The Mortal Heart

Beautiful Creatures: The Untold Stories #1

by Kami Garcia, Margaret Stohl

Everyone in Gatlin has a story...

Before she met and married Mitchell Wate, the beautiful and brilliant Lila Jane Evers was an honors student at Duke University. Studying late into the night in the rare books library, she is captivated by a single line of text on an old piece of parchment: "In the Light there is Dark, and in the Dark there is Light."

What can it mean?

Then one night, Lila Jane meets a mysterious young man who may have the answer. His name is Macon Ravenwood, and for every secret he reveals, he is hiding another. With Macon's help, Lila Jane uncovers the wonders of the Caster world--the Light and the Dark. But a romance between the Incubus who is fighting his own dark side and this fiercely independent Mortal is doomed from the start. The closer Lila Jane and Macon become, the more her life is in danger.

Discover the unforgettable and untold story of how Lila and Macon fell in love in this all-new Beautiful Creatures novella from #1 New York Times bestselling authors Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

Word Count: ~12,000

Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Fiction, Paranormal, Magic, Ebooks

56 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 10, 2015

About the author

Kami Garcia is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author. She is the coauthor of the BEAUTIFUL CREATURES series, which has been published in 51 countries and 37 languages, with over 10 million copies in print. In 2013, Beautiful Creatures released as a feature film from Warner Brothers. Kami is a cofounder of the YALLFEST kid lit book festival and the author of five solo novels, including her Bram Stoker Award-nominated novels Unbreakable and Unmarked (THE LEGION series) and The X-Files Origins: Agent of Chaos. Kami’s first graphic novel Teen Titans: Raven, with artist Gabriel Picolo, is the first book in her TEEN TITANS series for DC Comics and the adult series JOKER/HARLEY: CRIMINAL SANITY, from DC Black Label.

Find Kami online at kamigarcia.com, on Facebook @KamiGarciaYA, and on Twitter and Instagram @KamiGarcia.

Reviews

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

A look into Lila and Macon’s past. Nothing especially poignant or amazing, but worth the peek into the past.

[Shawna Finnigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novella filled in some parts of the story that needed explaining, but since it didn't focus much on the teens/kids of the original series, I wasn't as impressed with this story. The Mortal Heart explains what exactly went down between Lila and Macon and the friendship that Marian and Lila had. It was important to know, but not really the most enjoyable novella in the world.

The major thing that I took away from this novella is a deeper appreciation for Lila. When it comes to mortal and caster/incubus relationships, Lila seems to be the character with the most common sense. Slight spoiler warning for this quote...

"So we can't be together physically-I don't care about that. We can still be together. That's all that matters."

This was literally what I was screaming at Ethan and Lena for three whole books. Lila actually gets it. It's better to be able to be with the person you love and not do all the touching than be completely without them. Why couldn't Ethan and Lena have realized this?? It would've solved so many of their issues.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed these books. They weren't groundbreaking or amazing, but they were so much fun!

[Veronica Alvarez · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was a let down.

We finally know about their story and I got a couple thing to say:

They met because he's following her, so we got that awkard conversation about who are you? Are you a murderer? etc. But she still agrees to walk with him towars her dorm, which is still weird.

They talk a little bit and she falls in love with him so bad, like after that the only thing that we read about is how much she's in love, and I'm here being like. What?

The writing is okay, is what you coukd expected it, but what keeps my eyes rolling was THE AMOUNT, and I'm telling you, THE AMOUNTS of times that "Lila Jane" was entioned, OMG, that's basically the highlights of this book, when it comes to her, we don't use "she" or "her" we use her whole name Lila Jane, A LOT OF FREAKING TIMES, we had a three sentences and it could be 5 times mentioning her whole name, OMG, not even SJM gives me this angry when she uses "growl" or "beautiful" there's literally hundreds of times we see this, that's one of the reasons for the rate.

It was just an informative novella about a backstory, nothing new, or surprising.

[Neil Franz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Quite rushed and I want more!

[Nancy The book junkie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won't lie, i was really glad to go back to Gatlin! I liked the idea of those novella about the background stories of some characters in the main series. I enjoyed learning about Lila and Macon but i wished we had more to read, their love story was too short-lived for my taste considering Macon is kind of still pinning for her. Overall it was a great novella and i'm already looking forward to the next one, my only hope is that when it's over they'll do a print version of all the novellas together!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh how I missed Macon Ravenwood.

[Susan Crowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure if this actually added anything to the story or not.

[♡Julalicious Book Paradise♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

rating: 3.5/5

review to come.

[Maren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this flashback story to when Lila and Macon first meet. Interesting to see how much Ethan is like his mother, Lila. I wish there were more pages!

[Liz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Short Review

When it comes to The Caster Chronicles I have a love/hate relationship with the series. I'm not a fan of Ethan/Lena, but I'm a huge fan of Macon/Lila.

This is their story, and it was awful.

It's like the authors forgot how dimensional Macon is as a character, and decided that Lila Jane Evers Wate is like any other YA generic heroine. She comes off as a Mary-Sue, when she shouldn't.

This story was: Sappy. Sappy. Sappy.

JUST. NO.

There was no moral dilemma (even on Macon's pov). There was no reason for Lila to throw her life the way she did based on what we found out from this story. It wasn't believable. It wasn't earned.

THEY DESERVE BETTER. The authors have lost it. Really. They have. They've lost what made them somewhat decent writers, but they just don't have it anymore. They can't write their characters the way they should be written at this stage in their life.

Lila was super one-dimensional, which makes it incredibly difficult to even care about her. Ethan has more dimension than she does, and that's a problem. You see, she falls head over heels in one night? NO! NO! NO! There's shouldn't be any insta-love. They're relationship should have been built up steadily, but no they go the generic route that has been used a thousand times before. Girl meets guy who stalks her? Really? Really? No, they should have met during a seminar. She should have said something that piqued his interest. That's how it should have been done, but no they go the generic route.

I do like Marian in this story, which gives us a bit more background on her. If anything the story adds to her character more than Macon and Lila. That's not what should have happened. The way they framed the story developed Marian's character more than Lila's or Macon's. That's a shame.

I knew this was going to be short, but they should have had their own full novel. Macon is a complex character, but he's written in such a one-dimensional way.

I'll say it again: ThEY DESERVE BETTER.

This novella is a disappoint to the complex character of Macon Ravenwood and it does not showcase Lila Jane Evers as a dimensional character. This novella is another generic YA lovey-dovey story, which it should not have been. The authors have forgotten the soul of their characters, and it makes my heart break.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the entire Beautiful Creatures series thanks to the movie. And this adventure that the authors have now taken their readers on with the back stories of certain characters is brilliant! I love knowing more about Lilia and Macon. Macon to me was such a powerful character to begin with and I had loved the quirks of Lilia's bookmarks being anything she had close at hand, before the advent of e-books I was guilty of the same behavior! I recommend everything I have ever read by these women and this short is no less as brilliant!

[Crysta DenOuden]

I've been wanting to read about Lila since we got to learn about her :) i actually no longer enjoy beautiful creatures but I might actually get this

[Alysa H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice to to spend time in this storyworld, and but the plot and characters fell a little flat for me.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to see Macon and Lila's story, unfortunately kinda instalovey. But the atmosphere was fantastic.

[Sarah]

I’m not like other girls because I wear a mens trench coat.

•Insta Love, (they meet and by chapter two they are in “love.”)

[Kareen Ty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to know—how can you tell if it’s a forever thing?” - Ethan Wate

The caster chronicle had brought so much feels, from the 1st down to its 3rd chron. And now, months had passed since I last read the book and it made me really excited to continue the rest of the series starting off with The Mortal heart down to dangerous series. I'm a little bit disappointed though at how a short read this was. I am expecting more of like their love with a beginning and an end. Though some of it were mentioned in the trilogy, yet of course the focus were at Ethan and Lena. The book was just a glimpse of Macon and Lila's love, and Marian's guilt. Though, somehow it gave you the slightest sense that in Love, no matter how time can be battling-short sometimes, if it's true then it's perfect and imminent. Lila have done so much, as well as Macon. Though they're settled in a totally different world, their love is like a pact, a pact to make other's love possible to happen (like on Ethan and Lena). Yet it made me think, have they missed their lifetime? Their true love? Looks like it is. But true love I believe is a connection, till it happens.

[Tanela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really thought it was going to go a little deeper. I pre-ordered this book with expectations of a great love story, unfortunately it was just the surface of what I already imagined when reading the other books in Beautiful Creatures series. I'm holding out hope that there will be more.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this novella okay but I was expecting more from Lila Jane and Macon's love story. I felt more passion between Jane and Marion. But it was interesting learning about Macon's transformation to an Incubus. Meh.

[J.W. Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I needed this short story. Macon was my favourite part of the beautiful creatures series and his love of Lila Evers

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this short story interesting. I do enjoy Macon. There was a spoiler in this book for the rest of the series.

[ishi · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest i read it because i found a pdf online. I remember liking the series years ago and it was nice in that nostalgic way

[Lacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Abby Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story broke my heart. Like tore it up into little pieces and stomped on them. In the best way.

I'll be honest, I wasn't really sold on Lila/Macon in the main series. I thought oh he was in love with Ethan's mom when they were young ... Eh ... kinda cliche. Now to be fair I think a lot of my apathy towards their love story has more to do with the main series being from Ethan's POV than anything really to do with how they fit together as characters. Not surprising since I remember being less than into John/Liv the first time I read the books and not understanding why I didn't like them together until I considered that ETHAN (our eyes and ears in Gatlin for the original caster series) didn't like them together until practically the end either.

It's just a testament when all is said and done to how strong and real the authors made Ethan as a character if his biases could so vividly color my opinion during reading. But I finally understand that's likely why I was against the whole idea of Lila and Macon as a couple. Seen through teenage Ethan's eyes, Macon Ravenwood (the guy he always saw as just some town shut in before Lena arrived) is downright icky. She's his mother and he kind of holds her to an unfair degree of sainthood because she died and he's a lost teenager who basically lost both his parents with his dad mentally checking out for a while.

In Mortal Heart, a now college age and more mature Ethan ASKS to know the truth about Macon and his mom and in a way gives permission to the skeptical reader to also be open to the story.

Then we go back and get to see Lila and Marian when they were young. And oh it's heartbreaking to see Lila fall so hard for Macon and be so excited to introduce him to her best friend only to learn the truth, they can't be together. And Macon! Poor guy! His tenderness with his mother, even though she had to abandon him, his true concern and protectiveness over Lila! I think I fell a little in love with young Macon myself reading this. Like I'd ask "Does he have a brother?" Except unfortunately he DOES and Hunting beth a creepth. 😂

I wish this could have been longer. I would have adored just a whole prequel series (or at least one full length novel) about young Lila Jane and Macon Ravenwood. I never thought I could love another couple in this series as much as Ethan and Lena but I now feel if this was a full book, I would have liked Lila and Macon best by the end. This could have even beat out the original Beautiful Creatures as my favorite in the series had it not been so tantalizingly short.

So, I guess Reece is still my overall favorite character and Ethan/Lena still my favorite caster/mortal couple, but this came sooo close to bumping them down a peg I'm shocked.

Fantastic story.

[Shadows n Secrecy]

Jul 11, 2015

Ooh. Nice.

Lila Jane Evers Wate played a vital role in the Chronicles, but she didn't really have a voice. So I guess this is her story. I'm looking forward to it.

It's not surprising that my eBook library doesn't have it. But it's not even on iBooks!

It says it's been published though...

I guess I'll have to wait.

*sigh*

[John Martin Ladrido · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to know—how can you tell if it’s a forever thing?”

Once the questions took root in her mind, there was no power on Earth that could stop her from finding the answers.

WE are never strangers to each other, no matter how distant one may make her home.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy everything in this world. Margaret and Kami are amazing. I would love more of Macon and Lila. This novella was not enough - it was just a taste and their history is so complex I feel like they needed their own novel instead.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's always good to get some extra background reading on stories and characters. and this book was good but I felt it could have been so much more. there is still too many unanswered questions about lila and her life before ethans story.

[Darcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

For most of this series Ethan's mother has only been in the background. But with this one we got to see more of her, to see how she was introduced into the Caster world and how that world beat her up.

[Sebastian Castellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too damn short, added nothing to the story. When i found about it, hoped for an awesome long book about Macon a lila ....God, i wanted fights about history, them being really geeky and stuff, but no it was too short and had absolutely nothing.
But Macon's interactions with his family were awesome.