“Beautiful Darkness” by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

503 pages

This sequel picks up right where "Beautiful Creatures" leaves off (if you haven't read that, you probably want to stop reading this review to avoid spoilers). Ethan Wate has fallen in love with a girl named Lena who introduced him to the mystical world of the Casters, who are constantly struggling to balance Light and Dark. Each Caster has special powers and is claimed for Light or Dark on his or her 16th birthday, but at the end of "Beautiful Creatures," the forces struggling to pull Lena in different directions created a battled that killed Lena's beloved uncle Macon and left her unclaimed. Now, in "Beautiful Darkness," Lena is pulling away from Ethan. At first he gives her space because he knows she's still hurting from the loss of Macon. Soon, however, it becomes clear that there's more to Lena's behavior than he thought. A handsome young Caster named John appears and seems determined to get closer to Lena, while her Dark cousin Ridley returns and Ethan doesn't trust her. Ethan realizes that Lena is getting closer and closer to Darkness as time goes by--and that his late mother was much more involved in the Caster world than he knew.

I feel like "Beautiful Darkness" jumps around a lot, almost like the authors made things up as they went along. That said, I did enjoy the story. I think the plot is a bit weaker than that of "Beautiful Creatures," but it still kept me interested from beginning to end. I think I stayed into it because I really care about the characters, particularly Link, Amma, and of course Marian the Librarian. They're so warm and funny that I can't help loving them, but they make mistakes too so I can relate to them. The end of the story is a cliff-hanger, so I'm anxiously waiting for the next book, "Beautiful Chaos," which is supposed to come out on October 18.