Review: The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

(Purchased by me)

The time has arrived. I have finished The Dark Divine by Bree Despain.

I have waited a long, long, longggg time to read this book. It was worth the wait. But before I dive into my review i'll post the summary of the book according to Goodreads:

"Grace Divine, daughter of the local pastor, always knew something terrible happened the night Daniel Kalbi disappeared--the night she found her brother Jude collapsed on the porch, covered in his own blood--but she has no idea what a truly monstrous secret that night held.

The memories her family has tried to bury resurface when Daniel returns, three years later, and enrolls in Grace and Jude's high school. Despite promising Jude she'll stay away, Grace cannot deny her attraction to Daniel's shocking artistic abilities, his way of getting her to look at the world from new angles, and the strange, hungry glint in his eyes.

The closer Grace gets to Daniel, the more she jeopardizes her life, as her actions stir resentment in Jude and drive him to embrace the ancient evil Daniel unleashed that horrific night. Grace must discover the truth behind the boy's dark secret...and the cure that can save the ones she loves. But she may have to lay down the ultimate sacrifice to do it--her soul."

My review: very minor spoilers, don't worry I won't ruin it for you! :)

Where to start? I suppose I will start with the fact that this has to have been the best kept secret ever involving any book I have ever read. I will not include details that will spoil this surprise, I want you to be as excited as I was when I found out what was going on. I knew from the beginning it was a paranormal of some sort, I just didn't know what kind. I was lucky enough to avoid any reviews that slipped up so when finally catching on it was a surge of emotions. Excitement, man was I excited. Shock/surprise. Yup Bree Despain knows how to weave the details in a novel. Enjoyment. Yes I enjoyed it very much. One thing that bothered me was that the paranormal action doesn't really occur until further into the book. Way further. But I can honestly say that it didn't take away from the novel at all. In fact, it probably made me that much more eager to continue on to see where it was leading. Maybe that is actually a reason why this book is sooo good. It stands apart from a lot of paranormal YA because it can stand without the paranormal factors. The characters are strong, the plot is strong. I would have continued reading even if something fantasy didn't eventually trickle into the scheme of things. Grace is a great lead character. She stands up for her beliefs and does what she thinks is right no matter what anyone said and I loved that about her. Did I mention I love Daniel? *swoons* Ahem.. anyways.... I recommend this book to everyone. I know, I personally will be passing the word along to everyone I know who reads, to read this one. I read in a comment somewhere about someone hearing that this was somewhat similar to Twilight. Ehhh wrong. I wouldn't compare the two books and I certianly wouldn't say they were similar. I love the Twilight books and I now love this book, but for reasons completely different for each book. Oh and there is a sequel right? *crosses fingers* Please tell me there's a sequel?! :)

I think I will start rating books, it makes it easier then saying yea I liked this or loved this or ughh ok.

I've kind of been doing it anyways but this is my first official rated review.

I give The Dark Divine 5/5.

Hope you enjoyed the review and I hope if you weren't interested before, that you check it out now!

Have a great night!

Sherry  <3