A Beautiful Evil by Kelly Keaton

A Beautiful Evil

(Gods and Monsters #2)

Kelly Keaton

Releases February 21, 2012

Myth and mayhem inhabit a richly reimagined New Orleans in this sequel to Darkness Becomes Her.After the epic graveyard battle at the end of Darkness Becomes Her, Ari and her friends know what they’re up against: Ari is facing the Medusa curse and is haunted by the image of what she will become. To make matters worse, the heinous goddess Athena has kidnapped young Violet and is threatening to destroy Ari. 

Ari, along with the superhot Sebastian, is doing everything she can to learn more about Athena and to get Violet back. But the battle of good and evil is bigger than she realizes, and she’s about to be pulled into a world more horrific than she could ever imagine....

In this sequel to Darkness Becomes Her Keaton continues to weave together mythology and fantasy to tell a gothic YA tale. The story begins almost right where we left off in the last one. Ari has begun at Presby upon her own request and is training for her eventual match up against queen evil bitch Athena. For the first one-third of the book that's pretty much all Ari does, and I was afraid that the slow pacing would continue. As I reached the book's middle, the action started to pick up a little and I was relieved that I became much more interested in the story. I still find myself a little iffy on the chemistry between Ari and Sebastian though, I just want more. More heat, more flirting, more something. Sebastian experiences some changes in this installment they might hopefully lead to him becoming more intense and a little sexier in the next one (sexy for YA, I mean).

I do love the world Keaton has created for this series, and as I said about book one, the world building and setting of the story are the biggest stars here. A ruined, future New Orleans provides an awesome backdrop for a place where vampires, shifters, and ancestors of gods reside. I would like to see a little more fleshing out of those paranormal and mythological characters. There are so many different types of paranormal characters that they can't all be fully developed in one or two books, so I'm hoping to get more background as the series goes on.

Ari continues to be a really great young adult heroine. She is strong, doesn't make decisions that don't make any sense, and she cares about her friends and family. Ari's driving force is to get her people back and avoid giving into her curse. In book one I really enjoyed the friendship between Ari and the odd little Violet, and she is absent for quite a lot of time in this one. I can't wait to hopefully read more about their special connection in the next book.

Athena is a pretty awesome bad guy, or bad girl I guess. She is evil and mean and will make you hate her. We finally get a little more information on her backstory, and that helps the reader to understand her anger and her motives.

All in all, I still enjoyed this series after reading book two and I will certainly keep an eye out for book three!

This review is based on an advance copy of the book, provided by the publisher.