Publishing Deal - Maggie Stiefvater

Good news for Shiver fans as Scholastic announce Sinner a companion novel from Maggie Stiefvater. Read the whole press release at Booktrade:

Scholastic has bought world rights in a companion book to the Shiver trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater, set to feature Shiver character Cole St Clair.

Sinner will be published simultaneously in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada on July 1st 2014. The deal was negotiated by Scholastic publisher David Levithan with Laura Rennert from Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

Levithan said: "Legions of fans—myself included—have wanted Maggie to return to the world of Shiver,and now she's found an ingenious, sexy, utterly compelling way to do it."

Scholastic UK group m.d. Catherine Bell said: "Maggie's loyal fans will devour Sinner and new generations of readers have the pleasure of succumbing to the addictive world of The Wolves of Mercy Falls afresh."

Stiefvater said: "For me, finishing the Shiver trilogy was a bittersweet moment—I knew that I wouldn't be returning to Mercy Falls once Sam and Grace's story was over. But Cole and Isabel still lurked in the back of my mind. Both of them were only half-fixed at the end of the trilogy, and I wanted to know if they could be fixed the rest of the way."

Sinner will be published as a £14.99 hardback and simultaneous e-book.

Free Audio Book of Shiver

Like last year, Sync are offering two free audio books per week over the summer. You only get a week to download them but then they can be played at any time afterwards. This week's selection is:

Available June 23 - June 29:

SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater
Narrated by Jenna Lamia and David Ledoux
Published by Scholastic Audiobooks


ROMEO & JULIET by William Shakespeare
Narrated by a Full Cast
Published by AudioGO

I don't know if there are any geographical restrictions, I'm in the UK and am downloading Shiver ok. You have to download a small piece of software (Overdrive) before being allowed to download the mp3 files.

Download the books from here.

Publishing Deal - Maggie Stiefvater

In today's Publishers Lunch, a short but very sweet piece:

Maggie Stiefvater's FOREVER, the final book in the bestselling SHIVER trilogy, plus three new stand-alone fantasy titles, to David Levithan at Scholastic, for publication summer 2011.

Review: Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (October 2009, Scholastic, ISBN: 9781407115009)

First Line:
I remember lying in the snow, a small red spot of warm going cold, surrounded by wolves.

Review: Grace is very young when she is attacked by the wolves which live in the woods at the bottom of her garden. But she is rescued by one of the wolves and she never forgets its eyes. Every winter she looks out for her wolf and is disappointed when the wolves disappear in the summer. What the reader knows before Grace is that the wolf turns into a boy, Sam, every summer.

When the wolves attack an obnoxious boy from Grace's school in the autumn, it leads to a wolf hunt and a shot which unexpectedly brings Sam to Grace in his human form. Sam and Grace finally have the relationship they've been waiting for but there is a catch. The next time Sam turns back to a wolf he'll lose his human self forever.

Shiver is a fairly leisurely but absorbing story of Sam and Grace's relationship and a reveal of their characters and back-stories. In a nice role reversal, Grace is the pragmatic one, unable to read people whereas Sam is the artist, musician, poetry lover. The point of view switches between Sam and Grace so we get to know the depth of feeling on both sides. I did feel that the pace was a bit slow but the writing is lovely and both leads are equally interesting and likeable so I never felt impatient to get to the other person's pov, and the pace cranks up near the end with some heart-breaking chapters. Shiver is a quick read and a very enjoyable one and there is a sequel, Linger, out in July. I look forward to finding out what happens next.

Cover: A very enticing cover which reflects the wintry woods in the story.