Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

4 1/2 out of 5

I heard from so many people that this book was really good, and I live in South Carolina so I really wanted to read it. BC did not disappoint. It's told in the point of view of Ethan and he is a great character. You can see how he changes from being just another member of Gatlin to being a caring individual. His best friend, Link, is also great too. I instantly loved Link just for his name. I'm a huge RPG nerd and I grew up on the Zelda games so having his name be Link was a pretty big plus for me. Ethan is living a pretty normal life except that his mom died a year ago in an accident, his nanny is into voodoo, and his dad has become a writing recluse since the accident. At school he makes okay grades, he's attractive and popular, and he's a great shot in basketball.

Enter Lena. For a while when she shows up the other people of Gatlin just refer to her as "Macon Ravenwood's niece". Macon being the weird old shut in of the town. She has a secret, and now Ethan does too. They can speak to each other telepathically. And when Lena is angered or frightened she can break stuff and control the weather. Why? She's a Caster. A Natural Caster. I hope you find out more than this in the next book because from what I gather she has powerful, untapped power but no one really knows what that power is. Her parents died when she was a child (no this isn't a spoiler) so she and Ethan click on that. Plus Ethan just cares about her.

There is a lot of romance, but it isn't like most romances. What I did like is both of these kids are 15 and when I was 15 everybody had boyfriends/girlfriends and everybody says "I love you" within the first week of the relationship. Don't get me wrong I've been in love too, but I think a week is way too soon to start saying it. Especially if your past relationships have been pretty much the same way and ended badly. That's what I really liked about Lena and Ethan's relationship. They were the shy couple. Everyone knew they loved each other so they knew they didn't have to say it. Fear not though they do say it at the end after months of their relationship. What I didn't like was they were holding hands and kissing between classes at school and acting all boyfriend/girlfriend-ish, but they still weren't sure if they were boyfriend/girlfriend. It wasn't until Link called Lena Ethan's girlfriend that they finally started using the title. That wasn't a really big deal though, but it was still kind of annoying to me.

The story was so good. You get introduced to the world of Casting and to some of Lena's family. She and Ethan have to figure out the importance of this mysterious locket that Uncle Mason and Amma seem to hate. As well as how to change Lena's birthday so she can choose between being a Light Caster or a Dark Caster. Overall this was a great book with really solid twists.

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