Search - Beautiful Creatures (Beautiful Creatures, Bk 1)

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES seems poised to be the next big thing in YA literature. It’s got all the right elements: eclectic characters, villains, magic, and true love. It’s almost 600 pages long, but you’ll be unable to put it down, even during the slower and more confusing moments.

The story of Ethan and Lena is primarily a romance, one that will appeal to YA romance buffs who appreciate Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight and Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver. This means that at times their romance can feel a little unbelievable in its intensity and all-encompassing-ness. However, that the story is told from Ethan’s point of view makes it wonderfully sweet, a romance to swoon over. Ethan is an accessible protagonist whose complex feelings of alienation, desire for hometown escape, and doomed love for an unaccepted girl makes him heartachingly real and desirable in readers’ eyes. Ethan Wate will make all bad YA boys ashamed of their rebelliousness, and that’s saying something.

One might mistakenly expect that a 600-page YA book would be tedious and slow-moving, but BEAUTIFUL CREATURES just might prove that long YA books are the best kind. The story moves along at a delicious and deliberate pace, slowly building atmosphere and making you beg to have your growing list of questions answered.

Overall, you won’t regret reading BEAUTIFUL CREATURES, no matter what kind of reader you are. From the paranormal aspect, to the romance, to the rich Southern atmosphere, this book will be sure to draw you in. Don’t miss out on the book that is worthy of all the hype it’s getting!

Perhaps the reason that these two had to team up to write a book is because on their own, they're even worse. This story, in my opinion, was a collaboration of crap. It started out dry and boring and pretty much stays there for quite some time. The authors seem to be putting quantity (pages) ahead of quality (plot) because this story just couldn't hook me and I had to give up after 70 some pages. I'm a bit bummed I wasted good money on this, but hopefully there's a reader out there who can appreciate this.

I got an ARC of this book through the Amazon Vine program. This was an interesting book and I am still struggling a bit about how I feel about it. Parts of it were great and parts were very deliberate and boring. This is a massive book; over 600 pages and it was an interesting story. It seems to me like the ending is left somewhat open for a sequel; although I wasn't able to find any information on whether or not there is going to be one.

Ethan Wate has been dreaming about a girl. In the dream he is always trying to hold on to her in a raging storm, but she always manages to slip away. This is the biggest event of his life right now given that he lives in the boring typical southern small town of Gatlin. Then one day a new girl shows up at school, Lena Duchannes. As a new girl she gets a lot of flack from the other kids, on top of that she is the niece of the town recluse who lives in the supposedly haunted estate of Ravenwood, which doesn't help her popularity with the kids any. When Ethan first sees her he realizes that she is the girl he's been seeing in his dreams. Ethan finds out that Lena is more different than he could ever have imagined. Lena is part of something big and, as her sixteenth birthday approaches, Lena will face the biggest challenge of her life. Lena will find out if the dark or light in her soul will prevail and the results will change who Lena is forever.

There were some things I liked about this book. The whole book has a very mysterious and urgent aura that hangs on every word. This book is as much a mystery as anything else. The characters are very well done. You are really pulling for Ethan and Lena throughout the book. The supporting characters are also very well developed; for example Amma and Ravenwood both have intricate and interesting pasts. You can tell a lot of work went into making this book as historically accurate as possible. There are a ton of interesting facts about Gatlin and they are all well-woven into the plot to give the story a lot of believability.

There were also some things that I didn't like about the book. The first 200 pages were very slow moving; they did build some tension into the plot but I had some trouble getting through them because I thought it got kind of boring. I also thought during this first part of the book that the foreshadowing was just overdone; I understood that Lena and Ethan had a connection very quickly and I was confused as to why this was drawn out so much. Then for the next hundred pages the action was non-stop and the story absolutely griping. Then after that there were another 200 pages of nothing much happening and boredom. Then again the last 100 pages were non-stop action and the plot was developed so quickly that it was hard to stop reading. I personally thought that the book could have been paced a bit better; then I wouldn't have had to struggle to stay interested for the majority of the book.

I also groaned a little bit when I realized that this book was yet another teen book channeling the whole "Twilight" premise of boy and girl can't be together because one of them isn't exactly human, but yet they will struggle to find a way.

Overall this book gets 3.5 stars from me. I liked the writing style, the magic, the detailed history and the mystery. I didn't like the erratic pacing and the overlying story of yet another pair of star-crossed lovers. By the end of the book, I was mostly glad that it was finished. I wasn't struck with a yearning to find out more about these characters. To be completely honest if there is another book in this series I probably won't read it...especially if it take over 600 pages to deliver a 300 page story.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I've only read two Y&A books series before this about witches. One I loved (secret circle) and one I didn't (wicked). The first book in this series did not disappoint. It was a page turner from the beginning. Loved the story and the characters. I liked how the story was told from Ethan's pov, instead of Lena's. that was different in a refreshing way. Not sure how I felt about the ending though. I guess I'm conflicted. Starting the second book soon. I can't imagine where the story will go from here. Guess that's why I feel conflicted about the end.

I nearly gave up on this book.

The first hundred or so pages I thought I had made a mistake in picking this one up. Rarely venturing into young adult books, I figured perhaps that was the issue. It is definitely geared towards a younger reader in language and thought. However, once the story picks up it really picks up!

Ethan and Lena are fun lead characters. They are fairly typical teenagers dealing with the awfulness that is high school (made all the worse by it being a small town where everyone knows everything that goes on). This is where the book's strengths are. The emotions and chaos of dealing with being sixteen and in love are presented well.

Where the book fails is in the cohesiveness of the background and the pacing.

Like I said, the first hundred pages DRAGGED. But then the next four hundred or so flew by! This may be a function of it being the first book and having to set up the town and the characters, but it wouldn't surprise me if many people gave up on the book in this first hundred pages. I'm glad I didn't.

Second, I still don't understand the dynamics of this magical "family". There are key characters that are never truly explained. Probably set up for future books since this is the first of three full-length books plus one short story. However, the ending left me feeling like somewhere in the nearly 600 pages the authors could have given us more detail about Amma, Macon, Boo, etc.

All in all I enjoyed the book and will be picking up the second. Just keep in mind that this is a young adult series and push through that first 100 pages!

What can I say about this book? While the idea of the story was good, I found it very hard to read. I was really excited to start this series and now I find myself pretty disappointed. I felt like there were far too many fillers in this story which made it boring. It was like a constant roller coaster...just when you think it is starting to get good, back to the boring stuff.

Ethan is a small town southern boy who can't wait to leave and see the world. Lena is a Caster who is sent to live in the same small town and they, of course, fall in love. I liked the whole witches and powers storyline, but it had potential to be so much more. I enjoyed most of the other characters, although they could have been developed more as well. I found myself having a hard time seeing the characters and the story in my mind. It felt like reading a school book instead of reading a story. I did really enjoy the Civil War history in the story and the supernatural aspects.

Overall, the book was ok. I do plan to read the rest of the series just to see if it gets better. I struggled to read it and find it difficult to write a review. I'm not sure that I would recommend it to others.