This series did me in. I am so invested in Bastien and Celine, as well as the other characters. I enjoyed that they all came from varied backgrounds and still became the found family they are. I would have liked a bit more background to the world, I think, but the minor questions I did have didn't take anything away from my enjoyment. Ahdieh is so talented and I look forward to what she comes up with next.

this follows up on the golden steps of the first book which I loved, and this book was just as good. I am so glad i picked this up.

For most of this book I was pretty much feeling like it would be a 3 star. There wasn’t really much happening compared to the first book, and it very much felt like a filler book. However around three quarters of the way into the book the pace picked up, we got some action and some development of character arcs and the ending managed to hook me enough that it bumped the rating up to a 4 star and I’ll now definitely be continuing the series

This was the perfect sequel, I loved being sucked back into Renee's wonderfully dark world. Vampires, magic and fae this wonderful fantasy series has it all! I can not wait to read the rest of this quartet.

Thank you for my eARC of this book!
I absolutely love any vampire aspect, forbidden love, gimme! So I was so excited to continue this series.
I did find the pacing a little slow to begin with but once I was about 1/3 through I was fully engaged!

This is going to be a hard review to write. It took me a long time to finish the book and I think that was part personal circumstances and part because of the book. This book starts off quite slow and the POV's change a bit from the first book. Sébastien is much more the focus in this book where Celine was more of the focus in the first book. So I had some trouble getting into the story until I hit about 35% I think. After that I started to read faster and faster and I really enjoyed it. The end was very suspenseful and I can't wait for the next book.

We follow our characters a little while after the events of The Beautiful. Celine doesn't have her memories anymore but she wants to know what happened badly. Sébastien tries to stay away from Celine and to get used to his new situation. And that's not easy. We finally find out who was actually behind the attacks in the first book. I really enjoyed that part of the story and it was interesting to read about the motives behind it all. We also get to read about a whole different place and we just get to know all the characters better. Michael has a bit of a bigger role in this book and I really enjoyed his character!

While I found certain characters a bit annoying in the first part of the book that did change. Later on we actually get to see some interesting development, especially in Sébastien. I also loved how we got an expansion on the plot compared to the first book. Like I said, the world get's a lot bigger, but we also get more characters and the plot definitely evolves. While it took me a while to get into the story, I loved the later half.

The Damned was a magical read that expanded upon the first book well, answering many of the questions that I had whilst giving me more. I loved diving back into the glamorous yet monstrous world of The Beautiful and learning more about the characters. However, it wasn't a five star read like the first book was for me because I felt like it tried to cram a bit too much in without adequate explanation.

The follow-up to The Beautiful was not as exciting as its predecessor which breaks my heart to say. I found the start of The Damned rather boring but once we hit the 25 to 50% mark, the events started to pick up and Ahdieh really got into her stride.

The world of The Damned is glamourous yet monstrous, with deep overtones of Charlaine Harris' The Southern Vampire Mysteries (True Blood). Vampies, werewolves, fae... this book had it all.

Whilst not as strong as Ahdieh's previous series, this is still a series worth reading for new and die-hard fans.

This was so good! I really enjoyed The Beautiful and went into this with high hopes and was so glad to not be let down.

This time around we got more answers but still so many things I want to know! Looking forward to the next book after where this was left off :)

If you've read my previous review for the first book in this series, you may be aware I wasn't blown away like so many others. The entire concept, whilst intriguing and in line with my usual reading, fell short for me, and I ended up giving The Beautiful 3.5 stars. So it may be of some surprise to find out I applied for an early review copy of The Damned on Netgalley and was granted my request.

Truth be told, I wanted to give this series a second chance. Instagram was full of people singing the praises on the first book, and I felt like maybe I was simply missing something and would find myself more drawn to the sequel, like the majority of other YA series. But unfortunately, any enthusiasm I had for this book, any hope of being drawn in and immersed in an otherwise interesting world, was cut short relatively quickly.

If we're being honest, this series had so much potential and I just can't understand why it doesn't quite do the trick for me. The characters seem bland and self-centred, the plot is lacking the oomph I usually like to see, and I'm no longer surprised by the twists and turns.
This instalment specifically felt like it had little contribution to the bigger story. Some big revelations were made, the plot twist from The Beautiful's conclusion was finally implemented, but it just didn't seem like it was 456 pages well spent. The romance was lacking, the adventure more of a slow amble, and I was left wanting more, but not in the really good way

Of course, there are some positives, as is usual with any book I read. The writing is still well done, the friendships and relationships well explored and believable, and the character development of the two 'main' characters was interesting to see. I just wanted something a little more, 'adult'?

It's always difficult to review a second book in a series, you don't want to give too much away in case you spoil things for readers that haven't read the first one or even this one.
The damned continues from where the first left off(naturally). Sebastian has been changed forever and struggles to deal with these changes whilst Celine has no memories of what transpired that dreadful night and once fully recovered despite her memory loss tries to go back to normal. However, cracks in her memory start forming and a force is pushing her once again towards Sebastian.

In my own opinion I thought this was much better than 'the beautiful'. I think this continuation had a better plot and the characters were more developed.
Celine was so much stronger, she knew what she wanted and she wasn't afraid to let people know. Sebastian was always trying to do the best thing for everyone despite his feelings taking a battering.
I also felt the world building in this was so much better than the first especially when they enter the Vale.
I will more than likely continue on with the series/trilogy as it was left with some pieces unanswered.

I gave these 3/5 stars and recommend if you like paranormal stories

Celine is on the run. She arrives in New Orleans in an attempt to hide. She is a murderess. Back in Paris, she killed a boy who tried to rape her, but the self-defence is not an excuse so she ran away leaving behind her life and her father.

But New Orleans is not a safe place at all. There is a killer hiding in the shadows of the night and taking young girls’ lives. However, her friend Pippa, who she met on the ship, and she become embroiled in the city’s glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions and yes, everybody there are vampires, except one – Sebastien Saint Germain, the only living relative of the oldest know vampire – Nicodemus Saint Germain. Sebastien’s family is gone – his mother and father went mad after being turned into vampires from his uncle Nicodemus and their insanity lead to their true death. His sister died in a fire. Or at least everybody thinks so. Actually, Emilie is the one who stays behind all these murders using one of the closest to Nicodemus vampire – Nigel as a puppet. All this is only to attract Bastien and try to kill him to get the revenge she craved for all these years for leaving her behind in the fire. She almost succeeded.

Here comes Celine and her love for Sebastien. She made a promise to his uncle in exchange for him turning Bastien to a vampire and saving his life. The deal is Celine to forget about Sebastien and leave him be and to sacrifice all her memories of him. So that’s what Nicodemus did – he took Celine’s memories and turn Bastien into a vampire, and that’s where we were supposed to wait for the sequel.

And here is the sequel.

The Damned picked up from the very moment where The Beautiful ended. It opened with all of the Nicodemus closest vampires tensely awaiting for Bastien to wake up and start his new immortal life.

When Nicodemus turned him into a vampire, he broke the deal with the Brotherhood – he wasn’t supposed to bring new vampire in the town. Bastien transformation broke the fragile balance between the Brotherhood and the Vampires. That’s not the only thing that got wrong. Celine is not supposed to remember, but she kind of does and that’s unusual.

Bastien is turned into the thing he hates the most so he goes to a journey to find the one person, who hides deep into the Other world, who can turn him back into a human being. On top of everything, he has to share this dangerous journey with Celine.

It may sound a bit strange but I liked the second book more than the first one. Why? The sequel is more fast paced, there are fewer dialogues in French (the thing I hated the most in the first one), and the way the plot is unfolding is way better than the first one where we have some really stupid hints that didn’t lead to anything. I like that we had the chance to learn more about the vampire society, about Bastien’s sister and the werewolves. Also, we have the chance to explore the magical fay world and where Celine came from and why vampires can’t sway her mind.

There is not much to be said about the book. Although the author met us with new characters who have an impact over the general plot, nothing much happened. It’s more like a back story to the events from book one, aiming to deepen the plot, gives us more perspectives to explore and enlighten us to some events that happened before and needed to be explained to understand what’s going on.

I can’t get into Ahdieh writing style and so I’m struggling at the beginning of each book. However, once I get deeper in the story, it becomes easier and I did enjoy the book. Absolutely looking forward to reading the last one from the series.

A huge thanks to Hooder & Stoughton and the author Renée Ahdieh for sending me an ARC of this novel via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts are mine!

I truly enjoyed the first installment of this series and it is not surprising that the second one also didn’t disappoint. While the beginning was a bit slow, I genuinely felt the stakes and the excitement that the author was striving for.
The worldbuilding from the first book was a great stepping stone for what the second book achieved.
While vampires weren’t really mentioned in The Beautiful, in The Damned, they became central to the storyline and all the people who grew up reading Twilight, finally had their fill of vampiric content.

The Beautiful was one of my favourite books of 2019, and I couldn't wait to see where the story went next in The Damned. Unfortunately, as is often the case, the sequel just didn't quite live up to my expectations. I was so excited to dive back into this world and reconnect with these characters, and while it started off well, it slowly started going downhill for me. I'm super picky about my vampire books, and though The Beautiful did everything so wonderfully, The Damned introduced a lot of vampire tropes that just aren't my cup of tea. All in all, this book just felt like a lot of build up that ended super anti-climactically. I'll more than likely continue the series when the final book is released, but I can't deny that this book didn't live up to my love of The Beautiful.

The Damned | Renée Ahdieh

What makes a great book. For me it escapism and this year we have all needed escapism more than ever. I also love books that have some resonance with me and in this case that resonance is #NewOrleans, a city that I absolutely adore.

#TheBeautiful was one of my favourite books of 2019, I loved it’s subtle homage to the world #AnneRice and it’s obvious passion for the sultry, southern grandeur of New Orleans. It was packed with gothic dark romance, vampires and dark mystery. Stepping into a sequel there is always a worry, ‘Will it Live up to expectations?’. I’m pleased to report a massive ‘YES’.

#TheDamned oozes with all the sultry, dark elements I loved from the first book but introduces brilliant new mythos to this world of vampires and werewolves. We are cast into an expanded tapestry, of creatures that cling to the shadows and the other worlds of the fae. Ahdieh’s language is rich and beautifully evocative, her language draws you into this sultry world that shows a genuine love of New Orleans. As a lover of the city the sights and sounds she conjures of this city are intoxicating.

Dripping with beautiful dark, gothic romance, vampires and werewolves ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of five

In this sequel we follow the story of forbidden love between Celine and Sébastien. After Celine offered her memories for Sébastien’s life, she didn’t remember anything connected to him or the La Cour des Lions. Her loss of memories was explained by the doctor as the result of the attack on her in the past month. With Michael and Pippa on her side, she was recovering fast, however, the dreams and the feeling of lost didn’t want to leave her in piece. Nothing feels right. She sees the lies in her friends’ mouth. She decides to find the truth and the way to her lost memories.

On the other side, Sébastien is straggling with accepting the truth of becoming a vampire himself, like the rest of his family. He doesn’t want to adapt; he wants his humanity back. He wants Celine back in his arms. He doesn’t want to live life of the cursed immortal. He never wanted life like this, he knew the cost of it. His focus changes when he finds out about a one in a million chance to retrieve his humanity back.
Their lives cross once again and the fight for the future starts all over again.

The sequel of The Beautiful wasn’t the book I expected it to be. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad book, but I was lacking few details I really loved in the first book. First of all, I miss the mystery atmosphere that was heavily present in the first book. It was the part that actually was driving me into reading the first book so fast. I wanted to know more and more about the characters, the villain and the coming events. Everything was unexpected and surprising. However, in this book half of the book was boring as most of the events were obvious. Secondly, the picture of the vampire from the first book was transformed from the dangerous creature into a typical loveable vampire that most of the books introduce. Well, I should see that coming, however, I liked this aspect very much.

Beside these two things I enjoyed this book a lot. Even if the first half of the book wasn’t very intriguing, I enjoyed the second one vey much. I liked the connection between the fey world and Celine. I won’t lie, I was surprised as much as Sébastien when I figured it out, while reading. I knew there is something special about Celine, however, I didn’t know in what way. Moreover, let’s talk about how powerful Celine became after all that happened. I love her sassiness and that she doesn’t let anyone to mess with her. She didn’t let anyone to decide about her actions and future. She stood for herself in the times she knew people tried to control her because of her weakness of not knowing this world. I adore her character even more than after reading the first book. Sometimes the things she had done were reckless, however, she always could find a way out from it. Well, she is a smart woman so I shouldn’t be even surprised.

As much as I enjoyed Celine’s part of the story, I don’t know if I can say the same about Sébastien. I think his point of view was repeating itself through first half of the book and the action started first when he finally decided to find a way to get back his humanity. I really like his character, however, his POV were lacking something to interest me as much as Celine’s ones.

I think the worst POV of this book was Michael’s. I don’t know if I am the only one, but his character annoyed me so much. I couldn’t bare him talking. Honestly, as much as I liked him in the first book, as much I hate him in this one. THANK YOU, NEXT. Unfortunately, I think he will play a big part in the next book.

At the end of this review I would like to mention how good was the ending of the book. I suspected it, however, I still enjoyed reading it. I don’t understand exactly few parts of it, and I hope they will be better explained in the next part because without it, so many things wouldn’t have any sense. For example, Emelie’s character didn’t exactly appeared as I thought it will be. In the first book she looked as if she would be a very smart character, however, in this one she ends up as another desperate maniac who wants to destroy her own family. Her desperation was painful and unreasonable. Especially, what she had done to Odette, until now I do not understand how cruel you can be to do something like this just to hurt your brother. I thought that her revenge will be as good planned as in the first book, but it turned out to be chaotic and stupid.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Renée Ahdieh and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me this book! I cannot wait to read the third part of this story. I am very curious how the story will continue in the unknown world of fae,

This was a book that was difficult to put down! The characters were superb as in the first installment and story just kept you guessing right up until the last page. 10/10 would recommend.

In this sequel to the Beautiful, we follow Bastien and Celine as they refigure out themselves and struggle with the choices that Celine made to save Bastien. Bastien is now a vampire and Celine traded her memories in order to save him, which inevitably meant turning him into a vampire.

Not remembering what happened to her, Celine puts her memory loss down to an accident where she hurt her head, or so people are telling her but she contemplates whether something is amiss. She definitely knows something is up and has constant nightmares of something that haunts her but alas, she cannot remember such things happening. She is in a continuous battle with herself, feeling like she is being lied to constantly by those she considers her friends. Whereas Bastien, is in the know about what Celine did for him and can’t get it out of his mind that she would have done such a thing for him even if he is being stubborn about being a vampire and does not want to remain that way. Bastien must look at what she gave up for him and stay loyal within his vampire family or follow his desire’s for Celine. Celine though is starting to remember some things even though she shouldn’t.

What makes matters worse, is the fact that Nicodemus shouldn’t have made a new vampire as it goes against the treaty that he signed with the Brotherhood. The brotherhood of course get wind of the new vampire lurking in the shadows and now Nicodemus has to pay the price for it. In addition to this, in the epilogue of the previous book, we were introduced to Emilie, Bastien’s sister and now werewolf. She died in a fire saving Bastien but when she herself needed saving, Nicodemus turned the other way, refusing to turn her into a vampire. Instead somebody else saved her and turned her into a werewolf. Now that Nicodemus has done the thing that she wanted most to Bastien, she declares war on the rest of her family with the rest of the werewolf clan in tow, including Michael’s, who is the other love interest of Celine, cousin Luca.

Unbeknownst to Bastien that all of this is happening, he goes searching for a way to undo what Celine had done and to become mortal again. He reads about a man called Sunan who lives in the Sylvan Wyld and asks Valeria about what she had heard of him. She instantly guesses it’s because he wants to be unmade and tells him of what she knows. But there is a snag in his plan, vampires are forbidden from entering the Winter Court of Sylvan through a portal but they are not forbidden from entering the Summer court and then travelling to the winter court from there. So he and Arjun head to the summer court. Upon arriving, the fey of the summer court instantly capture them and escort them to the queen, as she is interested in him. Her interest in him is because of Celine. Celine is her daughter that she abandoned and now wants to reconnect with her. In order to let him get to the Winter Court, she asks him to bring Celine to her. It is then when we realise that Celine is an ethereal which is why she is starting to get her memory back. She is half ethereal so she cannot be manipulated by vampires as well as humans are. Bastien and Celine meet up and this is when he spills the beans to her about vampires, about the creatures that lurk in the night and of the fey. He tells her about whom her mother is and that she wants to meet her and if she is ready, she can see her. She accepts the offer and they go back to the summer court. She finally meets her mother and feels a mix of emotions about the reunion. She is excited and thrilled but is upset at her mother because she let her think she was dead for fourteen years and abandoned her with her father. But what adds to that emotion is that she finds out that she was used as a bargaining chip for Bastien to get to the Winter Courts she is upset with him but agrees to go with him to the winter court trusting him over her mother.

They head to the winter court. When they get to the winter court, they meet the king who wants to punish Bastien, as a vampire shouldn’t enter. Arjun puts himself forward to stay at the winter court in his sted and offers that he will remain there for a period of six weeks in servitude of the king. He agrees but also tells them that Sunan left the winter court long ago. It was in that moment, the life drained out of Bastien because that was his entire reason for going there. They return to the summer court, only for it to be revealed that Sunan was actually watching them in the winter court all along. At the summer court, Celine makes a request of her mother, she will return to the vale to spend time with her but first she must go back to New Orleans and offer people explanations of what happened to her during this period of time.

They come back to Emilie having kidnapped Nicodemus and tries to start a war between the vampires and the werewolves. Chaos and fighting ensues to try and get Nicodemus back. People were lost on either side including Nicodemus who tried to save everybody by sacrificing himself but that didn’t stop the fighting. Odette was killed by Emilie also. Many were lost. Luca, the werewolf who Emilie loved was killed by his cousin who was attacking the women he loved, Celine. Emilie was absolutely distraught by this and was alone. Bastien sent her to the summer court so she could be banished to the wastelands for her crimes. It is revealed in the epilogue that for killing Luca, Michael himself has turned into a vampire as there are only a few ways of turning into a vampire and one is killing a werewolf. “A bite from a werewolf often resulted in death, which was why it was rarely attempted among their ranks. The risk was too great. The Grimaldis had learned this truth the hard way. It wasn’t enough to be born into a family of wolves. You had to forge your own path. One surefire way of ensuring the change was sinister in construct: take the life of one of your own. A wolf for a wolf.”

This book was so much better than the previous, with the inclusion of the fey, it made this book otherworldly. We got to experience new things that were only touched upon in the previous books. The new mythologies that were hinted at come to light within this book and truly brings an awe inspiring tale. Though many plot points were very simplistic in its nature, the story itself was simply compelling and managed to grip me to its pages nonetheless. Although I am a sucker (pun) for fey this story brought something new to the universe that Renee Ahdieh has created. I honestly can’t wait to read the next in the series.

4 out of 5 stars.

After hearing so much praise about the first book in the series, I was excited to receive an ARC of 'The Damned', just after I'd started reading 'Thr Beautiful'. Unfortunately, I tried my best with both books, and was quite disappointed by both of them. Unusually for me, I had to DNF this book.

It must be pointed out that I am a librarian, so am not the target audience for this book, but I do enjoy reading lots of other YA books (general and fantasy). Therefore, in comparison to other books, I found the pace to be quite slow, which is fine if you have wonderful world-building and character exploration, but I didn't think 'The Damned' had either. Even though the POV constantly switched (perhaps to seem more deep and complex), a lot of the characters' thoughts and conversations were quite repetitive, and I found myself skipping bits of text accidentally out of boredom.

I'd still recommend the series to my readers, as I know my opinions are in the minority and would hate to out someone off without them giving it a try first. I think anyone who liked 'Thr Beautiful' would also enjoy 'The Damned', especially if they enjoyed the romance aspect

The follow up to The Beautiful ups the paranormal activity and action, but misses the mark by introducing a love triangle element with little romantic tension.

After the events of the first novel, Sebastian Saint Germain has been forever changed and forced into the shadows. Surrounded by his brothers and sisters, a found family of sorts, he must confront his new cursed life and try to forget about the woman who gave up everything so he could live - Celine. Sebastian is a very conflicted character, who spends a lot of the first half of the book internally questioning his every move and motive. He hates his uncle. He hates himself. And he hates this world he's been forced into. There's a push and pull of power between Uncle Nicodemus and Sebastian, with the former pushing his will on the latter. Honestly, I just found the whole plot a little irritating and dull. Without Celine, there's nothing exciting about Sebastian, and he easily falls into the 'tortured soul' trope.

Keeping Sebastian and Celine apart for a good part of the novel doesn't work in its favour. Their romantic, sexual tension was the real highlight of The Beautiful and it's severely lacking here. The forced chemistry between Michael and Celine just feels stilted and off. The reader knows she's never going to pick him over Sebastian. Also, Celine feels like a completely different character throughout most the book because of the tropey 'amnesia' storyline. It got old, really quickly, going from this strong feisty woman to a woman constantly haunted by dreams and questioning everything. It felt very out of sorts.

The world building is also really lacking any kind of depth. Gone are the rich descriptions of New Orleans, replaced with large info dumps about a magical underworld and an age old war, with various fae, halflings and shifters thrown in for good measure. It all feels a little out of place and confusing as it's thrust upon the reader without any real in-depth explanations to its purpose. Couple this with a very slow plot, (we spend the first 20% of the book focusing on one night) with lots of self reflections and recaps on family history and I just found myself bored.

Full of tropes. Confusing, slow moving plot and not enough chemistry between the characters. Very disappointing.