Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Release Date: December 1, 2009 from Little, Brown Young Readers

Synopsis:

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

There's been a lot of talk and hype surrounding this title and let me tell you it's worth all of the hype and then some. I loved this book, and when I say loved, I mean permanent-spot-on-my-bookshelf-read-again-and-again kind of love. It's a phenomenal novel that begins what I know will be an incredible series.

First of all, I love a good Southern Gothic tale. In fact, I love just about anything set in the south. All of the history and mystery associated with the south is in this book. It's beautifully written and the storytelling is so rich that it pulls you in immediately, so that you feel like a part of the events. It's also full of amazing imagery that really captures the heart of the south. It makes me want to hop in my car and just head in a southward direction for hours.

As for the characters, Ethan is so real and he's got almost a Lloyd Dobler thing going on that I couldn't help but fall in love with. All of the supporting characters are fascinating as well, from the Aunts and Amma to Macon, I just thoroughly enjoyed reading about all of them. Plus any book that has an awesome librarian in it is worth reading just for that.

And then there's Lena, who has to be one of the coolest girls I've come across in YA literature. I totally wanna be a Caster girl. I mean, I love Twilight as much as the next girl, but Lena could totally kick Bella's butt.

Basically, if you couldn't tell, I love Beautiful Creatures. It was so much fun to read and I loved getting lost in its pages. We have a long wait until it hits shelves, but it's so worth the wait. I think and I hope it's going to be a huge success. I can't wait to see it take off, so others can fall in love with it like I did. Now I just have to wait for the sequel.

If you'd like your own copy of the ARC to read well before the release date, enter my contest here.

If I haven't piqued your interest enough, take a look at this awesome trailer.