Tag: Young Adult (Page 147 of 159)

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 they 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.

Review:

I so wanted to fall in love with Beautiful Darkness. Sadly, that did not happen and I won’t be finishing this series. What I liked and tolerated in the first book, ended up rubbing me the wrong way in BD. The slow pace that was once sweet, satisfying and left me so happy now has become something that made me not want to pick up the book each time I placed it down. The actions of the main characters made me fall out of love with them and I ended up preferring the secondary characters more. And lastly, the thing that made my final decision for not continuing this series was that the ending crumbled into a pile of too easy and too many coincidences.

We start out the book with Lena starting to withdraw from Ethan. She is in a world of pain for using The Book Of Moons. One life for another. The weight of that consequence is pushing her so far into the ground that her lightness and happiness is fading and fading fast. She seems to be distancing herself from Ethan and it’s not only breaking her apart, but Ethan at the same time. I more than understand her reasoning and plight but I just felt that it was drawn out way longer than necessary, therefore making me start to lose my interests.

Ethan is in the dark. He doesn’t remember what happened on the night of Lena’s sixteenth moon. He doesn’t remember dying and therefor doesn’t understand the consequences. He is left reeling why the girl he loves is pulling away other than she is in a severe depression over Macon. Ethan is still sweet as ever but his actions bothered me. Not asking Amma questions, not telling her things that were happening and his interactions with Liv all disturbed me and slowly made me fall out of love with him.

The ending, unfortunately, is what made my final decision about this book. The fact that Ethan struggled for something to happen, but it was a cakewalkView Spoiler »for so many others just didn’t ring true to me. The fact that Amma just appeared and that Macon wasn’t really dead and was saved by a spirit that doesn’t even have power seemed non plausible to me « Hide Spoiler. It made me not understand why half of the book happened in the first place. It negated everything that happened and made me so depressed. Even though I know some of my friends loved this series, I just can’t continue. While I’m curious to know what happens, I just can’t push myself to finish this series.

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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. WhenLena 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.

Review:

**Unfortunately, I won’t be finishing this series. What I liked and tolerated in the first book, ended up rubbing me the wrong way in BD.***

This book was slow and steady, just like when you pour honey out of a jar. You want it to be faster, but if you change the properties of it then it just won’t have the same effect. No matter how much the slow pace is a nuisance, for people like me, it is so worth it! It’s sweet, satisfying and leaves you so happy. Ethan is one of the reasons for that. He was one of the sweetest boys I have ever read about. He’s not my type, but his attitude and morals are nothing but enjoyable and just adds to the pleasant feel of Beautiful Creatures. Honestly, I’m shocked. In the beginning, I couldn’t see myself continuing this series. But then I found myself sucked in and falling for Ethan and the world he lives in. By the time I got to the end of the book, it was no surprise that I cried as much as I did. I fell for this book, and I fell for it hard.

So that was my secret, all there was to tell. I was sixteen years old, I was falling in love with a girl who didn’t exist, and I was slowly losing my mind.

I went into this book not remembering anything about the blurb that I had read years ago. To be honest, I thought it had something to do with dragons. That’s how clueless I was. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised. We start out the book being introduced to Ethan. He has these recurring dreams that are vividly real. So real that he wakes up with mud under his fingernails, just like in the dreams. They have become something that he has learned to accept and live with. Except that he is haunted by the female that is in the dreams. He is completely intoxicated by her and yet he hasn’t even met her. He’s a pretty typical boy besides the dreams – plays basketball, has a good group of friends and goes through life always hoping that he’ll eventually find someone that actually gets him. His home life is a little depressing. His dad has become a recluse since his mom passed away and the home keeper, Amma, is now the one that raises him. I loved Amma! She was sassy and fun! Ethan seems to have a lot of female influence in his life. Between Amma, his funny Great Aunt’s and learning a little about how his mother was, I finally started to understand where his feminine personality comes from. It bugged me a little in the beginning, but once I started to realize that it fits with his lifestyle, surroundings and his role models it started to make more sense. Ethan is honorable, loyal, softhearted, smart and even though he wasn’t a bad boy, I still found myself falling for him.

She looked up at me, and the whole world disappeared. Like there was just us, like there would always be just us, and we didn’t need magic for that. It was sort of happy and sad, all at the same time. I couldn’t be around her without feeling things, without feeling everything.

Lena Duchannes arrives in town with huge strikes against her. She doesn’t wear cool clothes, she isn’t tan, and she’s the niece of the shut-in that lives in the creepy mansion. Lena was a tough cookie to connect with sometimes, but I really enjoyed her. She was driven, courageous, spunky and tried her hardest to be the best that she could be. And when sweet Ethan meets spunky Lena you just knew that their relationship was one that you would be rooting and hoping for. Watching them throughout the book was like watching your first love re-bloom. Their relationship evolved gently, sometimes awkwardly and was so innocent. No matter how dark the world got around them they had this pureness between the two of them that was just perfectly beautiful.

I never loved you any more than I do, right this second. And I’ll never love you any less than I do, right this second.

I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would. Even though I prefer something that is fast paced and has a bad boy as one of the main characters, I still liked this book. The slow pace became mesmerizing and Ethan’s sweet boy attitude made me fall for him and his relationship with Lena even more. I can’t wait to start the next book to continue figuring out what’s going on and what’s going to happen with everyone!

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