Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Book 1
Genre: YA Paranormal
Year: 2009 (December 1, 2009)
Format: Hardback, 576 pages
ISBN: 978-0316042673 (Little, Brown Books)
My Copy: Bought from Amazon.com
Some loves are meant to be…
others are cursed.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.
My Ramblings:
After seeing the blogosphere's explode with praise on Beautiful Creatures, I went out to Amazon to check it out. I was amazed by what I saw there, Beautiful Creatures had over a 100 reviews posted already, the total average was 4.5 stars and the book hadn't officially released yet. Since it was shipping early, I bought a copy to see what the noise was about.
I was not disappointed.
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl is an excellent, well thought out story layered with paranormal aspects and a Gothic feel. The book is nearly 600 pages long but you don't notice the size because of the mystery and intrigue that pop up, page after page. What makes the Beautiful Creatures such a great read is in the storytelling and the world building. It's so tightly woven together, it's seamless. The setting of the deep south and a small town enamored with it’s Civil War history to the point of severe prejudice to outsiders, was perfect. It also made for some very interesting and eccentric characters.
I found myself immerse in the developing love story between Lena and Ethan, it was a slow progression but nice. It was refreshing to read the story from Ethan’s point of view, a guy's bird's eye view. I like reading his thoughts on his budding forbidden romance with Lena. And since we don't see what Lena is thinking, it kept her shrouded in a bit of mystery, which helped build the suspense in the story.
There is so much more to this story but I'm finding hard to talk about it without taking away the mystery that shrouds it. This is one of those books you just jump in feet first and let it carry you through the story.
My Rating: 
Places you can find Kami Garcia: Web Site | Blog | Twitter
Places you can find Margaret Stohl: Web Site | Blog | Twitter
The Beautiful Creatures Series:
Other Ramblings:
