Dangerous Dream: A Beautiful Creatures Story by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Release Date: December 17, 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: YA Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
ISBN: N/A as this is a Novella
Source: NetGalley
Add it to Goodreads
The #1 New York Times bestselling Beautiful Creatures series continues in this digital-exclusive story.
Catch up with Ethan, Lena, and Link as they finally graduate from high school and get ready to leave the small Southern town of Gatlin. But when Dark Caster Ridley makes an appearance, the sometime bad girl can’t resist picking a fight with her sometime boyfriend, Link. Angry and rebellious as ever, Ridley ends up alone in New York City and becomes entangled in the dangerous underground Caster club scene, where the stakes are high and losers pay the ultimate price.
Where’s a Linkubus when you need him?
It’s been awhile since I’ve read Beautiful Creatures. In fact, it’s the only book in this series that I’ve read. So I thought, what better way to jump start getting back into the series and finishing it before its spin off series, Dangerous Creatures releases this May than start with a novella?
I’m sure this is meant to be read AFTER reading the entire Beautiful Creatures series but I don’t mind “spoiling” myself. Sure, I found out quite a lot about what happens in the rest of the Beautiful Creatures series but now I can try to figure out when and how all of these things happen! To any other reader who’s caught up on the series, what I found to be a bundle of revelations is actually a bunch of recapping. If you think you can’t recap a ton of things in three chapters, well, try reading this before finishing the series.
Anyway, in this novella, we follow Ethan before graduation as well as Lincoln and Ridley after graduation. I didn’t quite understand the point of following Ethan since the spin off series follows Ridley and Lincoln. It felt like a tool to set the scene (that we’re not even in very long) rather than the passing of the torch to new anchors for the spin off and even that is pretty unnecessary. I did however absolutely love following Lincoln and Ridley, especially. Ridley and her games. This girl loves a challenge. What game she finds herself playing here is the absolute perfect setup for Dangerous Creatures. But if I’m being honest, getting inside Ridley’s head was the absolute highlight! Finally! Wow.
All of that to say…I cannot believe how short this novella is. I’m so not a fan of short novellas. It doesn’t tie me over at all. Yes, I appreciated Lincoln’s chapter and the emphasis on Ridley denying him, lying to herself about her feelings for him, and Link calling her out on it. But we know this. I know this and I’ve only read one book in the series. This novella could have easily been cut down to Ridley’s chapter and released as a tease on Kami or Margaret’s blogs leading up to Dangerous Creatures. So. Is it worth reading? Well, I really did love that Ridley chapter. So. If you love this series, go ahead and get it but if this series is not a priority, I’d wait for Dangerous Creatures.
Dangerous Dream: A Beautiful Creatures Story by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl is available now.