My heart is broken and healed and broken again and I just want to cry I love this series so MUCH it pains me

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of The Righteous by Renée Ahdieh. I've voluntarily read and reviewed this copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I mean... I would literally read anything that Renée Ahdieh writes. Her characters? Amazingly well-layered and compelling. Her world building? Magical and intriguing. The banter between characters? Fun, heartwarming, sexy and beautifully written. I can go on and on but you probably get the point.

The Righteous is the third book in The Beautiful and this time we spend most of the story in the Sylvan Vale. I really enjoyed venturing into this realm and learning more about the Sylvan Vale. I am also really glad that we got to spend more time with Arjun and Pippa. I'll be honest, at first I wasn't so sure about Pippa but she has really grown on me and now I love her. The addition of the POV's of Arjun and Pippa next to Celine and Sebastian is really well done. I absolutely loved the dynamic between Pippa and Arjun and how their story unfolded.

The ending was full of suspense and I am very curious to find out how the story of Celine, Sebastian, Arjun and Pippa will continue. Definitely recommend if you love an amazing fantasy series.

I have adored the first two books in this series, I believe that I gave them both 5 stars but sadly this fell a little flat for me, I don't know whether it's because it had different points of view or because I'd procrastinated on reading this one!

I did like this more towards this end, I did find it a little slow but I am very much looking forwards to the next one regardless!

I'm so sorry for the late review. Life sadly got in the way but I'm now trying to catch up.

Anyway, I really enjoy this series and was so happy to be back in this world and with Renee Ahdieh's writing.

However, this book fell flat for me. Whilst I like these two characters I honestly didn't see any point in this book. I feel like the series didn't move on much and these additions could have been shortened and added into the next book.

I'm gutted I didnt love this one as much as the others but I will still be continuing on with the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Odette’s death and Bastien’s leaving affected The Court of Lions. As the only being that could venture into the Sylvan Vale, Arjun returns to a place he absolutely hates. Let’s just say that the fey are always depicted as malicious, mischievous, and evil supernaturals, and it’s no different in The Righteous.

My first impression of Pippa as the main character wasn’t too positive. Her foolishness landed her in a marriage of convenience with her not-actual-fiancé, Arjun. Meanwhile, Arjun is trying to find a healer from the Sylvan Vale quickly to save Odette from her final death and ends up meeting with the mortal.

There were moments when I can’t believe how naive Pippa was about the fey world AFTER experiencing it firsthand in a very horrifying way. Warned multiple times not to trust anything and anybody in that realm and even after learning about it the hard way, Pippa still tried to analyze things in a positive light. However, Pippa’s optimism and kindness are a rarity in the fey world. The contrast actually balances out the horrible nature of the fey.

While Arjun and Pippa are the main characters, readers still get a glimpse of what Bastien and Celine are up to. The introduction was a little abrupt considering we were following the former couple in the first half of the book. Bastien and Celine’s perspectives could’ve been inserted anywhere in between Arjun and Pippa’s chapters when they were thought about but they only appeared in the latter half. This would have helped explain the intertwining of events that ensued later on.

Unfortunately, the disconnect continues. Celine feels like a different person as compared to the initial duology with The Beautiful and The Damned. Is there a correlation between the time she’s spending in the Sylvan Vale and her temper? Is she being brainwashed? Celine in The Righteous didn’t feel like the Celine that I knew. Bastien is struggling with his bloodlust after being turned into a vampire. He also knows that Celine’s mother will never approve of him for her daughter.

The pacing of The Righteous wasn’t super consistent. As we focused on Arjun and Pippa’s impending marriage in the Sylvan Wyld, the sudden change to include a sinister plan of the fey was just weird and caused a distortion. It wasn’t good when I felt that I was missing a few chapters. And this only happened when we switched over to Celine and Bastien’s side. Also, Renée Ahdieh doing a crossover that I never thought would exist ever. I’m excited and afraid simultaneously.

Overall, the author transported me into the world she’s creating. The writing is still engaging as it was when I read her debut, The Wrath and the Dawn. The chemistry between Arjun and Pippa was built up since The Beautiful but Bastien and Celine seemed to have a new whole personality. Not too enthusiastic about that but I’ll wait to see how things panned out in The Ruined.

Thank you for my earc of this book! The 3rd of 4 books in this series.
I felt at times there was a lag or disconnect in the writing? It made it a little jarring at times but otherwise a good addition to the series.

trigger warning
<spoiler> mention of slavery, torture, trauma, grief, mention of memory loss, racism, xenophobia, being kidnapped </spoiler>

Warning: Part three of a series. This will include spoilers for the first two books. Consider yourselves warned.


The aftermath of the big fight leaves Odette grievoulsy wounded and Arjun is send to Fairy to find a healer who would help. Since he is the only non-vampire left, he is the only one who can do the task. His friends instruct him to leave the portal open, so in case anything should happen to him, they can launch a heroic rescue mission.
Of course an open portal means just anyone can use it.

First off: Our protagonists in this one are Pippa, who stumbles in after Arjun, and our half-fairy traveller himself. Half the book passes before we meet Celine and Bastien again, and it felt jarring since the previous books were so centered around those two.

Most of this is spend in the fairy realm and deals with fairy politics. Which is fine, I guess, if you come for fairy politics and not for crime in the dark alleys of New Orleans.

It feels as if the author wanted to go from the start, the vampires-solve-a-crime, to epic fantasy but the transition didn't work as well as intended, because at least I was not really in it. Also, I expect from epic fantasy that I can't predict where this is going, while this book was very, very straightforward. And in large parts boring, it felt as if you could edit quite a lot down if you tried.

If I read on from this, it is more because I have already read 3/4s of the story and it will feel nicer to me to have completed the thing. It won't be because I really care for the characters or the plot anymore.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

Renee Ahdieh is an auto-buy author for me and this addition to her catalog did not disappoint! While this series is not my favourite of hers it’s still incredibly fun and addictive. I was anticipating this release after the cliff hanger of the second book and I’m even more looking to the finale after this book. Renee’s writing is lush as always and so easy to read.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a disappointing installment of the series. The story yet again focuses on a different POV, mainly following Arjun and Pippa. It had forced proximity, marriage of convenience tropes that I love but the execution left much to be desired. There was zero chemistry between Arjun and Pippa and I found Pippa's motivations to find Celine wildly exaggerated. Their friendship wasn't very well established for me to consider them the best of friends. Additionally, Pippa's secret wasn't so interesting. She turned out to be a very bland character with little depth. The main issue with this story was that there was no majn conflict. It was a series of little events that I could have done without. The villains are claimed to be very cunning and fearsome but I just didn't see that. All in all the turn this story took was not my favourite and I might not continue reading the finale.

This had my heart absolutely screaming. I loved the continuation of the story and the whole story had my mind screaming!!

This wasn't what I was expecting of this book. Apparently, I tend to live under a rock because it took me about 50% of reading and a quick online search to realise this wasn't the final book in the series! Well, hello, that's me.

This book basically throws the main characters of the previous installments - Celine and Sébastien who show up in about two chapters- aside to make room for Pippa and Arjun. And damn, I loved it. Don't get me wrong, the general main characters are great but I loved that Ahdieh allowed us to dive deeper into the past and stories of Pippa and Arjun. Especially Arjun caught my eye in the previous books, so I was very happy to see more of him.

The pacing and storyline all in all moves smoothly, not too slow and not too fast, but in the end the pace picks up a lot and I struggled a bit to catch up. It was almost too fast, with a lot of twists and turns to get a hold of. But oh, I loved some of those twists. A lot.

Book three in the series is a great addition to it, introducing a new pair of main characters who don't have to hide behind Celine and Sébastien at all. And especially with the way it ended, I am all in for the next one.

The Righteous by Renée Ahdieh is the third book in her The Beautiful series. And I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings about this installment – beginning with how I thought this was a trilogy and kept waiting for resolution that did not come, only to be blind-sighted by the story ending just after 90% and finishing on excerpts from ALL of Ahdieh’s series. Written in Ahdieh’s signature compelling style – I don’t think I’ve read anything of hers that hasn’t gripped me – this pivots away from the first two books a bit by focusing on Pippa and Arjun, two characters present in The Beautiful and The Damned. And I have to say, this is a choice that I really liked. They are great characters, and it made for an interesting change – however, this series is a bit all over the place. It started out as a historical vampire romance-y story, and now it’s more of a fairy story. Although I’m enjoying myself and they’re entertaining reads, I feel like I’m being conned to an extent, not necessarily in a bad way. I’m just not sure if I’d have picked up the series if I’d known where it’d go – and the ending to this particular volume made me grumpy. I was all set to give it four stars and then the very end changed my mind. So one to read if you’ve been enjoying the series, but no reason to pick up the series by itself.

The Righteous evolved the series into a direction I didn't see coming.

PLOT: The previous boos had focused on Celine. Even though we still see what's going on her the focus moved to Pippa and Arjun. It took me a couple of chapters to find my feet with the change in leads. But I really enjoyed seeing the connection between Pippa and Arjun. This book is all about the Fey's which I found interesting. Especially with the conflict between Summer and Winter, and the Feys with anyone that isn't 100% fey.

CHARACTER: I was surprised how much I liked Pippa. I think I prefer her to Celine. Her personality and a love of random facts are akin to my own.

WRITING STYLE: Renée has a really good way of using her writing to hive that historical feeling but keeps the style entertaining and easy to read.

OVERALL: An enjoyable book that is different to its predecessors.

My rating for The Righteous is 4.3 out of 5.

I was so excited to get this book, i loved the first two and was looking forward to this. However it was not what i was expecting, instead of Celine and Bastien as the main characters we follow Pippa and Arjun as the main characters as the travel through the other world. The story was really good, i just got confused in places and wasn’t sure what the author was trying to achieve, perhaps it’s setting up the last book?
But i did love seeing Arjun and Pippa’s relationship grow and how fierce Pippa is and finding out her story.

This book felt a bit like a filler, to be honest. I loved Arjun though and was happy enough to read more about him. There wasn't much of a plot and it might have benefited from being merged with books 2 and 4 and just getting rid of the extra third book completely.

I adore this entire series so muchhhhh 🤯🥺😍

Okay so...
This book has an entire new level of drama, feminism, character development, tension, romance and twists!
IT also has one of my favourite trope - fake engagement (screaming, crying throwing up)
I cannot imagine any other way to end this series!
And the ENDING was just love😭

I don't want to spoil even a little thing but you HAVE TO read this series

The third instalment of The Beautiful series sees Pippa Montrose following Arjun Desai into the world of the fae in order to find her best friend Celine. However, as soon as he arrives she is immediately thrown into a dangerous and tumultuous land.

I really enjoyed that this novel focused more on the story of Pippa and Arjun; it was fast paced and the ending was as expected a massive cliff hanger so now eagerly awaiting the next instalment.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

Thank you Hodderscape for my copy!
So this book is more focused on Arjun and Pippa and told from their pov, only a couple of chapters are from Bastien's and Celine's, this irked me somewhat as I wasn't expecting it, but I actually really enjoyed their story!
Pippa however, really got on my nerves, don't get me wrong she did get better but only slightly. I can't deal with woman in books who consistently make stupid mistakes and this was Pippa all over. Arjun is a really interesting character and I liked that we got to see more of him and what makes him tick. The world building was good, I loved the descriptions of the Sylvan Vale and Sylvan Wild, however I feel like the books are just getting odder and odder. It is not at all what I was expecting when I picked up The Beautiful but that doesn't mean that I am not enjoying it!
I am intrigued to see where the story goes and what happens!
3.5 stars for me!

I loved book 1, book 2 was OK, this one...it was also OK. I do like these characters but I found the pacing in book 2 and 3 to be a bit too slow for me and I would have just liked more...I just can't put my finger on what else was missing.

So this book wasn't what i was expecting at all!!

Did i still love it? YESSS!!

Even though it was the opposite of what i was expecting i enjoyed this book so much. This series as a whole has been so enjoyable to read. Can't wait to see where the series takes us next.

Solid 3.5 stars