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Werewolves are tricky business. They are right up there with vampires in the "played out" category. But Bree Despain got in before the market was flooded and gave us a different kind of werewolf book. She gave us one full of mythology and faith and curses and real wolves. In The Savage Grace, her Dark Divine series comes to a thrilling and bittersweet conclusion.
Grace has sacrificed everything for Daniel. She has been infected with the Urbat curse (werewolfiness), she has forsaken her family (granted her brother just tried to kill her), and she was forced to kill Daniel, the man she loves. Of course she only killed his wolfie, evil half, but now he has transformed into a giant white wolf and he can't shift back into a human. As each day passes, Daniel, the pack's true alpha, loses more and more of his connection to humanity and gets farther away from Grace. Not to mention he has left her with the "Lost Boys", the boys from Grace and Daniel's pack, now that Daniel has claimed Grace as his mate (a fact her father was NOT thrilled to learn about).
Grace throws herself into finding a way to bring Daniel back to the two-legged, less furry kind of boyfriend, but she is so concerned with saving Daniel, she doesn't realize how much danger she could be putting her friends and family in. Not to mention, she has two crazy packs after her for two very different reasons. Caleb, Daniel's insane father, has a pack of Urbats, demons and vampires ready to overthrow the pack and kill as many people as he can. That doesn't even consider Sirhan's ancient pack, who want Grace because they think she is the Divine One. But Grace feels like anything but Divine. She feels like she has failed everyone she has ever loved. Is redemption even a possibility at this point?
I am always a little skeptical about a book that has religion as a backdrop and not the focus. If it is the focus, I know what I am getting myself into and what to expect. If religion is a backdrop, it can either be handled very well, or it can become too preachy where it feels like a sneaky way to shame and guilt. I hate that. So I know I was skeptical at first that there was a religious element to this book, but it wasn't preachy or obnoxious in any way. In fact, it was so much a part of Grace and her family that a beautiful and faithful acceptance came out of all of them. It was the type of faith you can respect and appreciate rather than feel lectured by. I loved this part of Grace, and in the end, it was her compassion that set her and Daniel apart from the rest of the Urbats out there. In a world of hurt and viciousness, Grace is a healer with the compassion to care about even the people who want to kill or enslave her. That is a beautiful underlying moral in this story.
As a conclusion, this story had it all: action, fighting, redemption, and a bittersweet finale. It was an ending you don't totally expect, but are completely satisfied with. There are some losses, of course, but there are also some beautiful connections. The first half of the book is all about saving Daniel, and the second half is all about the threat of the other packs, so the book is very divided from one end to the other. But this doesn't feel forced or stretched at any point; it is just the evolution of Grace in this final installment. If you loved the rest of the series, this is a graceful (pun intended) way to say goodbye to your beloved characters. You won't be sorry, except to see them go.
Brother Gabriel was Daniel's Urbat (werewolf) mentor, but we never knew the full story of his transformation as an Urbat in the Dark Divine Series by Bree Despain. Not a main character, Gabriel's evolution isn't the primary focus of the series, but it certainly has a lot to do with who he is and how he led Daniel. In these lost letters, we see how he first became an Urbat, how he struggled with the wolf inside him, and how he became the man he is today.
I have to say this was an enlightening little collection of letters. They help you to know the man you thought you knew. I also appreciated how he talked about the wolf inside him as a separate entity, not a real conjoined piece of himself as we would see it from the outside. In particular, the transition from a vengeful beast to an atoning leader was one you won't want to miss. In a swirl of crappy unnecessary eShorts out there from your favorite series, this one is worth the effort!
Where do you go from the ultimate sacrifice? A girl takes on the curse of the Urbat (werewolf) herself in order to save her boyfriend, and then where do they go? Happily ever after? Oh, I think not! After such a lovely ending, things are bound to get ugly... And in The Lost Saint by Bree Despain, they certainly get ugly.
Grace Divine saved her boyfriend Daniel from the wolf inside him, but not before her brother, Jude, bit an infected her. Saving Daniel may well have damned Grace, but she and Daniel decide to embrace her wolfiness and begin training immediately. If Grace can use her new powers for good, then maybe she can overcome the curse and keep the wolf from taking her over. When Jude begins sending cryptic messages to Grace, things begin to go south quickly.
Grace is doing a community service project for school, and she meets a young guy named Talbot. Talbot quickly reveals he is also an Urbat and as the Last Saint Moon, he is taking up his family's mission to rid the world of evil: demons, vampires, and other ickly uglies that go bump in the night. Since Daniel has been avoiding her and has stopped her training, she can't resist the lure of fighting bad guys with Talbot. It makes her feel like a real super hero. But things aren't quite as easy and carefree as they seem. Jude keeps warning her not to trust anyone, but she doesn't know if he can be trusted either. When she is kidnapped, the truth is revealed about who is really after Grace, and it is a twist you never see coming!
This was a good follow-up to the first story. It is much darker with a lot of other stuff coming out of the woodwork, but sometimes the action gets lost amongst Grace's pining for Daniel and self-doubt. While I am fine with a little introspection, sometimes it is better to keep enough going on outside the character's head in order to keep the reader interested. The story would have been better if it was a little shorter by way of reducing Grace's constant self-analysis.
I liked the delve into the deeper supernatural in this book as well. There was a cursory discussion of different demons and their abilities, but not enough for my taste. I would have loved to hear more about the creepers Talbot and Grace keep hunting. This is a good sequel, so if a reader liked the first book, this should be a hit, too. Maybe the next book will venture even further.
The vague description on the jacket blurb is what kept me from this story for a full year. In retrospect, it was a good thing because the sequel has already been released! But I am a little behind the times by just reading this story now. The cover and the blurb don't give away much of the story, so readers might feel like they are flying blind at first, but gratefully the story gets really interesting really quickly!
Grace Divine is the pastor's daughter, and she and her family must live up to that status. Her brother Jude is the epitome of a pastor's son. He always thinks of others first, never fails to go out of his way to help people, and is the apple of everyone's eye. When Daniel Kalbi returns after a mysterious disappearance, Grace is drawn to him. Despite the memories of her brother returning covered in blood from seeing Daniel right before he disappeared and Jude's warning for Grace to stay far away from Daniel, she keeps finding herself with him.
As Daniel's story unfolds, Grace isn't sure who she can trust. Stories of ancient beings created to do God's bidding swirl into modern day stories of werewolves and monsters. Meanwhile, the town is again plagued with odd deaths and mutilations just as it was years ago before Daniel disappeared. Jude insists Daniel is evil, but Grace can't see beyond the kind, caring Daniel she used to know. Now Grace must decide whether she can make the ultimate sacrifice to save Daniel, and must weigh the consequences of her choice.
While this story has certainly been well played int he past few years, Despain does a good job of changing up the ready worn. She takes a supernatural creature and gives it new life and new purpose. I was glad this story did not take as long as some others (*cough* Hush, Hush *cough* Fallen) to reveal the nature of the odd stirrings and bumps in the night. Sometimes when the meat of the story is revealed too late, I find myself wondering whether it was worth the work to get through. Instead this is a well-paced story with interesting characters and plenty to keep you interested.
The writing is relatively clean with hints of creepy happenings and violence without any real gore. It would be suitable for any junior high to high school student, but would probably appeal mostly to girls (the cover might have something to do with that). Excitingly, the second book, The Lost Saint has just been released and is at the top of my "to read" list (of course that list is about 40 books deep, but I desperately want more of this story!). I can't wait to see what happens to Grace Divine and Daniel Kalbi next!
