The climax was good, and I like said surprised me, but I wanted more going into it. I'm not sure what to rate it. It wasn't my thing, but I can see girls who like paranormal romance really liking it and it's just as good and bad as everything else in the genre.
For that, I'm rating 2. Just not my thing. View all 7 comments. May 29, Kiki rated it liked it Shelves: werewolves , ya , favorites , could-have-been-worse , meh. View all 3 comments. Oct 26, LilyCat Agent of SHIELD -- on hiatus : rated it it was ok Shelves: pretty-cover , modern-setting , cliche-alert , boring , paranormal , woe-is-me-mc , stalker-boyfriend , pretty-dress-cover , good-cover-bad-book , useless-heroine.
Sorry guys for totally forgetting to review this whole list of books I've been a bit busy with school. Grace's brother, Jude, acts openly hostile towards Daniel and tells her his suspicions, but also starts behaving erratically.
As Grace and Daniel Sorry guys for totally forgetting to review this whole list of books As Grace and Daniel fall in love, she discovers what he'd been trying to hide-- he comes from a line of wolf shapeshifters who are prone to temptation and corruption from their powers.
When gory murders are discovered in her town, Grace wants to suspect Daniel, but she has a feeling it's someone else, and they're after both her and Daniel.
No wonder Fitzpatrick endorsed this book! Brainless Mary Sue meets a hot jerk "bad boy" who seduces her while all the while I am throwing up red flags for potential sexual harassment and stalking behavior , all told in a boring, mind-shredding narrative with a few grating side characters like a "best friend" and a cheesy villain thrown in at the end that anyone could have seen from a mile away.
Wow that was a long sentence. The plot revolves around a lot of contrived mystery about weird murders and events in the town, when the author basically THROWS werewolf hints at us , mostly word choice clues that are SUPER awkward, ex.
After some religious filler from Grace's dad, a pastor, there's a lot of creepy romance, then a bunch of "action" that is basically Daniel saving Grace. Everything else is emotionless filler, making this relatively short book a chore to slog through. Grace angsts constantly about how some family drama makes him "forbidden" to her.
It's a really long, stupid story I don't really want to talk about. But of course, we all know to YA heroines, like small children, making something off-limits makes it suddenly cool. The "bad boy good girl" romance also, apparently, means to the author that Grace is "conflicted"-- that is, talks in that very dangerous YA doublespeak. No, I can't. It's annoying-- girl, make up your mind! It tells girls to not speak their minds. Grace's whole gig is "squeaky clean Puritan.
Like, I get that Grace doesn't want to swear, but her not wanting to even think about swearing by relaying it in her narration is really annoying and obstructs the story and emotions of the other characters. Well, it's not as bad as Tiger's Curse , where the MC "angrily" calls a guy a "wily scoundrel. She's pretty, supposedly smart and good at art, etc. To make things worse, the cutest, smartest, most athletic senior on campus, Pete, is madly in love with her, but as I predicted, she stomps over his niceness to run straight to emo jerk Daniel, who doesn't even treat her like a person for about half the book until he takes a heel face turn and becomes a suddenly sweet loving model boyfriend.
She's also pretty mean to her friend, April, by constantly comparing her to a dog. April was so like my old dog Daisy in that way. April's voice had a high, doglike whine to it. The way Grace compares April to a dog suggests April is dumb, blindly loyal, annoying, and clingy, and also suggests that Grace is inconsiderate and treats her so-called "best friend" like crap. Despite Grace saying April's pretty dumb, she herself isn't exactly a genius herself. For example, let's see how Grace treats medieval historical documents on loan from a foreign country.
I carefully turned to the last letter I'd read. Half of it was missing- disintegrated in the hostile environment of my school bag. These are priceless, centuries-old letters from the Crusades that her dad is borrowing from a freaking MUSEUM, yet Grace just casually tosses them into the bottom of her bag like they're old homework papers. That's as far as her reasoning goes. The things [Jude] said couldn't be anything but lies. How could I feel the way I did about Daniel otherwise?
I gazed into Daniel's eyes. They were deep and soft and familiar. My brother had to be lying. Yes, you saw that logic gap. Grace goes straight from gazing into Daniel's eyes to concluding Jude is wrong. Unfortunately, dreamy eye-staring isn't exactly a polygraph, no matter what stupid YA characters think. And as if to add insult to injury, all the while, she is spouting "strong female lines," such as when, on page , she says, "I'm not stupid or fragile or weak, you know. Daniel isn't much better.
He antagonizes Grace constantly, proving 1 he's a jerk, and 2 they're gonna fall in love. I felt something plink against my head. Need I say I'd rather kiss a pile of steaming werewolf crap than this guy. OR jumping into Grace's bedroom uninvited Then, he makes a huge flip and suddenly, he's a sweet model boyfriend who is really damaged and tortured.
Anyone can see that from a mile away. He starts out as a jerk, then turns into a paranoid, crazy jerk. It's plainly obvious that something's wrong with him, but no one seems to notice. Pete is the character I really felt bad for. He starts out as a nice guy, but then, to crush all hopes of an alternate ship, the author just ALSO gives him a heel face turn and he becomes a cold unfeeling jerk and then a freaking psycho.
Also, rape is NOT a plot device to be used lightly, which Despain does-- there's no follow up. Grace is like, "hey my ex just tried to rape me, I'm fine, it's all cool.
View 2 comments. Apr 16, Amelia, free market Puritan rated it really liked it Shelves: ya-kids-teen , , arcs , loveable-love-story , paranormal. Simply put, The Dark Divine exceeded all my expectations. Paranormal, bad boy and ordinary girl - who hasn't seen that before? Well, the relationship in this story was very well-done and evenly paced, and the "paranormal" aspect was so incredibly original and entertaining, so it felt like I was reading something completely fresh and new.
I remember thinking, "yeah, definitely! Why not? I especially liked the inclusion of useful, responsible parent-figures. I think we can all agree that parent figures in YA are frequently absent, so it was nice to have helpful parent characters.
Now, I do think that sometimes the Divine family was portrayed a little on the stereotypical side: Grace and Jude are great characters, and I DO know boys like Jude, so no, I don't believe that he's "unrealistic" at all - but sometimes they acted a little too contrived my cousins are children of a pastor, and they do NOT spend their free time at food pantries, nor do they discuss clothing drives.
But that one little mention is the only thing that I can think of to say about this book: aside from the Divine family's kind-of blatant portrayal, all the characters were very real, very well-rounded, and easy to relate to. It's always a plus to have grounded, practical characters with values and a good head on their shoulders. Now Grace isn't perfect, but she is a genuinely caring person, and that made up for any lapses in judgment throughout the story.
Jude is a really interesting character, too. At the beginning, he was a little too Richie Cunningham for me, but as the Prodigal Son scenario played out, both he and Daniel became incredibly fun to explore.
Daniel and Grace's relationship was very well-done. It wasn't rushed, but it didn't beat around the bush; it wasn't abusive, it wasn't superficial, it wasn't inappropriate. Rather, I found Grace's devotion to Daniel and her ultimate willingness to help him very touching.
Even though this book series really doesn't have a designated villain yet , the plot remained strong and interesting throughout, and the story was evenly paced. The Dark Divine was a fast read, but that's mainly because I was so engrossed, I could not put it down!
I really can't praise this book enough. Yes, there are religious elements in this story, but I suppose I missed the memo that decided that was a bad thing. I'd like to say thank-you to Bree for the story she created, and the way in which she decided to tell it. View all 5 comments. Jun 18, Kristi rated it really liked it Shelves: signed-books , books-i-own. Three words; I. The pages inside are just as full of intrigue and mystery as the beautiful cover itself! What an awesome debut! Picked this one up, and didn't put it down until I was finished.
Not only was there great charactizations, extraordinary writing and a infallible mystery, but the story itself was just spectacular! I loved Despain's talent of weaving ideas of mythology seamlessly into the everyday world. The daily struggle of Grace's life, being the person she wants to be, Three words; I.
The daily struggle of Grace's life, being the person she wants to be, and being the person that everyone expects her to be as a preacher's daughter, marvelously parallels the life of the everyday teenager The plot was quick and engaging and the ending is completely satisfying, while leaving the possibility for a sequel without being a cliffhanger.
This was just a fun book to read. I enjoyed reading about these characters and watching the plot unfold and the mystery ultimately revealed. Like I said before Jan 12, Kimberly rated it did not like it Shelves: , no-dice , ya , paranormal. This is such a cheap rip-off of the Twilight series. I won't even begin to go into all of the similarities; it's not worth my time.
Suffice it to say, I was consistently rolling my eyes throughout the entire story. The only difference between this and Twilight is that Despain adds a clear Biblical take. It's sad that that is really the only original part of the whole story. This one has officially made my "no-dice" bookshelf on GR. I am so thankful this was a library book and I didn't spend any This is such a cheap rip-off of the Twilight series.
I am so thankful this was a library book and I didn't spend any money to read it! There was even a piggy-back ride scene through the woods for crying out loud! For the record, that also happens in Twilight. I would rather read a poorly written original story than one with pretty packaging that's a total rip-off. I'm a Christian, but I also got completely fed-up with Despain's overbearing religious slant in the novel and I've read several Christian novels that were nothing like hers.
The main girl's name is Grace Divine and her dad is a preacher and we got to hear over and over and over again about how she needs to live up to her name. The books just drips with it's own self importance. View all 9 comments. Jan 14, Heather rated it really liked it Shelves: ya. MILD SPOILERS: Grace Divine is the daughter of a pastor in a conservative church-going community, but her straitlaced family has spent the last several years hiding and avoiding the fate of their unofficial foster son and brother Daniel, and his strange disappearance.
Grace is caught in a sort of accepting malaise of this status quo until Daniel shows up at her high school. While Grace's older brother Jude demands she avoid Daniel, and her parents appear to be avoiding the entire situation, Grace falls back on her old affections for her childhood friend and determines to use her dad's pastoral "care for those in need" motto with Daniel, too. Which, of course, results in all kinds of drama, secrets, blood, death, chaos and kissing, etc.
At first glance this looked like another typical mysterious-bad-boy novel that usually makes me cringe -- why do we insist on parading these horrible jerks before young women as model friends and lovers? Yes, Daniel has a secret that turns out to be another commonly used plot twist in fantasy these days, and yes, Grace is a little slow on the uptake the word lycanthrope didn't tip her off.
But I'm gonna be honest -- until I saw the word lycanthrope, I wasn't tipped off, either. Despain does a really decent job of holding together the suspense throughout this novel; even after the sort-of big reveal of Daniel's identity, nothing's as clean-cut as you'd expect.
If Jude's fate was a little easy to predict, I'll allow it given that I didn't find it so until a good pages in, and that was enough for me. And even if some of the plot, including Grace's name, reminded me of my much-loved copy of Maggie Stiefvater's novel Shiver , The Dark Divine is an entirely different mood.
While Shiver moves the story through a solemn, almost hushed internalization, The Dark Divine packs in a fair amount of action and suspense. I think the comparisons I've heard to Stephanie Meyer's New Moon is a little unfair in this regard, as well; in New Moon , Bella doesn't do a whole heck of a lot. In Divine , Grace is so busy trying to do whatever she thinks is the morally right thing -- respect her parents, listen to her brother, help Daniel, put up with the local charity case -- that she's completely wrapped up in the darker deeds around her because c'mon, no church-going gal should be THAT laid back about the kind of party she walked into at Daniel's until her deductions hit her on the head like a proverbial ton'o'bricks.
But here are the biggest ways that The Dark Divine is unlike any of its similar sister novels -- Grace is a church kid, and darn it, she's cool with that. Some readers may be turned off by the strong and frequent references to Judeo-Christian values and kitsch right down to printed church bulletins , and oppositely, those in the religous environmental know may find her one-dimensional harpy of a mother a little hard to stomach, but you gotta give it to Despain, she talks about Grace's Protestant bubble without batting an eye.
Grace goes to Bible study; volunteers for her dad's church charities; asks Daniel not to swear in the halls of her Christian school; and ponders the real implications of the Prodigal Son.
She's sheltered; she wouldn't know what Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Gaiman's Sandman would look like if they bit her, so every monstrous revelation is doubly new and shocking to her. It may not be cool, or even likeable to some, but Grace's religious viewpoints do make her a real standout in this genre. Sometimes it's just the facts; with her Dad a pastor, it's inevitable she'll be describing a way of life no web surfing in her room; spaghetti straps are verboten that many cannot relate to.
But she's still relatable, if for no other reason than those honest moments when she's thinking in the paradigm of her religious views, and most protagonists in YA fiction are trying to figure out some sort of paradigm, too.
Grace asks herself, if Daniel's the prodigal and Jude's the "good son," then doesn't the parable infer the good son is the one in the most danger? What does "honor thy father and mother" really mean when said parents are keeping secrets that have hurt people? When another father and mother in the story subject their child to terrifying abuse and abandonment?
How do children recover from that kind of abuse? And how do their comfy teenage friends figure out how to help them in a way that's truly meaningful? Just how far should grace and forgiveness go, when there's family at stake and blood on someone's hands?
And consequently, Daniel's a little raw. Despain's publishers may want to convince us he's a bad boy, but really, he's a good boy subjected to so much abuse and heartache that he's done some pretty bad stuff to try to cope.
In a novel ripe with Grace's naivete, Daniel doesn't waste any words about the many hedonistic forms his self-hatred and escape have taken. He's a social misfit and a castout when Grace first sees him, and despite a clean-up in his general appearance, that never really changes.
Heartbreaking, for me, because in the midst of a paranormal story, these accounts of rejection and neglect are palpably realistic. Somewhere along the way, Despain got a solid grasp on the pain and injustices teenagers suffer at the hands of the very family and adults who are supposed to protect them. Her insistence in defining acts of grace bump up against these gritty realities and keep the novel's voice unique, thoughtful, and relevant.
Despain's telling us that you don't have to make your characters angry, bitter, cussing Goth kids to tell a story about pain, and redemption, that teenagers and adults can relate to. It's old fashioned but not cloying -- religious, yes, but not preachy, and because these elements were so surprising, I enjoyed the plot surprises, too. Sep 02, Holli rated it it was amazing Shelves: library , audio-books , romance , family-relationships , paranormal , high-action.
The Dark Divine is truly an amazing book! It captured my heart from page one, and took me on an amazing ride of suspense, mystery, conviction, and unconditional love. Bree Despain took a traditional stance with werewolves, but added a twist. These are not mere shape shifters like current novels would portray, but more like the fairytale monsters we imagined them to be as children.
I appreciated the amount of back history she put into their origin of the Urbat. The contrast their original nature The Dark Divine is truly an amazing book! The contrast their original nature as Heaven's Hounds, to their later downfall, Hounds of death. The Divine family is one that I totally related with! The character's of this family were developed so well, they are believable. My heart broke for our prodigal Daniel, with his tragic childhood.
It only made his redemptive story all the more endearing. I had a box of tissues next to my chair and used them often! It is everything it promises to be and so much more. Artistically beautiful, The Dark Divine is a story with redemptive qualities where true love conquers all! Now it's time to go hunt for Jude in "The Lost Saint"!
View all 30 comments. Aug 28, Colleen Houck added it Shelves: werewolves. I really relish the opportunity to get to know authors better through books. I love Grace the main character and I have a suspicion the apple didn't fall far from the tree. I bet there's a lot of Bree in Grace. Daniel is a wonderful hero and I appreciate the fresh take on werewolves. The characters were really easy to relate to and it had a surprise ending, my favorite kind!
Headed to my bookshelf immediately after finishing to search for my copy of The Lost Saint. I feel like I just tapped into I really relish the opportunity to get to know authors better through books. I feel like I just tapped into this world and its going to take me to interesting and exciting places. View all 8 comments. Feb 10, Nhi rated it did not like it. In a Nuthsell: You may be asking: alright, so I've got a fairly basic idea on what the book is about, but what actually happens in this book?
To which I say: nothing. That's right, don't pay attention to the summary they give to this book - it's all lies! Sure they give us an actually interesting premise to go by - but they don't do anything with it until the very end of the book.
I felt that Despain just left it towards the big "climatic" scenes, where we were all are meant to be like: "Oh my g In a Nuthsell: You may be asking: alright, so I've got a fairly basic idea on what the book is about, but what actually happens in this book? I felt that Despain just left it towards the big "climatic" scenes, where we were all are meant to be like: "Oh my goodness!
I am totally and absolutely awestruck by this apparent reveal which was just ignored all of this time for complete plot fodder and wankery! Now, before I continue - I just wanted to say the worst thing about this book - like many others - is that this book had potential to be great. I mean, the whole freaking premise was about Grace meeting with an old friend, whom her family especially her bland and annoying-ass older brother Jude banished from their lives.
Grace assumes this has something to do with the night Daniel disappeared, and an unconscious Jude was found on their front porch covered in a pool of his own blood. But we don't get into that. Oh no, what we get instead is a whole book about Grace reunited with a childhood friend and crush - and how they plumment into this instantaneous, vapid kind of romance which is masquerading as this beautiful, intense, deep and doomed 'true love'.
Some of you may complain and say that isn't good enough. I agree, but I argue that because this book is so painstakingly dull and hardly anything happens in this book - I didn't take that much away from it.
Sure, it may not compel me into a violent rage the same way City of Fallen Angels might, but if I were to compare this to every other YA paranormal book I've read - yeah, it's pretty damn forgettable. And yes, I do include the supposedly "climatic" battle near the end of the book. Climatic, my butt. It was just rushed, and very light of action. The ending was pretty unsatisfactory because it was trying to raise more questions and open more loose threads in order to have some sort of sequel bait, which I will not be lured into.
Nope, I will not touch the rest of this 'series' with a ten foot pole. Unless I was trying to beat it to death. I'm sorry, but after seeing it in Evermore and a whole load of other books aside from Harry Potter.
At least THAT made some sense? Bree Despain, I want a more substanial explanation to why Daniel was 'cured' and I want it now! Was it going to be about a tragically doomed romance with werewolves thrown in there because we can?
Or conflict between Grace, Jude and Daniel - who clearly has not let the past go and have a lot of issues to tackle? Was it going to be a murder mystery, and did the Markham monster really exist? I know this cannot be just me, but did every single scene have to come under some stupid and asinine subheading? Really, because it wasn't like you could have just TOLD US in the story that it was 'four years ago' or 'later that morning'.
Did you think that we were that dumb that we wouldn't be able to figure this out on our own, Despain? Did you? I swear that you could just cut the entire first half of this book out and you would lose nothing. Now, if the book wanted to really grab my interest, I figured that the book should have started just a bit before the first murder of the victim view spoiler [Maryanne hide spoiler ] and bring more forshadowing to the whole werewolf thing and Don't even get me started on the whole mythology.
While it was interesting, it had a pretty heavy religious tone which seemed just awkwardly shoved in at the last minute after Daniel explains what he is, etc and it is so under developed, that I was pretty sure that you could cut out the paranormal aspect, and it would change nothing in this book. Also the heavily religious and smug moral self-righteousness tone to this book was just jarring and annoying. Just saying. Protagonist: Grace Divine Most of the characters were just inane, boring and completely irrelevant.
I mean, sure - Grace's father and Daniel to a some extent may are less annoying than everyone else, but in the long run, am I going to remember these stock characters in a year? Six months? Even two hours later down the track? There really is nothing remarkable about her. I mean the way she reacts to everything makes me believe the author was trying really hard to make her some overt incarnate of absolute goodness.
Now what Daniel has is a hereditary thing, so I don't know where Grace gets the right to be so sorrowful and blaming herself for it. Is SHE his mother? So where did she get this notion that she had anything to do with it? Self-absorbed, much? She has no personality or opinions of her own whatsoever and is just so goddamn gullible. When Daniel was yapping on to her about the whole urbat nonesense - she just believes him straightaway, no denial or rationalizing it and certainly doesn't do any research to cross reference and to see if Daniel wasn't just you know, lying off his ass or just plain crazy.
Honestly, and you call yourself a nerdy grade-A student? Also her abundant wholesomeness and naivety either really irritates or scares the flying hell out of me.
Seriously, you are a fairly educated and supposedly intelligent person - you cannot be this goddamn oblivious and stupid.
It's like she attended the Clary Fray Online Course on how to be a stupid protagonist or something. Little tingling pricks ran up my spine. The door was marred by several claw-like glashes -- like the way Daisy would leave scratches on my bedroom door when I left her home alon, only these scratches were much larger and deeper.
The door frame was splintered and cracked. You know, it took me a while to figure out - but apparently Grace has violet eyes. Really now, Despain? As far as I am concerned, the only person I allow to have such an oddity that I can think off the top of my head is Alanna from Tamora Pierce 's Song of the Lioness Quartet series - because she is an actual awesomely kick-ass heroine. Grace is not. Grace is a gullible, soulless little idiot with no personality.
Your argument is invalid, Despain. In the beginning, I was ready and willing to instantly hate this guy. He was just a conceited jerface and I sure as hell didn't buy into his or Grace being "artistic" and having a deep passion for "art". I just thought this was just the author trying to make them deep, substanial and less threatening characters in Daniel's case with intellectual prowress without actually, you know, showing it.
Also, a message to not only to this book, but to a good chunk of YA Paranormal books. Suddenly, Daniel pulls a fast Heel Face Turn and I don't even notice nor care - because at that point, I was just grateful for anything to happen in the 'dark and deep abyss of nothingness' that this book is drowning in. However, when I read more about his backstory: what with the whole neglected, abusive childhood he had to endure, and seeking solace and comfort in believing he found a real family with Grace's I found that there was potential to actually develop Daniel's character - and you start to feel a bit sympathetic towards him.
Okay maybe mine was in equal mass to Avagadro's number , but still! He paused for a moment. It was equally stupid and boring as the people involved in it. Like the plot, there was actual conflict and issue to help, I don't know - develop and strengthen their growing romance! Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to young adult, fantasy lovers.
Your Rating:. Your Comment:. Read Online Download. Great book, The Dark Divine pdf is enough to raise the goose bumps alone. Grace Divine made the ultimate sacrifice to cure Daniel Kalbi. Ballads of Suburbia is a hard book to follow, I kept thinking about it long after I was supposed to be into this one. Graveyard Girl Look, dude. I was worried that her father was going to be a jerk, but he was not. Do you get mad when a reviewer gives a book a bad review and one of their reasons is because they admit that there too old to read that kind of book?
You can visit her online at www. She did a wonderful job making the love despqin yummy. My final reasons for disliking The Dark Divine are incredibly petty, but worth mentioning simply so I can get serirs off my chest: At the beginning, he was a little too Richie Cunningham for me, but as the Prodigal Son scenario played out, both he and Daniel became incredibly fun to explore.
She waited to long to explain what was going on. However, when I read more about his backstory: Why did I have drk press the issue, refuse to stay ignorant? Also the heavily religious and smug moral self-righteousness tone to this book was just jarring and annoying.
Seies was just rushed, and very light of action. Grace is caught in a sort of accepting malaise of this status quo until Daniel shows up at her high school.
But I did find some parts of this novel entertaining.
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