Beautiful Creatures »

Kami Garcia is a teacher and reading specialist with an MA in education, and leads book groups for children and teenagers. Margaret Stohl has an MA in English and studied creative writing under poet George MacBeth at the University of East Anglia, Norwich.

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.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Alan Review

When the niece of his small town's shut-in enrolls in school, Ethan Wate rejects the idea of ever being friends with her. Lena Duchannes, however, is more than Ethan bargained for—beautiful, different, and unexpectedly powerful. She is a caster—possessing the power to instantly transform her natural surroundings. Ethan discovers a strong attraction to Lena, sharing her dreams, seeing into her mind, and learning a secret about their family histories that connects them. But Lena's time in Gatlin, SC, is short: She has six months until her sixteenth birthday, where she'll learn her fate as a caster—to be dark or to be light, to be evil or to be good, to have Ethan or to lose him forever. The authors weave Southern history and charm with Gothic sensibilities throughout the story. Boasting a strong male narrator, Beautiful Creatures is a fresh, pleasantly enjoyable take on the YA thriller/romance. Reviewer: Lacy Compton