Brad About Books: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Read from June 10 to June 12, 2012

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES
Published: December 1, 2009
Publisher: Little, Brown
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 563 pages
Source: Amazon.com
Series: Caster Chronicles, #1

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.

Beautiful Creatures is a whirlwind of a novel. Beautifully written and exceptionally plotted, this is a stellar debut that shines out.

Ethan and Lena are simply amazing characters. I even featured them in a Top Ten Tuesday post! The authors did a fantastic job at weaving them together; they are such easy likeable characters, and them as a duo together was awesome. And of course, I loved the other characters! Ridley is one of the best villains ever created, Macon is just a great father figure for Lena, and Link is that really cool best friend every person wants. I have no complaints about the characters! 

But I do have a complaint that knocked the book down a star for me: the beginning is a bit too slow. It does take time to explain the entire world of the Casters, but it felt a bit dragged out for me. If you haven't picked up Beautiful Creatures yet (which I definitely recommend!), give the novel at least 100 pages. After I passed the 100-page mark, the novel flew by so much, and I fell in love with it.

And the entire idea of setting the book in a very, very small town was fantastic. There were definitely lots of things in Beautiful Creatures I didn't see coming, and they really shocked me! The ending is one of the best endings I've ever read. Epic and fast-paced, the ending will totally blow your mind!

Overall, Beautiful Creatures is a must-read for paranormal and supernatural lovers. Aside from the slow beginning, I definitely recommend it!

MY RATING