Book Review: Beautiful Creatures by: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

My Rating: ★★★★
Date Published:  December 1st, 2009
Publisher:  Litte Brown and Company
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages:  563
Do I own it?: Yes

Synopsis:

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.

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.

Review:  **********************SPOILERS***************************************

I'm really conflicted about this book. When I started to read it, it was okay, but it wasn't amazing. There is A LOT of hype surrounding this series, and I was afraid I wouldn't like the book. Luckily, I liked it enough to keep reading. There were only a few times where it was really interesting, but the rest dragged a bit. Although the rest of the book was alright, the ending really made up for it. I couldn't put the book down for the last 100 pages or so. Ultimately that's what made me give this book 4 stars. The thing that I really liked about Beautiful Creatures, is that the writing is so similar, that it's really hard to tell that two different authors wrote this book.

The only thing that I HATE about this book, was that in the end, she didn't get claimed, and the claiming is pushed back to her 17th birthday. That REALLY pissed me off. The thing is, I knew it would happen. But I really hate that. It's one of the worst ways to end a book. The entire book is leading up to the moment she gets claimed, but she doesn't. The ending was a whole bunch of crap.

I liked the characters a little bit more than the plot line. My favourite characters were; Ridley, Reece, Aunt Del, Marian, Boo, Lena, Macon, and Ethan.

The other characters were okay, but they just weren't my favourites. Apart from that, I gave this book 4 stars. The ending was interesting enough that I will read the second book, but not yet since these books are massive, and I have a big tbr pile to get through