Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: Razorbill

Pages: 352pgs

The Story

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?

The Review

Having been with the Beautiful Creatures series from the very beginning, like with all beloved book series it's sad to see yet another one come to an end. But moving past that sad matter, I was still so excited to read the final installment of this series, especially since what happened in the previous book, Beautiful Chaos, and to Ethan Wate himself. While I will admit the second and third installments didn't quite charm me as much as the first book did in a second, but with that said, BEAUTIFUL REDEMPTION still manages to deliver a great ending to the series and was the kind of book you just HAD to keep reading in order to find out more about some of your favourite characters!

Split into three major sections, BEAUTIFUL REDEMPTION is mostly told through Ethan's point of view but the most exciting part of the second section of the book was finally getting to see inside Lena's head - that's right folks, we finally get to read the world through Lena's eyes! Yes! Even when I was a little surprised by Lena's perspective being added (okay I was really surprised) and while I was a little worried about it as well since I was so immersed with Ethan's character alone that I couldn't possibly read from another's persons head, but I had actually loved Lena's perspective and it made this book stronger in a way, especially when you consider that she used to be my favourite girl character in the series (sorry Lena, the favourite character Liv kind of stole your place in that department), so it was pretty awesome to read about. But all in all, Ethan and Lena were great as main characters and continued to be those great characters throughout this book.

The only negatives I could honestly say about this last installment was three things: the confusing moments in the book, the pacing and the lack of appearances from some of my favourite characters in the series. With the confusing moments I had experienced in BEAUTIFUL REDEMPTION it mostly had to do with certain events that happened in the book, ones that made me re-readings certain sections to understand what exactly just happened. But in that case, I got over that pretty quickly so it wasn't the biggest problem for me. But the major things were the pacing side of things and while I do understand that a final book needs to lead up to something huge and eventually come to the ultimate ending climax, but it just was so . . . incredibility slow. It dragged so many times, especially in the first section of Ethan's perspective, so it was quite a struggle to get through the book but it did improve here and there, and it did manage to pick up the pace . . . eventually.

And finally, as for the lack of character appearances which a total letdown for me, it was the supporting characters where I was most disappointed with. While we do see plenty of Link, Ethan's best friend, and some other smaller appearances from others characters like Amma and Macon, but it's really sad when you hardly get to see some of your favourites who have a much little role to play in the storyline, in particular with my favourite characters John Breed and Olivia (Liv). Now I adore John and Liv together - completely - as they are now an official couple and as awful as it is to say it but . . . all I cared about was THEM! I know I'm terrible to say it. Haha. I just LOVED those two and they were so compelling and yet they hardly had any appearances in this book - especially Liv! *Le sigh* Ah well . . . guess that's how it was meant to be as Ethan and Lena were the story not the supporting characters.

Overall, BEAUTIFUL REDEMPTION certainly made up for my lack of connection with the other two previous installments before it and while we lose a few characters here and there (not too many anyway), the final book delivers a very satisfying conclusion for all and ties up the book very nicely indeed!

The Rating
4/5 stars

4 comments:

  1. Glad you enjoyed this too, Erin! Now that you mention it, the pacing was a little slow, there were so many delays for Ethan while he waited for help and with his time passing slowing or in a blur.

    But it was a good end to the series and it was nice to see Liv and John happy together!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah . . . I was hoping for something more exciting while Ethan was waiting for help but it was SO great to see Liv and John together! Just wished they had more scenes!

      Delete
  2. I felt about the same as you. The pacing was a bit slow in the beginning but picked up towards the end. If I didn't know anything I would have thought Beautiful Redemption was written by two totally different authors. It felt different somehow.

    I think the crossing the water bit will look great on the screen. OHMYGOSH BC IS NEARLY HERE!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah I know what you mean. It DID feel different this time round. Yes! Now that would look great on the big screen . . . I REALLY can't wait for BC! Let's hope it's awesome (even though I don't like the guy playing Ethan).

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...