Beautiful Darkness

Title: Beautiful Darkness
Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Series: Caster Chronicles #2
Read: March 30, 2014

Summary: Ethan Wate used to think of Gatlin, the small Southern town he had always called home, as a place where nothing ever changed. Then he met mysterious newcomer Lena Duchannes, who revealed a secret world that had been hidden in plain sight all along. A Gatlin that harbored ancient secrets beneath its moss-covered oaks and cracked sidewalks. A Gatlin where a curse has marked Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals for generations. A Gatlin where impossible, magical, life-altering events happen.

Sometimes life-ending.

Together they can face anything Gatlin throws at them, but after suffering a tragic loss, Lena starts to pull away, keeping secrets that test their relationship. And now that Ethan's eyes have been opened to the darker side of Gatlin, there's no going back. Haunted by strange visions only he can see, Ethan is pulled deeper into his town's tangled history and finds himself caught up in the dangerous network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, where nothing is as it seems. goodreads

Review: I really enjoyed the first book in this series. I liked the various characters and their deep, dark secrets that were shared as the book progressed. It interested me! (Sidenote: The movie is absolutely horrendous and should never have been made.) I felt less interested in this one though. Ethan is still head over heels, mushy-gushy in love with Lena. In this novel, the soul mate, can't breathe without you, need you to function relationship, really started to irk me. The role reversal was interesting in the first one. Usually we meet the female narrator who can't live without the dreamy boy, but in this series, it's the opposite. Ethan is the originally obsessed one and Lena eventually develops feelings for him. That being said, it's kind of weird to have this over emotional male narrator. Yes, I know I'm falling for the stereotype of men not having feelings but it just doesn't feel as genuine in this book as it did in the last. I also felt as though not much happened in this book. Yes, Lena pulled away and eventually made a choice but by the end of the book, there were very few major differences from the other book as far as storyline goes.

I enjoyed getting to know some new characters as well as the return of some others; welcome back, Ridley. I also liked that Ethan's mom had a stronger role in this book. As I'm working my way through this review, I've realized that this is actually more of a 3/5 rather than a 4/5. I think I rated it high originally because it was a quick read and kept me entertained and I liked the premise of the series. But looking back on it, I'm adjusting. Sorry, casters.