Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Name - Beautiful Darkness
Author - Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Publisher - Little, Brown
Release - October 12th, 2010 
Rating - 5/5


Synopsis - 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.

Information from Goodreads.Com

Review - Amazing, this book was simply amazing. Kami and Margie's writing styles blend together to make this irresistible southern gothic come to life.

Beautiful Darkness was my most anticipated book of 2010 and it definitely deserved that anticipation. From the very beginning of Beautiful Darkness I was hooked. The town of Gatlin and all of the characters flourished in this astounding sequel. 

Lets talk some more about the characters. Liv was probably my favorite character in this book. I love people with accents so obviously she would be my favorite. Liv was definitely a good addition to the book. She is the typical know it all everyone loves. She is like the Hermione Granger of Beautiful Darkness! I also love Lucille. Yes one of my favorite characters is a cat, but this cat is seriously awesome! I don't really know why I love Lucille so much, but she kind of makes the story better for me. I always laugh when Lucille just shows up next to Ethan.

At points it got a little slow, but only for brief moments. Otherwise the writing was better than most. 

This book was excellent. I recommend everyone to read this book even if you didn't like the first in the series. 

New Banner

As you may have noticed, my blog has a new banner. I never really liked the other one so I am going to try this one out. I love this one? What do you think of it?

In My Mailbox (4)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren. It gives bloggers a chance to show of all the stuff we get each week.

Hush Money (Talent Chronicles) by Susan Bischoff

I love this cover! I love the concept! I love this book! I am reading this right now and I love it! 

Thanks to - 

Susan Bischoff

What did you get this week?

Winner!

The winner of the signed copy of The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner Trilogy, Book 2), goes to... Mary3195!

Interview - Christine Johnson

Books by Christine Johnson-

Claire de Lune

Nocturne(Coming Soon)

Claire de Lune - Torn between two destinies?

Claire is having

the perfect sixteenth birthday. Her pool party is a big success, and gorgeous Matthew keeps cha

tting and flirting with her as if she's the only girl there. But that night, she discovers something that takes away all sense of normalcy: she's a werewolf.

As Claire is initiated into the pack of female werewolves, she must deal not only with her changing identity, but also with a rogue werewolf who is putting everyone she knows in danger. Claire's new life threate

ns her blossoming romance with Matthew, whose father is leading the werewolf hunt. Now burdened with a dark secret and pushing the boundaries of forbidden love, Claire is struggling to feel comfortable in either skin. With her lupine loyalty at odds with her human heart, she will make a choice that will change her forever?

Information from Goodreads.Com

Interview -

1. What are five words that come to your mind when you think about Claire de Lune? Excitement, romance, challenge, struggle, acceptance

2. How long did it take you to write Claire de Lune?

All told, from the first word of the first draft to the moment it hit the shelves was about two and a half years. The different drafts took varying amounts of time, from seven-ish months for the first draft, five for the major revision, two for the minor revision and then weeks for things like copyedits, etc.

3. Where did the idea for Claire de Lune come from?

Claire was born the way almost all of my ideas are - by what-ifing. When I thought of the idea, I’d just read a bunch of YA novels with a human girl who fell for a supernatural guy. I thought “what if the *girl* were supernatural? And what if she were dating a human guy?” It was a teensy little poppy-seed-sized idea, but after a lot more what-ifing, it got more and more interesting until I knew that I *had* to write it!

4. What character can you most relate to from Claire de Lune?

I’m going to take Claire out of the equation here, because it’s just too easy an answer. So, aside from Claire, I probably find it easiest to relate to Victoria, just because she’s the most like me. She’s a good girl, sort of quiet, part of the group but not the head of it - at least, not right now. But she has an inner strength that I admire and aspire to have.

5. Was it easier writing Claire de Lune or Nocturne?

They each had their challenges. CLAIRE was hard because I was building the world from scratch, but then again, I had zero external deadlines when I was drafting that book, which meant I got to take as much time as I wanted/needed creating Claire’s universe. With NOCTURNE, I already had a solid mythology for my wolves and a developed cast of characters, but my deadline was pretty tight and my youngest child was VERY TINY when I drafted it. It was quite challenging in its own way!

6. Who is your favorite character to write?

Again, *other* than Claire, who’s too easy an answer, I’d have to say Emily. Her voice is very, very clear in my head. In fact, I find it very difficult to *make* Emily say anything. She knows what she thinks and is very stubborn! Plus she’s fun - she’s larger than life in many ways, and her flamboyance is very refreshing to write.

7. How do you choose names for your characters?

I have a couple of favorite ways to pick names. I love baby name websites - I can go and browse through thousands of names, sorting them in multiple ways, including by meaning. What a name means is important to me, though it can be overridden if it’s fitting in every other way. For last names especially, I like old cemeteries. I like to look at the names on the headstones and pick from those. I figure, people put up headstones so they’ll be remembered - and what better way to “remember” them than to use the name in a book?

8. What is your favorite YA book?

My favorite book changes daily. Seriously. I can tell you that *today*, my favorite YA novel is Libba Bray’s GOING BOVINE, but tomorrow it’ll be John Green’s PAPER TOWNS and the day after, it’ll be Holly Black’s WHITE CAT. I love so many of them, and it all depends on my mood what my favorite right *now.

9. Do you participate in NaNoWriMo?

Not exactly. When I’m drafting (which is often,) I have daily word minimums to reach. I sort of do NaNoEveryMo, really, as I hate to be between projects. If I’m not revising, I’m drafting. Otherwise, I don’t have anywhere to put my crazy and it spills over into my real life. Everyone’s happier when I keep that stuff on the page!