Beautiful Darkness (Caster Chronicles, #2) in Once Upon a Twilight blog

Sep 27, 2010 Heather rated it really liked it

Advanced Reading Copy

First of all a special thanks to fellow Twilight MOM Laura for letting me borrow her advanced reading copy of Beautiful Darkness before its release. She's the best!I enjoyed Beautiful Darkness even more that I did Beautiful Creatures.

Lena is in a tough spot after the evetns that unfoleded on the night of her 16th birthday. She's grieving and trying to figure out where she stands. Torn between the world of a light and dark caster. Book #2 of the Caster Chronicles has a much Advanced Reading Copy

First of all a special thanks to fellow Twilight MOM Laura for letting me borrow her advanced reading copy of Beautiful Darkness before its release. She's the best!I enjoyed Beautiful Darkness even more that I did Beautiful Creatures.

Lena is in a tough spot after the evetns that unfoleded on the night of her 16th birthday. She's grieving and trying to figure out where she stands. Torn between the world of a light and dark caster. Book #2 of the Caster Chronicles has a much more angsty feel as Lena is in the thick of things.

Here's what I loved about the book

1) New bad boy character John Breed. I wish we could have learned more about him but I have a hunch he will be back in a big way in book #3.
2) The rich world building that combines every day southern culture and caster underground. In this book you are introduced to tunnels laying under Gatlin and secret passageways into a whole other world. Picture the Wizard of Oz alternate pathways to explore.
3) The background history behind who Ethan's mother Lila was and how intertwined his family is with Lena's. She is a strong female adult character who influences past and future.
4) More of Ethan's housekeeper Amma. She keeps popping up in random places during the story to save the day. She's got some sass and know how to whip up a mean pie for the county faire.
5) The detail in Kami and Margie's writing. They almost pack so much in there its hard to process it all. But wow! They've upped the anty in this book. Intelligent, beautiful rich passages make the story immersive.

On the flipside, it took me a while to get back into the groove after a year has lapsed since the first book Beautiful Creatures. I would recommend reading that one again before picking up #2. There are a lot of repeat characters and back history that would be difficult to understand without the prequel. The series definitely builds on itself.

My favorite scene: when Ethan finds Lena on her ceiling surrounded in her thoughts. For some reason is an image that stuck with me after I finished. She is dealing with so many complex emotions and her writing, doodling and dress portray what she is feeling on the inside.

My favorite thing overall about the series: all of the symbolism and objects they tie into the story. It makes the book more tangible and real.
...more

Like · see review

Apr 03, 2010 Megan (magan bagan) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

These ladies did it again, another fabulous book for the Caster Chronicles that I just absolutely loved. Kami and Margi have such fluid writing, you'd think that these books were written by one person instead of two, which I think only adds to the stories.

Beautiful Darkness picks up a couple of months after Beautiful Creatures ended, taking us right to the funeral of Macon Ravenwood. From that moment I knew that this book was going to be difficult to get through. We all know how difficult it is These ladies did it again, another fabulous book for the Caster Chronicles that I just absolutely loved. Kami and Margi have such fluid writing, you'd think that these books were written by one person instead of two, which I think only adds to the stories.

Beautiful Darkness picks up a couple of months after Beautiful Creatures ended, taking us right to the funeral of Macon Ravenwood. From that moment I knew that this book was going to be difficult to get through. We all know how difficult it is to move on from the death of a loved one, and the struggle that Lena goes through is wonderfully portrayed. She was desperately trying to find her own way, struggling with her love for Ethan and the powers she can barely control.

Ethan was doing everything he could to hold them together, to keep their relationship from falling apart. In the midst of all that, new characters were introduced and Ethan found himself being pulled further and further into the Caster world. With Ridley, Lena's Dark Caster cousin, and her friend John spending more time with Lena, Ethan goes to Marianne and her research assitant, Liv, to do what he can to help Lena. He's seeing visions of Macon's past, and learning just how many secrets Gatlin has.

Unlike the first book, we get a better look into the Caster world and just how entrenched it is around Gatlin and the rest of the world. And Ethan finds out just how much of a connection he has to that world. With Caster tunnels, Caster pets, crazy aunts, and Southern traditions, the beautiful world that Kami and Margi created comes to life in a new and exciting way in this second installment.

And just like from the first book, I loved that it's told from Ethan's perspective. I'm always a fan of reading something from a male perspective, there's something fascinating about it. Add to the fact that we're also getting to see this world from a mortal's point of view on top of that and it makes it even better. I just think that was a smart move on both of their parts to do that.

Just as they proved in Beautiful Creatures, not everything is as it seems in Gatlin County. There are even more questions left to be answered now and more to look forward to. So I highly recommend this book and am looking forward to the next two books in the Caster Chronicles, thank you Kami and Margi for sharing this books with us and putting so much time and effort into them. ...more

Like · see review

Apr 18, 2010 Katieb (MundieMoms) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2010-100-book-challenge, arcs-i-own, signed, mundie-moms-review

I absolutely loved returning to Gatlin County in Beautiful Darkness. The cover sets the perfect tone for what is revealed within it's pages. It's beautiful, haunting, twisty and I found myself a lot more emotionally invested in this wondeful sequel.

Kami & Margie have this unique talent for making me feel like I'm apart of Ethan and Lena's world. Whether that be searching the Castor tunnels, in the caves and the forest that are apart of Gatlin county, the Caster world in which Ethan is introduced I absolutely loved returning to Gatlin County in Beautiful Darkness. The cover sets the perfect tone for what is revealed within it's pages. It's beautiful, haunting, twisty and I found myself a lot more emotionally invested in this wondeful sequel.

Kami & Margie have this unique talent for making me feel like I'm apart of Ethan and Lena's world. Whether that be searching the Castor tunnels, in the caves and the forest that are apart of Gatlin county, the Caster world in which Ethan is introduced to, the Gatlin Library or at their homes. No matter where the setting took me too, I felt I was there. The descriptions are so rich in detail and so vivid, that I'm completely swept up into the pages of Beautiful Darkness, more so than I was with Beautiful Creatures.

Can Ethan get any more perfect? I know, it's wrong of me to use the word perfect right?! Ethan's love for Lena spans their families interwoven history, and is Lena's life line. Like many sequels, this one is a character journey for Lena. She has a choice to make and though she had me so emotional ticked off at her for part of the book, I understood her dilemma and admired Ethan's, "I'll go to the ends of the earth for you" determination. Ethan will not lose the girl he loves, no matter what the cost. In learning more about the Caster world and what Ethan and Lena are really up against, I was able to understand Lena more and really grasp the risk Ethan takes in trying to help her.

The characters- I really enjoyed getting to know Liv, who has a talent that I will not giveaway, but that's just say her character surprised me. I mean that in a good way. I adored Link even more so in Beautiful Darkness. He's such a great best friend to Ethan! I loved his character in Beautiful Creatures, but I find him even more humorous in Beautiful Darkness. He's humor always came at just the right moments. I was fascinated by Ethan's Great Aunts in Beautiful Creatures, but now I completely adore their characters! Amma is the same old lovable, stubborn character she was before. Just wait till you met the new bad boy! I won't say anything else.... there's more to him than we get to read about in Beautiful Darkness.

Beautiful Darkness is truly a well written sequel. There's nothing I would change about it. I loved it, as I was so emotionally charged while reading it. There's mystery, love, suspense, and more in Beautiful Darkness. Now that my questions I had at the end of Beautiful Creatures are answered, I'm eagerly awaiting the next book for my latest questions to be answered. If you need a fascinating story to get lost in, go PICK UP Beautiful Darkness tomorrow! ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 18, 2010 Cynthia Lopez rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorite-books

In Beautiful Creatures we got the background and history of the town of Gatlin and the introduction of the characters established so when you start reading Beautiful Darkness the story begins at a very fast pace a few months after from where Beautiful Creatures ended. Lena blames herself for the death of her uncle and starts alienating herself from those around her. I was a little frustrated with Lena in this one, since we don't really know the reason behind her new rebellious attitude, we only In Beautiful Creatures we got the background and history of the town of Gatlin and the introduction of the characters established so when you start reading Beautiful Darkness the story begins at a very fast pace a few months after from where Beautiful Creatures ended. Lena blames herself for the death of her uncle and starts alienating herself from those around her. I was a little frustrated with Lena in this one, since we don't really know the reason behind her new rebellious attitude, we only get poor Ethan's point of view in the story and we feel his pain and frustration, how he's not willing to give her up and let her go even when he starts thinking the worst. We also get introduced to a couple of new characters, the hot and mysterious John Breed who nobody seems to know exactly what he is, and a new girl named Liv smart and beautiful with a sense of adventure that I really liked.

I really loved that we get to see a lot more of feisty Amma's awesome seer power and we also get a lot of scenes with Link and his crazy funny sense of humor. Even when you thought the darkest part of the story was coming up or someone was going to die Link would say the funniest lines and made me laugh, I think he's becoming my new favorite character.

What I loved the most about Beautiful Darkness was how I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next, it's definitely full of mystery, surprises, and twists that keep you on your toes while you're reading it and just wanting to flip the pages as fast as you can. Kami and Margie have an amazing talent at weaving all these details through the story perfectly that it just keeps you guessing until the end where it all makes sense somehow. The rich descriptions are there just like with the first one, they made it so easy to picture the places and scenes in my head along with the very well written characters that you can easily feel a connection with, they just feel so alive and their emotions so real that I just didn't want it to end. I should warn you that this book will give you the urge to bake and search the internet for pie recipes. I loved it and I definitely recommend it, the ending will leave you wanting to bribe Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl for the next book right away! ...more

1 like · Like · see review

May 10, 2010 Michelle rated it really liked it

3.75 Stars***-is there such a thing??? Haha!

So I've gone back and forth on how I want to rate Beautiful Darkness. I'm technically giving it a 4 on the Star scale, but if Goodreads allowed us to rate it in half stars or quarter stars, I would! So thus the 3 3/4 stars.

Why I didn't like the story: I had a really hard time getting into Beautiful Darkness. The first 200 pages were really difficult to get through. Lena is so depressed by her Uncle Macon's death, that it's really mundane. I understand ...more

Like · see review

May 31, 2010 Stacey (secsec1) rated it it was amazing

Beautiful Creatures was one of my favorite books of 2009, I didn't think it could get much better than that, but Beautiful Darkness blew me away!

First, Beautiful Darkness is a great title for this book! Beautiful Creatures was a good fit, but Beautiful Darkness really speaks to the soul of the story. Second, I LOVE that they changed the cover. The original ARC (advanced reader copy) cover had an ornate gate on it, which after reading the book works, I got the connection to the gate, but stairs Beautiful Creatures was one of my favorite books of 2009, I didn't think it could get much better than that, but Beautiful Darkness blew me away!

First, Beautiful Darkness is a great title for this book! Beautiful Creatures was a good fit, but Beautiful Darkness really speaks to the soul of the story. Second, I LOVE that they changed the cover. The original ARC (advanced reader copy) cover had an ornate gate on it, which after reading the book works, I got the connection to the gate, but stairs are play a large roll in the book and I think this was a great choice.

Beautiful Darkness is about what's next. Lena and Ethan survived the 16th moon and all the crazy that happened that night. It's now a few weeks later and they are dealing with the ramifications of everything that has happened over the last year. Ethan thought the worst was behind them. His dad is getting help, and both he and Lena made it though her birthday and Lena got another year to choose, but things aren't getting any better between Ethan and Lena. Lena is hanging out with Riddley and growing more distant, keeping things from him. The growing disconnection is causing the bond to weaken between Ethan and Lena. To figure out whats going on with Lena, Ethan goes deeper into the caster world than he has before and uncovering even more of Gatlin's secrets.

Beautiful Darkness is dark and twisty and brings you further into Ethan and Lena's world, human and Caster. This book is full of great imagery that really pulls the reader into the story. I could totally picture the locations described in the book. Kami and Margie have really uped their writing style this book, I know, crazy to think, how can a book get better than Beautiful Creatures, well Kami and Margie have done it with Beautiful Darkness!

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know more about Gatlin and it's citizens. Kami and Margie woven the rituals and traditions of Gatlin into the storyline, allowing you to learn more about Gatlin as you're learning more about the plot. By doing this, they have brought this fictional town and world to life beyond any reader's hopes and dreams. I loved that we get to see more Link and the Sisters as well as seeing some of the annual events that make Gatlin the town it is. This was a great second book and I'm even more excited for book 3! ...more

Like · see review

Jun 01, 2010 Cindy rated it really liked it

Shelves: arcs

My only complaint about this series is that it takes me forever to read one of the books. I don't necessarily think that's even a complaint toward the books but a complaint at myself for not being able to read them faster. I am always dying to see what happens next but because I want to fully understand what is going on, I tend to read these books slower than the average book. Okay, now that I've gotten that out, here are my thoughts on Beautiful Darkness:

Things have been strained between Lena ...more

Like · see review

Mar 11, 2010 Alyson (Kid Lit Frenzy) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: book-a-day, ya, socal-author, paranormal, 2010-clc

Since this book doesn't come out until October 2010, I will hold off on myr review until a little closer to the release date. However, I will say that I loved the book. It was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster and at times I wasn't sure if I wanted to hate Garcia & Stohl or hug them. It went where a second book should go and I appreciate them for doing that. Those who loved Beautiful Creatures won't be disappointed in Beautiful Darkness. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 19, 2010 Mindy/fangedmom rated it it was amazing

I love this book. I really truly do. The Caster world needs to let me move in.

I love this book. The end kinda confused me though so I will have to reread. PLEASE tell me there is another one soon. I love this book, I love this world. I want to be a Caster!!!

If you have not read Beautiful Creatures, do so now then read Beautiful Darkness. LOVE THEM!!!!

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 19, 2010 Jessica rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2011

Beautiful Darkness was good, but not as good as Beautiful Creatures. I was bored with the beginning, but I became more interested once the group finally got on their quest. There are some surprises at the end and I am curious to see how they effect the characters' dynamics in book 3. ...more

Like · see review