Macon is consistently compared to Cary Grant. Link is unquestioningly loyal to Ethan and accepting of Lena, when it would be a lot easier to drop both of them in this small, close-minded town. I also loved Link, Ethan’s best friend, and Macon, Lena’s eccentric uncle. We can’t all be Miss Popularity at school. She’s not at all an average girl, but I think a lot of girls will relate to her. It would be easy for her to wall herself off from the world, but she keeps going out there and opening herself up for more hurt, trying to have a life. She’s stressed out, she’s outcast, she never fits in, but she never gives up. Lena was a fantastic character! I am loving these strong female characters that I’m finding in YA lately. Ethan tells the story, and he’s just as clueless as the reader, so the way the story unfolds felt very natural. Sometimes that kind of thing can feel a little like the author is cheating, withholding information for the sole purpose of making you read more against your will, but Garcia and Stohl got it right.

The more I found out, the more questions I had and the more I needed to get answers. It was kind of like going down the rabbit hole. I was intrigued at first, wondering what was going on, but about a hundred pages in, this hooked me and didn’t let go.

That’s probably the most coherent, non-spoilery thing I have to say about this. He recognizes her as the girl from his dreams, and things only get more complicated from there. Then Lena Duchannes, the first new girl to move into his small South Carolina town in years, shows up. In his dreams, he’s unsuccessfully trying to save a girl.

Sixteen-year-old Ethan Wate has been having nightmares for months.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia