Author: Margaret Stohl (Page 2 of 2)

While not as dramatic an ending as Beautiful Creatures, I still felt myself drawn to this intriguing and adventurous story.

Everything is different after the night of Lena’s sixteenth moon. Lena is in a spiraling depression and starting to drift apart from Ethan. I hated that Beautiful Darkness was taking this turn, but the quest to make all things right in the supernatural world that followed was worth it, and I was able to accept the plot a lot easier than I had anticipated. While we had to deal with a separation between Ethan and Lena for a large part of the book since Lena was MIA, we still got new and exciting character development and even a few new characters.

I loved that Link got a larger part in the novel than the first one, and we even got a little more of Ridley; which I found to be a fun unexpected bonus.

Beautiful Darkness stays consistent with the former novel, BC, in that it continues Ethan’s visions. This is either a plus or a minus in the eyes of the reader, and where I didn’t necessarily care for it in BC, I thought the visions were more exciting and had a new twist to them that added to the already intricately weaved story line.

Overall, this series is definitely a hidden gem that I had never even heard about, and it’s sad to think I almost missed out. I have grown to love Ethan as a character/hero even more after Beautiful Darkness, if that’s even remotely possible. His inner thoughts and intellect are so raw and honest as a male character, which as I stressed in my last review, is so refreshing. There’s a quirkiness to his POV that is smile inducing and makes me laugh no matter my mood. Maybe his POV is the reason this series is an instant favorite for me, I don’t know, but I am not about to question the magnetic pull I feel towards this series-I’m just going to keep reading until there is nothing left. Onward to Beautiful Chaos!!

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****Could seem spoilerish, although I do not believe it ruins or reveals anything***

Okay..I loved this book. I had never even heard of this, so naturally when I went to the movies in November I was surprised to see it as a movie preview. I thought it looked intriguing, if nothing else, so I added it to my TBR shelf. I kept putting it off and putting it off because of the (in my opinion) horrible rating average, until finally my curiosity got the best of me…and of course the now constant tv commercials for the upcoming movie release.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised as I started reading.

YES, there was a LOT of history and background information, which normally I loathe (just get to the point, right?), but I didn’t mind it much in this book. I thought the story between Ethan and Lena was really cute, and I think it was “cute” because the whole story was from Ethan’s perspective. You don’t get that much from romance novels, and it was refreshing to see what he was thinking and feeling the whole time. Aren’t fans of romance novels always wanting the POV from the respective hero’s perspective? These authors just cut to the chase.

Also, I think people didn’t like the immediate dream connection, and believed he loved her from just seeing her in his dreams, but that’s not how I saw it at all. I believe he was FASCINATED by this “dream girl” and if anything just felt a connection to her-this could have developed into a friendship for that matter. I believe the actions that followed when she came to the school are purely from getting to know each other. So that issue is a matter of opinion, I suppose, for those who read it.

A good book makes me want to keep reading and not want to put it down, makes me want to finish at the cost of losing sleep, using all my free time, and secretly reading at work, and this one had all those qualities-despite the somewhat slow start. Near the middle, I just had to know whether she was claimed light or dark and what would happen between her and Ethan. The climax was so much better than I could ever have expected, with a twist and then some. I was glued to the book and there was no putting it down. I might have even had a “mini” freak out session when a certain something happens- like a serious WTF moment.

It kept me reading until the conclusion and I was more than satisfied with the results. I hope people will give this book a chance despite the “oh it’s becoming a movie hype,” despite the lack of good reviews, because all in all, I believe this book IS original AND gripping, contrary to popular belief.

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