I'll start out by saying that for a free book, Beautiful Demons was decent enough, and entertaining. That being said I'll start by saying, like someone else mentioned in a review somewhere, that Harper's character was great starting out. She was strong, independent, very mistrusting of everyone and everything side effect of having grown up an orphan, and being given up to the system by her adoptive mother when she was 8 years old, after which she was shuffled from foster home to foster home until she finally was sent to a group home in the middle of nowhere, which is were this story starts.We know from the get go she was some kind of telekenetic abilities, and that they are the reason why she has been in so many foster homes. Her inability to control them when she is angry, or upset, have landed her in a lot of trouble.Arriving in Peachville a little town in Gergia (that name made me laugh...) no one seems surprised that she has powers when she accidentally looses control and uses them around random people. Right there, we already know something's up with the town. No one is surprised by things moving on their own. The cheerleaders hate her, and she doesn't seem to like them all that much either, but she can care less. Like the audience she is confused by the fact that people virtually worship the cheerleaders to the point were it is ridiculous, even to her. That is until she drinks the cool aid, almost literally. She drank some tea, had some weird hallucinations with chanting, and ritual cuting, and weird junk and then woke up from having the "flu" for like almost a week. After that, she started forgetting her own ideals, her likes, even her memory of events and people she'd meet, e.g. Jackson, the bad boy, son of one of their guardians at the group home. Suddenly, she stars thinking cheerleading is cool and that she nees to join, specially after the cheerleaders suddenly seem to really like her and the jock who seemed to be a total blew her off after he found out she lived in the group home, suddenly has the hots for her.This book is full of mystery, a little too much sometimes. Lets face it, the book is called Beautiful Demons, its not hard to guess who the beautiful demons are. Why make us work so hard for it? We know it, we just need confirmation. This book is so damn mysterious at times, that less than halfway through, I trusted no one, and not in a good fun, whodunitway. To me everyone was a potential killer. I didn't trust anythign anyone says, specially not Harper, since she couldn't be counted to remeber things properly, whihc was the most frustrating of all things. Harper was like a chicken with her head cut off. She kept having the rug pulled out from under her constantly. I would have hoped the author would give the girl a break, give her a handle on something, give her the upper hand on anything, but she didn't. Up until the very end, Harper is not really able to protect herself, and I don't blame her for it, she has no way to do so. It's not like she's waiting around to be rescued like a damsell in distress. She wants to help herself, she just can't. She has no other choice but to let others help her make it out in one piece.A huge negative for me was the romantic relationship between her and Jackson. Jackson is supposed to be this bad boy. We are not allowed to come to the conclusion he is a bad boy, we are told he is one, that he is trouble, and that Harper should keep her distancse. She doesn't of course, what a surprise. But besides being an underage smoker, he isn't much of a “bad boy.” He simply has the look of a bad boy; with his leather jacket and his motorcycle and his smoking, and his mysterious ways. So far though, Jackson has none of the qualities of a bad boy. He's not rude, he's no narcissist, he's not childish, selfish, rash or any of those things. also, throughout the whole book, I tried too look for chemistry between Harper and Jackson, but I just didn't buy the romance. He just likes her, there's no more to it. He likes her, and she likes him, and there's no reasoning except that they are just attracted to each other, like magnets. they're not sure why, and we're not sure why, and by the end of it, no one is sure why, except that he seems to be the only male in town who is not a dousche bag, a drunk, an adulterer, or a non character. I take it back, there's nice young cop who everyone is mean to, who is nice to Harper, but he only had one scene were he drives her home in his squad car. We never see him again.In conclusion, I gave this book 3 stars. It was free, and entertaining enough to get me to finish it, and short enough, that I didn't mind starting on the second one. I have to say, if it doesn't more in the second book, that's it for me for this series. After being kicked out of six Fosters homes. Harper goes to a house for trouble girls. Another new school new friends. Same old same old. If she gets kicked out a detention center for her. The first day of school she makes enemies with the cool kids. The day of the football game the head cheerleader goes missing and ends up dead. This is just a tip of a nice ice berg. I love this book. Except the fact it had a major cliff hanger.
What do You think about Beautiful Demons (2010)?
Needed some editing--ending was particularly rushed.
—tyconderoga
I want to buy the book when it is available
—pratity
