Book Review: Bree Despain’s "The Dark Divine"

Smart, pretty girl falls in love with super hot monster-boy. Monster boy loves her in return but is afraid he may hurt, maim or kill her. He keeps his distance, she pines for him, tries to move on but can’t.

Sound familiar to anyone else? Apparently the Twilight Series has set the formula for YA Bestsellers. If you simply take a girl with bad judgement and a boy with super powers, and tell them it’s dangerous to be together, then you have successfully written a marketable novel.

Here’s the catch: I actually liked “The Dark Divine” better than I liked “Twilight”. The main character, Grace Divine, is more human to me. She’s snarky, self-righteous and sarcastic. Her love interest, Daniel, is scary and hot but way less creepy than Edward. But then again, I always took the werewolf’s side of the debate.

The book is cleanly written, interesting and well-plotted. Do all YA paranormal romance’s keep to the exact same formula? Yes. Is it working? Well, I bought the book so you be the judge.

My only question is: why do all the boys have to mutate? Whatever happened to a girl falling in love with a boy who’s only change occurrs in a phone booth? I hear spandex is totally back in style, and some girls dig a guy who wears his underwear over his pants.

The 384 page novel was released in December 2009. It’s sequel “The Lost Saint” is scheduled for released just after Christmas.




P.S. In case you are wondering, Bree Despain is ANOTHER LDS author who has made it big. Way to go Mormons!!