Review: The Dark Divine

Title: The Dark Divine
Author: Bree Despain
Publisher: Egmont USA
Cahllenege: None
Pages: 372

My Rating:

A Prodigal Son. A Dangerous Love. A Deadly Secret.. 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. -summary from goodreads.com

Being a religious person myself, I was really looking forward to reading this book. I had heard the author had superbly incorporated both religious theology and a paranormal climate. Can you say awesome? I always wondered how that would turn out (and let me tell you).... IT ROCKED! The story itself is awesome, you can practically imagine yourself in each scene from such great description. The plot didn't really start until the middle when you finally figure out the "secrets" that Daniel is keeping but after that things start to move FAST. At times I found myself slowing down, I didn't want the book to end- but I just had to know what would happen with Daniel and Grace.

Grace was a very interesting character. She’s the town pastors daughter and she goes to a Christian school with her older brother Jude. She flip flops between her love for Daniel and her fear of his past. She's always struggling with her desire to be a good Christian and her desire to be a loyal sister. At times, it was very interesting to see how Grace dealt with certain situations; her religion prohibited her from doing certain things, but how could she stay away when her heart told her otherwise? Grace was a fascinating character to read about, she was bit of both Christian ideology and doubt.

Jude, at first, seemed like an awesome guy but as times went on, you finally see how warped and messed up in the head he really is. Daniel on the other hand, I adored him. I loved the interactions between him and Grace. Daniel is so much more compelling than the rest of the characters. He comes from a broken home; his father beat him, his mother abandoned him and to make it all worse; he's cursed. He is an Urbat, Hounds of Heaven, but now are called the Dogs of Death. This was a concept i really enjoyed reading about. It was a new take on werewolves. These Urbats (werewolves like creatures) were created to destroy the demons that walked the earth, but their original purpose became corrupted. But despite his background and what he is, Daniel still tries to be good and honorable. You can’t help but love him.

Overall, The Dark Divine is captivating mix of religion, romance and even a bit of danger. I loved this book! This is a must read for all you paranormal-romance fans. I can't wait to get my hands on sequel The Lost Saint, which luckily for me is already out :) yesss! I hear B&N is having a president's day sale... you know where I'll be this Monday.