Review: Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles #1) By: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Title: Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles #1)

Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Published: December 1st, 2009

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

 Goodreads Summary:

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:

I have to tell you that this book and I have had a long history. I picked this one up forever ago, I read just a little bit and I put it down because the main character of Ethan just wasn't doing it for me and I couldn't get into the story. But, when O'Dell at Book Twirps was doing a read-a-long  and I wanted to read the book before the movie came out. I must say that I am so glad that I gave this book another chance because once I got past the beginning I fell into complete love with this book and I cannot wait to read the whole entire series!

Al l Ethan Wate wants from his future is to get out of this small town home of Gatlin. That is until a mysterious new girl named Lena Duchannes moves to town and he realizes that the strange dreams of a girl that he has been having for months are about her. Lena the niece of the town shut in Macon Ravenwood is the target for town scrutiny and questions. What the universe has in store for Lena and Ethan you never see coming at all.

Even reading the book the second time, I still didn't fall in love with Ethan's character myself but, I did love how devoted he was to Lena and I really felt his love for her grow throughout the book.  The descriptions of his feelings and how he was feeling for Lena were done so great, they sounded so real and it made me like Ethan as a boyfriend more than just by himself.

Lena was an amazing character, she different and interesting, I could picture her so perfectly in my head.  It seemed like the more she wanted to fit in with everyone in school, the more she stood out. Growing up she moved around a lot and was always stuck being the new girl, she never had close friends or got to live in a home for very long. It made me feel for her so much, just wanting to be accepted by your peers is something that I feel that everyone can relate to.

I don't want to go into too much of the plot for everyone who hasn't read it because I enjoyed finding out everything as  I went along and it was all a surprise. But let me say that if you enjoy paranormal books you will love this one, it had so many different aspects that were refreshing and different from many of the other YA paranormal books that I have read. I can't wait until the movie comes out to see how it translates onto the screen. Definitely give this one a try!

Happy Reading!

Kristin