The Beautiful Review

                     

GoodReads:

In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she’s forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city’s glitzy underworld, known as Le Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group’s leader, the enigmatic Sèbastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of Le Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sèbastien’s guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.

At once a sultry romance and a thrilling murder mystery, master storyteller Renée Ahdieh embarks on her most potent fantasy series yet: The Beautiful.

My Review

Another review I’ve been hoarding for this spooky month! But, unlike doing the logical thing, writing the review and hoarding it, I’m just now writing it after reading it back in June. We’ll see if I remember anyone’s names :DDDD

I can definitely tell you this much from straight-up memory, Ahdieh did a magnificent job in making you feel as if you were in the setting. It made me miss all the terrific parts. ofNew Orleans, especially the food. I could close my eyes after reading a paragraph and I was transported back, and that’s some sort of magic right there.

While I loved Ahdieh’s style of writing, I did take a while to really connect with the characters, and I don’t think that was the author’s problem, I think it was my problem. Every now and again it takes me a bit to connect with characters in YA books and I completely know it’s on me for being an old ass lady, but it very rarely takes away from my enjoyment of YA.

Celine is fantastic, she’s got this nice juicy secret, she’s tried to escape it from a logistical point of view and that’s what brings her to our beloved city of New Orleans. I would. have absolutely loved to see more things surrounding Celine’s fashion, she has a talent and it would have been neat to see it in action more but I suppose I can forgive her being distracted by vampires and handsome mysterious men, oh and you know, some serial killer seems to be targeting Celine or those she’s been in contact with.

Oh.

That’s right.

Ahdieh went there.

It’s not only an amazing Vampire book, it’s got a murder mystery in it AND it’s set in New Orleans, this author set me up to be in love from the start lol.

The pacing of the murder mystery, combined with the paranormal of it all is really well done, Ahdieh takes her time but also doesn’t drag, so that’s spectacular. The book starts off with a lightness that is slowly consumed by the darkness but the best part is that it’s not a ‘bad’ thing, the murders and sense of danger are thrilling and we watch as Celine descends into a darkness that’s not about evil, it’s about being comfortable and feeling like herself.

Though I enjoyed the romance it wasn’t the highlight of the book for me, it was well done, and I think that by the end I was thoroughly invested in the relationship enough that when Ahdieh didn’t hold back punches with the ending, I was sobbing in a corner for the couple.

Seriously that ending was a completely ‘OH NO’ moment for me and I was so glad that I had waited to read this until The Damned was out.

I also really loved all the supporting cast/secondary characters in this and you can tell that Ahdieh plans to expand on some of them which is a complete delight for me as I always tend to enjoy secondary characters more for some reason.

Anyway, this is a brilliant addition to the world of vampire books and I can’t wait to drop my review for the second book on Friday for you all.

4/5 cups of coffee, NOW WHERE ARE MY BEIGNETS?!