Review: A Beautiful Evil by Kelly Keaton

I have finally bitten the bullet and forced myself to review A Beautiful Evil by Kelly Keaton.  Here is the lowdown on  book two of the Gods & Monsters series: 

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 (Good Reads)

People, I want to say this was as good as the first one (or at least as middle of the road as the first one-- see my review of Darkness Becomes Her) but....


Level of Originality: 5. I still like New 2, the cool post-apocalyptic version of New Orleans which is all decay and Spanish moss with a bit of kids-forced-to-fend-for-themselves.

Level of Absurdity: 10. Witches and vampires and greek gods, oh my! This is a paranormal/magic blender.

Level of Paranormal Romance: 9. “the superhot Sebastian.” GAG. That is actually in the book blurb. I DIE. 1. Sebastian doesn’t seem super hot. He seems like cold oatmeal-- filling, but mostly sticky and boring. 2. There is nothing very romantic about this ‘romance.’ But I give the relationship a 9, since he is a witch/vampire and she is the daughter of a man created by Athena and a gorgon (aka medusa head). THAT is a paranormal couple.

Level of Harry Potterness: 2. The Novem, the borderline-bad-guy supernatural families that run New 2, fizz rather than spark.The same goes for Athena. Without scary bad guys or any real investment in these kiddos, It is hard to root for Ari. New 2 is so cool, but there is so much is beige in the plot! I cannot report on the climactic scene, since I found no evidence of a story arc here.  Hermione Granger would not stand for this shiz.

To conclude, this quote sums up my feelings on this series: "I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?"