Name: Beautiful RedemptionAuthor: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Publication: Oct. 23, 2012
Received: HBG Canada
Is death the end . . . or only the beginning?
Ethan Wate always dreamed of leaving the stifling Southern town of Gatlin.
But he never dreamt that finding love with Lena Duchannes would drive him away. Lena is a Caster girl whose supernatural powers unveiled a secretive and cursed side of Gatlin, so powerful it forced him to make a terrible sacrifice.
Now Ethan must find a way to return to Lena - and Gatlin - as she vows to do whatever it takes to get him back. Even if it means trusting old enemies or risking their loved ones' lives.
Can Ethan and Lena rewrite their fate and their spellbinding love story in this stunning finale to the Beautiful Creatures series?
I'm officially dead on the inside.
I can't believe it's over. The Caster Chronicles will forever be my favorite book series. My journey with the series has been a roller coaster ride-- but one I never want to forget. Throughout all four books I teared up, smiled, screamed, got frustrated and felt my heart melt or burn as the character continued their journey. I felt like I was with Ethan and Lena throughout the entire series, and never lost the feeling that only special books can bring you; the feeling that all those good & bad things are happening to you. You're the one falling in love or experiencing the heart break. Dying & coming back to life.... twice.
Stohl & Garcia really know how to create a hell of a complex plot (just the way that I like it) with Layers, and layers and LAYERS of details and secrets and complexity that slowly unravel as you progress.
I love books like this because they feel real. Despite the magic and all the unworldly things going on, there's an atmosphere to the story that creates that day by day, real life feeling. The plot is complex with lots of twist and turns, ups and downs. Nothing is as you think. Trust me. Things that are revealed in the first book, dont actually get solved until the last. It's layers upon layers of a true story that means to hold the reader long after they've closed the book. It's had that affect on me and many others. I've heard people complain that the books are 'too long', but they aren't at all! I love that I can sit there and read the books, and feel like I've just spent 1-2 years with the characters. Nothing is rushed and the climax is slowly built up to with little details that can mean the world by the end, and a relationship so beautiful that it can set your heart on fire. It grows and the reader really gets a feel about how and why Ethan & Lena feel the way they do about each other.
I wouldn't have this series any other way.
I love Margaret & Kami for being two of the greatest authors. Not only did they write a series that means the world to me & many others, but also they make their readers feel welcome and loved.
They always Chat on twitter and make sure to reply & RT when they can. They're so thankful to all their readers and they make sure that they show them that.
I also met Margaret at the Edmonton "Smart Chicks Kick It!" tour, and loved how thankful she seemed when I told her the impact Beautiful Creatures had on me. I mean, I'm a blogger. I've read tons of books before I started & I'll probably read tons & tons more, but there will always be for any blogger (in my opinion) those few special books that altered a litttleee something inside of them to make them the person they are today. It wont be a gravity-defying difference, but enough of a difference that you'll notice. Maybe ONLY you will notice. But isn't that all that matters?
I wont get into what little (or big) thing the Caster Chronicles changed in me (that's a story for a different post), but I would just like to say to everyone reading this who hasn't read the series yet: Please do. Don't read this review & spoil it for yourself.
Go buy Beautiful Creatures & get ready for your journey to begin.
BEAUTIFUL REDEMPTION REVIEW
I'm seriously heart broken. I can't believe that it ended like that. I mean, it's a GREAT ending. I don't have any major questions or any doubts. But... But... Amma :(
I can't say much without spoiling it, but keep in mind while reading that Amma still has to pay her debt to the bokor of New Orleans. *zips lips*
This novel was seriously heart breaking. My little itsy-bitsy heart throbbed for Lena & Ethan every time they talked about how much they missed one another.
Actually, everything was heartbreaking. Not one little part of the story was normal.
After Ethan threw himself off the Summerville water tower to restore the order of things and save his friends & family, he ends up in the otherworld. He finds out that very much like myths, his soul cannot pass when he has unfinished business in the mortal world.
There, Ethan reunites with his mother. It's such a beautiful moment to see their reunion unfold. Since we never really get a sense of Ethan's mother and him throughout the series, other than flashbacks and sheer versions of her, it was such a moment to watch.
my ONLY ONLY issue is that once Ethan & Aunt Prue (whom he reunites with in the otherworld) got to see Obidias, and Ethan finds out that Obidias is the one that wrote in Ethan's death into the Caster Chronicles..... It doesn't make sense that Ethan just let it go. He was angry.. but wouldn't he want to know why a man he doesn't even know wanted to kill him enough to change his fate? I might have missed it since so much was going on... but I really doubt it. It just says that Obidias changed Ethan's page, and then when he tried to get his page he was caught. Wouldn't he want to get his page before worrying about Ethan's future? Like i said, I may have missed something huge here, but I don't know what it is right now.
Also, I thought that the mortal world was supposed to end. Lilium was supposed to condemn Ethan and he wasn't supposed to jump, so all the mortals would die. that's what Angelus wanted. So then why did Obidias write Ethan's page? Although these points are important, I loved the book too much to lower the rating.
It was still extremely well written and heart breaking, every detail making a huge impact on the story. I disliked how far apart Ethan & Lena were from one another. I just WISH that the book could have been longer so we get more Ethan/Lena time. It seemed so short lived. They just got back together and BAM, it's over. I love how they can be so far form one another, yet SO close. They don't need to be intimate in order to love each other, which I truly adore about this series. They emotionally love each other so much, that nothing else matters. It gives me hope that their are really relationships like that out there and man kind isn't truly lost in lust. And if you can find any book out there to top their relationship... message me. And I know that I won't be getting any messages tonight because they're relationship is UNTOPABLE!
Also... RIDLEY AND LINK!!!! I wanted them to get together so badly. Although they were only play fighting by the end and it does say that they love each other but they don't admit it... I wanted them to! It would have been an even perfecter ending! But it's good enough to know that they love each other.
Although Ethan's journey was heart breaking, watching him go through the struggle & think about giving up.. and then thinking about Lena just to get buy. He endured all the pain and the risk of losing his soul to eternal darkness just because he couldn't leave her. It was so damn beautiful. There reunion was the saddest moment. They should never be apart. NEVER. :'(
"I love you, Ethan. I won't forget you. I'll never forget you, and I'll never stop loving you."
I LOVED reading from Lena's perspective. She's my favorite character, and getting inside her head made the story phenomenal. I love the way she thinks and feels, and it was just HEARTBREAKING watching her heart tear into two when John & Liv would get all cuddly. I felt like my heart was tearing too, every time she thought about how much she loved Ethan.
the missing piece
my breath
my heart
my memory
me
the other half
the missing half
Everything was just so delicate and beautiful... I don't want it to end! :(
A Seer's moons, a Siren's tears,
Ninteen Mortal, Wayward fears,
Incubus graves and Caster rivers,
The final page the End delivers.
Overall, this is my favorite series EVER. Nothing will EVER be better than the Caster Chronicles. Although this last book has some flaws and I do have some questions, It doesn't change how attatched I have grown to the characters and the books. Just read it. Please.
Now, I'm off to re-read the entire series....
