[book-info]

I decided late last year that I wanted to finish the Beautiful Creatures series. I had read Beautiful Creatures and then I watched the movie. BIG MISTAKE. It took me 5 years to forgive that and pick up the series again. Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl was my first read of 2018. I have to say that I am really glad that I decided to pick the series up again!

After the events in Beautiful Creatures Lena is really struggling with coming to terms with what she is and what the Duchannes curse means for her. It isn’t any easier on Ethan because of his Mortal status. To be honest, I feel like it was probably harder on Ethan because he didn’t have the history or knowledge of the vast Castor world. We see some new characters added. I really enjoyed all of the characters in this volume of the Castor Chronicles. Amma is still probably one of my most favorite characters but the Aunts are a close second. I cannot imagine this series without Link.

Part of the book that held my interest was the constantly changing settings of Beautiful Darkness. I didn’t have a chance to be bored because I was learning new things along with Ethan. The plot was also pretty fast paced and I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen next. There were a few laugh out loud moments.

I did not tear up during any of this novel. I really feel like that was because this book felt a lot like Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I know that’s quite an analogy to make but stick with me. OotP was my least favorite Harry Potter book because Harry was such a sullen teenager that it brought the book down for me. Same thing here. I absolutely believe that Lena and Ethan had every right to grieve but so much of the book seemed to be focused on dealing with that. It was messy and I was impatient to get past it. I know how awful that sounds but it is how I feel. I can empathize with it but 480 pages of it was a lot.

The story was still amazing and I can’t wait to continue with it!