Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl (CBR book #31)

If you're into Twilight or other angsty teenage supernatural type books, then you'll probably dig Beautiful Creatures. Now that I've mentioned Twilight, some of you die-hard fans (I am not one of them) might want to know which is better...honestly, I'm not sure. I think Twilight fans would still prefer the Twilight books to Beautiful Creatures, but with three books already in the series, Beautiful Creatures may be worth a deeper look.

Okay, now I'm talking to normal people. This book is along the lines of the Twilight series so...possibly an entertaining, brainless read with a cup of annoying and over dramatic mixed in.

Basically, Beautiful Creatures takes place in the small town of Gatlin, South Carolina, where the civil war is still the biggest news of the day. Ethan Wate, a sophomore in high school, has his friends and basketball team. But then Lena Duchannes comes to town. The niece of the town's mysterious recluse, Lena's welcome in Gatlin is anything but. Ethan, however, is strangely drawn to Lena. Haunted by a recurring dream, Lena seems to be the clue to Ethan understanding it. As their friendship develops, Ethan learns more and more about Lena's family and all of its supernatural secrets.

I think this story focuses more on the relationship between Ethan and Lena (read: a love story) as opposed to really exploring and understanding Lena's supernatural world. In that sense, I found the book lacking. I love being immersed in new worlds but the perspective is Ethan's, so you feel just as in the dark as he does about all the interesting things Lena is privy to. Of course, things are slowly revealed throughout the book, but I still had a lot of questions and wanted to know more. I suppose that's the point of a series though, isn't it? Perhaps I'll read the second book to discover more. But I'm not sure the first book entranced me enough to go to the trouble.