The Dark Divine (Dark Divine, #1)

by Bree DeSpain

Grace Divine, almost seventeen, learns a dark secret when her childhood friend--practically a brother--returns, upsetting her pastor-father and the rest of her family, around the time strange things are happening in and near their small Minnesota town.

• ISBN10: 1512403431
• ISBN13: 9781512403435
• Publish Date: 1 August 2009
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Carolrhoda Lab (R)
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

I was very pleasantly surprised by The Dark Divine! I was intrigued that it was a Paranormal Romance featuring a pastor's daughter. This could have gone very wrong, but it really worked for me! Three years ago, Grace's brother's best friend, Daniel, disappeared. She has no idea what happened, but no one has spoken his name in all that time. But now he's back, and isn't welcome into their home anymore. Grace still has no clue how her family went from taking him in, into keeping him out, but she's sick of being kept in the dark. Well, the truth is the last thing she ever expected, but now that she knows, she may be the only one able to save Daniel from himself.

I loved how werewolves were described as being created by God to fight monsters. In The Dark Divine, there has been a string of dead bodies turning up that appeared to have been mauled by an animal after their death. Of course, no one knows about werewolves, but there's stories of The Markham Monster. Grace now knows that monsters are real, but they didn't really start out that way. I just really liked how it was all explained. The religious aspects never took over, and nothing got preachy. It was just the basis for the lore used, and I think it was well done.

Of course, there's a romance at the center of The Dark Divine. Grace is in love with Daniel even after all of these years and her parents' protests. Even Daniel is afraid to have her love him, because of reasons. Loving a werewolf is both a blessing and a curse, and this is what really made me bump up my rating. I had been enjoying it, but then that last third was pretty great. I totally didn't see any of that coming. It certainly kept me on the edge, and I must know more!

I really liked The Dark Divine. The mix of Christianity and Paranormal was really interesting to me. I also liked the idea of werewolves being a type of protector, but having gone wrong over the years. The twists were also really good and kept me engaged once things really started happening. It doesn't end on a cliffhanger, but it's obvious that the story isn't over yet!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[elysium]

DNF pg. 33

[Jo]

A prodigal son. A dangerous love. Haunted yearning...Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared and her brother Jude came home covered in his own blood. Now that Daniel's returned, Grace must choose between her growing attraction to him and her loyalty to her brother. As Grace gets closer to Daniel, she learns the truth about that mysterious night and how to save the ones she loves, but it might cost her the one thing she cherishes most: her soul. From Amazon UK

I've been meaning to read The Dark Divine for a while, but I had never got round to it. I had always heard great things about it, and the premise had always sounded dark and mysterious, and as I was in the mood for some good YA urban fantasy, I decided to pick it up. This book is so good, I now wish I had read it earlier.

One part that really impressed me was the religious aspect. This book isn't preachy, but Grace being a good Pastor's daughter, religion does come into it. But there was more to it than just the characters being religious; religion linked to the paranormal element of the book. Now, as it's not clear from the blurb on the book or summary above, I'm not going to tell you what the paranormal element is, I don't want to spoil it for you - I didn't know before reading the book myself, though I had suspicions as I was reading. But I did love Despain's take on the mythology, how she incorporated religion into it, and made it completely fascinating! My only problem regarding the paranormal element was how little we "saw" of it in this book, though that is understandable for the mystery of the novel.

The characters were brilliant. Grace was a great characters, always wanting to do the right thing, but never sure what the right thing was; helping Daniel, or staying away so as not to hurt her brother, Jude. Her love for both of them causes such internal conflict for her, it's great watching her struggle to try to work out what she should do. Daniel is hot, mysterious, and troubled, and at the heart of an event that happened three years ago. He was Jude's best friend, but then he suddenly disappeared, and the rest of the family seem to hate him, but will never speak of why, or what happened. He doesn't seem all that keen to divulge any informationa bout it either.

The mystery and intensity of feeling between Daniel and Grace makes up for the fact that we don't witness the beginning of attraction. Grace fell for Daniel years ago, long before the book started, and though we get glimpses of the past and things that happened, we don't see the beginning. But it's still great to see their chemistry. It's not exactly sexual tension, but it's still awesome.

There is more than just the mystery surrounding Daniel and Jude, there are also deaths and people going missing from the town. This is one novel where I didn't work out who it was, I didn't see it coming at all, and it was just brilliant! All the clues were there obviously, but they are so subtle, I didn't work it out. And the ending, with the fantastic action scene! I didn't see that coming either! So, so good, and now I can't wait to read the sequel, The Lost Saint, which will be released 7th March 2011. The Dark Divine is a brilliant book, one I can't recommend enough!

From Once Upon a Bookcase - YA book blog