Review: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Beautiful Creatures
(Caster Chronicles #1)

Author: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Publication Date: December 1st, 2009

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Genre: Paranormal

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Synopsis:

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.

My Thoughts: I read Beautiful Creatures because I wanted to go see the movie, which I did, and I can't watch a movie without reading the book first. Well, I completely failed at finishing this before watching the movie. I didn't realize that it was going to take me so long. This is a long book, not that that's a bad thing. I like long books, as long as they are well written and keep me entertained, which this one did. However, because I ended up watching the movie before finishing the book, my reading completely slowed down. I have a hard time reading books if I've watched the movie/show first, because I then know how it's going to end. Well, I shouldn't have worried because the ending was different in the book than it was for the movie, well kind of.

Anyways, this books is from a guys point of view, which was a nice change. Ethan Wate is the protagonist and he completely falls for this girl he's been dreaming about. Lucky him when he walks into school one day and there she is. He knows it's her, even though he's never seen the dream girls face. Now the only thing about her, Lena Duchannes, is that she isn't from around town and everybody seems to hate her. For no reason at all. I guess it was a small southern town who was set in it's ways. But mostly they dislike her because of rumours about her family. Her uncle in particular, Macon Ravenwood. The town's own Boo Radley.

Beautiful Creatures is a well written story that I found to be fairly unpredictable. You might think something was going to happen, but it never did. But that's a good thing because I'm not a fan of reading books that are too predictable. There is a forbidden romance, who doesn't like a forbidden romance? Magic, good, evil, girl drama, and a swoon worthy protagonist with a sad past. I really enjoyed the book and the movie. I'm going to definitely have to continue on in this series. This is definitely a book that owl recommend ;)