The first half felt slow and I got bored, and there were little things that bugged me throughout the book, but I mostly enjoyed the second half. ( )

I just....could not get over the initial stalking. He was so weird in the beginning.

And then it just didn't make sense to me with all the mind sharing (kind of only one way?) and the waking up wet or muddy. They just seem to roll right with it. Most people would have lost their mind!

But, once I ignored the things in the beginning and just went a long for the story, it was interesting how casters and natural and all that worked, although they didn't give us too much story on that.

all in all, the story was interesting but there seemed to be holes in the ideas that I just got hung up on. I know others will love this one! ( )

Really powerful start. I liked the fact that the narrator of this romance was a 16 year old small town boy. Got a little sleepy in the middle but the ending almost made up for that. I wished Lena had been as intriguing as her cousin. And for a book set in the South, I found it really interesting that it hardly ever described the characters' race. It used Mortal vs. Caster to discuss prejudice. ( )

I was very surprised to find out that this book was from a male P.O.V. If I had known I probably would have read it sooner, but thought it was going to be an emotional rollercoaster and I didn't want to deal with that female angst; sometimes you just need a break from the doubt that comes from the female brain. It was a pleasure hearing from Ethan, he didn't drive me crazy with the constant doubts or the expected teenage boy snarky-jerk attitude. Here's hoping the entire series has Ethan as it's voice.

Ethan Wate lives in Gatlin, South Carolina, where he accepts and lives with the status quo of being different as not accepted. His life in Gatlin is a predictable one, he craves the day he gets to escape his dull life in Gatlin, until the day "she" shows up at his school. She, Lena Duchannes, is unlike all Gatliners in every way possible. Lena is the girl of Ethan's dreams, literally. Ethan has been having terrifying dreams about Lena for months and was surprised to find that the girl from his dreams is real and had hoped she was. Lena changes his views on his life as a Gatlin citizen and opens his eyes to his accepting of the way things are in his small town.

Through Ethan's eyes Lena comes across as a dark soul with a lot of pain but someone not caught up in the typical teenage drama. Lena is someone wistful of the past, disenchanted to the present and bewildered by the future because of fears of what's to come. Lena dreads the coming of her sixteenth birthday, it's the day she will be claimed by the powers that be to an unknown destiny, good or bad she has no idea or choice in the matter as she's been told all her life. With Ethan's help Lena hopes to fix a mistake that happened over a hundred years earlier in hopes that she can make her own choice of who she want's to become.

Ethan's and Lena's relationship was so sweet, I liked the fact that even with their strong connection they didn't just jump into a "I'll die without you" kinda love fest. They were both a little hesitant, Lena because she knows her life was not conducive to a relationship with a mortal, and boy does she not realize how right she was. And Ethan, I think was just a little hesitant to rush into to it too quickly and was afraid to rush Lena too.

Lena and Ethan found a cameo, right after their first vision from the cameo and after they saw the initials inscripted on it I knew that their encounter and relationship was going to be a little bit of history repeating itself. I quickly figured out that they were both going to be tasked with the impossible job of breaking a hundred year old curse, created by Lena's ancestor which involved an ancestor of Ethan as well.

Ethan's and Lena's quest to break her family's curse was very long but engaging and somewhat amusing at times. While this book was not fast paced or action packed I still really enjoyed their journey and the people who were a part of it. I loved Ethan's relationship with his family's houskeeper and somewhat surrogate mother, Amma. She has a no nonsense kind of approach to parenting and it was very sweet that Ethan respected her and also funny that he feared her too. Lena's relationship with her Uncle Macon was also very endearing, he was pretty scary himself and the most shunned man in Gatlin, being associated with him is not good for your social status.

The characters in this book ran the gamut, from quirky to down right appalling. Link, Ethan's best bud was one of the more lighthearted ones, he was the funny clueless always got ya back friend. Link's mother, Mrs. Lincoln was on another spectrum, she was a pretty horrible character. Oh yeah, the sisters, they're so funny. As for Boo, I'm a bit on the fence about him, he was very protective of Lena but sounds kinda terrifying, and a little creepy, but I guess a protector can't look wimpy and needs to scare the crap outta people to get the job done.

Beautiful Creatures is about humanity, magic, love, relationships, differences, and not giving up. In Lena's world things are just the way they are and there is no changing it, so many times she just wanted to accept her fate and remove Ethan from her life for his own safety. Lena wanted to give up many times but Ethan not being a part of her magical world and his human spirit of not accepting things that seems unchangeable and "we'll find a way" attitude, always bring Lena back on board, as much as he could, to keep trying. I was definitely frustrated with her constant negative look at her situation, yes it seems impossible but what could it hurt to just fight and think of the future generations who will be dealing with this curse.

I haven't read a book this long in a while and wasn't sure what part of the story would come from my fingertips reviewing it without giving away too much. There is so much going on in this story but it was written well, the pace was great and the world and story building were very clever and new. It took me a while to read this book, had it sitting on my to-read bookshelf a while, really did want to get to it but was a little apprehensive because of the mixed reviews and possible angst ridden drama. So glad I finally got to it and was pleasantly surprised, I really did enjoy it and hope the rest of the series continues to get better and doesn't stray too far from the original. ( )

“The right thing and the easy thing are never the same.” ( )