Beautiful Creatures ~ Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
This is a young adult paranormal romance novel (Rate PG-13)
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
Book Summary
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.
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
So why did it fail. The major problem is the length. I don’t mind a long story if while reading it, I don’t notice it’s a long story. If I notice that means that it got boring or dragged. In this case the book drags on in spots. There were places that could have been cut out with any notice to the plot or character development.
My other major problem was Ethan in particular. But I also have problems with the character of Lena as well when it comes to believability.
****SPOILERS****
I have to cite examples to back up my theory. So if you are interested in reading this one, don’t read any further so you can draw your own conclusions.
Ethan is suppose to be a hot basketball star at school. So first, that to me says jock and popular. And he’s not really either. Ethan is very sensitive and that in itself isn’t so bad. But even before Lena, Ethan is barely accepted because of a failed date with a popular girl. If he really is so cute, I have a hard time believing that every other girl in school would shun him. I hate to generalize, but beautiful people who aren’t bade or rude people are usually forgiven. So why aren’t other girls jumping to go out with him?? The explanation given just doesn’t jive. Additionally, Ethan’s mindset is like that of a girl. Again, this could be true, but Ethan doesn’t have a mother or a sister. He doesn’t have in depth conversations with the few women who make appearances in his life. So I chuck this up as woman authors writing the POV from a male perspective and failing. I mean what guy knows what taffeta is especially considering no mother or sister and Amma (not sure off spelling since I listened to this one) certainly doesn’t wear taffeta, ugh!. Some teenage girls don’t even know that.
And Lena, again she’s beautiful, yet she’s shunned. Okay, I get girls might not like her or even be jealous, but guys are fickle. And all the guys at school aren’t going to ignore her looks because she’s a member of some family. Guys think with other heads. They may not want to bring her home or claim her in public, but they would try to hit on her if she is really that beautiful if nothing more than behind closed doors.
***END OF SPOILERS***
So in conclusion, the believability and the dragging of the story just makes it not a winner for me. But read it if you want, I love to hear what you think.
Audio Review
Kevin T. Collins and a mysterious woman not mentioned in the credits. Although there were two narrators, 99% of the book is read by Kevin T. Collins. He does a wonderful job with the southern accents. And is a really good narrator which helped me through this one. The one place where the mysterious woman did Lena, she did a great job as well. But when she did her part Kevin still did Ethan’s part. I wondered why they didn’t mix it all the way through??? My biggest complaint about the audio was the strange sound effects throughout. It kind of weirded me out. Maybe I just wasn’t used to that in audio recordings.
My book boyfriend Ethan. Okay, ignoring what I said above. What girl wouldn’t love a sensitive guy.
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