Jessica J. (goldenfurpro) reviewed Dangerous Creatures (Dangerous Creatures, Bk 1) on + 66 more book reviews
MY THOUGHTS
I was enormously excited when I first found out about this book! Link & Ridley were my favorite characters from the Beautiful Creatures series, so a spin-off featuring them? Heck yes!
But, sadly, I was disappointed by this book. Was this a bad book? No, not at all, but I was expecting so much more!
One of the major problems that I had with this book was the fact that nothing happened. Okay, that may be an exaggeration, a few things happened, but for a majority of the book nothing significant happened.
And I admit it, I also had some trouble figuring out what was going on. It's been awhile since I've read the Beautiful Creatures series and have very vague recollections on what happened. Since this is a spin-off, many many MANY characters and events are mentioned and/or make some kind of appearance. There is absolutely no recap as to what happened in the Beautiful Creatures series, so while I did remember some of the things, there were a lot of moments where I would go "Wait, who's that person again?" or "Can you please tell me what exactly happened?!?!". I was able to put some of the pieces together, but it would have been nice if I was able to fully understand what was going on.
Also, Link and Ridley in Dangerous Creatures did not match how I remembered them from Beautiful Creatures. I remeber Link as the funny goofball. While he's still a goofball, he was not funny. And Ridley...I don't know why I found Ridley's characterization so different. I guess I remembered her as a strong badass, but she just didn't seem that way at all in this book.
And do not get me started on the stupid romance. I have no idea what was up with this romance, but it was ridiculous. A new character is introduced in this book. He's first introduced as a villain, but he somehow ends up as Ridley's love interest???? Granted, this irritated me because I ship(ped) Link & Ridley so hard, and then this jerk comes in to steal the show. And I just couldn't see what was happening here. New guy, Lennox, is basically trying to give Link & Ridley to the bigger villains, maybe even kill them himself, yet he is also seen kissing and confessing love to Ridley. I just don't understand!!!
One last gripe: The cliffhanger. Yeah, this book ends in a cliffhanger. I always have a special hatred towards cliffhangers, but this one was just ridiculous. The cliffhanger had nothing to do with the plot of the book or even the characters. It was just a random event placed at the end of the book just because the authors wanted a cliffhanger. As I said, ridiculous and completely irritating and it actually makes me inclined to read the next book (which was probably the purpose).
IN CONCLUSION
As you can see, I was very disappointed with this book. Since it's been so long since I've read the Beautiful Creatures series (which I liked much more than this) I kind of question if the main reason that I disliked this book was the fact that my tastes have just changed. Maybe I would have the same feelings towards Beautiful Creatures if I were to read the series again now.
Don't get more wrong, I didn't hate this book. I actually kind of liked seeing a glimpse into this world again, but the bad outweighs the good.
Anyway, I don't really want to read the next book (because of that stupid cliffhanger), but I do get the feeling that the series will probably improve as it goes on. The fact that not much happened in this book is common for first books in series, so maybe the next book will have me? I don't know, but I do hope it gets better.
I was enormously excited when I first found out about this book! Link & Ridley were my favorite characters from the Beautiful Creatures series, so a spin-off featuring them? Heck yes!
But, sadly, I was disappointed by this book. Was this a bad book? No, not at all, but I was expecting so much more!
One of the major problems that I had with this book was the fact that nothing happened. Okay, that may be an exaggeration, a few things happened, but for a majority of the book nothing significant happened.
And I admit it, I also had some trouble figuring out what was going on. It's been awhile since I've read the Beautiful Creatures series and have very vague recollections on what happened. Since this is a spin-off, many many MANY characters and events are mentioned and/or make some kind of appearance. There is absolutely no recap as to what happened in the Beautiful Creatures series, so while I did remember some of the things, there were a lot of moments where I would go "Wait, who's that person again?" or "Can you please tell me what exactly happened?!?!". I was able to put some of the pieces together, but it would have been nice if I was able to fully understand what was going on.
Also, Link and Ridley in Dangerous Creatures did not match how I remembered them from Beautiful Creatures. I remeber Link as the funny goofball. While he's still a goofball, he was not funny. And Ridley...I don't know why I found Ridley's characterization so different. I guess I remembered her as a strong badass, but she just didn't seem that way at all in this book.
And do not get me started on the stupid romance. I have no idea what was up with this romance, but it was ridiculous. A new character is introduced in this book. He's first introduced as a villain, but he somehow ends up as Ridley's love interest???? Granted, this irritated me because I ship(ped) Link & Ridley so hard, and then this jerk comes in to steal the show. And I just couldn't see what was happening here. New guy, Lennox, is basically trying to give Link & Ridley to the bigger villains, maybe even kill them himself, yet he is also seen kissing and confessing love to Ridley. I just don't understand!!!
One last gripe: The cliffhanger. Yeah, this book ends in a cliffhanger. I always have a special hatred towards cliffhangers, but this one was just ridiculous. The cliffhanger had nothing to do with the plot of the book or even the characters. It was just a random event placed at the end of the book just because the authors wanted a cliffhanger. As I said, ridiculous and completely irritating and it actually makes me inclined to read the next book (which was probably the purpose).
IN CONCLUSION
As you can see, I was very disappointed with this book. Since it's been so long since I've read the Beautiful Creatures series (which I liked much more than this) I kind of question if the main reason that I disliked this book was the fact that my tastes have just changed. Maybe I would have the same feelings towards Beautiful Creatures if I were to read the series again now.
Don't get more wrong, I didn't hate this book. I actually kind of liked seeing a glimpse into this world again, but the bad outweighs the good.
Anyway, I don't really want to read the next book (because of that stupid cliffhanger), but I do get the feeling that the series will probably improve as it goes on. The fact that not much happened in this book is common for first books in series, so maybe the next book will have me? I don't know, but I do hope it gets better.
