Library Loot X

Library Loot is a weekly blog event that encourages bloggers to share what books they borrowed from the library that week. To participate, simply make your Library Loot post on your blog and link it using the Mr. Linky link at Marg's blog Reading Adventures or Eva's blog A Striped Armchair. FYI, this week's Mr.Linky is at Marg's.

This is my first library loot in over a month, and once again my list is very short. I usually only borrow a couple of books at a time so I feel less pressure to read my choices too fast before they're due again, especially since I have plenty of books on my own bookshelves that I want to read, too.

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

This young adult novel is the debut novel by the authors. I sought it out after picking up on some really great feedback in the world of book blogging and was excited that my library was just processing it when I went looking for it, so I'm the first patron to borrow it from my library. Pretty neat.

I have to say I was surprised at it's door stopper size (I love that expression that I learned from orannia of Walkabout and her Big Book Challenge for 2010)... especially for a young adult novel. Beautiful Creatures comes in at 563 pages, which may not sound so huge to a lot of readers, but most of the books I read, both young adult and adult fiction, hover around the 300 page mark.

Speaking of the 300 mark, I happen to be at page 341 of Beautiful Creatures at the moment and I have to say that it is very, very good so far. One thing, though, is that usually by the half way mark of a book, whether you consciously think about it or not, you make some kind of connection between the title of the book and its content. I haven't quite gotten that yet and it has stumped me a bit. The subtle artwork suits the book very well... I'm just not so sure if I think "beautiful creatures" is a fitting phrase to describe the book. I'm not going to worry about it too much, though, because the story has me entranced and that's what's most important. Besides, I still have another 222 pages to go to the end. Maybe I'll be enlightened. :)

Beautiful Creatures is a contemporary story with intriguing and realistic characters, strong connections to its Deep South setting and the community's Civil War history, and dark, supernatural world.

Bed of Roses by Nora Roberts

This is the second book in Nora Roberts' latest contemporary romance series called The Bride Quartet. The series focuses on four childhood friends who have formed a wedding service called Vows and each novel is the love story of each of the four friends. The first book, Vision in White is Mackensie's story and she is the photographer for Vows. Bed of Roses is Emma's story and she is the florist for Vows.

I love how the titles are all wedding themed as well as indicative of the lead character's profession. Very clever.

And isn't this book cover just gorgeous? Even the pages of the novel are beautiful. It's obvious a lot of careful thought and planning went into making these novels as beautiful and elegant to look at as they are to read!

I enjoyed Vision in White very much and am looking forward to reading Bed of Roses. I actually already read the first chapter, but got pulled into Beautiful Creatures, which is due back to the library sooner, so will finish that first before I pick up Bed of Roses again.

What's your latest library loot?

Have you ever read a book whose title didn't fit the story?