Title: Beautiful Creatures
Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Blurb:
There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.
Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.
Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.
In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.
Links:
Beautiful Creatures on Goodreads
Kala's Review:
I have mixed feelings about this one. I think it was way too long and in ways it reminded me of A Discovery of Witches - not in the plot so much as in the writing style and pacing.
Beautiful Creatures is really slow. It starts off decent, but slows wayyyy down. Ethan Wate is the main character, and he falls for new mysterious girl Lena. We eventually learn that Lena is a witch who is scared to start a relationship because at age 16 she will be "claimed" by either Light or Dark. She has no choice in the matter and is afraid she will become Dark.
The premise is not bad, but I found most of the book to be quite dull. There are constant flashbacks to a Civil War version of Ethan who is in love with relative of Lena's. The flashbacks are uninteresting and predictable and way too long.
The thing is, I felt like Beautiful Creatures was RIGHT THERE on the edge of being good, but just kept falling short. Lena's uncle was good in the few scenes that he's in, but he's used sparingly. I wanted so badly to like it, but kept getting bored between the sparse action sequences. I found myself skimming and I didn't miss anything important - a sure sign that stuff could have been cut without it being a big deal.
It wasn't the worst book I've ever read, but I had to rate it two stars as that's Goodreads' version of "Eh, it was okay." I have zero interest in checking out the sequels either.
2 out of 5 stars.
Link to Kala's review on Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/473825926
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