Caragh Reviews - Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Published - 25th October 2012
Publisher - Penguin
Format - Paperback
Synopsis - Is death the end . . . or only the beginning? Ethan Wate always dreamed of leaving the stifling Southern town of Gatlin. But he never dreamt that finding love with Lena Duchannes would drive him away. Lena is a Caster girl whose supernatural powers unveiled a secretive and cursed side of Gatlin, so powerful it forced him to make a terrible sacrifice. Now Ethan must find a way to return to Lena - and Gatlin - as she vows to do whatever it takes to get him back. Even if it means trusting old enemies or risking their loved ones' lives. Can Ethan and Lena rewrite their fate and their spellbinding love story in this stunning finale to the Beautiful Creatures series?

The end is finally here. The best part of a series? Knowing that the last page just means the start of a new book and a new plot. The worst part of a series? Spending so many other pages with a world and it's characters that when the last page really is the last page, it hurts. I absolutely hate finishing a series of books. It's part of the reason that I endevour to read more standalones as time goes on because i'm just SO bad at it. I have been putting off this book for weeks now because I couldn't bear to end it all which is crazy! It just prolongs the pain. I'm so emotionally challenged when finishing a series, that even if I didn't LIKE the series.. it still kinda hurts. What's with that? Anyway. I did it. I finished the Caster Chronicles and here is what I think.

The pain. Oh the pain. I just cannot deal with the fact that the ending of Beautiful Redemption is really the end. WHAT THE HELL? You can't just go and make me so deliriously happy and then stamp, crush and shatter my heart into a million little pieces with the next sentence. No. Just no.

I'll try and be a little more eloquent with this review, but I don't promise anything.
I knew that Beautiful Redemption was going to be a difficult read giving the events of the previous book but it actually wasn't as bad as I thought. It was well explained and thought out and I didn't feel like I was being given a ridiculous story as to how and why things were as they were (hard with no spoilers - sorry!) even though it kind of was. Some new characters were introduced which was great as it kept the whole thing fresh even though we're 4 books in now. It felt a little like book 2 in the fact there was some kind of journey to take and something worth fighting for.

I really liked how to book was split into sections and finally getting to "hear" Lena's voice and not just Ethan's. It really worked, particularly as Ethan's POV would have really slowed down the story and definitely run the risk of boredom so it was nice to get that out of the way by having some action from a different POV.

Beautiful Redemption is a hard book to review and it's even harder to explain why. Had this book been earlier on in the series, I don't think I would have honestly enjoyed it. It felt arduous and "out there" but at the same time, because it was the final book and i'd spent a long time with these characters I loved it regardless of the events. It's hard to separate how I thought about this book specifically as opposed to the series as a whole. There are definitely a lot of things that I don't feel satisfied with - like the ending for one [see previous rant] but it's easy to gloss over them when I think about the enjoyment of the whole series. So with that in mind, i'm ending the review without really saying much about what the book was like. Sorry about that! But as a series, I definitely enjoyed the Caster Chronicles.

Caragh Reviews - Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Published - 18th October 2011
Publisher - Penguin
Format - Paperback
Synopsis - Their love has just begun. Now the end of days is coming . . .Ethan Wate is in love with a Caster girl. When he looks at Lena, it's like there's no one else in the world. But Ethan is mortal, and on her seventeenth birthday Lena made a choice that changed everything. The girl Ethan loves has broken the world with the supernatural powers she is struggling to control . . .Now, if they are to fix the chaos Lena has caused, one of them must make a terrible sacrifice. Sometimes there isn't just one answer. Sometimes there's no going back. And this time there won't be a happy ending.

Beautiful Creatures review here
Beautiful Darkness review here

Beautiful Chaos is the 3rd book in the Caster Chronicles series. Unlike the previous two, it started a little slow and it took me a while to really get into the flow of the story. The small town of Gatlin is overrun with lubbers and the ground is dying out from lack of rain and nutrients. Beautiful Chaos is full of secrets and mysteries, much like the other books, but this time it's Amma who is holding all of the cards which is strange for both Ethan and me as a reader. The characters in the Caster Chronicles are so relate-able and loveable that it is unnerving to suddenly stop trusting people who have become your own 'family'.

It was really nice to see more of Liv. She was intriguing and different in Beautiful Darkness and i'm glad that she appeared once more. Of course I still love Link and Ridley and after the events of the previous books their relationship has taken a turn that is going to take some serious figuring out! Because initially it took me a long time to get into the book, I was concerned that the story was deflating a little and that Beautiful Chaos would be disappointing but fortunately at around the halfway point, it definitely picked up as the action really started kicking in. 

There was a real sense of danger for the characters and it was difficult to know who to trust. As the synopsis suggests, Beautiful Chaos is the darkest book of the series so far which was GREAT and really kept me reading when sometimes the plot fell a little stagnant. I'm a little reluctant to start reading the next and final book as they've been such great reads and so different from anything else!

Caragh Reviews - Beautiful Darkness by Garcia & Stohl

Published - 28th October 2010
Publisher - Little Brown
Format - Paperback
Synopsis - 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.

My review of Beautiful Creatures can be found here.

Following on from the first book in the series, Ethan and Lena are struggling to deal with everything that happened at the end of Beautiful Creatures. Not surprisingly, they're having a tough time and things go from bad to worse for Ethan.

I have to say that I enjoyed this book a lot more than Beautiful Creatures for a couple of reasons. Due to circumstances, Beautiful Darkness has less of a focus on romance and is more adventurous. The Lunae Libri (forgive me if i've written that wrong!) plays a huge role and it was interesting to learn more about the role of Keeper, particularly as that becomes more important to Ethan later on in the story. I really feel that Ethan grew as a character and although in some ways he was still chasing Lena's happiness rather than fighting for himself, he became a stronger individual. On the other hand, Lena was almost unbearable! I'm not sure whether that's genuinely how she is being portrayed or whether in comparison to the exciting and energetic Liv, that Lena pales and her whiny attributes shine through.

Ethan, Link and Liv undertake an incredible quest and I was totally with them every step of the way. Action, adventure, mystery, magic and extraordinary events face them and the three entirely mortal kids are brave and focused. It's the kind of story I loved as a kid and it's what I love now. There were moments when I felt genuine concern for their fate and I got a little teary in places. Link is definitely one of my favourite characters and when the trio meet up with Ridley it's both filled with potential and hilarity. Their relationship and personalities are brilliant and I think there is more to come from the two of them, whether singularly or together.

Beautiful Darkness is full of tragic moments. Emotional and literal loss, grief, revelations, realisations and an overall sense of ending is apparent throughout and I had a heavy heart throughout the book because I just got so pulled in by all of them. I was a little disappointed at the end when all of what came before seemed overshadowed once again by Ethan's love for Lena. The 'showdown' for want of a better word was pretty spectacular if not a little..strange. Though I was happy with the arrival of a friendly face, I don't really understand why it happened in the first place. I'm so excited for this series and it could literally go anywhere from this point onwards so fingers crossed I can get my hands on them soon...!

Caragh Reviews - Beautiful Creatures by Garcia & Stohl

Published - 1st December 2009
Publisher - Little Brown
Format - Paperback
Synopsis - 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.

I first heard about Beautiful Creatures when I came across a vlog talking about covers. I can't remember who it was, sorry! By this time the only cover I could find anywhere was the film version and I really don't like those. So I had forgotten about it until I went book shopping early this week and found it! I'm only slightly ashamed that I bought it without having a single clue what it was about but sometimes judging a book by its cover pays off.

From the first page of the book, I was totally hooked. I tried to explain my compulsion to Brianna but I just couldn't. The writing, the POV, everything just pulled me in. Ethan is an interesting character, a misfit in the town that he and his entire family have lived in since before the Civil War. 

Ethan isn't the only character who grabbed my attention though. Everyone has a story that needs telling and everyone has a secret that needs hiding. Though the entirety of the book is told from Ethan's perspective, it's surprising just how much you get to know about the other characters, even minor ones. Ethan is a character, written by two women, who tells the story of an extraordinary girl. That in itself lends something to the complexity of the book but in a simplistic and unique way. You may have noticed that i'm having some difficulty really putting my thoughts into words. 

Beautiful Creatures does have some elements that usually put me off a series but for some reason I felt they were believable and really worked within the story, such as multiple supernaturals whose powers seem somewhat beyond imaginable. I'm slightly concerned that as the series progresses they might take it too far which is a shame because I have high hopes for the rest of the series! The whole book was seriously intense. With every page came more intrigue, mystery and secrecy that I just couldn't wait to work out. I was also surprised by how easily I became attached to the characters and how emotionally involved I was with not just them but the town itself and its history. 

Beautiful Creatures ended big and dramatically and I cannot WAIT to start Beautiful Darkness, the second book in the series! 



* I have now finished book 2 and it just gets BETTER.