Review: Interesting idea, but you don't learn much in this story
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 02 27, 2014
Beautiful Demons is the second book by Sarra Cannon I have read. I didn't love the first one, The Trouble With Goodbye, but I realized I already had this book, and in some reviews for TTWG the reviewers stated they liked this series much better, so I thought I would give it a try. While I did like it better than the first book, it still wasn't amazing. I will, however, read the second book once I get through some of my library books.Beautiful Demons starts off with Harper being sent to another foster home. This is her last chance. She knows there is something different about her, but she tries to keep that secret for good reason. She accidentally started a fire when she was younger, when she gets mad things move by themselves, just things she doesn't know how to deal with. Shadowford Home is a strange place, but she is determined to make it work.Her first day of school she sees them - the cheerleaders. She had run into the star quarterback when school shopping, but once Drake found out where she lived he couldn't get away fast enough. The whole school has an obsession with the cheerleaders. They all want to be them. They are the most beautiful people in school, and date the cutest guys. Harper makes enemies pretty quick with the queen bee, but tries to stay out of trouble. She doesn't understand all the hype with them. Sure they are pretty, but so what? She also has some strange things happen to her in her first few weeks. She faints when she walks by the demon statue on her first day! She has strange dreams and people act odd. She knows something is up with the town.Harper does become friends with one of the girls she lives with, and has a huge crush on the guy who lives behind their house (the one caretakers son), Jackson. There is the instant connection with Harper and Jackson and he is trying to keep her safe. She wants to know what is going on in the town, but Jackson cannot tell her. He does his best though.Now up until this point in the book I was really enjoying it. Then one night Harper has a weird dream, is sick for a week, and when she wakes up she cannot remember what has recently happened. She can only remember a little bit of her time at Shadowford Home. The cheerleaders starts being nice to her and trying to be her friends, and Drake starts talking to her like he wants to date her. Harper, after only like 2 minutes of what is going on, is suddenly drawn into their crowd. I didn't get it. Well I got why she was, but it didn't actually seem like she was different. The writing didn't make her seem like she would suddenly want to be a cheerleader, when before she was scoffing at them. I wish it would have been more like she changed, or something made her change, to make her just forgive Drake and be all yes! This is what I want. I just didn't see it. You could still keep the moments where she thinks something is not quite right, but I didn't see her actually changing enough, or being lonely enough and wanting to fit in any way possible, for her to be trying out for the cheerleaders.Then you don't really find out what is going on in the town at all in this book. It is a pretty short book, and you don't really learn much. Hopefully some of the secrets will be revealed in the next book. It wasn't horrible, but the second half was kind of a let down. I just wish it would have been more obvious that Harper changed, instead of having her be basically the same but not. We shall see how the next book is.This review was originally posted to Jen in Bookland