Review: Dangerous Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Title: Dangerous Creatures
Authors: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 Stars)
Hardcover, 368 Pages
Published May 2014
Book #1 in the Dangerous Creatures Series
Spinoff of the Beautiful Creatures Series
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Summary: Ridley Duchannes will be the first to tell you that she's a bad girl. She's Dark. She's a Siren. You can never trust her, or even yourself when she's around. Lucky for her, Wesley "Link" Lincoln can never seem to remember that; quarter Incubus or not, his heart is Mortal when it comes to Ridley. When Link heads to New York City to start a music career, Ridley goes along for the ride-and she has her own reasons. As if leaving small-town Gatlin for the big city, trying to form a band, and surviving life with a partially reformed Siren isn't hard enough already, Link soon learns he has a price on his head that no Caster or Mortal can ever pay.

When I found out that there was going to be a spinoff of the Beautiful Creatures series, I was beyond excited. (Nevermind excited for the fact that another great book would be able to hopefully erase the memory of that horrible movie from my head..the movie in which they TOTALLY DIDN'T FOLLOW THE BOOK AT ALL.) Anyway, I fangirled right alongside the rest of the fans of the Caster Chronicles...and needless to say, I was even more excited when I got to read the story from Link and Ridley's points of view instead of Ethan and Lena's.

The story from Ridley's point of view definitely gave me a lot more insight on who she was as a person. Throughout the original series, we saw Rid from everyone else's points of view, her behaviors and her attitude and an occasional thought or two...but Dangerous Creatures really did for me what no other book revolving around the Casters as done so far--I've gotten to worm my way into Ridley's personal thoughts and see how she really ticks.

The same goes with Link, too, although the story was definitely centered a lot more around Ridley...Link is far more complex of a character that I ever expected him to be, even if his song lyrics still suck big time.

So, in Dangerous Creatures, Ridley and Link escape to New York City while Lena and Ethan go to college, and Liv and John take their own trips and travels as well. Link thinks he's going to the city to make it big in his music business--little does he know, Ridley lost some enchanted card games and owe quite a few powerful people quite a few powerful favors. Step one - delivering a drummer to an exclusive Caster club. And of course, in typical Ridley fashion, she doesn't let her Shrinky Dink in on any of this until he's already in a bind.

Like I said, Ridley definitely develops as a character in this book. The last big thing that stuck with me in the series was when Link had told her at the Dar-e-keen how he really felt about her, and how she had freaked out and ran away and totally reacted negatively to the guy she was dating professing all sorts of important stuff to her. I feel that in this book she definitely sobered up as a character and came to terms with her past and how she planned on tackling her future and picking up the pieces. This book was definitely centered around Ridley picking up the pieces in her totally screwed-up life and coming to terms with all of the horrible things that she's done in her past. It's a total awakening for Ridley.

Another character that I met and already have my eyes on is the gorgeous Lennox "Nox" Gates. As Link calls him, "Mr. New York City" is a glamorous Caster who manages to show off to Ridley with all sorts of things, from fancy food to magic closets to secret views of the world's greatest city. He's a charmer, and he totally seems gorgeous, and throughout the book I couldn't help but fall for him more and more, despite his dark decisions. I'm eager to see what happens to him throughout the rest of the series.

Okay, now it's time to talk about the ending of this book. THAT FLIPPING ENDING. I was reading the last few pages with not as full of an attention span because I was coming up to the end of the book and thinking about how I felt about the book overall when....bam. Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl have officially been declared the Co-Queens of Cliffhangers, because I highly doubt that I'll be patient enough to be able to survive the wait until the next book. That's far too long of a time for me to have to try and survive and formulate ideas about what will happen next in the series. I NEED TO KNOW. NOW. RIGHT THIS INSTANT!!!

All in all, Dangerous Creatures was a fast-paced and interesting book that drew me right back into the Caster world as if I'd never even left...and I have to say, I'm definitely glad that I'm back. I'm extremely excited that this book switched the focus from Ethan and Lena to Link and Ridley, especially to see what life's like inside their heads for a change. Not to mention, I need the next book ASAP so I can get all of my questions answered and see what happens, because that cliffhanger absolutely ANNIHILATED MY FEELS.