Dark Divine by Bree Despain

Genre: Werewolves

Hardcover: 372 Pages

Published: December 22, 2009

Series: The Dark Divine

            1. The Dark Divine

            2. The Lost Saint

            3. The Savage Grace

Rating: ★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

            Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared--the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in his own blood--but she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night held.

            The memories her family has tried to bury resurface when Daniel returns, three years later, and enrolls in Grace and Jude's high school. Despite promising Jude she'll stay away, Grace cannot deny her attraction to Daniel's shocking artistic abilities, his way of getting her to look at the world from new angles, and the strange, hungry glint in his eyes.
            The closer Grace gets to Daniel, the more she jeopardizes her life, as her actions stir resentment in Jude and drive him to embrace the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind the boy's dark secret...and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it--her soul

My Review:

            Before I write my review, here is an excerpt from Bree's Website:

A prodigal son
A dangerous love
A deadly secret . . .

I stood back and watched his movements. Daniel had that way about him that could shut me down in an instant. . . . I kicked the gravel a couple of times and worked up my courage again. “Tell me . . . I mean . . . why did you come back? Why now, after all this time?”
Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared—the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in blood. But she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night really held. And when Daniel returns three years later, Grace can no longer deny her attraction to him, despite promising Jude she'll stay away.

 As Grace gets closer to Daniel, her actions stir the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind Jude and Daniel's dark secret . . . and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it---her soul.

            This quick summary does a good job in explaining to the reader what's going on without giving away all the important details. This book was an okay read and flowed at an semi-fast pace. It kept the reader guessing what will happen next. I liked how the setting took place in special places that were significant to the main characters. However, what I didn't like about this book was the fact that it was very similar to Twilight, Vampire Academy, and Hush Hush. So if you like these books you will probably like this. The story line wasn't original, but it was readable. After looking at the cover I was hoping for something kickass to happen, but I was disappointed.

            But the characters are well written. The main character, Grace is childish at times, but at least she didn't make me want to pull my hair out. As the story line grew, so did her character and that's what I wanted to see. Daniel on the other hand, was very raw as a character. He would bark, hiss and growl a lot. And somehow Grace wasn't able to figure out what he was. Over all this book was an okay read. I really hoped it would be more interesting since the cover is beautiful, but sometimes you just can't judge a book by its cover.