Book Review: Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

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.

(Summary from Goodreads)

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.

Having just finished my much-anticipated CLOCKWORK ANGEL, I was having the low-after-the-high when I began to read BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, so it started a bit slow for me. I soon found myself hooked by the story though, and kept turning the pages because it was easy reading and I wanted to find out what happened next.

Both Lena and Ethan came across as well-rounded, real characters. Though I don't know how many boys are actually like Ethan Wate in real life, or if this is just how we (girls) want boys to be! Caring, sensitive, don't care what other guys think about them, and are willing to risk everything for the "different" girl. But so what? If we wanted real life we wouldn't be reading these kinds of books, would we?! Bring on the fantasy!

(Tiny criticism: possibly a little too long and drawn out...)

I imagined several endings to this story, and the one I got wasn't exactly what I expected. And it's great when that happens! I love being surprised! I've already ordered the sequel, BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS, because I want to know what happens next...

So here's me recommending this book!

*recommends*

:-)

Teaser Tuesday (2): Beautiful Creatures

Title: Beautiful Creatures

Author: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

So this was what girls looked like in the morning. I had never seen one, not up close.

(That line really made me laugh! As if girls-in-the-morning are a rare species that boys don't get to see often!)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read.
• Open to a random page.
• Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!
• Share the title and author too so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

Parcel in the Post - 2 Awesome Books + 1 Gift

A few weeks ago I read a great review of the Parasol Protectorate series - of which SOULLESS is number one - by Faith. It sounded like something I'd enjoy so I clicked over to my online book shop and ordered it right away.

Two days ago the series was also reviewed by Paperback Dolls. So now I'm even more keen to read it!

I've seen quite a bit of online buzz recently about the Caster Chronicles because of the release of BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS, the second in the series. So, I figured it was time to find out what all the fuss is about! Enter: BEAUTIFUL CREATURES.
And even if it doesn't turn out to be so great, the cover is gorgeous! It's gonna look super on my book shelf ;-)

And, thirdly, Jenn recently held a little competition during her Dystopian Book-Talking Birthday Bash on her blog, and I won!! I got to choose between five different dystopian titles, and since I've heard a lot about THE GIVER recently (and never read it *shock*), I picked that one.

Jenn, in case you can't see the sticky note so well, it says:
Thank you, Jenn!

~ ~ ~

On a completely unrelated topic...
Sometime in the past day or two my blog's all-time number of page-views passed 1000! Yay!
(Okay, those of you who passed this number some time ago, please stop snickering. I am in my happy place, and I like it here)