The Lost Saint by Bree Despain

This is the second "Dark Divine" series by Bree DeSpain (preceded by The Dark Divine" and to be followed with Book 3 in December).  This series falls into the current young adult trend in publishing books with somewhat mopey female leads and exceptionally good looking "bad boy" male leads...who are generally supernatural in some way.  In this case, Despain has entered the world of werewolves and in her new take on the supernatural world, our main character, Grace, "cured" her boyfriend (in book 1), Daniel, of being a werewolf and has now inherited the powers herself. The second books opens with her struggle to control her new-found powers.  When a new Urbat (Despain's term for werewolves -- "Hounds of Heaven") comes to town and offers to train Grace to use her powers to fight evil, her relationship with her boyfriend and family are threatened as well as her grip on humanity.  Her new "trainer," Talbot, teaches her to access her powers through fear and anger and leads her down a dark path she doesn't even know she is on--one where she will eventually lose herself to the wolf and fall into the trap of those she is trying to stop.

I enjoy the world that Despain has created and find her writing style captivating.  The story pulled me in and genuinely kept my attention (which has been a difficult task as of late).  This book fits well into the currently popular werewolf/vampire literature for young adults. It is definitely a book where you need to read the first to understand/follow the second.  Despain has also ended this with quite the cliffhanger. You can't finish this book and not immediately want to pick up the next book. I won't say that this is the most enticing YA book that I've read in the last year, but it is definitely worth the time of readers who enjoy YA paranormal romance stories (and are slightly sick of sparkly vampires).