Beautiful Redemption (Beautiful Creatures, #4)

by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

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.

• ISBN10: 0316214604
• ISBN13: 9780316214605
• Publish Date: 23 October 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sarah Says]

The forth book, Beautiful Redemption is by far the best book in the series. The story is told by both Lena and Ethan, which was a nice surprise as Ethan has narrated all the others. We journey with Ethan through the otherworld. We see him reunited with his mother and aunt Pure in death and we see him fight his way back to the land of the living. We see Lena deciphering the messages Ethan sends her from beyond the grave and together with all the loved ones Ethan left behind they send him the help he needs to defeat the ones who destined him to die.

You could how some last books in a series can be a letdown, Beautiful Redemption was the opposite – it went above my expectations. All my questions were answered and everything felt balanced and whole by the end. It certainly was a beautiful ending.

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

This installment reaffirmed why I love this series so much. Don't get me wrong, it was heart wrenching, but I loved every second of it. Other authors take note: THIS is how do you finish off a series and leave your readers happy. I was left with a feeling of closure after reading this. Closure at the end of the series is practically a luxury these days. It still left me wanting more, but only because I didn't want the experience to the end (not in a "loose ends" sort of way). Thankfully, I remembered that there are a few novellas floating around out there!

I cannot say enough about the audiobook experience for this series. It has made Kevin T. Collins one of my favorite narrators and to make it even better, Khristine Hvam joins him in Beautiful Redemption to voice Lena's POV. Hvam was already on my favorite narrator list (Frostbite, Shadow Kiss, Daughter of Smoke and Bone series). But even more than the narrators, this audiobook series excelled at creating and maintaining the mood of the story through music and sound effects. Well done all around! ~The Audiobookworm

[Kim Deister]

My review: This is the long-awaited conclusion to the Beautiful Creatures saga. And, honestly, it was my least favorite of the entire series. I had huge hopes for the book and, while I did enjoy it, I didn't love it as much as I would have expected or liked.
The story was told from the switching POVs of Lena and Ethan, as they were apart for much of the book. While I didn't mind the back and forth (it was a necessary thing), I thought that the story dragged a bit during the time during which they essentially had separate lives. Unfortunately, at times it was difficult to really understand how much time was even passing in the story.

I loved Ethan in this story, with his dedication and loyalty. I had a hard time pinning Lena down in this book, however. Sometimes she seemed powerful, the world's strongest Caster. Other times, she seemed a bit weak and "damsely." I came away from this series almost feeling as if her entire being was dependent upon Ethan's presence in order to have a life and a personality.

All of that being said, I did enjoy the new twists and turns and the deep seated need to know how it would end for them kept me turning the pages!

Things to love about Beautiful Redemption...

--The ending. I liked how it ended and I liked the underlying message of love and loyalty.
--The mythology. The mythology of the Caster world was pretty fascinating and we got a lot of it in this book.

Things I wanted more of...

--Ethan and Lena together.

My recommendation: If you have read the other books in the series, this is a must-read to close out this wonderful series!

My rating: A 3.5 mugs.

[mrs_mander_reads]

a pretty good ending to the series. I was not nearly as crazy about this one as I was the first three. it felt a little off to me.

[angelarenea9]

An interesting idea, this book follows the events of [b:Beautiful Chaos|10757833|Beautiful Chaos (Caster Chronicles, #3)|Kami Garcia|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327878503s/10757833.jpg|11254742] in which Ethan sacrifices himself in order to save his friends and loved ones. I thought it was a tad cheesy, but in an indulging, guilty pleasure read type way, that there was an entire book to bring this character back from the dead. The idea of this book, which tied up a handful of loose ends, was a nice concept, but like the previous 3.5 the execution of that plan left me disappointed. I was left with the overall opinion that if I had to hear about Lena and Ethan's matching 'Chucks' shoes one more time, I would simply die of boredom.
Many of the plot lines did not mesh with related plot lines, and it was all capped off with an ending that did not impress me, although had a disappointingly large amount of unused potential. I felt that Angelus was thrown into the story too late to be an overarching villainus mastermind behind it all, and frankly I felt that Ethan's mother's story line was changed so many times by this point I barely noticed when they changed the circumstances of her death. I enjoyed the reference to Acheron, the river of the underworld, but again, this story line left things to be desired.
I thought that this was a sloppy ending to the book and the series and I was quite relieved to finish the series.

[catiebug]

GAH! Soooo good. I think this was my favorite of the series. Such a great way to end it.

[Linda]

This and other reviews can also be found on my blog (un)Conventional Bookviews.

Beautiful Redemption was very well written, with the characters we know and love moving on with a fate they really thought they’d never have to live (or die) with. They all grew and made concessions, and the humor was present just like in the other books in the series. The Caster Chronicles is among my favorite series ever, whether the series be YA or adult.The ending to a series I loved that was written so well should have gotten five stars you say? Well, yes, I thought so to, except there actually is a but… that I will discuss further down in my review to explain why I only gave it four stars.

Beautiful Redemption is written in three parts, first from Ethan’s point of view, then from Lena’s and back again to Ethan’s. As I am sure many readers suspected after the ending of Caster Chronicles #3, Ethan continues to be the main character in this final book as well, and most of his adventures happen in the Otherworld. He is not ready to pass on and learns quickly, even if his mom is trying to keep it from him, that his death wasn’t supposed to happen.