Kayla's Reviews > Beautiful Darkness

I enjoyed following the characters and the continuing story, however it took the sequel quite a while to win me over. It didn't feel as original to me as the first. It kept reminding me of Twilight, which while I completely love it, I don't want to read a rip-off of it. I also felt that it detracted from the trademark style and unique appeal of this series. (More on that later).

I did however really enjoy this book's Southern charm, the revelations about some of the characters (no spoilers!), and the enticing lead up to the next book. The plot continues to thicken, and the mysteries grow. Lena's desire to be light, fear of being dark, and steadfastness to not hurt anyone continues to make her hesitant to declare herself for one side or the other. Readers will be able to relate to this human struggle to be good while never being able to be completely free of the pull toward bad thoughts or actions. The second audiobook is just as good as the first, and the song really gets stuck in your head after a while (in a good way).

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

So, why was it annoyingly reminding me of Twilight? Well, it didn't really hit me, until Lena breaks up with Ethan in the middle of the forest, so that he won't get hurt from being with her, and leaves him there, and rides off of the back of John's motorcycle. Then, I was finally like, okay...So this book is a paranormal romance, with characters with different special powers, whose eyes are a certain color if they are good or bad, and the story centers around a supernatural who falls for a mortal, who will die if they stay together, and thus leaves him to keep him safe. Eventually the story becomes quite different, but when the similarities hit me, it was a little off-putting. My other challenge with reading this book, or listening to it, was that I found Lena more difficult to like. She goes beyond just being a tormented poet, and seems somewhat mad. I was not completely deterred however, I pushed on to the next book, and am still in fact reading this series.