Rating: ★★★1/2
Availability: Kobo | Amazon | iBookstore
*ARC received from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers via Netgalley
Catch up with Ethan, Lena, and Link as they finally graduate from high school and get ready to leave the small Southern town of Gatlin. But when Dark Caster Ridley makes an appearance, the sometime bad girl can't resist picking a fight with her sometime boyfriend, Link. Angry and rebellious as ever, Ridley ends up alone in New York City and becomes entangled in the dangerous underground Caster club scene, where the stakes are high and losers pay the ultimate price.
Where's a Linkubus when you need him?
Where's a Linkubus when you need him?
As a short story prequel (at 46 pages), I enjoyed the story and the tease of Dangerous Dream for their upcoming Dangerous Creatures series. The story is told from three point-of-views: Ethan, Link, and Ridley. Honestly, I feel like Ethan could have been taken out of the equation and the story would be the same. Or maybe there should have been more of Link and Ridley's relationship, especially if readers are new to this whole book franchise.
Link was the same ever-lovable and sweet guy we met in Beautiful Creatures. And Ridley was right: he may be an incubus, but there's just no dark in that guy. And Ridley is also the same, hot and sexy and daring and afraid of feelings. And as I said, like a good girl who believes she should be bad.
However, what I didn't like about the story is that the writing and flow feels a little immature and the characters, tentative. The transitions felt a little jarring, and even though I like that they stayed the same, it's also a little disappointing because there was no tease of character development. If Ridley was going to be the hot bad girl all the way, then her antics could have been naughtier, her comebacks wittier and snappy. Here, she was still the same kid we met in Beautiful Creatures, and though it's nice to revisit old favorites, it's also more enjoyable to see them grow.
What do you think, reader? Have you read the Beautiful Creatures series? Who's your favorite character in the series? I'm partial to good girls, but Lena was just a little too blah for me. Ridley was always the interesting one for me.
**Quickstop Tuesdays is a feature in My Book Musings where I review books/comic books/graphic novels that have less than 200 pages, on Tuesdays.
Link was the same ever-lovable and sweet guy we met in Beautiful Creatures. And Ridley was right: he may be an incubus, but there's just no dark in that guy. And Ridley is also the same, hot and sexy and daring and afraid of feelings. And as I said, like a good girl who believes she should be bad.
However, what I didn't like about the story is that the writing and flow feels a little immature and the characters, tentative. The transitions felt a little jarring, and even though I like that they stayed the same, it's also a little disappointing because there was no tease of character development. If Ridley was going to be the hot bad girl all the way, then her antics could have been naughtier, her comebacks wittier and snappy. Here, she was still the same kid we met in Beautiful Creatures, and though it's nice to revisit old favorites, it's also more enjoyable to see them grow.
What do you think, reader? Have you read the Beautiful Creatures series? Who's your favorite character in the series? I'm partial to good girls, but Lena was just a little too blah for me. Ridley was always the interesting one for me.
**Quickstop Tuesdays is a feature in My Book Musings where I review books/comic books/graphic novels that have less than 200 pages, on Tuesdays.
I've only read the first book in the Caster series, I remember liking it but not really enough for me to continue on the series. I do like Ridley though, her character definitely stood out in Beautiful Creatures and since is a Novella, it might be easier to get into because its a quicker read but I will definitely keep in mind that there's not much growth in terms of the characters.
ReplyDeleteAmir! My blog's comment system keeps reverting back to Google when it should have intensedebate...do you know how to fix this? [-( :((
DeleteThank you for visiting! :)
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ReplyDeleteHonestly, I haven't read the series at all, and even though I had downloaded this book from Netgalley too, I still haven't read it! I'm not even sure if I should read the Beautiful Creatures series at all... the movie just killed it for me... [-(
ReplyDeleteOkay, so the movie was really blah to me and the characters where blah to me. The only one I liked in that whole movie is Jeremy Irons because he is THE Jeremy Irons and I love the way he enunciates words when he talks... (o)
That's okay, Zeee. It's not for everyone! I mean...I haven't read Games of Thrones and THG. Or Divergent. or Mortal Instruments. Basically the most popular YA books the past years.
DeleteI'm not sure if the movie was as good as the book, I love the myth but the story itself was too emo for my taste. Maybe I should give their writing a taste with this prequel, it's short enough that I could finish it in one sitting.
ReplyDeleteOh! That's the word. The series was too emo. Ethan was too emo :)) Thank you. I'm not into emo guys. (f)
DeleteI haven't even read the book and think that Ethan probably shouldn't have been in the story-weird! My luck with this series is the same as yours, it's hit or miss so I will probably skip this one unless it comes up for somewhere. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Alise! I almost forgot about this book, then I thought, aw what the heck. Happy weekend :)
DeleteWell, to be absolutely honest, I detest Beautiful Creatures, I guess it just wasn't for me :( it's quite frustrating you know? When you're one of the very few people to not like a widely popular series, it's so ughhhhh!!!! Sometimes it's incredibly hard being a fangirl.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean, Lyanna! And it's okay to not like a series. Not every book is for everyone :)
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