Dark Divine and Lost Saint by Bree Despain

by:  Bree Despain
published by:  Egmont USA
publish date:  December 28, 2010

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.
So looking at that cover what would you think this book is about?  If you didn't read the back of it and you hadn't heard anything about it before you saw that cover.  Obviously, your first thought would be werewolves, right?   Ethereal floating legs and shrouds...not angels, not mermaids...not even vampires for goodness sakes, but hairy dogs.

I intentionally left myself in the dark on this one so maybe it would make it harder to figure out.  I didn't read anything about these books beforehand because I didn't want to know so maybe I could have a little surprise.  Didn't really happen.  There are so many little clues leading up to the big reveal a 2 year old could have figured it out.   

That said, I didn't think it was bad or disappointing really.  There was a bit of the insta-love with the bad boy thing going on, but it was tempered by the fact that she did know him previously.  Other than that, I didn't really have any complaints.  It was pretty typical YA paranormal fare.  So I started right in on the second one.

Again you can totally see the werewolf influence on the cover of The Lost Saint.

At the end of The Dark Divine Grace's brother Jude runs away after she is bitten by a werewolf.  The Lost Saint picks up with Jude missing and Grace feeling the effects of werewolf's influence on her. 

I liked this book a little better than the first mainly because of the ending because it was so heartbreaking and sad.  Also, there was a lot more fighting and action going on in this book.  The town is being invaded by dark forces and very few have the power to keep them at bay.  Grace, because she has the power of the wolf inside of her, is one of these and with some training she gets to be a tough girl.

I liked these first two books enough that I'll get around to the third book whenever the library has it in.  I'm curious to see how Daniel's story ultimately plays out and what happens with Jude in the end.  Funny...I'm not too worried about Grace...