Beautiful Dead: Jonas by Eden Maguire

Title: Beautiful Dead: Jonas

Series: Beautiful Dead

Author: Eden Maguire

Pages: 271

Publisher: Source Books Fire

Reading Level: Young Adult

Rearing Timeline: About 2 days.

Rating:

.8

"Not Alive. Not Dead.

Somewhere in Between Lie

The Beautiful Dead."

Something strange is happening in Ellerton High. Phoenix is the fourth teenager to die within a year. His street fight stabbing follows the deaths of Jonas, Summer and Arizona in equally strange and sudden circumstances. Rumours of ghosts and strange happenings rip through the small community as it comes to terms with shock and loss.

Darina, Phoenix's grief-stricken girlfriend, is on the verge. She can't escape her intense heartache, or the impossible apparitions of those that are meant to be dead. And all the while the sound of beating wings echo inside her head...And then one day Phoenix appears to Darina.

Ecstatic to be reunited, he tells her about the Beautiful Dead. Souls in limbo, they have been chosen to return to the world to set right a wrong linked to their deaths and bring about justice. Beautiful, superhuman and powerful, they are marked by a 'death mark' -- a small tattoo of angel's wings. Phoenix tells her that the sound of invisible wings beating are the millions of souls in limbo, desperate to return to earth.

Darina's mission is clear: she must help Jonas, Summer, Arizona, and impossibly, her beloved Phoenix, right the wrong linked to their deaths to set them free from limbo so that they can finally rest in peace. Will love conquer death? And if it does, can Darina set it free?

Taschima:

This book took a hold of me since the first page., and it just wouldn't let go.

4 deaths in the same year. 4 high school students. Jonas, the perfect yet cool guy who crashed his bike while riding with his girlfriend. Arizona, the stuck up drama queen who apparently couldn't take it anymore and decided to go for a dive and died. Summer the girl who everybody loved who end up dead. And Pheonix, Darina's soul mate, who while helping his brother get out of a sticky business got a pointy knife in his chest. 4 unrelated deaths who hold one thing in common, they are all a mystery.

We start off with a grief stricken Darina, our main protagonist who since the first few words got me hooked on her inner voice. She is shattered and lost, so she goes out to loose herself in the darkness of the night not knowing that she would find her salvation in a little cabin inside the forest. In that little cabin she finds her ex-boyfriend Pheonix with all the other Beautiful Dead. And thus her journey begins. Darina has the task of finding the real reason these 4 teenagers died but won't that put her in a risky path? A path that may lead her to end up as the other dead kids? Does she maybe want that path for her self?

Darina is a girl full of surprises. I just loved her. She wears her emotions on her sleeve and isn't afraid to say so. She is brave, and smart. Not a kick ass girl as my other favorite girls (Rose from Vampire Academy for example) and that still doesn't leave her behind. I also love how she is so open minded. Once she found the Beautiful Dead she copped with the idea and after a few minutes found a way to make herself useful. Atta girl.

As for the other 4 dead kids I am still in the process to get to know them. Diana is also still a little rough on the edges but that is why we have the nest 3 books. two words. Character. Development. I have faith that is going to happen. Eden Maguire seems like an author who delivers.

This book focuses on Jonas's death. But in reality the book is really an introduction. Which is totally understandable being the first book. It focuses on Jonas's death but not as much as it's trying to sell us the plot. I like the plot. It reminds me of Charlaine Harris in the whole detective department, but it still holds it's uniqueness.

Now the idea of the Beautiful Dead is great. I like these kids who are in limbo. But at times I start thinking of them as angels because Ive come to think of Zombies as the horror zombies. You know, 28 Days Later and Shawn of the Dead? Yeah those kinds of zombies. But if vampires could be romanticized I say zombies surely can make a pitch. I have to get used to the idea though. And I am more than happy to get use to it while reading the next book...

Romance; dark fairy tale. Lover killed. Lovers torn apart by destiny. Lovers reunite in a very creepy but slightly romantic fashion. I know most books want to make their romances as perfect as can be, and with this book it ain't any different. And on any case I would object that soul mates aren't found that easily, it seems in this series soul mates pop out of every socket, and that the guys have been dating not that long... I am the girl who watches Romeo & Juliet and starts screaming WHAT THE HELL!? Is she crazy? WHY GOD WHY!? I mean they were together what 2 seconds and then they are all OMG I LOVE YOU. BS. But this is not about R&J it's about Darina and Pheonix, Jonas and Zoey. In this book the romance seem quick, but they still click. They so click for me. Maybe it's a trick of the author, but I believe the love. Now I want to see more of the relationship because we have only gotten the pretty parts (hey the guy is dead and then they re-unite, they aren't going to fight right now) and for that we have more books. Yay!

I am putting all my hopes and dreams on the next books I know, which leaves you with this conclusion. This is a series with SUCH potential. The beginning is awesome, and it could only get better. I hope it will only get better and that it won't disappoint me.

Read it!