Grace Divine is the daughter of the local priest, and one of the oldest sibling in a group of four. Grace's parents and older brother, Jude, are keeping a secret from her, a secret about her first love, Daniel. One night Jude showed up all bloody on the families front porch and Daniel was gone. This incident occurred three years ago, now all of a sudden Daniel is back in town and mysterious things are happening. Humans go missing and cats being killed. Grace doesn't believe that Daniel is evil but her brother, Jude, who also happens to be Daniels former best friend, seems to feel otherwise. There is something special about Daniel that's for sure but is it something bad? Gracie wants to help Daniel get a normal life, but is she willing to sacrifice her relationship with her family in order to help him?
My thoughts on The Dark Divine:
The Dark Divine was one of the books I had high hopes for, it sounded so so good and I just had to pre-order it. I got the book but it took me awhile to pick it off my shelves, I've read all these great 5 stars reviews of the book and that actually made me a bit reluctant to read it. Yes, I know that it's a bit weird of me to think like that :)
Grace was a bit to naive and good girl for me and I couldn't always relate to her reactions. She had it in her mind that it was her task to make things right for everyone. That being said she wasn't all good like a one dimensional character. Grace chose to do some things she knew would get people hurt, but in the end she felt like it was her only choice.
The bad boy in this book, Daniel, has suffered greatly from a childhood were he was abused be his father and was abandoned by his mother. I honestly think it is very important to get such an important subject out in the open, sadly there are many children out there who suffers. Daniel is a well carved bad boy and I think that you can never be quite sure if he is good or evil. He was my favorite character!
Some of you might have noticed that these days in some YA novels the main character has a best friend, which in my opinion really qualifies as the worst best friend ever. In The Dark Divine Grace has a best friend called April. April has a huge crush on Grace's older brother and when a tragedy hits and Jude needs support April is there for him. She is so there for him and in love that she almost forgets about Grace. When she does give Grace attention it is always due to something that will give her more time with Jude. April is one selfish girl, she reminds me a lot of the character called Vee in Becca Fitzpatrick's novel Hush, Hush(those of you that have read it surely will understand what I mean).
I devoured The Dark Divine in a couple of days. It was a quick and entertaining read but not as good as I had hoped. That being said I will read the next book in this series, I have to know what's in store for Grace, Daniel and Jude in the future. All in all a nice debut novel by Bree Despain. For second opinions check out the review links below, if you do you'll notice that I'm one of a few that wasn't blown away by this book's amazingness.
My rating of this book:
3,8 stars out of 5 stars.
Want another opinion on this book? Check out the reviews written by some of my book blogging friends below:
- GreenBeanTeenQueen: "I've been feeling a little burnt out on paranormals, so I was wary of reading The Dark Divine. Luckily Bree Despain offers up a refreshing take and makes The Dark Divine an addicting read!"
- Confessions of A Book Addict:"So you might ask did The Dark Divine "WOW" me? No, I can't say it did, but it sure was entertaining nonetheless."
- La Femme Readers: "I definitely recommend it to supernatural fans."
- Steph Su Reads: "It does take an inventive writer to pull off what Bree Despain has as the ending, and I found it believable, heart-stopping, and satisfying."
- The Hiding Spot:"THE DARK DIVINE is, without a doubt, one of my favorite YA supernatural books of 2009!"
- Wondrous Reads: "The Dark Divine is a compelling, addictive debut, and I absolutely loved it."
- Pure Imagination:"The mystery starts with the very first page. All sorts of questions are asked. So I never had time to be bored. "
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Pages(hardcover): 384
Publisher: Egemont USA
ISBN: 978-1606840573
Source: Purchased
