Title: Beautiful DarknessAuthors: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Genre: YA paranormal romance
Pages: Hardback, 503
Published: 2010
Opening Lines: "I used to think our town, buried in the South Carolina backwoods, stuck in the muddy buttom of the Santee River valley, was the middle of nowhere."
"A few months ago,
I believed nothing would
ever change in this town
"Now I knew better, and I
only wished it was true.""Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.
"Sometimes life-ending.
"Together Ethan and Lena can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems."~ Jacket copy
Thoughts: I really hesitated on whether I really wanted to read this book or not. Something about the way the first book ended, I was happy not continuing. However, seeing that the library had it, changed my mind ^_~ And, honestly, I was pleasantly surprised!
This book picks up after the aftermath of Lena's sixteenth birthday and the postponing of her Claiming. Feeling horrible guilt over what happened at her Claiming, Lena pulls away from Ethan. Believing that she belongs nowhere and is already Claimed, she follows her cousin Ridley and a beautiful Supernatural named John Breed. Together, they convince her to find the famed Great Barrier. Not willing to let her go, Ethan braves the Tunnels to try and bring her back. He is followed by his best friend Link and Keeper-in-training Liv.
Honestly, I hated Lena throughout the entire book. I found myself just hoping that Ethan would end up with Liv. She was an amazing character, delightful, and well-rounded. I also really liked that the authors brought Link to the forefront of the novel. Since the first book, I enjoyed his character and wanted to know more about him. However, I was disappointed by Link's ending. It seems as though the authors are dead set against Link and Ridley being together.
Aside from Lena, my biggest problem was with John Breed. I wanted to know more about him. Yes, they wanted him to be a mystery, but they risked a character with how vague they were. In addition, I also wasn't sure what I thought about the story involving Ethan's mother.
The ending of this book was well done. Of course, the authors had the stereotype cliffhanger, but I still enjoyed it! I admit, I'm kind of annoyed with the eighteen moons *shrug* All in all, I really enjoyed this book, especially Lucille ^_^
Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Currently: Green Lantern Chronicles Vol. 1 and My Life as a White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland
Current Pages: 14639
Current Progress:
40/50 books
I was not a big fan of Lena throughout this book either. I understood her actions after I was finished with it but I kept wanting to slap her while I was reading it.
ReplyDelete@Lisa: Yeah, I understood, too, but she annoyed the daylights out of me! At some point, she needed to just grow up and get over herself. *shrug* I just ended up liking Liv a lot better!
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