{"id":1628,"date":"2019-01-07T12:13:16","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T17:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=1628"},"modified":"2018-10-08T21:16:02","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T01:16:02","slug":"book-review-the-lost-saint-by-bree-despain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/?p=1628","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Lost Saint by Bree DeSpain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>EgmontUSA; Reprint edition, 2011
\nISBN: 978-1606842355<\/p>\n

Available: New and Used<\/p>\n

The Lost Saint<\/em>\u00a0is the second book in Bree Despain\u2019s YA werewolf series. It is the sequel to\u00a0The Dark Divine<\/em>, and takes place ten months after the events that close Despain\u2019s previous book. The book tells the story of Grace Divine, who is in a relationship with Daniel Kalbi, the mysterious young man with whom she became involved in the previous book. As readers of\u00a0The Dark Divine<\/em>\u00a0know, Daniel is an Urbat \u2013 a human being \u2018cursed\u2019 to share his body with a wolf demon. Should an Urbat lose control and give in to his wolf (by committing a predatory act against a human) he will be damned to live as a werewolf. At the end of the first book, Grace attempted to \u2018cure\u2019 Daniel of his curse, leaving her \u2018infected\u2019 and her brother Jude a werewolf.<\/p>\n

Despain\u2019s book picks up Grace and Daniel\u2019s story and shows them struggling to come to terms with Grace\u2019s infection and Daniel\u2019s cure. New dangers threaten their relationship, and old problems (like Grace\u2019s brother) refuse to go away. The book also brings Gabriel Saint Moon, the legendary Urbat whose letters featured in\u00a0The Dark Divine<\/em>, into the action, and reveals more about the history of the Urbat.<\/p>\n

Despain\u2019s novels are unusual amongst YA fiction for their portrayal of the werewolf as a wholly monstrous creature. The werewolf state is a negative one, which all Urbat are supposed to avoid. Unlike the werewolves in books by Maggie Stiefvater, Andrea Cremer and Stephenie Meyer, the werewolves (as opposed to the more controlled Urbat) are not noble, sympathetic or in touch with nature or primitive forces. Grace must learn to come to terms with her new existence, but also to be aware of its potentially deadly consequences. This interesting take on lycanthropy was one of the real strengths of the book.<\/p>\n

I felt that\u00a0The Lost Saint<\/em>\u00a0was even stronger than the first book of the series. The development of Grace\u2019s character, and the new challenges she faces (particularly as she learns to deal with the \u2018wolf\u2019 inside her) were compelling. The first person narrative allows readers to really identify with Grace, and to understand the story from the teen heroine\u2019s perspective. More focus is given to Grace\u2019s religious beliefs (though this does not overshadow other elements of the story), and I felt this was well-handled and believable.<\/p>\n

I recommend this book; it will appeal to fans of YA dark romance, particularly books by Maggie Stiefvater, Andrea Cremer and Jennifer Lynn Barnes. However, I would advise reading\u00a0The Dark Divine\u00a0<\/em>before reading\u00a0The Lost Saint<\/em>. The third book in the series,\u00a0The Savage Grace<\/em>, will be out in March 2012.<\/p>\n

Contains: some violence<\/p>\n

Reviewed by: Hannah Kate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EgmontUSA; Reprint edition, 2011 ISBN: 978-1606842355 Available: New and Used The Lost Saint\u00a0is the second book in Bree Despain\u2019s YA werewolf series. It is the sequel to\u00a0The Dark Divine, and takes place ten months after the events that close Despain\u2019s previous book. The book tells the story of Grace Divine, who is in a relationship […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,229,20],"tags":[303],"class_list":["post-1628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-shapeshifters","category-ya-books","tag-bree-despain"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Eu9f-qg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1630,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions\/1630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/ReadingBites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}