Mary Sue Preissner (Children's Literature)
Klause spins a modern day romance with a twist. Like Romeo and Juliette, or Maria and Tony, Vivian and Aiden are forbidden to be lovers, to share their secrets, to enjoy each other. Their backgrounds and family values are diametrically opposed. In sharing her secret with Aiden, that she is a loup-garou, Vivian alters their relationship as well as that of the whole community. Eventually each realizes that they must be with their own kind. The high school crowd will feast on this sensual tale of romance, mystery, and horror. Librarians and media specialists can pair up Klause's tale with Daniel Cohen's 1996 nonfiction book, Werewolves. 1997, Delacorte Press, $16.95. Ages 14 up.

CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 1997)
Vivian Gandillon feels the pulse of the moon and runs with the pack. But ever since the death of her father, the pack has been running wild. Now a human has been killed, and all the work to become part of a community, to live among the humans without suspicion, is wasted. The loops-garoux--werewolves--must move on and start again. In high school in the new town, Vivian meets Aiden. He seems to understand some part of her without knowing what she is. Angry at her mother, Esmé, for not honoring her father's memory, and disgusted with the Five, the young men of the pack who howl and leer when she passes them on the street, Vivian finds it easy to fall in love with this human boy. But her mother and the pack disapprove of her romance. It's dangerous, they warn her, to fall in love with a meat-boy. He will never understand what you are. But Vivian refuses to believe them. Her dates with Aiden are normal to the point of distraction--and she likes it. At the same time, she knows that when the time is right she will reveal herself to Aiden, and he will accept what she is. Annette Curtis Klause's werewolf tale is suspenseful and sensual, humorous and chilling, and hard to put down. CCBC categories: Fiction for Teenagers. 1997, Delacorte, 264 pages, $16.95. Ages 15 and older.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, 1997)
Klause returns to the steamy sensuality of her first book, The Silver Kiss (1990), for this tale of a hot-blooded teenage werewolf who falls for a human "meat-boy." Grieving for her father and unimpressed by the age-mates in her pack, Vivian defies her mother and fellow lycanthropes by setting her sights on suburban poet-schoolmate Aiden Teague. It's an experiment that's doomed from the start. Vivian may look human (when she chooses), but her attitudes, instincts, and expectations are decidedly wolflike; short-tempered, direct in action and emotion, rough in love and play, shapeshifters make dangerous companions, their veneer of rationality as thin as their senses are sharp. Poor Aiden--as a prospective lover he's not so different from prey; to Vivian his smile flashes like heat lightning, and at times he looks so delicious she wants to "bite the buttons off his shirt." When, after a series of sultry but frustrating dates, Vivian reveals herself to him, he responds, not with the pleasure and lust she expects, but stark terror. Extrapolating brilliantly from wolf and werewolf lore, Klause creates a complex plot, fueled by politics, insanity, intrigue, sex, blood lust, and adolescent longings, and driven by a set of vividly scary creatures to a blood-curdling climax. The werewolves' taste for risky pranks and the author's knack for double--and even triple--entendres add sly undercurrents to this fierce, suspenseful chiller. 1997, Delacorte, $13.45; thru 1/1/98; $16.95 thereafter. © 1997 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Rebecca Barnhouse (The ALAN Review, Spring 1997 (Vol. 24, No. 3))
In Klause's first novel, The Silver Kiss, a girl falls in love with a vampire. Now Klause focuses on the supernatural character: Vivian, a sixteen-year-old werewolf who lives in contemporary America and who falls for a human boy. Vivian is a creature of strong canine appetites; blood, sweat, lust, and wild runs under the moon appeal to her. Can she reveal her identity to her boyfriend? What about her loyalty to the pack? Life in the pack can be brutal. Biker bars are the werewolves' hangouts, and both males and females constantly vie for power, relying on sex and physical prowess. Vivian struggles to fit in with both her own kind and with humans. This book will appeal to werewolf and horror fans who don't shy away from sex or violence. 1997, Delacorte Press, 264 pp., $13.95. Ages 12 up.

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, July/August 1997 (Vol. 50, No. 11))
Vivian is a loup-garou, a werewolf; her father died in a fire set in revenge after younger members of the pack broke the rule against killing humans, and now the pack has moved to the Maryland suburbs to make a new life. In the absence of their late alpha, pack hierarchy is muddled and pack leadership is going a-begging, leading to a free-for-all combat for the position that leaves Vivian, against her will, alpha female-and destined mate of alpha-male Gabriel. This is problematic first because Vivian has, against all convention, become involved with a human boy and second, because she begins to think she may, in fits of wolfish bloodlust, have begun to kill humans, thereby endangering the safety of the pack. Klause keeps this story powerful and sexy, reveling in the ferality of her characters and the overtones of legend; some characters are a bit predictable or indistinct, but a few-especially Vivian's human boyfriend, who thinks he wants mysticism and falls apart when he gets it-are intriguing and vivid. At heart here is a classic romance about a girl torn between the sensitive aesthete and the dark dominant enigma; fans of that genre will know where they're headed, but they'll still relish the hunt. R--Recommended. Reviewed from galleys (c) Copyright 1997, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1997, Delacorte, [288p], $13.45. Grades 7-12.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, 1997)
When half of Vivian's werewolf pack is destroyed in a fire following the forbidden killing of a human, the remaining 'loups-garoux' are forced to move to a new town, where the sixteen-year-old longs for companions her own age. Klause allows her werewolves all the unbounded heat and urgency of prime adolescence in this supernatural gothic romance that's sweaty (and bloody) enough for a sultry summer night. Category: Fiction. 1997, Delacorte, 264pp.. Ages 14 to 18. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Beverly Youree (VOYA, August 1997 (Vol. 20, No. 3))
Vivian, a high school student, is torn between two worlds--that of humans and that of werewolves. After her father died in a fire, she and the rest of the "pack" move to West Virginia. When a drawing she submits to the school's literary magazine is published next to a poem by an Aiden Teague, Vivian reads it and is amazed at his depth of understanding of werewolves. She plots to meet him and, eventually, they begin to date. Her mother and the pack warn her of the dangers of this relationship, but she refuses to listen. Vivian feels Aiden could handle, and would relish, the fact that she is a werewolf. However, her happiness ends when Aiden cringes and recoils during one of her transformations. That same night, a human is slaughtered. Since she has no recollection of anything since leaving Aiden's house, Vivian wonders if she is bringing danger to the pack by killing their neighbors. Parallel to this plot is one dealing with choosing a new leader of the pack. Following the "old way," the pack decides that a physical contest between the males will determine the new leader. After the males fight, the females compete to see who will become the winner's mate and earn the title Queen Bitch. When Vivian is tricked into participating, she wins and finds herself pledged to Gabriel, the new leader of the pack. But she thinks she is still in love with Aiden. Both plots merge as more deaths occur, and the pack's existence is threatened by Aiden's knowing Vivian is a werewolf. This tightly woven story is another superb title from a rising author. Teenage girls will understand Vivian's desire for popularity, her rebellion against her mother and other adults, her feeling of invincibility, and her wish to be part of a group. Despite these feelings, Vivian cares for the pack. This book should appeal to horror fans and even those who are not. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 1997, Delacorte, 264p., $16.95. Ages 15 to 18.