Authors: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
# of Pages: 503 (Paperback)
Challenge: 2013 TBR Reading Pile Challenge
Rating: 3.5 stars
Goodreads Summary:
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
My Thoughts:
Book 2 in the Caster Chronicles series was very enjoyable, but I did not like it as much as the first. For starters, I did not get into the story until over halfway through the book. And second, Lena got on my nerves. I love Ethan and the way Lena treated him made me want to smack her. Also, I thought there was too much dialogue and not enough action during the climax of the story.
That being said, I found Ethan's adventure in the Caster tunnels highly entertaining. There were unexpected twists that I never saw coming. I thought Liv was a very interesting character. She's smart, funny, and I thought she was a great addition to the story.
I wouldn't say the ending is an actual cliffhanger, but it does leave you wanting to know what is going to happen next.
Overall, Beautiful Darkness was an interesting, albeit slow read. There were some interesting revelations, but I felt it did not live up to the first book in the series.
