Shadowland by Alyson Noel

3 stars... It's okay.

Hmm. This one has me confused. Well, not this book... nothing is confusing about this book or its series, but Amazon seems to have something wrong with it. See Shadowland is the third book in The Immortals series. Evermore is the first book and Blue Moon the second. But you'll notice I linked to the Library Edition of Blue Moon because the paperback version has some crazy plain cover that looks like it's for a foreign country... or maybe an ARC (advanced reading copy).

Also, Amazon says I rated both Evermore and Blue Moon as one star, and while they're certainly not the most brilliant books on the planet, I can't imagine that I would have rated them "I hate it" both times. Especially since I didn't particurlarly hate Shadowland. I tend to only give the worst of the worst the one-star rating.

So this has me puzzled, but certainly still able to comment about Shadowland.

Shadowland picks up right where Blue Moon left off, and there are enough clues in this book to help readers remember what happened in previous books. In the first two books you'll read all about Ever and Damen, two teens stuck in a cycle of falling in love, finding each other, and then Ever dies (rather like Fallen, but this series was written first, so it gets the props). In the first book, though, Damen gives Ever the elixer he drinks to keep himself immortal, bringing her back from the dead and making her immortal as well. In the first book, Ever kills Damen's crazy stalker immortal girlfriend.

In the second book, another immortal enters the scene, brainwashes everyone but Ever, and eventually she saves the day, though screwing up and making it so that should Ever ever touch Damen, he will die a horrific death.

So book three is all about Ever trying to fix the no-touching curse she and Damen are under, and Damen becoming Mr. Trying-To-Make-Things-Right-with-Karma-Guy.

I think I was most frustrated with Ever because she learned in the last book that jumping into things and not listening to the right people can have drastic results--the whole reason she's looking around now. You could forgive her previously because she's new at the whole immortal thing, and then she's new at the whole Summerland thing, and she's new with manifestation and chakras and all the crazy stuff... But now she should know better. And she just doesn't.

While the story didn't advance much in this book, the highlight is the addition of Jude. Alas and alack, this adds the love triangle to a previously straightforward love story, but Jude is just a nice character. He's laid-back and seemingly attractive (he is in my head anyway) and just genuinely nice. Besides, love triangles are interesting.

So I leave you with a convoluted and muddled: I don't know if you should read this series? (Pitch the mental voice upwards toward the end of the sentence.) Shadowland was okay, but apparently I didn't like the first two books and since I don't remember not liking them, I'm not sure what I found wrong with them.

Feel free to read the series and remind what I hated so much.

The Dark Divine by Bree Despain

3.5 stars -- It's okay.

A Christian werewolf story!?! Remember how well I liked the Christian vampire story? Well, this one worked much better.

In fact, I'm not completely sure that The Dark Divine is technically supposed to be Christian, and that may be why it worked better.

Grace Divine is the daughter of a pastor. She has a seemingly idyllic life... except for one thing from her past. A while back, Grace's family took in the neighbor boy, her brother Jude's best friend, because his father was abusive. A few years later, Daniel disappeared and Jude came home covered in blood. And no one would tell Grace what happened.

But now Daniel has returned... in worse shape than he left certainly, and Grace, always attracted to him before, still can't resist him today--despite her brother's warnings to leave Daniel alone.

Turns out (to the surprise of no one) that Daniel is a werewolf. And Grace's entire family, excepting herself, knows. In fact, Grace's father, the pastor, is trying to help Daniel find a cure.

See, in this storyline, werewolves were a creation of God, perverted by Satan. Strong and superhero-like human if they manage to remain pure, they turn into the wolf after their first kill.

This was a pretty solid YA book. I liked it for what it was. It's not superfabulous, but it's certainly not terrible. Also, it wasn't as completely predictable as most of the books I've been reading lately have been, which was a nice change of pace.

So if you want to see how to do Christianity and werewolves, take a look here. It can also help if you want to Christianity and vampires, zombies, or sea creatures.

BUT you don't have to be a Christian to read this, and it certainly isn't trying to convert you. It's just a fun read.