I read Beautiful Creatures because it's vampire YA, and I tend to like that sort of thing, but what I liked most about it was the depiction of life in a small southern town. Although authored by women it's told from a teenage boy's point of view. Since I mostly eschew books written by men, don't meet a lot of male narrators, and it's kind of neat to spend time in a dude's head once in awhile.
The dude in question is a millionth generation Gatlin resident on his father's side, but his recently deceased mother wasn't from there, nor was the mother's best friend, the town librarian, who plays an important role in the story.
In Gatlin it matters that you have long roots in the community, and DAR town ladies and their kids definitely don't cotton to strange nieces of eccentric recluses moving to town in their sophomore year of high school.