dawndalin's review against another edition
4.0
I'm going to read the third one, but the story line seems to be weakening for me.
jessek103's review against another edition
4.0
This book was interesting. I thought it was a little slow at times, but then the 2nd half picked up had me guessing.
lovelyjanelle13's review against another edition
4.0
I'm glad I continued the series because in my opinion the characters and the caster world is so interesting.
luckyliza13's review against another edition
4.0
So many twists & turns & a cliffhanger at the end. Good sequel, but, of course, I'm going to have to read the 3rd one!
brynn_books's review against another edition
2.0
I think I liked this book less than the first one. The characters were kind of annoying. But I still find the plot and overall concept of the book interesting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Death of parent
lyraofstellaryus's review against another edition
2.0
Dopo l'entusiasmo del primo libro, devo dire che sono stata sommersa dalla delusione con questo. Anche se è ben scritto come il primo, ho trovato irritante come in questo libro vengano ribaltati i pilastri del precedente per permettere alla storia di continuare. Morti che non sono morti (con spiegazioni a mio parere del tutto artificiose, costruite appositamente in questo libro senza tracce nel precedente per far resuscitare i personaggi), cattivi che non sono più cattivi per una "maledizione" che in realtà risolve tre quarti dei problemi senza alcuna motivazione, personaggi che inaspettatamente si trasformano in geni della magia, scelte fatte subito disfatte che non sono scelte... mi sono ritrovata ad arrancare letteralmente per riuscire a terminare il libro, e non credo che andrò avanti con la serie. La Sedicesima Luna è incantevole, un bellissimo autoconclusivo che continuerò a considerare tale. Ho trovato insopportabile invece questo ribaltamento di tutti i piani, come per riprendere in mano la storia daccapo e riscriverla per trasformarla in una saga. E comunque non mi ha appassionato in niente, tanto più che quello che è diventato il mio personaggio preferito è l'unica che davvero sacrifica qualcosa in questo libro. Per cui lascio davvero perdere. Peccato però.
jenjen89's review against another edition
3.0
I had high hopes for Beautiful Darkness. I really enjoyed Beautiful Creatures and was pleased that there was another one to get my teeth into, but was unfortunately a bit disappointed.
Lena is very whingey for the entire novel - so much so that I was urging Ethan to let her go! Her inner demons - whether to be Light ot Dark - are very repetitive and annoying. Yes, you have a big choice to make. Yes, you don't want to hurt people. Don't whinge about it for 500 hundred pages please. When Ethan met Liv, I wondered whether the epic love story of the first novel would turn out to be a big witchcraft war and Ethan would fall in love with Liv - and then I started hoping for that. But as time went on, it was clear that wasn't going to happen. And when Ethan finally saves Lena all is forgiven, but I have a lot less respect for Lena as a character. Sigh.
I will read Beautiful Chaos because now I've started I must know what happens, but it's not with as much enthusiasm as before. I still enjoyed the book, but found large sections frustrating.
Lena is very whingey for the entire novel - so much so that I was urging Ethan to let her go! Her inner demons - whether to be Light ot Dark - are very repetitive and annoying. Yes, you have a big choice to make. Yes, you don't want to hurt people. Don't whinge about it for 500 hundred pages please. When Ethan met Liv, I wondered whether the epic love story of the first novel would turn out to be a big witchcraft war and Ethan would fall in love with Liv - and then I started hoping for that. But as time went on, it was clear that wasn't going to happen. And when Ethan finally saves Lena all is forgiven, but I have a lot less respect for Lena as a character. Sigh.
I will read Beautiful Chaos because now I've started I must know what happens, but it's not with as much enthusiasm as before. I still enjoyed the book, but found large sections frustrating.
katereads2much's review against another edition
2.0
Warning: There are spoilers here, but the big ones are for the first book/movie so I'm not hiding them. You've been warned.
Book two of the Caster Chronicles was a little tougher for me to get through than the first one. I didn't have an easy time with the first one, but that was partially because I'd seen the movie already and enough lined up that a lot of the "surprises" were "ruined" for me. There was a lot that was different so I'm glad I saw it through and it left me curious enough to go onto the next one.
The best way to describe my frustration with this book is that it felt very similar to [b:New Moon|49041|New Moon (Twilight, #2)|Stephenie Meyer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1361039440s/49041.jpg|3203964]. I was a Twihard, so I'm not about to go into a Twilight series book bashing, but the second one was hard to read. It was frustrating to see two people not together for dumb reasons after they'd already fought their way through so much. I always felt a little insulted about that plotline, and the plot of this book is similar enough that it brought up all those feelings of frustration and annoyance again.
Lena is struggling, and she has legitimate reasons to struggle, but after everything Ethan went through with and for her (the man *insert explicative that starts with the letter 'f'* died), and everything she sacrificed to keep him with her (she brought him back to life for fudge's sake), and she just goes tramping off with some sketchy dude who promises her he'll always be with her? Like Ethan didn't fulfill his promise to always be with her. Like he didn't do everything he could to be her safety and her support and to love her no matter what.
Not gonna lie, I spent this entire book--all sixteen hours--saying, "WTF, Lena?!" She gets all handsy with the sketchy dude, tells Ethan she doesn't want him around, and then berates and punishes him for thinking about kissing a girl who is kind and funny and his friend? *Fill in this space with a string of curse words and a sentence involving what Lena can do with herself.* Honestly? I don't like Lena right now, not even a little bit, and no part of this book won me back in regards to her.
But I do love Ethan, I really do. And I love Link to pieces (Linc? I'm listening to the books, so I'm not sure about the spelling of his name) because he might be a bit of a pig in some ways, he's also incredibly loyal and brave. The addition of Olivia has been fun, and I deeply relate to her and her librarian ways (it probably doesn't help my opinion of Lena that she is so cruel to and about Olivia). Plus Ridley is an interesting character, and her storyline has me intrigued.
It's weird that I can dislike a character so much and still want to see her with a character I love. I did really like Lena in the first one, and I want Ethan to be happy, so I'm still rooting for them as a couple. We'll see how I feel at the end of the next book.
Book two of the Caster Chronicles was a little tougher for me to get through than the first one. I didn't have an easy time with the first one, but that was partially because I'd seen the movie already and enough lined up that a lot of the "surprises" were "ruined" for me. There was a lot that was different so I'm glad I saw it through and it left me curious enough to go onto the next one.
The best way to describe my frustration with this book is that it felt very similar to [b:New Moon|49041|New Moon (Twilight, #2)|Stephenie Meyer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1361039440s/49041.jpg|3203964]. I was a Twihard, so I'm not about to go into a Twilight series book bashing, but the second one was hard to read. It was frustrating to see two people not together for dumb reasons after they'd already fought their way through so much. I always felt a little insulted about that plotline, and the plot of this book is similar enough that it brought up all those feelings of frustration and annoyance again.
Lena is struggling, and she has legitimate reasons to struggle, but after everything Ethan went through with and for her (the man *insert explicative that starts with the letter 'f'* died), and everything she sacrificed to keep him with her (she brought him back to life for fudge's sake), and she just goes tramping off with some sketchy dude who promises her he'll always be with her? Like Ethan didn't fulfill his promise to always be with her. Like he didn't do everything he could to be her safety and her support and to love her no matter what.
Not gonna lie, I spent this entire book--all sixteen hours--saying, "WTF, Lena?!" She gets all handsy with the sketchy dude, tells Ethan she doesn't want him around, and then berates and punishes him for thinking about kissing a girl who is kind and funny and his friend? *Fill in this space with a string of curse words and a sentence involving what Lena can do with herself.* Honestly? I don't like Lena right now, not even a little bit, and no part of this book won me back in regards to her.
But I do love Ethan, I really do. And I love Link to pieces (Linc? I'm listening to the books, so I'm not sure about the spelling of his name) because he might be a bit of a pig in some ways, he's also incredibly loyal and brave. The addition of Olivia has been fun, and I deeply relate to her and her librarian ways (it probably doesn't help my opinion of Lena that she is so cruel to and about Olivia). Plus Ridley is an interesting character, and her storyline has me intrigued.
It's weird that I can dislike a character so much and still want to see her with a character I love. I did really like Lena in the first one, and I want Ethan to be happy, so I'm still rooting for them as a couple. We'll see how I feel at the end of the next book.
sherrisue76's review against another edition
2.0
I just finished listening to beautiful darkness. Didn't like it as much as the first. I hope the next ones in the series get better. I didn't like how lena wasn't in it much and found the whole premise hard to understand and lacking storyline like the first did. Maybe if I had read my hard copy I would have enjoyed it more. Only gave it 2 stars. Was going to give it three but then thought why? So sad because I waited a while for this from the library and loved the first. I expected much more out of it. Ready to give up on ya as it's a rare book or series that rates well in this genre. I'll stick to historical fiction and history & biography books. I get more satisfaction out of them.
nytephoenyx's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I still think that overall, these books are really interesting. That said, the authors take such a long time telling their stories. Beautiful Darkness was so unnecessarily long. Most the first half of the book was just following Ethan as he runs around like a chicken with its head cut off. He knows something is wrong, but doesn’t know what. I understand that the authors were trying to set the scene, but it was set in the first hundred pages.
That said, I like the characters in the world enough to keep reading the series. It isn’t what I would buy, because I know that if I sat down to read it, I’d end up giving up. That was the struggle I had with the first book. But as audiobooks borrowed from the library, I am interested enough in the story to listen to them at a 2X speed and follow Lena and Ethan’s ongoing story.
That said, I like the characters in the world enough to keep reading the series. It isn’t what I would buy, because I know that if I sat down to read it, I’d end up giving up. That was the struggle I had with the first book. But as audiobooks borrowed from the library, I am interested enough in the story to listen to them at a 2X speed and follow Lena and Ethan’s ongoing story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Injury/injury detail, Death, and Death of parent
There is at least one Black character in Beautiful Darkness. While she is presented in a positive light, she fills a stereotypical role in both her occupation and magical ability.