Release Date: May 20th 2014
Published By: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (US), Penguin (Aus)
Pages: 368
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Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Synopsis: A new series returns to the world of Beautiful Creatures. Some loves are cursed…others are dangerous.

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.

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthors of Beautiful Creatures, are back and casting another magical spell. Their signature mixture of mystery, suspense, and romance, along with a dash of fun and danger, will pull fans in and leave them begging for more.

Review: Dangerous Creatures follows our favourite part-incubus Link and bad-ass siren Ridley as they leave Gaitlin and journey to New York City… but they are not heading off to their happily-ever-after. Even though Link has come to New York to start his music career, Ridley has come along for very different reasons…. and New York has things in store for them both that neither of them could predict.

I will admit, I was a little up and down about the Beautiful Creatures series. I thought that it was too drawn out, and I was happy when it finished. And while there were things that didn’t thrill me about that series, Ridley and Link were the highlight for me. So while I could have skipped over a spin-off of the Beautiful Creatures series, I could not go past one that focused on my two favourite characters.

Right from the start I saw exactly what I loved about Ridley - her sass. She is sarcastic, she is selfish, she is blunt, she manipulates and she does not apologise for it. The prologue is everything I love about Ridley - it her being honest - she is bad, she isn’t a whinger, she will do what she has to do to get what she wants, and, she is a bitch.

This series of course had the potential to ruin Ridley and Link for me - in the previous series we saw certain sides of them, funny, loyal, sarcastic, dedicated, determined, scarred, lovable, broken; but with a story focused on them ran the possibility of seeing annoying traits, or worse, seeing them soften. Their relationship is as tumultuous as it has ever been, but they are still Link and Ridley - hot and cold, close and distant, banter and arguing love and hate - that’s how they roll. We do get to see other sides of them - although Ridley is trying to fight it, she cannot deny that she has feelings for Link, and she may not be quite as emotionally detached as she thinks she is. She is still Ridley, she still makes stupid decisions, she still manipulates - but as much as she tries to tell herself she doesn’t care, she is finding that there are some things that she cares about. You get to see Ridley - all of her - the fierceness, the determination, the vulnerability.

Link is still loveable Link. He is cute, funny, gullible and devoted. But, he is also toughening up and learning to not be such a doormat. He is okay with his ongoing banter with Ridley, he is okay with her not admitting to herself or anyone else that she actually has feelings, but he is no longer the lovesick puppy who will let Ridley walk all over him just for her entertainment.

One of the things I did like about Beautiful Creatures was the world-building of Gaitlin. And although Dangerous Creatures lacks that level of familiarity due to it being set in New York City, Dangerous Creatures shows us a new level of world-building by introducing us to some new people in the Caster world (and even new types of Casters). The new characters we get to meet include Lennox Gates, the charming, but dangerous and powerful Dark Caster that Ridley owes more than she is willing to admit, Necro, a hard-ass necromancer and Floyd, an illusionist who seems to have her eyes set on Link. Not only are these characters interesting, their part in the storyline creates some mystery as well - will they turn out to be friends or enemies? Will they be the end, or the saviour for Link and Ridley?

Link came to New York filled with dreams. Ridley came with a debt to pay. But is the price too high? And will they make it in, or out of, New York alive? Filled with secrets, sass and darkness, Dangerous Creatures is a great addition the Beautiful Creatures series. Oh, and the real danger of this book? It has one hell of a cliff-hanger!

Quotes:

“What can I say? Payback’s a bitch. But here’s the thing: So am I.”

“There are only two kinds of Mortals in the backwater town of Gatlin, South Carolina—the stupid and the stuck”

“Ridley Duchannes. Is there even one stupid tiny little part of you that loves one stupid tiny little part of me?”

“When it came to relationships, the truth never set anyone free. The truth only set things on fire.”