‘Beautiful Darkness’ Review

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’m trying to work through a new review order. Because I think I need one as sometimes my reviews can be all over the place. So bare with me!

I’m going to do this one split into two categories: What I liked and what I didn’t like. But, as I like ending on happier notes, I’ll start with what I disliked. But I want to make a note and say that I am very appreciative of scoring this ARC because I massively enjoyed the first book.

Dislikes:

1) For a book about magic and witches, there was hardly any magic! I was so enthralled by it in the first book that I was expecting bigger and better things in the second. I was vastly disappointed. Though the story mainly focused on the journey three mortals take to save Lena, I still expected magic!
2) Ethan was like a sappy little girl. Lena was literally walking all over him in the beginning. I almost wanted him to get with someone else just to piss her off. Grow a pair, Ethan!
3) The explanation of a Wayward. I’m not going to say too much but I felt it was a little convenient to the book and I didn’t quite believe it.
4) The characters we got to know and love in the first book (supporting characters) were lost in favour of new ones. Though they were evil, bring back the school bitches and Lena’s family!
5) Sentence structures and certain scenes were jumbled and confusing. Some speech was on the same line as each other though from different speakers. I’m hoping this is an ARC error and will be rectified for the final version.
6) There was a dinstinct lack of emotion within this book. Unless it was to do with Ethan and Lena, everything else seemed to have been cut out. At one point, Lena thinks she killed her cousin and there’s no real emotion there at all.
7) Being British, the British character in this book grated on me because she was one huge cliche. I wished one of the authors would have asked me for some advice!!

Things I liked.

1) That Lena went badass and ran off with this rogue dude! I can’t begin to explain how much I liked that she went dark and left sappy Ethan. Don’t get me wrong, I like the couple but I thought it was a great plot twist and gives you something to hope for.
2) Ridley. I love Ridley’s character. And her fate in this book was one of the best twists of the whole series. The ending left me with a lot of questions on her destiny.
3) Lucille, the cat, was the best thing ever! Gotta love a cute little animal sidekick.
4) The Southern atmosphere was back and made me slightly envious that I didn’t live in Gaitlin!! Though it’s supposed to be dingy and small, I liked that kind of thing and it gave for a dark setting with more than just Casters to watch out for!
5) The scene at the fair was one of my favourite scenes ever. But seeing that come to life in my head was…ERGH! Could do with that never ever happening to me.
6) The Arclight. But I won’t say why or what it is. It’ll spoil too much.
7) Link! Gotta love a bit of Link. The characters in this book definitely make the series. And Link was definitely one of the best things about this book. He is a great definition of a kickass sidekick!

All in all, I really did enjoy this book. It raised a lot more questions, but answered some at the same time. There was a lot that was missed out that I guess was left to our own imaginations to fill in the blanks (like how Lena’s family didn’t notice her eyes were gold?), but it didn’t distract from the book. I hope it goes through one more round of editing before being sold, but it’s nothing major. I’d recommend to anyone looking to read a story about dark magic and an even darker passion.

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