Pages: 563
Published: December 01st 2009 by Little, Brown and Company
# in Series: #1 in the Castor Chronicles
Source: Purchased at Coles
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Summary from Goodreads:
“There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that’s what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.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.“
My Thoughts & Review:
I wanted to read Beautiful Creatures before the movie came out because the trailer looked fantastic and really got me interested in the book. I started this as my train read on the way to work and thought I would just read it twice a day, on my trip until it was finished. Ohhh that is not how it happened. I became addicted to this story and I could not put it down.
The story is told from Ethan’s perspective, which I loved. I was confused at first because I definitely went into it thinking it was being told from a girl perspective, what a pleasant surprise. I think it added so much more depth to the romance that it was told by Ethan. Gatlin is a southern town, stuck in the past, where nothing changes and everyone is essentially the same. There parents, grandparents, great grandparents have all lived in Gatlin and the same expectations are made for the next generation. Lena moves to Gatlin to live with her recluse uncle, the town outcast who never leaves his house, and she is not accepted one bit. Ethan immediately feels an attraction to Lena and soon finds that he is deeper into her mystery than he thought.
Honestly, this is going to be one giant rave. I loved Ethan, absolutely loved him. He was the perfect male character to me. He loved, oh he knew how to love. I adored Lena. Like I’ve said in past reviews, I absolutely adore dark, mysterious, different characters. I loved Miriam and Amma, and Macon… god I loved them all! The character building was absolutely fantastic. When I finished the book I felt like I knew them and I had such an attachment to them. I love when you put a book down and you still think about the characters, that’s how I am with Beautiful Creatures. I stopped reading and instantly started watching the trailer for the movie, I just could not get enough of this gothic, charming world.
I loved the whole Castor world. It was such an interesting twist on “witches” and paranormal powers. The same power the character building had over me, was true for the magical element in this book. I wanted to be in Gatlin, I wanted to be at Ravenwood, surrounded by these crazy powers and magical people.
The entire story was a huge twist for me, everything that was thrown at you page after page I was surprised about. I loved how the past was made into the present, the Dead was around the alive, honestly I just loved everything.
The writing is absolutely beautiful but that is obvious because as I’ve said, I am still so wrapped up in this book. I cannot wait to read Beautiful Darkness and I will be picking that up right now 🙂
My Rating:
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