Beautiful Beings (Beautiful Beings #1) [Paperback]

I struggled with this one. It felt a tad underdeveloped and quite a bit rushed. The beginning held some promise, but as the book progressed I found my self sighing loudly, rolling my eyes, and wishing the story would just get on with it already.

Lux is supposed to be this butt-kicking demon slayer who is forced to transfer to a new school because of the trouble her little hunting expeditions got her into at her previous school. She is told that she will need to find others like her to battle the increasing number of demons populating humanity. She ends up at this hoity-toity private school where she immediately (and questionably) catches the eyes of three apparently irresistible guys: Asher, Braxton, and Moore.

After that, the bulk of the book consists of Lux and her never-before-experienced lust/love for these three guys. She bounces around between all of them fairly easily, constantly wrapped up in someone's arms or seeing an "overwhelming look of love" in their eyes. At various points in the book, each one has Lux's undivided attention and makes her absolutely certain he is the one for her. She is so annoyingly flighty that I never figure out what she truly feels for any one of them. The relationships between these characters aren't solid in the least, and in the end, there is no basis for any of the decisions Lux makes in regards to her certainty of which one is her `soulmate.'

All this sketchy romance clouds out the rest of the storyline, so much so, that I'm not sure what the whole point of the book even is. We are led to believe and expect one thing and a whole other array of events occur. The last twenty percent of the book was filled with unexplained transformations, never-ending fight scenes, and lame dialogue that pretty much just explain away everything that was happening or going to happen. I'm sorry, but I just don't see real villains explaining their devious plots to their victims in detail before carrying them out. Rather than creatively unfolding the climactic end through events and the clever actions of the characters, the author chose to spell everything out in the small span of a couple of pages as if she realized there needed to be a point to the story other than the googly eyes between Lux and her lustful admirers.

I give this book two stars instead of one because the beginning offered such promise for the rest of the book. I was looking forward to getting to know Lux and her past, and I was particularly interested in learning more about Asher and how he came to be. Unfortunately, we never get a glimpse of anything in depth and when something extraordinary does happen to any of the characters we are simply told about it `the next day' instead of actually getting to experience it along with him or her. As I said, the book felt very rushed, seemed to be missing structure or organization, and lacked plausible reasoning for the events that unfolded and many of the decisions made by the characters.

If you can't tell, this book really didn't do it for me. It had four stars overall and I can't fathom why. I don't particularly like bashing books and the work that authors put into them, but this one seemed to require more work from me to finish than it took for the author to write it. It really irks me that if an author fills a book with sappy romance scenes, then it's considered 'good,' even though the storyline and character development is overlooked.

Lux Collins is moving yet again. She's moving to San Francisco and will be going to St. James. She's not thrilled, but she's a demon slayer and often gets in trouble when doing her job. Ever since she's been little, she's seen demons...and angels.

When she goes to the office, she's introduced to Braxton Kingsley. He'll help Lux find her around the school. Lux isn't to interested in what he's saying when he's giving her a tour because she thinks she sees a demon. When she confronts it, she realizes it's just a human male, Asher. She's slightly confused when he tells her to beware of the beautiful beings and that things aren't what they seem. Lux sticks with Braxton and eats with him at lunch. She meets Moore and Shayne. They are eerily beautiful, but Lux notices that all of the students at St. James are so beautiful that they should be models.

Lux is immediately drawn to Moore, and it seems the feeling is mutual. Braxton notices this and appears to be jealous. As school comes along, Lux feels torn between Braxton and Moore. She seems to like Braxton more, but after an encounter with Moore that leaves her reeling, she can't stop thinking about him...especially when she makes out with Braxton. Will she be able to get rid of the demons and figure out what Moore has done to her?

I loved this book. Once again, I felt myself torn between the guys vying for Lux's attention. Asher likes her as well, but I found myself rooting for Braxton and Moore. There are some things that happen in the book that happened that makes me root for Braxton more. That can easily change in the next book, though. I could not stand Shayne. I felt bad for her at first, but now, I can't really say much more without giving it away. This is another great read from Kailin Gow.

I ordered this book on my Kindle on a whim just for something to read. It was only 2.99, so I thought what the hey. lol. I seriously regret wasting my 3 bucks. This girl is suppose to be a bad-ass demon slayer, yet there was very minimal actual slaying of demons. This was mainly a story about every male falling "passionately" in love with the main character, I can't even remember her name, and I read this 2 days ago. That's really sad. If you like a bunch of sweet talking, cheesy declarations of love every other paragraph, you'll like this. Otherwise, don't waste your money.