After Reading: BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

By: Meradeth Houston on 4:00 AM

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. (GoodReads)

You know what? I'm still ticked I didn't get to see the first Beautiful Creatures film in the theater. I was stoked to check it out, but it was gone in a week (okay, maybe two, but still) and now I'm waiting around for it to come out on DVD. Did anyone catch it? I know it didn't do so well in the box office, but it still looked cool.

Anyhow, book review: this one was not quite as good as the first. I'll admit it. The first half of the book dragged on for ages and there were a few points where I wanted to grab Ethan and remind him that he had balls and should get on with it. (Wow, sorry, little venting there!) However, things did pick up nicely when they got into the tunnels, and even though I felt like things were pretty random overall, it was entertaining and the second half kept the pages turning. I loved the role-reversal for one of the characters--I won't get spoilery, but it was entertaining. Overall, this was a fun read and I'll pick up the next one, praying the beginning doesn't succumb to a serious depression :)

Have you read this one? How about the series? Or did you manage to catch the movie?