Book Review - Beautiful Creatures

I must admit when I saw the first movie trailer for this book last year I had no desire to see it, let alone read it. Yet here I am reviewing the book. What can I say, it came up an Amazon Daily Deal for $1.99 and I couldn't resist. It now has close to 3,000 reviews on Amazon at 4 1/2 stars. I think it must have been my President's Day off that I spent reading the whole book. It was a quick read, I'll give it that much. Think of it as Twilight meets Discovery of Witches, I don't mind that sort of thing.

Book Title: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia

Book Summary (From Amazon): Ethan Wate, a high school sophomore, plans to escape his small Southern town as soon as he can. Life has been difficult since his mother died; his father, a writer, has withdrawn into his study. Then Lena Duchannes arrives, and this strange new girl is the very one who has been occupying his dreams. She and her kin are Casters, beings who have supernatural powers. Getting to know her exposes Ethan to time travel, mortal danger, and love. The teens can hardly bear to be apart, but Lena's 16th birthday, when she will be Claimed for dark or light, is only 6 months away. To save her, they fight supernatural powers and the prejudice of closed-minded people. Yet, good and evil are not clearly delineated, nor are they necessarily at odds. In the Gothic tradition of Anne Rice, the authors evoke a dark, supernatural world in a seemingly simple town obsessed with Civil War reenactments and deeply loyal to its Confederate past. The intensity of Ethan and Lena's need to be together is palpable, the detailed descriptions create a vivid, authentic world, and the allure of this story is the power of love.

Book Review: So I liked the book, but I hated the ending, that overshadowed it for me. It was clearly written to have a sequel to it, but the way it ended was just so flat to me. I felt like so much had been left out of what could have been. There was all this build up for 500 pages and then it just went dull, I had to reread it to see if I missed something (which I'll admit I do sometimes).

Overall, I thought it was a good story premise, but I did feel like there was even more they could have done with parts and added to it even more. Don't get me wrong what was written I really enjoyed and found myself wanting to continually read on to see what was going to happen next. When I finished it after I got over the, "that's all," I didn't find myself going to buy the next installment (in fact I still haven't), so that is kind of telling to me. If you're into the Young Adult books with the forbidden love story then this book will be right up your alley.

I definitely plan to see the movie when it comes out on DVD. Although I'm sure it won't be the same as the book, which in this case may be a good thing, maybe the movie will have a little bit more at the end. I'll be curious to see. If nothing else I think the scenery will be great to see on film!