Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Maraget Stole

Sequel to Beautiful Creatures

After the birthday from hell Ethan and Lena are trying to pick up the pieces and put their lives back together. But that’ s easier said than done. Lena is trying to get over the death of Macon, the only father she’ s ever known but she is racked with guilt because she had a hand in her death. As Lena is dealing with an inner struggle of defining herself, Ethan tries to help. He and Lena are growing farther apart every day and Ethan is having trouble finding his place in Gatlin without Lena. When Lena starts hanging out with her Dark Caster cousin Ridley and a mysterious man who is neither Incubus or Caster, Ethan is worried. Ethan feels that Lena is under their influence somehow and making her do things that are unlike the Lena he fell in love with. And when the song that haunted him in the previous months starts singing “ Seventeen Moons…” Ethan must find away to get the old Lena back before she makes a decision that could kill half her family.

The Good: The dynamic duo has done it again. Garcia and Stohl have delivered another great installment in this incredible series filled with dark magic, mysterious books, and endless tunnels. With a cast of character including Amma and Link, you will be forced to smile. Ethan is also a fantastic narrator. He comes off as an average teenager without the I’ m-already-an-adult vibe many YA novels have or the whiney preteen vibe. The ending of the novel is incredible Garcia and Stohl do not disappoint in the twists and turns of a fantastic plot. After page 350 you won’ t be able to put it down.

The Bad: Talk about a slow start. I felt this book just dragged and dragged at the beginning. If it wasn’ t for the fact I was on a deadline for this book I wouldn’ t have been able to get through it so quickly. The beginning was just very boring and if I look back I thought Beautiful Creatures had a slow start too. But I think this one might be worse. I was also kind of disappointed in how it set up a sequel so perfectly, which probably doesn’ t make much sense. It was like the last couple pages said here’ s the next book’ s conflict all laid out for you…Too bad you have to wait a year to find out what happens. I felt like these pages should have waited till the first pages of the next book rather that at the end of this one.

Ugly Updates: Beautiful Darkness is out. Order it via Amazon here and the first book in the series, Beautiful Creatures here. The untitled third book in the series is set to be published in fall 2011. Add it on Goodreads to keep up to date on title, cover, and specific publish date. And check out Garcia and Stohl's site here.

Rating: B+