Book Review of Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Sthol

Goodreads Summary: Ethan Wate thought he was getting used to the strange, impossible events happening in Gatlin, his small Southern town. But now that Ethan and Lena have returned home from the Great Barrier, strange and impossible have taken on new meanings. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Even Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals is affected -- and their abilities begin to dangerously misfire. As time passes, one question becomes clear: What -- or who -- will need to be sacrificed to save Gatlin?

For Ethan, the chaos is a frightening but welcome distraction. He's being haunted in his dreams again, but this time, it's not Lena -- and the mysterious figure is following him out of his dreams and into his everyday life. Worse, Ethan is gradually losing pieces of himself -- forgetting names, phone numbers, even memories. He doesn't know why, and he's afraid to ask.

Sometimes there's no going back. And this time, there won't be a happy ending.

SPECIAL BONUS: Includes "Dream Dark," a thrilling short story set before Beautiful Chaos. When Link joined his best friend, Ethan Wate, on a quest through a mysterious network of underground passageways endlessly crisscrossing the South, he knew the journey would be dangerous. But he had no idea it would change his life forever.

Goodreads Rating: 3.99 with over 58,000 ratings
Genre Listing: Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy, Witches, Magic, Supernatural, Incubuses, Romance, Young Adult, Teen,
Get the Book: Amazon , Book Depository
Other Kami Garcia/Margaret Stohl reviews: Dangerous Creatures, Beautiful Redemption, Beautiful Darkness

Review:

Edited 12/1/2016

  Wait...? What? The book's over, but it can't be over! I have more pages left!!!! Oh. Those are a mini story and a preview. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME. THAT... THAT CAN'T BE THE END OF THE BOOK. Noooooo! - I just finished Beautiful Chaos, and this is my thought pattern right now. I hate previews being thrown into my book. It throws me off, and honestly I never read them. I might go back and read the Beautiful Dark that's supposed to be a snippet of between Beautiful Darkness and Beautiful Chaos. But not right now, I'm too distraught.

I knew I was going to start getting upset with this series. Not the kind of upset where I don't want to read the series, but the point where someone I adore gets killed off. I can't even process right now. This entire book was just so incredibly sad. The next book in the series is called Beautiful Redemption; that has to mean it's going to be happy, right? RIGHT? I need it to be happy. I don't say this usually, but I need a happy ending with this one.

For me, if I do not want a book to end it's a good sign. I loved this book and was kind of glad to see it back in Gatlin- even though I enjoyed the tunnels in the second book. Despite the sadness of the book, I enjoyed this. I'm intrigued by where Beautiful Redemption is going to go with the story. It'll sadly be a while before I get to read it, so I'll just be sad and wallowing in the unknown that Beautiful Chaos created.

Character wise, I think Amma is still my favorite character because she's so sassy. I was sad to see her be less Amma-y this book. Also, I adore Aunt Prue. In all of the books so far Amma and the Sisters have been a delight to read. I thought that John was lacking. It's weird, but I thought John had more depth when he was being controlled, now that he's on his own he's pretty boring. At least, when he was being controlled, he was dark and brooding. Now he's just one of the gang. I'm glad to see Liv was present in this book. I was worried that she wouldn't be around as much as she was in Beautiful Darkness. She did kind of fade into the background a bit, but she was still there. Link being an Incubus has grown on me. It was talked about a bit more. I still have the issues with it that I mentioned in my review of Beautiful Darkness, but I can, at least, move past it now.

I wasn't prepared for the book to end, to be honest. I thought I still had a few hundred pages or so to go, so I hadn't prepped myself for a good review of this book. Sorry, this one's lackluster. I don't want to give spoilers or anything, but the I wanted to throw my book. I wouldn't, because that's harmful to books, and my wrist hurts like hell, but the want to throw was there. I wish I'd be able to read Beautiful Redemption soon, but that's not going to happen. I had the first 3 in a box set, and I don't own the fourth yet (and no, I haven't gotten around to getting a library card). That's okay, though. I have a box full of books that I need to read, and Bargain Books was having a buy 4 get 1 free sale.... So I obviously had to buy more... Yeah. I have an addiction. I suppose there are worse things to be addicted to.

Four out of five moons