The Dark Divine - Bree Despain

Summary:  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 learned 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.

My Review:  Bree Despain’s The Dark Divine is a clean and entertaining paranormal romance, with an ending that was better than I expected. Despite this semi-success, the basic plot—a young girl, torn between her love for two very different boys—is exceedingly overdone. I mean, how many teen vamp/wolf/witch/ fairy/dragon/wraith romances does a bookstore really need?  I can usually handle a cliché plot as long as something in the book surprises me enough to read into the wee hours of the morning. There were moments where a character channeled one of the Twilight Trinity, but towards the end, I caught an inkling of something interesting that grabbed my attention.  I did finish the book in record time and, for that reason, I’ll probably read the next one (The Lost Saint, releasing 12/28) if it ever falls into my lap.

Grace Divine is a faithful pastor’s daughter and, consequently, the story touches on topics of charity, forgiveness, selflessness, and grace. Over all, I thought Despain put forth a good effort, but has a long way to go to counter the increasingly affected world of modern YA fiction. Clean YA paranormal romances are no longer a dime a dozen, so if you aren’t terribly picky about plot originality or character depth, The Dark Divine would be a good one time read.  And try to ignore the last line.  It's an eye-roller.  I know.

My Rating: 3.5 Stars   For the sensitive reader: I was surprised by some swearing (mostly biblical, but not entirely) and an attempted, but ultimately unsuccessful, sexual assault.

Sum it up: An entertaining, but mostly ordinary YA paranormal romance. I’m not entirely opposed to reading the sequel, but I won’t be hunting it down.