Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Beautiful Creatures

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.

Beautiful Creatures is the first book in a four book series known as The Castor Chronicles, and is co-written by the author Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Ethan Wate lives in the small, boring town of Gatlin, South Carolina. Ethan is dealing with a family death and just wants to escape his small town life. Then Lena Duhannes moves to Gatlin. Lena wants to be normal, everywhere she has lived she has felt like she does not belong. Lena struggles with her abilities and Ethan then finds himself interested in her despite all the talk from his classmates and from his nanny to stay away from Lena.  Ethan takes an interest in Lena. Ethan tries to pursue Lena but she s him it's best he stays away from her. Ethan is later told in the book by Lena that she is a witch, just like the rest of her family and when she turns sixteen it will determine whether Lena is a good witch or evil. Lena is terrified that she will turn dark and it will do nothing but destroy the boy she loves.

Beautiful Creatures reads like a replica of Twilight. The book is told from Ethan's point of view, since Beautiful Creatures is written by females, it does not feel like you're in the head of a teenage boy. the only difference in the novel being that the paranormal love interest is a witch/castor and not a vampire. Garcia's agent is also the same agent who represents Stephenie Meyer, and Beautiful Creatures is published by the same publisher of Twilight it should have clicked how similar that book was. so when you are reading the book, you start to feel like you are reading Twilight all over again. When I first saw the book, needless to say and to be perfectly honest, I thought this book was going to be horrible which is why I didn't want to read it when I saw it at the bookstore for the first time because it's co-written. In most cases in terms of co-authored books, one of the writers will write one book one writer will write a chapter and then the other author would then begin working on the next chapter, causing the book to  make absolutely no sense causing the readers to get confused.

Beautiful Creatures had a lot of issues. The book is extremely long. There is a rule when it comes to word count when writing a books. Most young adult books run within the word count of 45,000-65,000 words, now 45,000 words is considered a novella. The only way an author can go beyond this rule is if the book is paranormal, science-fiction, or urban fantasy in which the general word count could range anywhere from 65,000-90,000 words. A debut author should not break this rule when it comes to their first time for publication. J.K. Rowling broke this rule, but the world and the stories she crafted were phenomenal and readers wanted more. There were also parts in the first book that so bland and overly descriptive tends to make you want to put the book down. There were also certain parts that should have been cut out of the book but it's mostly on fault of the editors. When I was reading, I found myself skimming through pages, or falling asleep there were pages within the book that were bland. it's evident that chunks should have been cut out of the book. Since the book series was published from the publisher as Twilight, the editor should have caught this along with the fact that the whole beginning of the book is just the background of the story, shouldn't the background of the story be the synopsis? Even then the publisher could have pulled the first hundred pages of the book and made it into a prequel story to sell before releasing the actual series. Then the characters tend to feel unrealistic. I will also admit I was not very impressed with this book, but I want to find out more about what's going to happen to the characters. 

I loved the chemistry between Lena and Ethan. and I loved the books! And here is the trailer for the movie! I'm so excited to see it!

Editing

I am now back at school. Vacation was hectic but I was able to begin writing the sequel to my nanowrimo trilogy I plan to self publish. I wanted to self publish it while the genre is still high and there are readers out there. But as vacation time is over and now it's time to do the most exhausting thing with my project.

Editing. This has to be the most dreadful part about writing the novel, going back and editing the approximate 55,00 to 75,00 WORDS that you wrote back in November. It's just pages and pages of things that need work. My first draft was completed at approximately 65,000 words, and once I do some editing myself, then send the chapters to my critique partner, I end up with a higher word count that could range over 100,000 words. I'll have to see what editing takes me with this NaNoWriMo project. I was so tempted to go back and edit the what I had written. After day one of NaNoWriMo I had 15,000 words written. All of it was mispelled and all but I had to remember from king, don't look back at that draft. 

I know this particular project will be very hard to sell, but it's something different which is what all publishers want. My writing teacher thinks I did something new with this particular sub-genre. Hope all goes well. Happy editing everyone.

Soulless by Gail Carriger

First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette. Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire - and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?






This is a book I have been wanting to read for some time and imagine the look on my face when I see that the publisher has all five books in the series available to purchase. I prefer to read a completed series because I get so impatient during releases and it allows me to read the whole series straight through.

This book is more of stemapunk with mystery. The plot was unpredictable, whenever I thought I had something figured out, something else would happen and throw it off the surface. It has a very unique take on the supernatural. I love the steampunk books because I am a huge fan of the Victorian era. The main character, Alexia, of the book has no soul and since she has no soul it neutralized supernatural creatures like wolves. I didn't really find a lot of wolf element. The book does deal with a lot of stereotype. I found this book to be a quick, entertaining, and interesting read with the mixture of fantasy,romance, humor, and steampunk! I really enjoyed how Carriger blended all of the elements to make one fantastic book.. It was a unique and enjoyable read. 

The Unnaturalist by Tiffany Trent

In an alternate London where magical creatures are preserved in a museum, two teens find themselves caught in a web of intrigue, deception, and danger. Vespa Nyx wants nothing more than to spend the rest of her life cataloging Unnatural creatures in her father’s museum, but as she gets older, the requirement to become a lady and find a husband is looming large. Syrus Reed’s Tinker family has always served and revered the Unnaturals from afar, but when his family is captured to be refinery slaves, he finds that his fate may be bound up with Vespa’s—and with the Unnaturals. As the danger grows, Vespa and Syrus find themselves in a tightening web of deception and intrigue. At stake may be the fate of New London—and the world.




The book is told in the point of view of Vespa and Syrus, and is written in third person limited. The world building in THE UNNATURALISTS is just incredible. I love the creatures, magic, and the consequences when it comes to using magic.The creatures, magic filled with choices when using it, all brought together with a unique story. I liked how the the society came around after the Telsa broke up and reclaimed London. New London began with the Victorian era never ending and steampunk progressed along with it. I found myself flipping through the pages eager to see what was going to happen next to the characters! I highly recommend this read!