Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

Dead Beautiful was an amazon recommendation and honestly the description intrigued me greatly. Here’s the description:

“On the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Renée Winters was still an ordinary girl. She spent her summers at the beach, had the perfect best friend, and had just started dating the cutest guy at school. No one she'd ever known had died. But all that changes when she finds her parents dead in the Redwood Forest, in what appears to be a strange double murder.

After the funeral Renée’s wealthy grandfather sends her to Gottfried Academy, a remote and mysterious boarding school in Maine, where she finds herself studying subjects like Philosophy, Latin, and the “Crude Sciences.”

It’s there that she meets Dante Berlin, a handsome and elusive boy to whom she feels inexplicably drawn. As they grow closer, unexplainable things begin to happen, but Renée can’t stop herself from falling in love. It’s only when she discovers a dark tragedy in Gottfried’s past that she begins to wonder if the Academy is everything it seems.

Little does she know, Dante is the one hiding a dangerous secret, one that has him fearing for her life.”

Dead Beautiful is not your average paranormal book. It has a subgenre all to itself. I give Yvonne points for being able to shock me with a whole new type of paranormal or at least one that I haven’t ventured out to read yet.

Renee is full of life and as a main character she has a certain magnetism to her. It is that magnetism that draws Dante to her. Personally, I found a lot of humor in the names in the context of the story J As per the usual Renee falls for Dante and the process of piecing together what he is begins. However, where Bella would have usually declared vampire Renee stumbles upon something unique.

The death of Renee’s parents is a unique way to begin a book. It sets a somewhat dark tone that follows throughout the book. Despite the dark tone the romance that develops is charming and intriguing. The dark tone to the book simply draws you in. For those that aren’t looking for a “happy” paranormal romance this might be your choice.

I give the book a 4/5. It kept me interested but I am not entirely sure what to think of the ending especially since I couldn’t find anything concrete about a sequel. For those that don’t like to not have resolution I recommend waiting until an announcement is made about whether or not there is a sequel.