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.

Thirsty by Tracey Bateman

2 stars -- I don't really like it.

A random grab off the library shelf, Thirsty was shelved as a teen book, but as I read it, I came to the conclusion that it's written as an adult Christian book. There is no evidence to the contrary, but because it has vampires, on the teen shelf it went.

NOT that the subject matter is so deep a teen couldn't read it. On the contrary, I found the story flat. While attempting to delve into deep issues like alcoholism and addiction, the typical bad Christian plotting is in the forefront.

Poor Nina is an alcoholic who's lost her career, her apartment, her husband and kids. So she reforms. The real story starts when she comes out of rehab and moves back to her hometown, taking her bitter and resentful teenage daughter with her for a week of bonding (arranged through dad's awesome lying abilities).

Unbeknownst to her, Nina has a secret admirer in the town she grew up in. A vampire who saw her when she was a teenager and was reminded of his first love, an Indian princess that he killed when his bloodlust became too overpowering.

And when she returns home, mysterious and brutal murders of animals and people start taking place. Is it the mysterious Markus, the vampire? Or something worse?

Well, it's something worse. See Eden has just moved back into town as well. She's a vampire too! And she's quite possessive of Markus.

It all ends with a big fire, and everyone doubting whether Nina can stay sober, and Nina getting kidnapped but then saving her daughter, and everyone is happily reunited...

I had a hard time finding anything to enjoy in this book. I've always had a problem with Christian fiction, because it seems like poorer quality after-the-fact storytelling (much like Christian music, Christian movies, Christian blogs). But in this story, there's the main storyline of alcoholism and how one deal's with that, and then there's the other main storyline about vampires. The two just don't meld well.

Additionally, according to an endnote, the author wrote this to glorify God. But the tiny bits in the story that are about God felt like afterthoughts. After Nina saves her daughter, apropos of nothing, she says, "I think God showed up!" The mentions of God felt stilted and out of place, an afterthought to help the story be more than just fiction. They weren't believable nor were they blended into the storyline.

But it wasn't just the Christian aspect that had me thinking this book wasn't very well written. Nina's alcoholism isn't very believable. Granted, I am not an alcoholic, and I have no experience with someone who is, but for someone who just got out of rehab, Nina seems to not think of alcohol very much. Sure, occasionally the thought arises, but Nina never has a problem shaking the thought. She spends an hour crying and shaking in a barn bathroom (?) and then runs out feeling stronger than ever. I believe (but I could be wrong) that if you're having trouble with an addiction, the feelings don't just disappear after an hour of solid crying. It would take additional time, probably some talking, some sorting out in general.

I could say a lot more, but I'm boring myself and probably you. Just don't read it.