Review: The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

Series: The Dark Divine, book #1

Published: December 22nd 2009

Publisher: EgmontUSA

Details: Hardcover, 372 pages

My rating: 3/5

My summary:

About Grace, a dutiful pastor’s daughter who is drawn towards bad boy Daniel, a childhood friend who has suddenly come back after mysteriously dissappearing 3 years ago. What happened then and what is the deal with Daniel?

I really thought I would devour this. Instead I found it slow. Only after about 200 pages or so things start happening and I found myself glued to the last part. Sequel out this year.

See my full review here:

Synopsis:

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.

My thoughts:

I have mixed feelings regarding this book. It was pretty slow, and I was actually struggling a bit to keep up my interest. Then, in the last few chapters it redeemed itself, and ended with a big bang that really makes me want to read the sequel.

So where does that leave this book, in terms of grading I mean? Hmm..still deciding.

The story revolves around Grace, a dutiful pastor’s daughter, who is drawn towards bad boy Daniel. Daniel is a childhood friend who mysteriously disappeared three years ago after an accident (or was it an accident?) involving Grace’s brother Jude. Daniel and Jude are since then not on speaking terms, to say the least. Daniel is now back, and even though Grace knows she better stay away from him – for loyalty to Jude, of course she can’t help but do the opposite.

Daniel is clearly a bad boy, and at the start of the book I was a bit irritated at the way he treated Grace. She’s going out of her way to help him and gets nothing in return. Like, what’s your problem? Then, that changes and he seems all right. Yet, we are still wondering through most part of the book what exactly is going on with him. Something is clearly not right.

Grace and Daniel also fall in love with each other, and this may be where it fell short for me in the first part of the book. I just didn’t really feel that. It felt as if she just saw him and boom, she was in love. Then again, Daniel is a childhood friend, and Grace did have a crush on him already back then, so it really isn’t surprising that those feelings resurfaced so quickly again. Still, for me as a reader I didn’t feel it. I think I would have needed more background story of how it was back then, before Daniel disappeared, to see them as just friends. That would have made the “falling in love” feel more real.

By the end of the book, it is finally explained what exactly happened three years ago, and what the deal is with Daniel. If you haven’t guessed it already, there are some supernatural elements here. I won’t say what exactly as it is best if you discover those as you read. The ending is great, and like I said before, it promises a great sequel.

Overall though, the plot was so slow and weak at first, that I won’t give it a 4. However, my hopes are up for a better read in the sequel The Lost Saint.