The Caster Chronicles -spoiler free-

The Caster Chronicles

Rating: 4/5

Genre: YA Fantasy/Urban Fantasy

For lovers of: Fantasy novels, romance, definitely for fans of The Mortal Instruments/The Infernal Devices

A year ago (nearly to the day) my best friend and I were at a loss for something to watch at the cinema, and after watching the trailer for Beautiful Creatures, we decided we'd check it out. The began my adoration for all things Caster Chronicles. Now, the film is wonderful, but as a Literature student and all round bookworm, of course I had to read the book. 

For those of you yet to delve into the wonders of these brilliant Young Adult novels, I'll give you a quick overview of what they're about:

Ethan Wate, a high school student stuck in a tiny (fictional) town called Gatlin in South Carolina, keeps dreaming about a mysterious girl. To his utter amazement, the girl of his dreams (in both ways of the interpretation) is new to town and walks into a class at his school. Lena, the mysterious girl turns out to be a Caster, a person who possesses magical abilities and her 16th birthday is approaching. On her 16th birthday, Lena will either be claimed for the Light side of magic, or the Dark. Thus begins an epic love story, in a sleepy American town with magical secrets. In the following three stories we meet more characters, more mythical creatures, and waaaay more complications. Suddenly Lena's claiming seems an almost petty problem in hindsight, when so much more complexity is awaiting Ethan and Lena in the following few years.

I'd recommend these books to anyone in need of a bit of light reading, Young Adult novels tend to get a lot of stick, but I don't feel like there's a level of immaturity within these books. Instead I feel like they can be enjoyed by everyone, old and young, male and female. They are written from Ethan's perspective, and this adds a lot more depth and insight into the stories and honestly, it's impossible not to fall in love with Gatlin and it's inhabitants. Each book gets darker, more exciting, and by the final book, the tension, confusion and excitement really comes to a head.  I could not predict what was going to happen with these stories, and for me that's a big deal, since I've usually worked out the plotline by the second chapter!

So yes, I would 11110000% recommend checking these books out, and if you've seen the film, don't let that put you off! I hope you fall in love with Ethan, Lena and Gatlin as much as I did.

If you've read them before or are now fancying giving them a try, let me know in the comments!