Audiobook Review: Beautiful Redemption



Beautiful Redemption
(Caster Chronicles #4)
By Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl
October 23, 2012
Little, Brown Books
451 pages
Source: Personal Purchase

Goodreads Summary:

Is death the end . . . or only the beginning?

Ethan Wate has spent most of his life longing to escape the stiflingly small Southern town of Gatlin. He never thought he would meet the girl of his dreams, Lena Duchannes, who unveiled a secretive, powerful, and cursed side of Gatlin, hidden in plain sight. And he never could have expected that he would be forced to leave behind everyone and everything he cares about. So when Ethan awakes after the chilling events of the Eighteenth Moon, he has only one goal: to find a way to return to Lena and the ones he loves.

Back in Gatlin, Lena is making her own bargains for Ethan's return, vowing to do whatever it takes -- even if that means trusting old enemies or risking the lives of the family and friends Ethan left to protect.

Worlds apart, Ethan and Lena must once again work together to rewrite their fate, in this stunning finale to the Beautiful Creatures series.

My Review:
 
For my Beautiful Creatures review - click here
For my Beautiful Darkness review - click here
For my Beautiful Chaos review - click here
 
Narrator Review:
This series continued with the same narrator, Kevin T. Collins, for Ethan throughout all the books, which I really liked. I enjoyed his voices for most of the characters, and liked how he represented Ethan in this final installment. He wasn't quite as whiny as the last book. The narrator for Lena, Khristine Hvam, was good and had a lovely voice, though her pauses between segments were a bit more abrupt than the other narrator. I was also used to his voices for Link, and others, so it took some adjusting. But she still did a good job, and overall I'm very glad I chose to listen to the entire series on audio.

Book Review:
I liked that the authors approached this with both Ethan's and Lena's POV. If you remember where Beautiful Chaos left off, then you can see how the division of Beautiful Redemption makes complete sense. I am glad we were finally able to be in Lena's mind and see how she truly felt about Ethan, and that it wasn't just his one-sided feelings continuing their relationship. Throughout this final novel we are able to see how strongly Ethan and Lena feel toward one another and how great their characters truly are together. The authors also did a great job giving us the sense of urgency and need the characters had with solving the Ethan dilemma...if this dilemma could even be solved.

I continued to love all the amazing characters that Garcia and Stohl created. We get to see a more vulnerable side to Link, a slightly softer side to Ridley, a heroic side to John Breed, a sensitive side to Liv, a vulnerable side to Amma, and the continuing protective side to Macon. We are even introduced to a few new characters, one of which was Xavier who really grabbed at my heart.

One thing I liked about this book is that it didn't have the repetitiveness found in the first two books in particular. We are put right into the action and thick of things from the start. This is a journey with a time limit, and the flow and pace of the storyline reflected that urgency. But the pace of the story did not detract from the beautiful writing that Garcia and Stohl have developed together. As we find ourselves in different scenes and situations, their words are able to paint a graphic picture of what is going on and what the scene looks like, pulling the reader right in. I think I expected a little more action than we received, but the action that did happen was well played.

The ending was touching and well thought out. It wasn't the perfect HEA. There was still loss. This wouldn't be the Caster world without consequences. But it was a satisfactory ending for me. I felt emotionally attached to Ethan and Lena's story and appreciated how the authors brought things together for me in the end.

Bottomline: The is a great series, with beautiful writing and amazing characters. Beautiful Redemption proved itself as a terrific final chapter that did not disappoint me. I definitely recommend this series.

4 1/2 STARS