Beautiful Creatures

Beautiful Creatures  by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stoll

My rating:  4/5
Summary (from Goodreads):  There were no surprises in GatlinCounty.
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.


My review:


Three words can describe this whole book: gothic, dangerous, and intriguing.

I started this book unsure of whether I would like it or not.  By the tenth page, things were already looking positive.  I liked the main character, Ethan.  When Lena came in, I loved her almost immediately.  Her gothic taste and secretive style fit perfectly with the concept of the book.  To me, the characters are the most important part in a story.

The plot was amazing.  Questions were running through my  mind the whole time I was reading.  Who is this person, Lena, and her Uncle?  What is she?  What does she have to hide.  I loved the mysterious touch to this book that kept me waiting and anticipating.  The best part in Beautiful Creatures is the end, where Lena has to choose: Dark or Light.  That fight and decision had the blood roaring in my ears, head pounding, and heart racing.  It had me waiting for the happy ending, but it never came.  It had me sitting in suspense, waiting for more pages to appear.

The romance between Ethan and Lena was interesting.  I didn't know where it would end up.  In fact, I didn't know where anything would end up.  I could only guess where the plot was going to go, and I was almost never right.

As a debut novel for a series, Beautiful Creatures did a great job of keeping me craving more!