Audio/Book Review of Beautiful Redemption: Caster Chronicles, Book 4

Book Title: Beautiful Redemption (Beautiful Creatures #4)

Genre: YA/Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

Pages: 479

Author: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Date Published: 23 October 2012

Synopsis:

Is death the end . . . or only the beginning?

Ethan Wate has spent most of his life longing to escape the stiflingly small Southern town of Gatlin. He never thought he would meet the girl of his dreams, Lena Duchannes, who unveiled a secretive, powerful, and cursed side of Gatlin, hidden in plain sight. And he never could have expected that he would be forced to leave behind everyone and everything he cares about. So when Ethan awakes after the chilling events of the Eighteenth Moon, he has only one goal: to find a way to return to Lena and the ones he loves.
Back in Gatlin, Lena is making her own bargains for Ethan's return, vowing to do whatever it takes -- even if that means trusting old enemies or risking the lives of the family and friends Ethan left to protect.

Worlds apart, Ethan and Lena must once again work together to rewrite their fate, in this stunning finale to the Beautiful Creatures series.

Review:

Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the fourth and final book in the Beautiful Creatures saga. I loved it!

I downloaded this book in audio format, as I wanted to read it, but didn't have time to. Having this book in audio format allowed me to listen to it whilst doing household chores, or before bedtime.
The story is again narrated by Kevin T. Collins, but this time he is joined by Khristine Hvam. Both narrators do a fantastic job bringing the characters alive by giving them their own accents and voices.

Ethan Wate is an extremely interesting character. I liked him very much. He is a sweet, loving young man, who happens to be a human in love with a Caster. This, it turns out, can be extremely dangerous.

Lena Duchannes is a character I didn't really like in the first book. She had a "woe is me" attitude that really grated on my nerves. However, as this series has progressed, she has grown on me and it has been interesting to see her transformation from an emo-girl to a confident Caster.

This story continues from the rather shocking cliffhanger at the end of the third book, and is now told from two points of view - Ethan's and Lena's. This is an exciting conclusion to this series. I was hooked from the first few minutes into the audio book.

Lena, Link, Liv and Amma are all trying to come to terms with Ethan's sacrifice to repair the order of things on the Eighteenth Moon, whilst hiding the fact that he's dead from Ethan's father. Meanwhile, Ethan finds himself in the Other World, with his mother and Aunt Prue. Ethan finds out that his page in the Caster Chronicles had been tampered with, and sets out on a quest to reclaim it.

This story is even more exciting than the previous one, and I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat on occasion. There was, however, a character I didn't expect to find in the Other World, Seraphine. She may have been a dark Caster, and made some bad decisions in her life, but I felt that she redeemed herself in the end. There are also some new characters brought into the story, such as Amma's family - the Greats - Uncle Abner, Aunt Ivy, Aunt Delilah, Twila and not forgetting Grandmama Sulla, the great prophet. It was nice to finally meet them. But, I think that my favourite character in this book was Xavier. He is a character that I really liked, but felt sorry for. He has not had an easy life, thanks to Angelus, one of the Keepers of the Caster Chronicles. I did have an unanswered question or two about Xavier, but that was my only bugbear with the story. Angelus was introduced briefly in Beautiful Chaos. As I found out more about Angelus I decided that he was definitely not someone I would like to meet.

As the story unfolded, I was cheering for not only Ethan, but for Lena and the gang as they set off on a quest of their own. The story was fast paced and exciting most of the time, but it also tended to slow down in places. However, this didn't totally stop my enjoyment of the book. It was a roller coaster ride of adventure and emotion from beginning to end. When I did finally reach the end, I found it to be bittersweet; I was happy with the ending, but sad that it had finished. I will miss these characters, mostly Link and Ethan I have to say, but I could always visit them again by re-listening or re-reading the books.

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl make a great writing team. Their writing style has improved a lot since the first book, and it is more fast paced. The story also flows a lot better. I would definitely read more of their books in the future.

I highly recommend this book if you love YA or Paranormal Romances. - Lynn Worton

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