Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

The third book in the New York Times bestselling series, perfect for fans of Cassandra Clare and Maggie Stiefvater! Ethan Wate thought he was getting used to the strange, impossible events happening in Gatlin, his small Southern town. But now that Ethan and Lena have returned home from the Great Barrier, strange and impossible have taken on new meanings. Swarms of locusts, record-breaking heat, and devastating storms ravage Gatlin as Ethan and Lena struggle to understand the impact of Lena's Claiming. Even Lena's family of powerful Supernaturals is affected -- and their abilities begin to dangerously misfire. As time passes, one question becomes clear: What -- or who -- will need to be sacrificed to save Gatlin? For Ethan, the chaos is a frightening but welcome distraction. He's being haunted in his dreams again, but this time it's not Lena -- and the mysterious figure is following him out of his dreams and into his everyday life. Worse, Ethan is gradually losing pieces of himself -- forgetting names, phone numbers, even memories. He doesn't know why, and he's afraid to ask. Sometimes there's no going back. And this time there won't be a happy ending.

A nice extension of the storyline, however I've reached my limit of young adult angst. I don't think I'll pick up the next one in the series for awhile.

So, this is still a really well-written series, with a rich cast of characters and a fully-realized setting that puts The Caster Chronicles ahead of several similar series. However, this installment – by and large – seems rather pointless. Its main task seems to be setting the stage for Book 4.

Yes, there's some character development – but not enough, it's like they're afraid to go too far with some of the supporting characters (like Link and Ridley) at this point, they have to leave something for the next installment. Yes, we get some vital back story, but . . . well, that's pretty much it. There's a couple hundred pages of set up, a quick action scene and a conclusion that isn't.

A few other notes:
* It took Ethan and Lena far too long to decode the song lyrics. They've been doing this for about 2 years now, right? And they're this slow? Hard to root for people when they're acting far stupider than they are – especially this many of them at once.
* For people who talk about loving and respecting each other as much as these people do – they don't communicate. On those rare occasions when they do, actual progress is made. Amma and Ethan, in particular, should've conversed, not hidden things from each other.
* For a series with such a strong sense of place, man, these authors show such contempt for the citizenry and culture of Gatlin. Isn't it possible to talk about problems with the society without vilifying it?
* I was unclear whether the devastation brought about by Lena's choice (and Abraham Ravenwood & Co's reaction to it) was limited to Gatlin, or if it extended beyond that. If it's just Gatlin – where's the press, the scientific community, the feds, looky-loos, etc. converging on the area to investigate it? If it's a larger area affected, what are the explanations? Assuming they're able to defeat Abraham in the next book, how does the world go back to normal?
* So many things – Ethan's taste issues, Link's abilities, foremost amongst them – are introduced, and explored a little bit, and then dropped. Why?

I have confidence that Garcia and Stohl will pull this off (mostly) in the last 50 pages or so of Beautiful Redemption, and this will just fade into memory as a prolonged setup. But right now, it's left a sour taste in my mouth.

There are very few books that have caused me to miss sleep in order to finish them. This book was one of them. The ending is out of this world and every part of this book was just so perfectly written. I loved it.