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mapally's review against another edition
4.0
Another good edition to this series! I thought this one was even more interesting that the first book, Dark Divine.
I'll definitely be reading the final book in the trilogy!
I give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars!
I'll definitely be reading the final book in the trilogy!
I give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars!
reddyrat's review against another edition
4.0
Bree Despain managed to do something with The Lost Saint at which few authors succeed: write a sophomore book that is better than the first book. I liked Dark Divine, but I really liked The Lost Saint.
The Lost Saint begins where Dark Divine left off. Grace's brother Jude ran away after turning werewolf and biting Grace. Grace sacrificed herself to save Daniel's life. Now, Daniel is just a regular kid and Grace has burgeoning werewolf superpowers.
At one level, The Lost Saint is par for the course for the second book in a paranormal trilogy. You have a happy couple suddenly thrust into conflict. The guy (almost always the guy) becomes distant and/or disappears. A new guy enters into our heroine's life and sweeps her off her feet. She doesn't want to give up her love for our hero, but she is drawn to new guy. And you can guess how the book ends...
The conflict in The Lost Saint is Daniel's secrecy. He's lying to Grace about where he's going, what he's doing, and is avoiding her. The new guy is Talbot, a fellow Urbat, who encourages Grace to expand her powers..
Despain fixed my two major complaints from Dark Divine. I was so confused for most of the first book. I didn't even realize it was about werewolves until at least halfway through. Now that we've been introduced to the paranormal element, Despain doesn't hesitate in immersing us in the werewolf world. I love how rich the mythology is. It's not just werewolves. There are demons, vampires, and Urbats. The werewolves have a complex history and even more complicated politics. I like how Despain gives paranormal creatures we've read about in loads of other books a little twist to make them unique but still recognizable.
I loved the plot. I especially liked that Grace didn't know who she could trust. And neither did the reader. Was Jude really trying to help Grace or just manipulate her? Was Daniel turning his back on her? Is Gabriel really such a hero? Is Talbot using Grace or does he truly care about her? Even her father had secrets. Despain kept me guessing until the very end. And new guy Talbot is really cool. Sexy, handsome, a fighter. He comes off as less emo than Daniel. And he doesn't assume that Grace will break if she tries to increase her powers.
My other major complaint (well, it's kind of petty) was the setting. The book is set just outside of Minneapolis in a small made-up town called Rose Crest. Rose Crest is near a slightly larger town called Apple Valley. I happen to live close to Apple Valley and the descriptions of the suburb were laughably wrong. I was happy that any descriptions of the town were generic enough in The Lost Saint that it didn't detract from the story for someone who is familiar with the area.
Similar to Dark Divine, The Lost Saint gets off to a slow start. Nothing really started happening until halfway through the book. Thankfully, there was enough world-building and relationship intrigue that I didn't get bored. Still...it dragged. But don't worry. Once things get going, they're fast and exciting. You won't be able to tear yourself away. And the book ends at the perfect place. It ties things up from this book but leaves the reader with a fabulous cliff hanger.
Rating: 4 / 5
The Lost Saint begins where Dark Divine left off. Grace's brother Jude ran away after turning werewolf and biting Grace. Grace sacrificed herself to save Daniel's life. Now, Daniel is just a regular kid and Grace has burgeoning werewolf superpowers.
At one level, The Lost Saint is par for the course for the second book in a paranormal trilogy. You have a happy couple suddenly thrust into conflict. The guy (almost always the guy) becomes distant and/or disappears. A new guy enters into our heroine's life and sweeps her off her feet. She doesn't want to give up her love for our hero, but she is drawn to new guy. And you can guess how the book ends...
The conflict in The Lost Saint is Daniel's secrecy. He's lying to Grace about where he's going, what he's doing, and is avoiding her. The new guy is Talbot, a fellow Urbat, who encourages Grace to expand her powers..
Despain fixed my two major complaints from Dark Divine. I was so confused for most of the first book. I didn't even realize it was about werewolves until at least halfway through. Now that we've been introduced to the paranormal element, Despain doesn't hesitate in immersing us in the werewolf world. I love how rich the mythology is. It's not just werewolves. There are demons, vampires, and Urbats. The werewolves have a complex history and even more complicated politics. I like how Despain gives paranormal creatures we've read about in loads of other books a little twist to make them unique but still recognizable.
I loved the plot. I especially liked that Grace didn't know who she could trust. And neither did the reader. Was Jude really trying to help Grace or just manipulate her? Was Daniel turning his back on her? Is Gabriel really such a hero? Is Talbot using Grace or does he truly care about her? Even her father had secrets. Despain kept me guessing until the very end. And new guy Talbot is really cool. Sexy, handsome, a fighter. He comes off as less emo than Daniel. And he doesn't assume that Grace will break if she tries to increase her powers.
My other major complaint (well, it's kind of petty) was the setting. The book is set just outside of Minneapolis in a small made-up town called Rose Crest. Rose Crest is near a slightly larger town called Apple Valley. I happen to live close to Apple Valley and the descriptions of the suburb were laughably wrong. I was happy that any descriptions of the town were generic enough in The Lost Saint that it didn't detract from the story for someone who is familiar with the area.
Similar to Dark Divine, The Lost Saint gets off to a slow start. Nothing really started happening until halfway through the book. Thankfully, there was enough world-building and relationship intrigue that I didn't get bored. Still...it dragged. But don't worry. Once things get going, they're fast and exciting. You won't be able to tear yourself away. And the book ends at the perfect place. It ties things up from this book but leaves the reader with a fabulous cliff hanger.
Rating: 4 / 5
justlily's review against another edition
My reading tastes have changed a LOT in the four years since I read the first book. I enjoyed that one but got about two chapters into this and knew it wasn't for me. DNF @ chapter 3.
cari1268's review against another edition
4.0
Wow! I thought the first book was okay and I wasn't really expecting anything more from this one. I am happily surprised. This one really gripped me. I read most of the book with a grim anticipation of what I thought was going to happen but the ending surprised me. The only thing that bothered me about the book was the main character's naiveness. I wanted to bang her over the head sometimes. Overall, this was a really fun read!
audreychamaine's review against another edition
3.0
Grace Divine sacrificed herself to save her boyfriend, Daniel, from his werewolf curse, although she herself became infected. Now Grace is trying to learn to control her powers without letting them overrun her and turn her into a wolf, which searching for her runaway werewolf brother, Jude. As Grace looks for Jude, she meets a handsome older guy, Talbot, who seems to know what she is. She can’t seem to stop growing closer to Talbot while she feels she is losing Daniel. In addition, there’s growing trouble in town, and Grace worries that Jude may be part of it. She’s in danger of letting her quest for her brother take her over the edge, and losing herself to the wolf.
The Lost Saint is a story largely about self-control, and walking the fine line between fighting for what is right and losing yourself to violence. Throughout the story, Grace tries to do what she thinks will help her to find her brother, but each step seems to just lead her closer to surrendering to the werewolf nature. At the same time, it begs the question of whether standing by and doing nothing is ever the right thing to do when you have the power to end wrongdoings. It all comes back to the superhero statement: with great power comes great responsibility.
I found Grace’s relationship with Daniel particularly frustrating in this book. For two people who are supposed to have selfless love for one another, the distance sure grew between them pretty quickly. Of course, this creating the opening for the Talbot character to weasel his way into Grace’s life. Unfortunately, this smelled suspiciously of the Edward, Jacob, Bella triangle. I’d bet that things get even more complicated between the three of them in the next book.
The Lost Saint brings plenty of action with Grace’s new skills, and poses moral questions of right and wrong for the reader to puzzle over. Despain’s also expanded the supernatural universe in this book to include other creatures. Readers of the first book, The Dark Divine, will want to pick this one up to see a whole other side of Grace.
The Lost Saint is a story largely about self-control, and walking the fine line between fighting for what is right and losing yourself to violence. Throughout the story, Grace tries to do what she thinks will help her to find her brother, but each step seems to just lead her closer to surrendering to the werewolf nature. At the same time, it begs the question of whether standing by and doing nothing is ever the right thing to do when you have the power to end wrongdoings. It all comes back to the superhero statement: with great power comes great responsibility.
I found Grace’s relationship with Daniel particularly frustrating in this book. For two people who are supposed to have selfless love for one another, the distance sure grew between them pretty quickly. Of course, this creating the opening for the Talbot character to weasel his way into Grace’s life. Unfortunately, this smelled suspiciously of the Edward, Jacob, Bella triangle. I’d bet that things get even more complicated between the three of them in the next book.
The Lost Saint brings plenty of action with Grace’s new skills, and poses moral questions of right and wrong for the reader to puzzle over. Despain’s also expanded the supernatural universe in this book to include other creatures. Readers of the first book, The Dark Divine, will want to pick this one up to see a whole other side of Grace.
emma211's review against another edition
5.0
loved every second of the story. can't wait for the next one. :)
blodeuedd's review against another edition
1.0
Evil Ana for giving me this book. What on earth was I thinking when I actually liked book 1!? Cos this one was duuuuuuull.
I tried, I really tried. I read 1/3 of it, and enjoyed it in a very boring way. But then I just could not take it anymore, even skimming it was boring. Grace was a naive idiot who yelled at her boyfriend for spending time with a girl for school. But she spent a lot of time with a guy herself. Whatever Grace. True love and all *coughs* Love triangle big sigh.
I did not care about Grace, I did not care about Daniel. This one went bad, fast. I would totally have given up if I hadn't gotten it from someone.
I tried, I really tried. I read 1/3 of it, and enjoyed it in a very boring way. But then I just could not take it anymore, even skimming it was boring. Grace was a naive idiot who yelled at her boyfriend for spending time with a girl for school. But she spent a lot of time with a guy herself. Whatever Grace. True love and all *coughs* Love triangle big sigh.
I did not care about Grace, I did not care about Daniel. This one went bad, fast. I would totally have given up if I hadn't gotten it from someone.
sqeeker's review against another edition
4.0
- I don't know why I can't stop reading these! This is usually not my cup of tea!
- I thought the beginning was a little slow, but it picked up and I couldn't stop reading. This book never left my side, and I read every chance I got.
- April is so dumb but fun. I find her really annoying, but she is a good friend, and I think Grace really needed her. April reminded me A LOT of Tomoya from Cardcaptor Sakura. Kudos to Brodi Ashton for her input on a bling bling stake! ha ha!
- I don't know what to think about Daniel and Grace's relationship in this one. I hated it, but I understood it. Every relationship has bumps, and I'm glad they reconciled and became closer because of their struggles, but I hated the lying and poor choices.
- How old are Grace and Daniel? Aren't they too young to know what true love is? I can't really complain though, I started dating my hubby when I was 18, but I was out of High School and in College. I don't really know how I feel about this.
- I really like the Christian messages in these books. I think religion gives guidance and comfort to people, and this story really shows that. I really liked the theme of helping others and being good Samaritans. I wish my school/seminary had a service project like the one in this book.
- There was a lot more action and violence in this book, and I LOVED IT!! The epic demon killing was fun! I also liked the battle at the end.
- This book was very Buffy the Vampire Slayerish. I liked it! It was also Twilightish, which I hated.
- I liked the new characters, and I liked that I didn't know who to trust or not. Little warning signs went off in my head about a couple of them. I liked the added suspense of not knowing who the enemy really was.
- Grace made a lot of poor choices. I get that most of it was the wolf inside, but I'm glad she got a little kick in the butt at the end. Her pride was getting the way, so I'm glad she was humbled and realized what was going on.
- I figured a love triangle would appear, but I REALLY didn't want it to. Oy! Why? Why do books have to do this!? We've already established that Daniel and Grace have "true love" for each other, so lets just leave them alone!
- The ending was a bit of a cliffhanger, so I think I'll go devour the 3rd book now!
- I thought the beginning was a little slow, but it picked up and I couldn't stop reading. This book never left my side, and I read every chance I got.
- April is so dumb but fun. I find her really annoying, but she is a good friend, and I think Grace really needed her. April reminded me A LOT of Tomoya from Cardcaptor Sakura. Kudos to Brodi Ashton for her input on a bling bling stake! ha ha!
- I don't know what to think about Daniel and Grace's relationship in this one. I hated it, but I understood it. Every relationship has bumps, and I'm glad they reconciled and became closer because of their struggles, but I hated the lying and poor choices.
- How old are Grace and Daniel? Aren't they too young to know what true love is? I can't really complain though, I started dating my hubby when I was 18, but I was out of High School and in College. I don't really know how I feel about this.
- I really like the Christian messages in these books. I think religion gives guidance and comfort to people, and this story really shows that. I really liked the theme of helping others and being good Samaritans. I wish my school/seminary had a service project like the one in this book.
- There was a lot more action and violence in this book, and I LOVED IT!! The epic demon killing was fun! I also liked the battle at the end.
- This book was very Buffy the Vampire Slayerish. I liked it! It was also Twilightish, which I hated.
- I liked the new characters, and I liked that I didn't know who to trust or not. Little warning signs went off in my head about a couple of them. I liked the added suspense of not knowing who the enemy really was.
- Grace made a lot of poor choices. I get that most of it was the wolf inside, but I'm glad she got a little kick in the butt at the end. Her pride was getting the way, so I'm glad she was humbled and realized what was going on.
- I figured a love triangle would appear, but I REALLY didn't want it to. Oy! Why? Why do books have to do this!? We've already established that Daniel and Grace have "true love" for each other, so lets just leave them alone!
- The ending was a bit of a cliffhanger, so I think I'll go devour the 3rd book now!