Thanks to Hodder and Stoughton and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I for one am SO ready for the Vampire genre to rise from the dead. There's been a lot of buzz about this book so I was looking forward to sinking my teeth into it.

Ok, ok I'll stop.



Our heroine is Celine, a 17 year old with a dark secret who along with some other girls, is sent to live in a convent in New Orleans in the late 1800s. Was this a thing? Maybe it was....

Celine quickly finds herself mixed up with some stunningly attractive and mysterious people and....well you get the gist.

Along for the ride are the other two points of the love triangle, Bastien, an enigmatic mega-rich hunk and Michael a...policeman. For some reason I kept picturing him as Michael from Jane the Virgin. Sorry if you do now as well.

The setting was kinda wasted really. You don't get much cooler than 19th century New Orleans but really this novel could have taken place anywhere. The characters spoke in a modern way which didn't fit with the setting either.

My main issue with this book was with the rampant overuse of foreign language dialogue. This is such a pet peeve of mine. It serves no purpose other than to look pretentious af, ruins the immersion and if I wanted a language lesson when I was reading, i'd fire up Duolingo.

The plot also isn't very exciting. It's not bad, it's just a bit generic. I was a good third of the way through the book before things started getting interesting. If I wasn't reviewing it I'd probably have quit at 20%.

One last moan...the Scottish girl, Anabel's dialogue was excruciating and as a bona fide Highlander I'd just like to say someone from Edinburgh is categorically not a Highlander. Petty I know but these kinds of things really rustle my jimmies.

I really enjoyed this book. It's been a long time since I've devoured a good vampire yarn and this one was excellent. Fabulous cover too!

This book is so beautifully written, it really is. Reading the synopsis, I was beyond excited for the New Orleans Vampire romance with a mixture of penny dreadful vibes. It basically has everything I love all wrapped up into one book.

Celines character reminds me of Vanessa Ives of penny dreadful. Strong, fearless, unforgiving and stubborn. Living in a world where women are regarded second class citizens to men. And she questions it. Why should she live a life where she has to succumb to social expectations of society? There is so much mystery surrounding the story and characters within that you constantly guess what will happen next.

I really can't recommend this book highly enough. Can I have the next one already? Pretty please?

5⭐

Thank you to NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication.
When we first meet Celine she is on her way to America having fled France. We learn she killed a man who tried to rape her, and she is desperate for a fresh start. Her journey is quite uneventful, but she befriends a couple of girls that go with her to live in a convent.
Upon their arrival in New Orleans Celine cannot help but feel she has come home. She loves the vibrancy of her new home, but there is a definite sense of threat - made worse by the murder of a young girl soon after their arrival.
There’s no doubt that Celine is not your stereotypical young lady. She’s happy to defy conventions, but this does lead her into rather difficult circumstances.
The majority of the story focuses on the mysterious Sebastian who has a group of very close friends that don’t seem quite human. Celine is in turn entranced and infuriated by Bastian - so it’s inevitable there’s a spin-out hint of a romance.
There’s some interesting ideas here, but there’s a lot that seems to work against the story. We’re never given enough information about the two groups to explain the dynamics between them. We know they’re vampires, yet there’s little detail about quite how this group works. Someone close commits a pretty awful act of betrayal, yet we don’t really get to know why. There’s also a hint of someone thought dead actually being part of this, but we know so little about them it would have been easy to ignore the significance.
This is not a book that I found hard to read or unexciting, but there were a lot of unanswered questions which I found infuriating.

No one is sadder than me that I didn't like <i>The Beautiful</i>. I adored Renée Ahdieh's The Wrath and the Dawn Duology and had high hopes for her brining back vampires into YA! However, the<strong> book didn't end up impressing me</strong> and it took me long to finish because it was easy to put down and harder to motivate myself to pick it up again. I'm all conflicted about it because I'm happy that <strong>Ahdieh got to write a vampire story with an Asian lead character</strong> and I wish that she can be the catalyst to bring back more vampire stories. Still, I didn't enjoy the book no matter how much I wanted to. I've prepared to lists with what I liked and what fell flat for me!

<i><strong>Things I actually liked</strong></i>

<strong>The friendship between Celine, Pippa, and Odette!</strong> ➽ I love when a book has strong female friendships, especially when the main character is a bit different in her beliefs and attitude, yet still has solid connections to women that aren't like her. I definitely think that Pippa and Odette were the scene-stealers and probably the characters that intrigued me most.

<strong>I liked that the author struck a balance between Celine having a more modern mindset</strong></big> ➽ while still being influenced by the notions of the society she lived in. The book discussed the everyday sexism and showed how it affected the different women in the story.

<strong>The setting of New Orleans</strong> ➽ You could tell that the focus of the story was establishing the right atmosphere and create a vivid setting for the reader to immerse in. I'm not French, but I have basic knowledge of the language, so the french phrases that appeared at certain points in the story were nice and added to make the setting realistic

<strong>Vampires, once they showed up</strong> ➽ I'm still excited that vampires are slowly coming back because I actually liked them a lot when they were popular and would love to see more paranormal YA books again!

<strong>In theory, the relationship between Celine and Sébastien could've been interesting</strong> ➽ The relationship employs one of my favorite tropes (enemies to lovers) and there is some decent banter that I enjoyed in parts, making their interactions one of the more exciting parts of the story.

<strong>Sébastien's PET SNAKE</strong> ➽ I love animals appearing in fiction, especially snakes (is that my inner Slytherin?) as it made for some funny moments 🐍

<strong>I appreciated that the main character is of Asian descent</strong></big> and that the author discussed what that meant for her in a historical setting ➽ There were also several minor characters of color as well as LGBTQ characters, discussions of racism and


<i><strong>Things I didn't like</strong></i>

<strong>There was too much description</strong> ➽ To a certain extent I like vivid descriptions of the setting because it helps envision the mood and atmosphere of the situation. However, I feel like the author went overboard this time with adding too many details that didn't feel relevant to me. In general, I'm not a fan of descriptions that drag on, so I quickly felt my eyes glaze over a bit and it was an effort to slog through paragraphs of detailed descriptions. I sadly <strong>felt like the author put more emphasis on describing a complex setting than evolving character or plot</strong>, a mistake in my perspective because plot and characters are always more important for me!

<strong>The start was slow and the setup lacked character and plot development</strong> ➽ In the first 100 pages not much happened and the setup wasn't used to establish why I should care about the characters either. The only thing that was consistent was the setting, but again that's not enough. The lack of plot made me wonder why the author didn't portray more exciting scenes than just the everyday life of the convent and settling in for about 5+ weeks. We didn't get to the most interesting part of the story (meeting Sébastien and delving deeper into his world) until much too late in my opinion. By then I was already getting frustrated.

<strong>The worldbuilding was incredibly weak</strong> ➽ The vampires didn't show up till page 250+ and there was barely any worldbuilding prior that made sense to me. The story felt like a historical romance to me (don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with that, but the entire tagline of the book was VAMPIRES and<strong> if you promise a comeback of vampires and fantasy elements you need to deliver</strong>. The focus was much more on the romance and historical aspects, making the difference between advertising and story huge. I feel like many readers could be disappointed this way (myself included), as it seemed to me like the author didn't know the heart of her story.

<strong>In general, the story was slow-paced and not much happened</strong> ➽ Even after 50% of the book was over, there wasn't a fast-paced plot to be seen. The pacing was too slow and whenever an interesting more action-packed plot point happened, it quickly faded out into a slower pace again. Towards the last few pages that got better, but the majority of the story was dominated by a slow plot and almost nothing intriguing me to keep reading.

<strong>I didn't get what the main character saw in the second love interest</strong> ➽ I won't tell you who it is, but I felt like it was thrown in mainly to ensure some relationship angst between Sébastien and Celine. The second love interest acted patronizing towards Celine, thinking he 'knew what was best for her' (see: not trusting her to make her own decisions and not respecting her independence), yet she still couldn't let go of him. I guess he was set up as a foil for Sébastien, but his subtly controlling character wasn't something I could root for.

<strong>The characters had lots of unrealized potentials and I didn't connect to them</strong> ➽ Like I said in the beginning, I loved Pippa and Odette the most because their characters were intriguing and showed development. However, <strong>I found it hard to connect to Celine</strong>, because there was so much telling involved to allude to her background story and 'secret'. I'm not sure what to think of her character arc, as it utilized a sensitive issues (that might be triggering for some people) and constantly told us negative internalized thoughts about what I would call self-defense. I think the author wanted to show how Celine blamed herself because of the circumstances of the society she lived in and slowly realizing dark and light can exist in the same person. However, I still think her thought process and beliefs can be problematic to read depending on how you view them.<em><strong> I'm torn about that.</strong></em> Apart from that Celine had potential as a more snarky and bold lady, however, her stubborn pursuit of danger and lack of self-preservation when she meets Sébastien made me cringe. <strong>Sébastien himself was interesting and mysterious but I wish we had met him sooner</strong> because, in the end, I felt like he wasn't fleshed out enough to become a compelling character. The slow beginning and lack of character focus made the characters fall flat to me.

<strong>I also need to mention that about 50ish % through the story Bastien ended up having random POV's</strong> ➽ Why?? Until now we had Celine's POV and that of the antagonist, so I was all settled. Sébastien's POV's were confusing and so random that it aggravated me. I don't like sudden changes in the narrative without reason and if you have a story it should have a purpose and not make me write random three times in a paragraph.

Thank you to Netgalley, Reneè Ahdieh and Hoder & Stoughton for my arc of The Beautiful in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: New Orleans in 1872 is a city ruled by the dead. But for Celine Rosseau who is looking for an escape from Paris and the secrets she's desperate to leave behinds its the perfect refuge. Taken in to a convent to live until a 'suitable match' can be found for her. But she soon becomes embroiled in the city's dangerous underworld and the Court of Lions. As Celine dances with her attraction to the mysterious Sebastien Saint Germain girls begin getting murdered and soon it's clear there is a serial killer on the loose. As Celine gets closer to the truth she realises the killer may have her in his sights next and that he might even be the guy she's been falling for.

Ok so if this wasn't THE most annoying main character I have read in a long time. I didn't really go into this book with huge expectations. I liked Flame in the Mist but not Smoke in the Sun so my experience of Reneè's writing is very mixed. But this was something different, a vampire novel when vampire novels have been a bit out of fashion for a while now. But I'm not a massive vampire novel fan, again I'm kind of on the fence, I like True Blood and I liked the show of Vampire Diaries and The Originals. So no expectations in terms of being vampire novel crazy either.

Anyway, i went off on a tangent there but I just wanted to clarify that my disappointment wasn't spawned from the expectation of this being a 'typical' vampire novel (whatever that may be). I think it's probably easiest to bullet point my issues:
The main character Celine is super irritating. If you imagine Audrey Rose from the Stalking Jack the Ripper series and that attitude she has that she's some super feminist and also attractive. That's something I find mildly irritating, with Celine you need to magnify that by 10,000. Celine is a character who is more beautiful than anyone else. She is also 'fierce' but way too aware of that for it to be natural, she's always got to be pushing the boundaries. Which I'm all for a historical setting novel with a female character who isn't happy with the life she's been dealt just because she happens to not be Male, but she literally never shuts up about it. It's just taken to the extreme.



Off the back of that, this does not read like a historical setting. Reneè may as well not have bothered setting in a historical time because other than the issues with feminism it has no relevance at all.

Same goes for race. It's like Reneè took everything that we always say needs to be represented in a book and forced it all so that instead of looking like it's naturally supposed to be there it just looks like what it is, a desperate attempt to be inclusive of everyone. So yeah every single person we come across is either oppressed due to their gender, race (or mixed race as is the case with most) or sexuality.

It felt like it just copied so many other books and shows. Odette was 100% Rebekah Mikaelson, the Saint Germain name, the Court of Lions, so much of it was ripped off!


It was literally just so boring, nothing was happening, the writing was flat. The characters were unlikeable and annoying, and two dimensional

I was so excited to hear about this one and when I got the arc I was beyond hyped. Unfortunately it kind of fell flat for me. The writing style wasn’t my favourite & the story kind of dragged. It wasn’t the scary, unique vampire story I was expecting. It makes me sad to even give this such a low rating, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Renee Ahdieh’s duology, The Wrath and the Dawn, is one of my favorites of all times, so naturally I was eagerly anticipating getting back into the author’s magical writing and imagination. Unfortunately, if The Beautiful was entertaining as a whole, it didn’t quite held my attention the way I wished it to.

The Beautiful had a lot of potential: bringing back vampires, in New Orleans and with Renee Ahdieh’s stunning prose. Yet, I felt like all of the promises of the synopsis weren’t quite met, for me. Let’s start on the positives though: the writing is as beautiful as ever, the decors lush and beautifully written and, as I read, I felt transported by this New Orleans the author created. The cast of characters the author create is quite interesting, too and is carried by a complex main character struggling with getting over her past, with a deep desire to understand the supernatural events occuring.

My problem with The Beautiful was first with the pacing, that felt a little off and slow: the real, thrilling action takes quite a while to kickstart and, somehow, made the first half of the book feel… long. Once it did, I was carried away with the story and curious to see what would happen, but I wish it didn’t take that long to start. My second issue was with the characters: if I found them interesting, from Celine’s deep desire for power to the detective, to Bastien’s obvious charming, tall and brooding character, I just didn’t cross that line from “interesting” to “caring so deeply about them”.

Overall, The Beautiful is not a bad book: once it really gets started, it’s quite an entertaining read, it’s just a shame that it took so long to get started…. and isn’t properly finished, because there’s a sequel. I’d still recommend it if you like Renee Ahdieh’s lush writing and are a fan of vampires stories.

-Featuring vampires, forbidden romance and New Orleans

All the hype you've heard about The Beautiful, all the mentions of steamy enemies-to-lovers romance, the whispers in the dark about murder and balls…it's all true. Renée Ahdieh's next novel is sumptuous, gripping and heated - and the wait is finally over. Vampires are officially cool again.
I adore Renée Ahdieh. I read The Wrath and the Dawn almost a year ago and it absolutely blew me away with its rich prose and breathtaking world. I met Renée in July and she is literally the sweetest person in the world, so when an arc of The Beautiful arrived at my doorstep…I squealed.
One of my favourite things about Renée's writing is that she can make any setting come alive. With New Orleans as a background, you can be sure The Beautiful was rich in culture and world-building. I felt like I was with Celine amid the gilded houses and the dark streets where all kinds of creatures lurk, at luxurious parties and supping with the Court.
Celine was such an awesome heroine. She wasn't afraid to stand up for herself and her friends. She was determined and brave and beautiful. I loved seeing her character grow and change as she navigated her life after fleeing Paris. The side characters were just as great. Odette was glamourous and interesting, a star in her own right. It's my life goal to befriend her. Pippa was generous and kind, such a genuine and innocent character, I really appreciated that she didn't have to stab people and shout - not that I mind that - to show what a great person she was.
One downside of this book for me was that…I didn't really like Bastien. Don't @ me, I beg, but he was just such a typical YA hero that I felt pretty much nothing for him. I wanted to be swept away and fall in love like I know so many readers will, but I just, didn't and that really disappointed me.
The Beautiful was full of twists and turns, both unexpected and expected. I never knew quite where the plot was leading, where the killer would strike next, what Celine would do. It was pacey and enticing and I couldn't put this book down.
I loved the feeling that crawled up my spine as I read this book, that I was being watched by a pair of beautiful but deadly eyes that hid in the dark corners of the streets. I loved the mysterious snippets of narrative we got from the eyes of the villain, they really helped make this book unique and interesting.
Honestly, was this book cliché? Yes, absolutely. But I enjoyed it in all of its trope-y beauty, so I've got nothing to complain about.
Overall, The Beautiful was a sumptuous and magical book that swept me off my feet. It was elegant and lyrical, surprising and exciting. I would expect nothing less from Renée Ahdieh. I'd absolutely recommend this book to everyone who loves YA fantasy. What a revelation.

Oh wow this book! I was up until 2am reading this beauty because I could not put it down. This was my first book by Renèe Ahdieh and it will not be my last. Her writing was wonderful, the pace was great, and I am in love with pretty much everything about this book including that cover 😍

Celine is a young woman running from her past, reckless, desperate for adventure, and completely loveable. I adored her! Her budding friendship with Pippa was very sweet and the two bounced off each other well.

Our first encounter with La Cour des Lions had my dark heart soaring in preparation for what was to come. Bastien was sharp as a knife and it was no wonder young women would gladly cut themselves to get closer, including Celine. The tension between the two of them was an agonising delight!

I liked the inclusion of the Detective. A different character to Bastien, less likeable, but I think my view on that may change in the next book.

The only irritation for me was the way the characters were sometimes referred to as boys and girls and sometimes men and women. I think there needs to be a defined distinction here because they didn’t act like boys and girls. They were young men and women so using those nouns grated on me a bit.

I will also say it was not a typical vampire novel like I was expecting, in fact the vampire element was very mild. However, this did not stop me from thoroughly enjoying the story. And that ending! How will I wait until next summer for book two?


With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I got this ARC because I found the blurb intriguing even if New Orleans+vampires usually means Anne Rice to me.
This means I was also a bit wary because it could have been something similar to Vampire Chronicles.
I was wrong because the author was able to write a novel set in New Orleans with vampires and making something original, well written and gripping.
It's a dark book, dark and atmospheric, gripping and entertaining.
I loved her descriptions of New Orleans as much as I loved the fleshed out cast of characters and the world building.
It's an amazing and very pleasant read, highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

The story, indeed, is filled with cliche tropes and I’m not talking about Vampires. I don’t care if Vampires are in thousand paranormal books. I’m fine with them but the thing about The Beautiful is the plot’s filled with tropes. Let’s see, a young lady fleeing to another country from a horrible past, a mysterious Court with mysterious people in it, one of the said mysterious people would be so BEAUTIFUL that our young lady would be pulled and soon, she’s in their world and in danger. You probably know what the rest is.

The mystery and suspense surrounding the killer — this is a murder mystery — were not enough to amp up the story and the reveal wasn’t also that surprising. But I can’t say the mystery and suspense is badly done, IT IS NOT. If you’ve read The Wrath and the Dawn by this author, you’d know, Ahdieh is a great storyteller. It’s just that, in this book, I felt like I already read this before. But I can say, I was more concerned in the mystery of Celine’s past. That’s what kept me reading.

On a brighter side, the tropes that this book has are the ones that most of the readers love so I believe this will work to some, if not most, readers. And all the clicheness became understandable upon reading the author’s Acknowledgement at the end of the book. This idea have been alive ever since she was a teenager and a fan of Anne Rice.

The atmosphere though is quite good. I know, I know I said the mystery and suspense were not enough to amp up the story but I also said it’s not badly done and the atmosphere I’m referring here is New Orleans itself. I can’t explain it but there’s something about New Orleans that just by hearing or reading it, I felt like it’s dark and there’s something (or someone) sinister lurking in the shadows, waiting to grab me around the corner. I haven’t been there in real life but you know what I mean. One more thing to note about the atmosphere and setting is this is Historical – 1872. But I didn’t feel that that much. I was actually picturing a modern New Orleans. Not a 2019-New Orleans but more modern than 1872.

The Romance. I think by now it’s obvious it’s also something most of us have already read before so I have nothing much to say about it. Forbidden Romance, of course. The main characters, Celine and Bastien, are interesting though. They’re characters were cliche but like I said, cliche that most of us love. Celine is different from other women being bold and spirited. She wanted to fit in the society though but like Bastien said, she’s a lion so that’s hard. And Bastien is the most beautiful man, rougish and devilish. So I think I do like these characters. The side characters were good enough but no one I can say unforgettable. I had high hopes with the “found family trope” but it wasn’t so grand.

And oh the dialogues are sometimes cliche too. There are dialogues such as “I thought you’ll never ask” or “You should’ve run away when you had a chance” and so many more. But I read an ARC from Netgalley so these quotes might have been changed.

Finally, and this is the most beautiful part, is the ENDING. I love the promise of the ending that really made me want to read the next book. And I will. This isn’t the first book that ahs and ending like that but oh my God, I love it. I love it so much. So overall, this isn’t a bad book, don’t let the ratings on Goodreads put you off from reading a new Vampire story. Don’t even let my meager rating discourage you. I only gave it 3 stars because it is trope-y and trope-y books are not so grand for me.

I’ve never read any Renee Ahdieh books before but got very intrigued by The Beautiful as vampires were a huge part of my reading experience when I was younger.

In this book we follow Céline, a Parisian girl who travels to New Orleans to escape her past. But quickly enough, she gets tangled up in a murder investigation and befriends a crowd of strange people - one of which is our mysterious brooding Sébastien.

(I think we all agree I should stop trying to write synopsis because it is official - I suck at it.)

Alright, so, the Beautiful is a typical YA vampire book in the sense that everything can be predicted pretty easily. The story is okay although very slow and not much happens for a 400 pages book. The ending does make it all a bit better but it still left a bitter taste in my mouth because of how very expected it was.

Moreover, I do want to mention that the whole book goes on and on about the Brotherhood and the Fallen and whatever else without ever explaining what all of it is - you do end up figuring it out on your own but it annoyed me to no end that it was never explained properly and that we were left putting all the pieces together.

When it comes to the characters, I can say that they are okay-ish although very bland. Our MC keeps thinking of herself as the worst because of what she did in Paris (view spoiler) but is very fierce and stubborn which I liked. Our main guy, Bastien, is our very typical bad boy that falls in love in 3 days and would die for our MC. I did really enjoy the tension between Céline and Bastien but individually there’s not a lot to say about them.
I liked Odette the best though.

The setting of The Beautiful is pretty nice as New Orleans will forever be a city shrouded in mystery and magic. However, I found the historical aspect of the book quite useless. I didn’t see any particular reasons as to why the book has to take place in 19th century America rather than today - even more so when you see issues such as racism and LGBTQ+ mentioned and dealt with in a manner that is very specific to today rather than the 19th century.

To conclude I can say that The Beautiful is an okay book that could give us a sequel that could get really interesting although I don’t have very high expectations for it - especially with that love triangle coming our way lol.

Critically acclaimed, bestselling American-Korean fantasy writer Renée Ahdieh returns with an accomplished new novel. The Beautiful, the beginning of a new series set in 1872 New Orleans. Victorian-era Orleans is a beguiling, enchanted place and is definitely the star of the show here but the hotchpotch of different characters also make this so alluring. It centres around forbidden romance between protagonist Celine Rousseau and immortal vampire Sebastien. There are times when it feels more than a little forced, however, but luckily these are few and far between, and on the whole it's a believable and passionate narrative. It's hardly the most original of concepts. That said, it is a quick-witted, fun and has a little of something to please everyone.

It's multifaceted with many layers that reveal themselves seductively on and on. Those who enjoyed Ahdieh's previous fantasies will most likely not be disappointed as we flirt with danger on the mean streets. The vibrancy of New Orleans is described in lush detail that you could almost taste the tastes and smell the scents. Ahdieh also explores the complicated racial and gender norms of the time in an authentic and straightforward manner for readers of all ages. This epic tale mixes murder-mystery, adventure and paranormal in a way that works. I look forward to the second instalment in this light and entertaining, new and very promising series. The perfect page-turner for spooktober. Many thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for an ARC.

The Beautiful was hyped up to be THE vampire book of 2019, the return of the vampire era. What it ended up being for me was a disappointment.

The Beautiful is set in New Orleans at the end of the 1800s and that is just a beautiful setting in itself. New Orleans has one of the best vibes for magical and supernatural beings and it doesn’t require too much work from the author. Which kind of showed. I mean, we got a lot of society things and in the background mardi gras. But I didn’t feel New Orleans be its own entity like I have in other books that focused on this city. A lot of the prose focused on the main character’s inner monologue instead of on its surroundings.

It showed in the build up and the story. It was slow and I felt I could never get away from Celine’s inner monologue of how dark she was on the inside and how different she was of these pious ladies around her. Because yes of course she was different from the other girls. I’ll be honest and say that I started skimming those sections because I grew bored with her. I don’t mind a unlikeable main character but at least others don’t like them than either. In this case everyone was about ready to drop to their knees and proclaim how beautiful she was and how witty, smart and great. Of course every handsome non gentleman to her eyes, swooned at her every glance. Enter me puking.

Safe to say is that the romance couldn’t capture me either. I mean there was clear chemistry on the page but I just don’t understand how they went from disliking each other to wanting to shove their tongue down each other’s troth in the space of a few pages. At least it took a while for it to actually happen, but I just couldn’t believe the attachment they had to each other.

There is also one more bit that bothered me and that is the vampires. It isn’t revealed until the end that they are vampires even though we all know before going into this book it is about vampires so that was a bit of a dead thing at the end there. But also these vampires can kind of come out during the day. That is how they met the first one. So how do these vampires work? No explanation was there for that. Nobody wondered about it.

I did however quite like the friendship between Pippa and Celine, more from Pippa’s side but that might not surprise you. Pippa is a loyal friend. Celine does not deserve her.

I knew me and this book were not going to get along when the love interest was introduced. Sorry, when the first love interest was introduced. Because it’s a typical “incredibly handsome young man (who we are contractually obliged to mention is incredibly handsome every time he’s brought up) treats the female mc like shit and yet she falls for him”. But don’t worry! He has a tragic backstory to excuse it all!

I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Beautiful is about Celine, who flees Paris having murdered her attempted rapist and gets on a boat to New Orleans, to join a convent. Once in New Orleans, she meets Odette, who asks her to make her a dress (because Celine is a seamstress). On the way to a meeting with Odette to take measurements, Celine interrupts a man’s savage beating in an alleyway, only to find out that the perpetrator (Sebastien) is a friend of a sort of Odette’s. Sebastien being the aforementioned “incredibly handsome young man”. Meanwhile, there are a spate of killings in New Orleans, ones which seem to target Celine.

Let me start with what I liked about this book (mostly because it won’t take a whole lot of time). As ever, Ahdieh’s worldbuilding and writing is wonderfully evocative and creates a beautiful dark world. Ordinarily, I would love it. And Celine! I adored her as a main character (except when we’re talking her and Bastien or her and Michael. Talk to me about her and Odette though…). This book also has that easy kind of diversity that never feels like it’s shoehorned in. So basically, the worldbuilding and the majority of the characters is what I liked about this book.

But, obviously, that’s not enough to keep a book going.

Like I said at the start, my major gripe about this book was Sebastien. Maybe I’ve got past the point where I can accept the trope he exemplifies, it irritates me too much. I don’t think he’s a particularly awful example of it, in the grand scheme of things, but that doesn’t make him any less an irritating example. If you think about it, love interests who are absolute wankers to the main character but then show some vulnerability or some tragic backstory to suggest they are redeemable or whatever, and that the main character can love them, are just a natural extension of women being expected to “fix” men or somehow make them better people. And I’m so so tired of reading that. I can’t cope with it any more, so any book that invokes this trope, unless it pulls it apart (think Empire of Sand, where the love interest has a tragic backstory but is still gentle and loving, or The Silvered Serpents, where awful behaviour isn’t excused like that), is automatically rated down from me.

So maybe the remainder of my dislikes about this book wouldn’t have annoyed me so much if I hadn’t already had to put up with this. I’ll cop to that. It’s a reasonable assumption.

Firstly, I had questions about this plot. It’s called a murder mystery, but there’s no actual investigating, besides by Michael, completely off the page. It’s more like, Celine realises she’s the one the murderer is interested in and sets herself up as bait, and woops! There’s the mystery solved! It’s actually more like a romance but with a side storyline of a murder mystery. Which would be fine, if it was marketed like that. But I just feel cheated of my murder mystery (favourite genre and all). Plus there are plotholes because of that. Namely, why does the murderer pick on Celine. Granted I may have missed something because I was skimming the murderer’s POV chapters (pet peeve of mine is being able to see into the murderer’s thoughts while the mystery is going on because all too often it spoils who the murderer is for you). But it seems a pretty large question to leave unanswered.

My final complaints are mostly about the romance. Okay, so we get a lesbian side character, but all that really leads me to conclude is that Odette/Celine is the god-tier ship in this whole mess. Not Michael/Celine, not Bastien/Celine. Those are both boring. Give me lesbians or nothing. Instead there’s a really awkward scene where Odette says she’s a lesbian and Celine does that straight girl thing of assuming that means Odette is coming onto her. God I wish she had been, given the options for the other romances. Might have avoided a love triangle in it and all.

By the time, all the big reveals at the end came around, I was just too bored to be excited by them. I very very briefly felt like I might want to read the second book, but that was snuffed out when I read the blurb of book two (“their love could tear them apart” give me strength). And when you find out the actual reason Michael and Bastien hate each other (besides “because of course they do”)? Well. Enjoy.

So, in the end, I felt less like I had read an homage to Anne Rice, and more like I’d just reread Twilight but transplanted into 1872 New Orleans.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for an eARC via NetGalley of Renée Ahdieh’s ‘The Beautiful’ in exchange for an honest review.

I was very excited by the synopsis of this book as I love historical fiction, vampires and the rich culture of New Orleans. Like the author I had been totally caught up in the world of Anne Rice’s ‘Vampire Chronicles’. Yet it just didn’t work for me.

The main protagonist is 17-year old Celine Rousseau, who has fled her previous life as an apprentice dressmaker in Paris and traveled to New Orleans. Initially she stays at an Ursuline convent though soon falls in with a mysterious group known as the Court of Lions led by Sèbastien St. Germain, nephew to the mysterious Le Comte de St. Germain. Then the body of one of the other young women that traveled with Celine turns up - mutilated! It’s the first of a number of gruesome deaths. In addition, Celine is tormented by a secret from her past.

Despite my enthusiasm for the concept I had quite serious reservations with this novel, even keeping in mind that it is intended for a YA readership. I am the first to admit that I tend to be critical when historical novels are anachronistic to this degree.

Yes, I completely understand the appeal of setting it in 1872 New Orleans yet there was very little sense of the period apart from fashion and decor. It really seemed as though modern day characters had been plopped into the setting like time travellers who weren’t particularly worried about whether they fit in. Where was the etiquette, the decorum?

‘The Beautiful’ also tended towards the melodramatic with lashings of purple prose. Celine is constantly referred to as the most beautiful woman ever and we hear over and over about Sèbastien’s looks.

I did seek to put aside my concerns but I just found the characters so unconvincing. Celine was almost a parody of the plucky heroine and incredibly self-absorbed. Her behaviour at a Midsummer’s Night Dream themed party was so snobbish as she petulantly remarked: “Have any of these fools actually read the play?” Lighten up woman!

Then there is Police Detective Michael Grimaldi, who is supposed to be the best detective in the Metropolitan Police, yet is described as being only several years older than Celine. Sure that’s believable... He then of course falls under Celine’s spell. Yet he is pretty much regulated to the friends-zone as Celine and Sèbastien have fallen in insta-love. Is it a requirement that all YA vampire fiction has a love triangle?

However, I didn’t abandon it and carried on reading. Despite my frustrations with the lack of world building and weak characterisation I did get quite caught up in the story towards the conclusion.

I expect that I will be in the minority and it could just be that it is a novel meant to appeal to a young readership.

I am interested in how things play out and hoping that the concept of the Sylvan Vale/Wyld is explored rather than just teased. So I likely will read the sequel but approach with much lower expectations.

So it is receiving 2.5 stars from me, rounded up to 3 for the conclusion.

Wow. This was better than expected....

The whole vampire craze had subsided, but I'm glad its been resurrected because this was a really entertaining read!

It started off a little slow, but picked up along the way. I liked the characters and always love Renée Ahdieh's writing! Cannot wait to read more from her!


Highly recommend!

The Beautiful was one of my most anticipated book releases of the year. I absolutely love vampires and I was ready for their return to YA. Unfortunately, this book was a complete letdown and I'm so disappointed.

The premise of the book intrigued me immediately but the actual plot turned out to be pretty boring. While I enjoy a slow-paced plot, this book was way too slow-paced because nothing really happened. I wouldn't have had a problem with the slow pace if the book had focused on the character building and giving them some depth. But these characters were complete cliches and had absolutely no depth at all. Until the very end, I did not really understand the characters, and I felt like I barely knew anything at all about them. Because of how flat and one-dimensional these characters were, I was also unable to connect to any of them. The best and most interesting character was Odette.

For a vampire book, there was surprisingly little vampire action. They were present in this book but it was never really confirmed until the very end which annoyed me. I wish it had been addressed a lot earlier because then this topic could've been fleshed out a lot more. This way, three-quarter of the book felt like a set up for the sequel which made the book extremely boring. Every time I picked the book up it bored me so much that I got sleepy. The pace only picked up during the last 50 pages and those were probably the best thing about this whole book. These pages are also the only reason why I would consider picking up the sequel but it's very unlikely to happen.
I personally also don't know why this book has to be set in 1872. This added nothing to the story. With how modern the characters were the story could've easily been set in 2019. The atmosphere of 1872 New Orleans was also never noticeable.

One thing I also don't think was necessary is the potential love triangle. We have Celine, then the cliche bad boy Sébastien and the good guy Michael. There is obvious tension between Celine and Sébastien but Michael was also constantly present and it felt like a set up for a potential love triangle.

While I was bored for the most part of the book there were still two things I enjoyed about this book. The villain's POV was a lot of fun. I think next to the last 50 pages it was what I liked the most about this book because this way there was a little bit of suspense present in this otherwise boring book.
The last thing I enjoyed was the diversity. There are a lot of characters BPoC characters and if I remember correctly there is also a lesbian character.

To conclude, I had high hopes for this book, even if I never read a book by the author before. I had hoped Renée Ahdieh would put a twist on the classic/cliche YA Vampire story but unfortunately, she didn't. It may not be relying as much on romance, but the book is still full of cliches and flat characters. This book is definitely a disappointment for me and I don't think I will read the sequel.

I really was so excited for this, but it didn’t live up to my expectations. I found it very boring, slow-paced and the romance hit too close to insta-love for my tastes. I had hoped the villain would be a saving grace, but alas. I was also very confused at the lack of vampires considering it’s been marketed as a vampire book. On a positive note, Ahdieh’s writing style is as beautiful as ever, but unfortunately not enough to save the rest of the disappointing elements.