Today’s review is by guest blogger Mindy Lavender. Mindy is my sister and best friend. She is also, in her words a “Youth Director. Photographer. Wife. Historian. Feminist. Lutheran.”
She is much more than that short list of words though. She is the person I use as my sounding board. I invited her to post on my site because she offered me the chance to post on hers, but in addition, this gives me an opportunity to share with you a better variety of book reviews. She reads more Young Adult fiction than I do, so she is better suited to review it than me.
Her blog Lovely Lavender is about life, being a youth director, and photography. Check it out.
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Truth: I love Youth Adult literature and am almost 31 years old.
Truth: I did not like Twilight. This has nothing to do with the films. I stopped reading after the second book.
Truth: I love the first installment of the Beautiful Creatures series by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohi.
The book takes place in the small town of Gatlin, South Carolina. One day Ethan Wate, the town basketball star, meets Lena Duchannes, niece to the town’s shut-in Macon Melchizedek Ravenwood. What ensues is a forbidden romance full of witches, magic, and small town snobbery (or should I say Southern hospitality).
This is why you should read Beautiful Creatures. First of all, you want to be Lena. She’s cool; she’s super powerful; she’s an outcast that your locked away teenage soul can relate to. Secondly, Ethan is very likable. Even though he is the basketball star his family has some pretty dark secrets. Plus, Ethan’s family has real problems. Case in point, Ethan’s father hasn’t left his study since his wife died. There is also an awesome cast of supporting characters. Including, Uncle Macon, who will remind To Kill a Mockingbird fans of Boo Radley, until you get to meet him. Last but not least, it is not Twilight. Yes, it is the same genre but it is a very different story.
This book will not change your life. Chances are it will not bring a new understanding to your vast knowledge of vampires, witches, and the occult that has been beat into your American psyche by the media over the past few years. However, Garcia and Stohl take the reader into the life of a small southern town and bring in the unexpected.
p.s. My youth group said to not see the movie! Lame! (Their words not mine.)
Mindy Lavender
Still Working on My Novel 
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