I received this book for free from the Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Series: Dangerous Creatures
Published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers on May 20, 2014
Genres: Fantasy, Fantasy & Magic, Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 368
Source: Netgalley
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A new series returns to the world of Beautiful Creatures. Some loves are cursed...others are dangerous.
Ridley Duchannes will be the first to tell you that she's a bad girl. She's Dark. She's a Siren. You can never trust her, or even yourself when she's around. Lucky for her, Wesley "Link" Lincoln can never seem to remember that; quarter Incubus or not, his heart is Mortal when it comes to Ridley. When Link heads to New York City to start a music career, Ridley goes along for the ride-and she has her own reasons. As if leaving small-town Gatlin for the big city, trying to form a band, and surviving life with a partially reformed Siren isn't hard enough already, Link soon learns he has a price on his head that no Caster or Mortal can ever pay.
Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthors of Beautiful Creatures, are back and casting another magical spell. Their signature mixture of mystery, suspense, and romance, along with a dash of fun and danger, will pull fans in and leave them begging for more
My Thoughts:
Beautiful Creatures is a book that holds special meaning for me. It’s the book signing where Pushy and I first met in person and became fast friends, but it was also one of the first series as a book blogger that truly captured both my heart and attention with it’s romantic, fearless writing. When the Caster Chronicles came to an end with Beautiful Redemption, I mourned the loss of my beloved series, but most of all I knew that I’d miss the horrible music making, awesome best-friend to Ethan, trying-to-be-a-great quarter Incubus Wesley “Link” Lincoln.
Dangerous Creatures opens up with all of the familiar faces from the Caster Chronicles saying goodbye. Ethan and Lena are heading off to college in the same Northeastern state while Liv and John are heading to England where Liv will go back to university. Link has convinced his mother that he’s attending a Christian college down south, but in reality he’s sneaking off to New York City to follow his dreams of becoming a rock star. Little does he know that Ridley had Link’s immediate future already set in motion for him, due to losing big time in a dangerous game in a Dark Caster club in New York City at the beginning of the summer. Now Ridley owes two markers to the club owner Nox: one is to deliver an Incubus drummer to replace the one that she cost him during the game she’d cheated at by using her Siren Power of Pursuasion, and the other is a house marker that can be anything he wants to be collected within a year.
Ridley goes all in and travels to New York City with Link–as a couple–and she steers him right into the reluctant waiting arms of his new band. But it doesn’t take long to find that truly dark forces have even an even bigger agenda with Link and Ridley, and this vindictive darkness will stop at nothing to get his revenge. But will Ridley’s secretiveness get them killed before Link even has a chance to find out the real reason he’s been accepted as the house band drummer for the club Sirene?
In the Caster Chronicles, you didn’t get a deep look into what made Ridley Duchannes tick. But in Dangerous Creatures, I loved how you get an uncensored look at how this deeply distrustful, lonely, and manipulative girl came to be through flashbacks to her childhood with Lena and her family. Ridley is so tough on the outside, but so vulnerable on the inside. She just wants to be loved by anyone, especially after a lifetime of being told how bad she is. She can’t help that she’s a Siren and that she was claimed Dark. Being born a Siren and going Dark just go hand in hand. Here you get to see that she’s tried time and time again to be good, but sometimes it’s just too hard or just not worth it.
Link didn’t disappoint in this book. He’s still sweet, quick to give the benefit of the doubt, but he sure knows how to cut through the crap and get to the heart of the matter real quick. Whether he’s on or off with Ridley–and that happens several times in this book–he still has her back.  Once his loyalty is earned, it’s hard to lose it, and I really enjoy that about Link. He has grown a lot too, though, and he isn’t willing to be with someone that won’t tell him the truth or let him help them when they’re in trouble–two things that Ridley has a lot of trouble doing.
There are new kinds of supernatural beings in this series. It turns out that Lena’s putting off her claiming and breaking the order of things led to the Darkborn, and the people are rather formidable foes to all kinds of supernatural beings. Also, Nox has some very intriguing powers, some arising from his parentage, some from his collecting of markers.
One thing that I would recommend reading before you pick this up is the prequel novella, Dangerous Dream. Here you can read the story of Ridley losing the game and owing the markers to Nox. With the slower pace of the first 2/3 of Dangerous Creatures, more of the story from Dangerous Dream probably could have been incorporated in book one. If you haven’t read the Caster Chronicles series, I think you’ll probably be able to still enjoy this book without knowing all the backstory.
I give Dangerous Creatures a four out of five. With the flowing and descriptive writing that I expect from Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Ridley and Link’s new adventure is dark, mysterious, and dangerous. With rich world building and deft plotting, the story flowed at a nice pace, building up to a frenzied end and one hell of a crazy cliffhanger–a seriously jaw-dropping cliffhanger.
Danny also reviewed Dangerous Creatures earlier this month. Check her review out!
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I still need to write my review for this one. I enjoyed it. i do think that it would be hard to understand if you haven’t read Caster Chronicles. In fact, I had to go back and re-read the short story Dream Dark (is that right?) – the story from Link’s POV to get a better idea of incubi and well as flip through the other books in the first series.
I wish it had been from Link’s POV because I love him, but I also love getting to know Ridley better. It gave a better idea of what being dark means.
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I don’t think that I’d forgotten so much of the first series, so i didn’t have too much of a problem. But the novella released in Ridley’s POV right before this book–that’s a must read, IMO. You really miss out on so much of the setup for this book otherwise. It just stings a bit to pay 3 bucks for a 50 page novella.
Heather recently posted..A Solid New Series – Dangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
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Ooh, this sounds really good! I liked (but didn’t love) the other series but Ridley definitely intrigued me because she was so…bad. Looking forward to reading her story!
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You get to see why Ridley is the way she is in this book. And boy, is she conflicted, to say the least. She’s definitely a lot more complex and layered than I ever imagined her to be.
Heather recently posted..A Solid New Series – Dangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
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Ahhh, I’m so glad Ridley gets her own book! I wanted her to from the very first Caster book.
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I wanted Ridley and Link to have their own book too!
Heather recently posted..A Solid New Series – Dangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
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Oh, wow…I hadn’t heard about this one, Heather! Ridley’s characters was one of the few things that I really loved about Beautiful Creatures though, so that really intrigues me. I wonder if this new series would work better for me than its predecessor…clearly I’ll have to try! Lovely review! 🙂
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This new series is definitely darker than the Beautiful Creatures series is. I really enjoyed seeing how complex and conflicted Ridley really is. She certainly doesn’t respond well to being pressured and backed into a corner. Definitely give Dangerous Creatures a shot!
Heather recently posted..A Solid New Series – Dangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
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I love Ridley. And like a lot of people, I too wanted her to have her own book. When Kami and Margaret announced that she was, I flailed with joy. I’m super happy to know its a solid start of a series. I can’t wait to read it myself.
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I think I did a happy dance when they announced this new series, Kristie! I hope you enjoy Dangerous Creatures as much as I did!
Heather recently posted..A Solid New Series – Dangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
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I keep seeing this book everywhere! I think I might need to check it out! Great review 🙂
Katrina @ Chased By My Imagination
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It is release day for Dangerous Creatures, so I’m sure it’s everywhere right now! 😉
Heather recently posted..A Solid New Series – Dangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
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