Saturday, March 24, 2012

Review: The Savage Grace by Bree Despain

The Savage Grace
By Bree Despain
March 13, 2012
EgmontUSA, 496 pgs
Amazon Description:Grace's life is a mess. Daniel is still a werewolf, Talbot can't be trusted, and Caleb is still out there. With Sirhan's impending death, war seems imminent. Will Grace give in to the wolf to save her family? What will happen to Daniel . . . and can their love survive one last test?

Here’s the breakdown: 

Plot:
I have to admit, I had a harder time getting into this one that I did the previous two books. Though I know this isn't any fault of Bree's writing or the plot, it's just that Daniel didn't make an appearance (as a human) for quite some time! And as soon as Daniel reappeared, well, from then on I was hooked. The plot built to some ultimate “twists” that didn’t seem that twisty.
There was one character in particular I was suspicious of for the entire book and I ended up being right about them. Overall, the storyline was more predictable than I would have liked.
The ending was great though! It had all the elements to end happily without being a straight happily ever after; there was loss as well as happiness, which made it so much more believable.

Characters: Grace kicked butt in this book. Enough said. I fell even more in love with Daniel than I already was, and that was quite the accomplishment on Bree's part. He really has it all. The bad boy outward persona with secret marshmallows inside. And of course he's madly in love with Grace. And a hardened character like Daniel who is so unabashedly in love is irresistible. April remained somewhat vague and 2 dimensional, so I yet again had trouble connecting with her.  The multitude of side characters were so dynamic they felt real and wish some of them would be so they could be my friends. Loved the “lost boys” and the allusions to Peter Pan. That was one of my favorite childhood stories growing up and it was great to see it worked into Grace’s situation with the wolves recently released from the clutches of the shadow kings gang.

Writing style: My favorite thing Bree did in this book was that neither Daniel or Grace tried to protect each other by preventing each other to fight for themselves. They were a strong couple and were on equal ground. Daniel never tried to hold grace back to keep her “safe” or vice versa. Something pretty uncommon in ya paranormal romance these days. A healthy relationship, not co-dependent in a scary way. Bree also continued to heavily include Grace's religious values somewhat heavily, but again she did a great job using it as an additional layer of Grace's multidimensional character. Whether or not you share Grace's beliefs, they work in favor of the novel, giving readers more beautiful mythology to wade through as we work towards the definitive solving of the mystery. As for the rest of the novel, I think Bree did a fabulous job, same as her previous two books. As soon as I became invested in the novel, I was hooked till the end, completely invested in the characters lives and the ultimate outcome.
 

Verdict: 



Bree elegantly entwines the werewolf mythology and the religious aspects of the story with a beautiful, real tale of love, loss, and mystery.

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