite think of anything to write about. I do suggest this book, it is a good read and an interesting story. Is it the best book I’ve ever read before? No, not even close, but it was good and entertaining.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think about the series. Did you like it? What do you think is going to happen between Eragon and Arya? Any thoughts on the ending of Eldest? Were you surprised by the change in the story? Let me know!