Beautiful Redemption (Caster Chronicles #4)
by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Summary: 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.
Source: I purchased a Kindle copy.
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Review:
Beautiful Redemption was incredible. The layout and pacing were completely different from the other books in the series, which made sense after the events of Beautiful Chaos. Some parts of the book were Ethan’s point of view and others were from Lena’s point of view. I loved the direction of the plot and the journey Ethan had to go on to figure out how to find his way home.
Beautiful Redemption was more entertaining than the other books because I felt like it gave me as many answers as questions instead of leaving me more confused. All of the threads of the story came together quite nicely in the finale. I liked having conclusions.
Ethan’s journey, though perhaps a bit boring for some, was incredibly interesting to me. I love books that involve traveling through the Underworld. I am always fascinated by these journeys and looking for connections to different types of mythology. Ethan’s underworld was such an awesome blend of elements from Gatlin, the South, the Greats of Amma’s persuasion, and the Caster world. I loved all of the elements and the way some of them mirrored other mythologies.
I understood Ethan’s motivation and I loved that he was so focused on the task. Even though his journey was to get back to the love of his life, I felt like his narration was less whiney than it has been in other books. It was as if losing everything gave him enough motivation to focus instead of worry all of the time. He wasn’t worried about Lena. Instead, he was determined to get back to her. I like the Ethan who doesn’t worry and freak out all of the time.
I really liked what the story did with the problem of dark casters. I feel like, in the end, it doesn’t matter if you are dark or light. It matters what you do. I always hated the way dark casters were just suddenly terrible and you had to cut them out of your life. The story was always heading in that direction with Lena being on the fence, Ridley’s involvement, Genevieve’s story, and even the flashbacks from Sarafine. It took forever to get there, but I’m so satisfied with that conclusion.
I closed Beautiful Redemption with a smile. It ended so well. I loved the characters, their reflections, and I love that Ethan had some respect for Gatlin in the end instead of hating it. I highly recommend the series because it was so much more than a paranormal romance. It took forever and some of it was tough to wade through, but the last two books really stood out to me and made the series worth reading.
Labels: Review, YA
