Not So Beautiful

I enjoy reading young adult fiction.  Some of the best stories are being written for teens.  Think the Harry Potter, the Hunger Game books and the Twilight series (yes I read the books, didn't see the movies--vampires don't sparkle).  However, I do read these YA books with the understanding that there will probably be a certain amount of teenage angst.  So like I did books when I first started reading Harlequin romances as a young teen (when I had read just about everything else in the library), I just skip over all the 'angsty' parts and continue on my way.

I had seen the movie trailer for Beautiful Creatures and was interested, especially since Jeremy Irons was in it.  I made it through the first book relatively unscathed.  Then I started the second and third books.  And I plan on reading the fourth book, simply because I have so much invested in the story not to finish it up.

But the amount of angst going on in these books could have turned 3 books into 1 book if most of it was cut out.  Currently, I am so tired of Ethan and Lena's hand holding (or not) and sighing as they try to not let the world as we know it end.  So I am waiting a bit before I buy Beautiful Redemption as any more 'emo' would probably send me over the edge.

As things stand now, Gatlin (the town the books are set in) is in the grasp of a drought and grasshoppers and things are destined to become worse unless Ethan and Lena can solve the puzzle and figure out how to put things to right which were undone with her claiming on her 16th birthday.  Things are definitely not as they should be and Gatlin has become the battleground between the Light and Dark Casters and all those who know about them.  At the end of book 3, Ethan has solved the puzzle, but at what cost.

The story is good and because of that I will continue the series.  I survived raising two girls through their teenage years, so I know I can survive reading book four.  However, it will be done with a lot of skipped pages as I wade through all the emotion and sighing going on.  Thus is the peril of reading YA fiction.