Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

There were no surprises in Gatlin County.
We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere.
At least, that's what I thought.
Turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong.
There was a curse.
There was a girl.
And in the end, there was a grave.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.
____________________________
This is from the point of view of Ethan, which I like his point of view.  Most books like this when they're about witches, excuse me Casters as they liked to be called in this book series, they are from the point of view of the witch, or Caster in this case, and the human is sort of the love interest and off to the side.  I liked the fact that it was from the nonmagical person of the book.  I've only ever really read books where the person with the supernatural abilities is telling the story.  Have you ever read a book that was from the point of view of the nonmagical person?  I'm just curious.  I think I've read more, but I'm spacing because I've read soooo many books over the years and they're all starting to run together.
So Ethan lives in the small town of Gatlin, and he hates it.  Everyone knows everyone's business and if you're different you are looked down upon.  Ethan is counting the days until he can leave.  I know what he feels like, I am counting the days until I can leave my hometown too.  He has this map in his room and he has all the places he wants to travel after college marked on the map.  He really hates his hometown.  He also can't stand some of the people that are living there either.  Like his ex-girlfriend Emily Asher.  Every time she pops up in the book this is me:

He only dated her because he felt like he had to, but now he's tired of the same old same old.  Everyone is expecting them to get back together, but Ethan says he won't do it, and I don't blame him.  Emily Asher is one mean bitch.  Then Lena comes along and everyone automatically hates her because she's the town shut ins niece.  She's off limits, but Ethan can't stay away from her.  He doesn't want to stay away from her.  Plus he's been dreaming about her for months, but doesn't know why or even that she's really until she shows up in Gatlin.
Lena is different from other people.  She's a Caster, don't call them witches they don't like that.

She has supernatural abilities, but she can't control them very well, and her powers can be a little unpredictable at times.  Like the time she accidentally broke the window during her English class.  No one likes her because she doesn't wear the right clothes or have the right hair color, and plus she's Macon Ravenwood's niece.  The whole town loves to come up with stories about the infamous Macon Ravenwood, and each story get's crazier and crazier.  Lena tries to fit in, but wherever she goes she can never seem to fit in with the other kids.

I feel bad for Lena because all she wants is to be normal.  If she went to school with me I would try to become friends with her no matter how different she was, and I wouldn't care what other people thought.
I liked this book a lot.  But I have a confession to make.  The only reason why I read it was because I saw the trailer for the movie, and it has one of my favorite actors in it.  Jeremy Irons, he's one of my heroes.  If you don't know who he is he played Scar in The Lion King and Brom in Eragon.  His son is Max Irons.  I picked up the book and started to read it in order to get ready for the movie that came out last year.  (I'll post a trailer below.)  I liked how the authors didn't use the term witches for this book.  I liked how they called them Casters instead, I thought that was very original of them.  I fell in love with this book from the beginning and I'm reading it for a third time right now.  I would read it if I were you because you don't know what you're missing if you don't.
  Favorite Quotes:

“I never loved you any more than I do, right this second. And I'll never love you any less than I do, right this second.”

“Mortals. I envy you. You think you can change things. Stop the universe. Undo what was done long before you came along. You are such beautiful creatures.”

“Teenagers. Everything is so apocalyptic.”

“So you are a vampire."  "I most certainly am not." He looked annoyed. "That's such a common phrase, such a cliche, and so unflattering. I suppose you believe in werewolves and aliens too. I blame television.”

“Old things are better than new things, because they've got stories in them, Ethan.”

 “I'll drive like my grandma. I'll drive like your grandma."  "You wouldn't say that if you knew my gramma.”

  

“And have her back by midnight. " "Is that some powerful Caster hour?" "No. It's her curfew. ”

Overview:
Rating: Five Stars
Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
Publisher:  Little, Brown and Company
First Published: December 1st, 2009
Pages: 563
Series Book: Yes.
Will I Read The Next One: Yes, I already have.  I'm now working on the third one.  There are four in all.
~Ariadne
P.S. Here's the trailer like I promised earlier.  Enjoy! :)