The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

Summary: 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 Thoughts: So I've been preaching on twitter about finding a book thats just as good as Shiver or the Twilight Saga. I love this. I was referred The Dark Divine a few times so I finally sat down to read it. It was a longer book, almost 400 pages and I didn't put it down longer than 5 minutes at a time. I read this book in one night! We meet Grace Divine and her family. Most importantly, her brother Jude. I liked Jude, but I just didn't connect with him very much. We also meet Grace's other family members, the boy Pete who liked her, her best friend April, etc. Most importantly we meet Daniel. Daniel is the boy who grew up with Grace's family but disappeared suddenly a few years ago. He's back, but why? Daniel is irresistible and Grace feels that connection to him once again. She had a crush on him as a girl and now that he's all grown up, she still feels drawn to him. Daniel has a lot of secrets that begin to unwind throughout the story. Jude resents him, and tries to make Grace stay away from him but she doesn't understand why. She wants to know all the details about what happened and why he left. She also wants to know why Jude wants him gone so bad. Daniel's past finally starts to catch up to him and Grace realizes she must do an undesirable task to keep him. I won't say much else. You just need to read the story. I was hooked within a few pages in, especially when Daniel is teasing Grace and tells her to kiss him! I melted right there. I could feel like I was really part of the story and I wanted to be Grace so bad. I loved this book with a passion. I didn't want the story to end. There wasn't a huge cliffhanger at the end but I hear there might be a sequel. I will definitely be reading that if so.

Overall: I loved it. Sometimes I wonder, if there should be a batch of cupcake that has more than 5 cupcakes that mean the book took my breath away that it deserves more than 5 cupcakes. hehe.

Cover: Its really pretty and I love the color of her toenails!

What I'd Give It: