The Righteous is book 3 in the quartet for The Beautiful and it’s vastly different to the 2 books before it. While The Beautiful and The Damned followed the romance of Celine and Bastien and the Court of Lions, these barely feature in The Righteous.
Starting after the events of The Damned, Celine and Bastien are missing and Odette is near mortally (or the vampire equivalent) wounded, barely surviving. Attempts to heal Odette are not working and it is decided that Arjun, known from the first books as Bastien’s friend, agrees to travel to the Summer Court to bring a fey healer back. At the same time, Pippa is worried about her friend Celine being missing and sets out to find her, ending up in the Summer Court with her life in danger.

My feelings on this book are mixed, but I think this is from comparing it to the first 2 books which are so different. The primary focus in this book is the romance between Pippa and Arjun and I have to say I loved it. For the romance I would give this book 5 stars. I adored Pippa, she’s a good friend, a great sister, and she has a lot of pain inside her that she selflessly powers through, I really enjoyed getting to know her better. Likewise Arjun is a beautiful fictional man I can add to my crushes, he’s vulnerable, protective, noble and together these 2 make such a nurturing, healthy couple who feel so well matched, both healing each other. During these romantic scenes, the writing is delightful and there’s a charming intimacy created between these 2 characters that is so endearing.

What I struggled with during this book was Celine and Bastien, both not appearing until half the book and very hard to emotionally connect with. We haven’t been with these characters to know what has happened or how they have felt about these events, but you can see the effect on them. Celine actually isn’t very likeable, yes I love those moments when she connects with Bastien, for example when he has to travel and she says he must come back in 2 days or she will come get him herself, they are so good together. However mostly there’s just an uncomfortable distance between them which you feel in the limited pages they appear. Bastien feels isolated, stuck in a land not his own but enduring it to make Celine happy, he struggles to communicate with her, when he tries they argue and she really doesn’t notice or maybe seem to care he’s conflicted and uncomfortable. That arrogant confidence has vanished, instead he feels threatened, jealous and is not the lion we love. Celine, on the other hand, is wrapped up in the love/power of her mother she has just reunited with, a conflict for Bastien who does not like her. There are worrying pages when Celine even fantasies about gaining more power herself that makes me worry for their relationship with her showing signs of acting like her mother. I missed the connection between these 2, the lack of content I could’ve handled but not how the relationship was shown during those pages :/

My other issue was the pacing. Again I loved the Pippa and Arjun romance and it was a comfortable, charming read for that reason. That said, not a lot else happens for quite some time other than this, then suddenly everything happens and you’re lurched into a lot build up for book 4. It’s a little overwhelming and underdeveloped and left on a cliffhanger (that I’ll admit I have to do my research on and re-read a certain book!).
Odette could die (again), the book starts with this threat but it’s so rarely referred to. When 2 characters are reunited at one point it felt like I was missing pages because so much was unsaid. And why is Michael back?? That guy needs to build a bridge and get over it, honestly he’s insufferable. Please.

I can see why this book wouldn’t necessarily work for everyone, depending on your thoughts on the 2 new leads. For all my frowns in this book, I loved these 2 previous side characters and getting to know them so I did really enjoy this. I need book 4 The Ruined like now!!!

Thank you NetGalley for the review copy :)

The Righteous is the third installment in The Beautiful series, and one I was nervous about. I enjoyed - didn't love, but reasonably liked - the first two books, and was very intrigued to see where the series would go after the ending of The Damned. What I didn't expect then was for it to be announced that the third book, instead of following the trend of the first two, would predominantly follow the perspectives of Pippa and Arjun. Now, these are both characters that I liked, but still, I was curious as to whether taking a break/diverting from the 'main' two characters would help or hinder the series.

It helped.

Out of all 3 books so far, I am pretty confident in saying it is my favourite. Is it perfect? No. I still had my usual issues with plot & pacing (we will get in to that) but out of all 3, this felt the most 'solid'. (Or maybe I was just in a better mood while reading? lol).

The Righteous begins by setting Arjun and Pippa on merging paths. Arjun has to travel to the Sylvan Vale to find a healer to save Odette, to bring her fully back to life (or undead life) after the events of the last novel. Meanwhile, Pippa is worried. Celine has disappeared, and she doesn't know where to. Thus begins her adventure in trying to find her friend and ensure her safety. Ultimately, this ends up with Pippa jumping through a portal, ending up in the midst of the Sylvan Vale among people who despise humans. It is then Arjun and her see each other . . . and he comes up with the idea, to buy her time to get her out and back home, that she's to be his bride.

And oh, how good this was. We've seen Ajrun and Pippa sort of skirt around their feelings for each other for two novels, never really going in to it, so it was great to see them confronted with and confined in this almost insular setting where it's just those two against the world. I enjoyed their banter, and them getting to know each other. I'm happy where they ended up in this book - and I'm aware there will be another - I still wish we got a little more time with their feelings, as in some regards their feelings seemed almost instantaneous.

This is similar to the plot, too. I enjoyed the plot in this one, the unfolding of the 'conspiracy', and I see why Ahdieh wanted to include the pov's of Arjun & Pippa, who got to go places & see things that Celine and Bastien couldn't. Ahdieh did provide us with chapters from Celine and Bastien's perspective, and it worked well to show the opposition to Arjun/Pippa, and set up the troubles in their relationship (like the tension Bastien has with her mother), for the next book. I almost wish we got more Celine & Bastien, because it didn't feel as we were every really with those characters for this one, but it didn't impact my enjoyment of the novel too much.

With the plot, I think it almost managed to stay nicely focused and balanced. I was disappointed that some plot points didn't unfurl as much as I would've liked them too - i.e., the healer for Odette - but with the way this novel was set up, unravelling the conspiracy of the Sylvan Vale, I think the 'world'/story will open up more in the fourth (I'm hoping).

Overall, I did really enjoy The Righteous, even if I did have issues with pacing (it all started happening in the last few chapters), I wasn't too concerned.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review

Thank you so much Netgalley for sharing this book with me in exchange for an honest review.

I fell thoroughly, madly deeply in love with this series and this book may be the best out of the entire series. Although I wasn't sure about Pippa and Arjun before this book began, I was so enthralled it was completely perfect!

The Righteous is such a good book and a great conclusion. The whole series has had a great story and amazing character development along the way, I am so sad for it to end!

Actually.. Renee, are you sure you don't want to write another one, or ten?

I am reeling from that ending! What a way to end a book! I am now going to be eagerly awaiting the next book in the series (so glad to hear there are four).

This book mainly follows Pippa as she follows Arjun into the world of the Fey in an attempt to find her friend Celine. What follows is an insight into the warped customs of the Fey, a cunning plot disguised behind pretty faces and an amazing slow burn romance. I loved it!

The only thing wrong was that it has been a while since I read the first two books in the series and it did take me a while to catch up. But once I had, I was fully invested and will set a reminder to reread the entire series before the fourth book comes out.

Headlines:
Different couple
Sucked in
The vale and the wyld

I thought I didn't want to leave Bastian and Celine behind at the end of The Damned but Renee Ahdieh wrote Anjan and Pippa so well that I changed my focus incredibly quickly and got involved in their story. These two had a subtle but palpable connection that grew.

This story took readers away from familiar territories and into the vale and the wyld. The fey were a nasty bunch and not one of them felt trustworthy. I've come out of this book wondering about some of the characters, who is genuine (or not) and how things will resolve. Errr, yes there is a book four coming.

Good news for all fans of this series is that we got a fair chunk of Bastian and Celine and a little of Michael too. I enjoyed the tentative stepping needed in the vale and wyld, I loved the different fey creatures, especially the mischievious small fey. So right now, I need all my questions answering and the next book, pretty please!

Thank you to Hodder Books for the early review copy.

This is the third book in The Beautiful Quartet and each book just keeps getting better and better! These books can be read in any order but I do recommend reading them in the order they are released to get a rich experience.

I absolutely adored this book and I was so happy to see that we would get to see Arjun and Pippa’s point of view as they were my favourite side characters in the first two books. We also see more of Celine, Bastian, Michael and Emilie from the first two books.

Each book expands the world of The Beautiful more and more and in this book we get to spend a lot more time in the world of the fey, we see how they live and how different they are from the human world and we see their politics and the rising tensions between the summer and winter courts. It was so interesting to see this world though I did miss the New Orleans and especially the court of lions. Maybe we will see them again in the next book.

Love was for the foolish. And Arjun Desai was no fool.

This book has a marriage of convenience, only one bed scene and multiple interactions between Arjun and Pippa where he calls her a term of endearment in Urdu and she doesn’t understand! Every time he did I would just have a big goofy grin on my face because it was the sweetest thing ever! I loved the dynamic between Pippa and Arjun so much and how well they compliment each other. How they understand each other so well in such a short time and the secret pining for each other almost killed me! They notice the smallest things about each other like how Arjun promises to not let her ever go hungry in their marriage vows when she reveals that she often went hungry growing up.

Conquering a man’s country does not mean you have conquered his soul.

I loved their development throughout the book and one of the things I loved most was that Arjun was not afraid to call Pippa out on her colonialist thinking and her white privilege and Pippa took the time to listen, apologise and learn from it. We do see this discussion happen throughout the series and it is so well done.

One of my favourite things about these books is how we get fae and vampires but they’re people of colour and their cultures are shown in their courts. It was so nice to be able to see that in the story especially when we usually see fae and vampires they are always white but now we get to see people of colour and ourselves in the story.

Men had been given access to power all their lives. It was their so called birthright. Maybe it was time for them to see what a woman could do.

We also see more of Celine and Bastian in this book and it’s so interesting to see how Celine is the one who is drawn to power and Bastian doesn’t want it. Bastian has always had power, but Celine hasn’t and now she realises she can have that freedom and choice she is often denied because she is a woman. The ongoing discussions around women and how the patriarchal society pushed them down and caged them in certain roles is one I have loved seeing throughout the books. We also see how the patriarchy hurts men too, like Bastian and how he must unlearn so many toxic ideas.

We get a few chapters from Michael’s point of view too in this book and let me just tell you that I completely and entirely hate this man. He has nothing but the audacity and if Celine doesn’t slap him, I will. In the first two books I was indifferent towards him but now we see how entitled he feels and how he puts blame on others instead of taking responsibility and it infuriated me.

The writing and the story is absolutely incredible and had me completely and entirely hooked to the point where I was up late at night to read just one more chapter. The tension that built up slowly throughout the book and then chaos ensued at the end with the ending being left on a cliffhanger left me screaming. And a cameo from one of Renee’s previous books that left me shook and so incredibly happy to see!

I need everyone to go read these books because they are incredible and deserve all the love.

I’ve been waiting for this thinking it was the last in the series, but it’s a double edge sword to find out there is to be another, yay there’s another but I have to wait again ! These books are fantastic, I am biased as I don’t think Renee can write a bad word, let alone book. The book is mainly set in the fae world of the Sylvan Vale , I definitely missed New Orleans, but it was interesting to get a different world view and this one felt slower than the previous two in the series, definitely more character than plot driven and whilst the characters are as fascinating as always, I can’t help but miss Celine and Sebastien, I just didn’t connect with Arjun and Pippa as much. Overall, I still love this series and it’s still a good read, but I can’t wait for the next book and hopefully more Celine and Sebastien.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

"New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead."

The Righteous is a third book in 🥀The Beautiful🥀 series by Renee Ahdieh. It's about vampires🧛✅ werewolves✅ feys🧝✅ murder🧟✅ enemies to lovers🤺✅ marriage of convenience👫✅ and so much more...

"Never fall in love with a mortal, for love is an affliction. It always ends in blood."

In this book we follow mortal Pippa🫀🤺 and half fey Arjun🧙 who finds themselves in feyland🧚🧚🧚 But things don't go as planned and they need to get married 😏😏😏

"No matter where she went, danger followed. And it horrified her. Just as it thrilled her.

I like Pippa's 🫀 POV, we could learn about her more and understand her motives better🤺🤺🤺

"All the best saints are sinners."

THE ENDING🤯😩🤯😩🤯 whatdefaq 🤧 I panicked a little, because I thought it's the last book, but apparently there will be one more. I will be (im)patiently waiting for it🥲🙃🥲

"Hell is empty And all the devils are here."

Overall, did I like this series? Yes. Was I confused half of the time since book two? Hell yeah 🤣🤭🤣. Would recommend. 4/5⭐

Also this🤯
"My name is Haroun al-Rashid. I am the firstborn son of Khalid Ibn al-Rashid and Shahrzad al-Kheyzuran"😳😳😳

Thank you NetGalley for providing digital advanced copy in exchange for honest review.

So happy I got an early access copy for this book! A highly anticipated 3rd instalment of this series! I really enjoyed it and huge thanks to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read early!

So so so good!!! There were times I did question myself because of the plot twists but Renee ahdieh absolutely delivered with this instalment and I cannot wait for readers to pick it up!

Author: Renée Ahdieh
Genre: Fantasy
Age Range: Young Adult
Format: E-Book (ARC)
Published: 7th December 2021
Pages: 371
Rating: 3 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis

Following the explosive events of The Damned, Odette faces a vampire's final death. The Court of the Lions have done everything they can to save her but have failed. A healer from the Sylvan Vale could help her, but only Arjun Desai, as a half fey, can cross the boundary between realms. The Sylvan Vale is a world Arjun despises, and in return, it despises him. But knowing it could save Odette, he returns to the Vale with all haste, leaving the mirrored tare between the two worlds open and unwittingly setting the stage for both love and war.

It's mere days until Pippa Montrose is to wed Phoebus Devereux and become a member of his well-heeled family, offering salvation to her own. But Celine is missing. Pippa has no idea where her best friend has gone, but she's certain it's in the company of vampire Sébastien Saint Germain and that Arjun can lead her to them. Pippa enjoins the help of Eloise, the daughter of a powerful sorceress, to discover the gateway Arjun uses to travel between worlds. Pippa, tired of hesitating in life, marches right through in search of her friend. But what she discovers on the other side is a dangerous, duplicitous world full of mischief and magic she doesn't understand, and most unexpectedly, she finds love.


CAWPILE

Characters – 7
Atmosphere – 7
Writing Style – 8
Plot – 6
Intrigue – 5
Logic – 7
Enjoyment – 6

Overall: 6.6

Review

Trigger Warnings: Abuse, Violence, Blood, Torture, Death, Murder, and Addiction.

This review may contain spoilers.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley, however, this in no way influenced my opinion. Thank you to the publisher Hodder and Stoughton for providing me with a copy.

So, I requested this after reading the first two books in the series last year, and I was so happy to be approved. I absolutely loved The Beautiful when I read it, however, The Damned which is the second book in this series did let me down a little bit. In this third book in the Beautiful series, we follow Arjun and Pippa as they both end up in the Sylvan Vale. My favourite aspect of this was the characters. In the first two books, the focus is on Celine and Bastien, so it was nice for Pippa and Arjun to be the main focus of this installment. I’ve always been intrigued by Arjun’s character, so it was great to get more of an insight into his character. Throughout the story, Arjun and Pippa grow closer and I absolutely loved seeing the romance between them develop as they grew closer. An aspect of this that I really enjoyed was the writing style, it’s so lyrical and atmospheric which transported me right into the world of the Sylvan Vale, so I can’t wait to read more of Ahdieh’s work in the future. One issue that I did have was that I felt the pacing was a little off in the middle so I couldn’t get fully invested in the plot. However, the last section was so action-packed so I enjoyed reading that part.

Overall, this was a decent YA Fantasy novel with an atmospheric writing style and intriguing characters, although I did find the plot to drag at times. I’m looking forward to reading the final book in this series.

I went in with vague ideas of this being a historical fiction with paranormal elements. But though it may start as such this actually is much more layered and expansive than that. The world is richly populated with characters both mortal and otherwise. And the plot becomes ever more complex as you go from book to book. We are introduced to ancient wars, blood fueds, and hatred that has been fermenting over decades. But like all things its personal grudges and betrayals that eventually brings things to ahead. By the time I started The Righteous I had no idea where Ahdieh would take it next as I hadnt predicted anything thus far, which made for an exciting read. I loved finding out more about all that was at play. Our cast of characters were constantly exposed to high stakes situations and I enjoyed seeing how they escaped or dug themselves in deeper! Though we get to follow some of the main characters from the previous books, the main focus in this 3rd installment is Arjun and Pippa and I adored them! The banter and tension between them was great (and we got a few well loved tropes that definitely showcased this to perfection!) and I loved getting to know more of their back stories it really helped explain their motivations. This was a nicely paced, well written book(and series) that has drawn me in with great characters and an intriguing plot. The Righteous left off at such a critical point, that I really need book 4 as soon as possible! In the mean time, Ill content myself with reading her backlist books!
Highly Recommend.

The Righteous by Renee Ahdieh is the third book in an ongoing historical fantasy series featuring vampires, werewolves and the fae. It opens from where the previous book, The Damned left off, and I would highly recommend reading the earlier books in the series before picking this one up as there is little in the way of recap or explanation of prior events. Although we do get glimpses of characters from the earlier books, this one is focussed on Arjun, a half fae , and Pippa , a young human woman who is hiding a secret of her own. I have to admit that Arjun was one of my favourite secondary characters in the earlier books, so seeing his character be explored more thoroughly was an absolute delight. Both Arjun and Pippa take huge risks because of their determination to help their friends and it is clear to the reader, if not always to themselves that they are an ideal match. Events conspire to take matters out of their hands, and the pair are thrown together in the dangerous faerie kingdom of the Vale. We do get some POV chapters from other characters, but this is really their story, and it moves towards an ending that will leave you on the edge of your seat for the next book, which I believe is the conclusion to the intended quartet. I was impressed with how the author wove elements of the overall story arc into the book, while keeping the reader focussed on the budding romance between Arjun and Pippa.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

The Righteous by Renee Ahdieh is the third book in the The Beautiful Quartet. This book now focuses on Pippa and Arjun and immediately starts after the end of the second book and you definitely have to read the previous books beforehand.

Pippa is the best friend of Celine and she does everything to support her friend. But this leads her into uncertain terrain and she goes there without preparation.

The book is mainly set in the fae world of the Sylvan Vale and it was intriguing to see more of that. Yet at the same time I definitely missed to see New Orleans.

Arjun is half fae and despises the Sylvan Vale, but in order to find a healer he goes there. Both Arjun and Pippa are on a mission there, but get stuck together and even have to be fake engaged.

This introduces a whole new plot line and Pippa and Arjun who were previously side characters, now are the focus and you get to know them really well. My favorite part was their banter and calling each other with terms of endearment.

The storyline was often very fordable and a lot slower paced then the previous books, yet there still was some drama and romance. This book is definitely more character driven than plot driven.

Overall, I really love this world and it was interesting to see more of it, but I just couldn’t connect to this book as much as to Celine and Sébastien’s story. 3 stars.

(ARC kindly provided in exchange for a review.)

An enjoyable spin-off that focuses on the charming side characters, Arjun & Pippa. Renee Ahdieh shines in every moment.

If I have to be honest, I probably shouldn't have read this book, since I found the first two mediocre, but I thought it could be better than the last.
It was very difficult to follow the storyline in the beginning, mainly because I forgot some of the characters and it was like I was reading a brand new story.
My problem with the slow pacing was worse than the first two books and I keep thinking the characters are forgettable.
Sadly, this book series was not for me!

3,5* rounded to 4
This is not the best book in this series and I felt a bit confused at the beginning as it took me a bit to catch up with the plot and the characters.
It's slow burning and sometimes even a bit too slow. Characters and world building are as fascinating as usual but the storytelling was a bit off.
I want to know what will happen but I wasn't a fan of this book.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I really hate giving books one star but this one didn’t have anything going on for me, if I have to be completely honest. It’s my fault for choosing it too; I knew I didn’t massively enjoy the first two books in the series but this one took it to a whole other level.

First half of the book doesn’t even mention the main characters; instead decides to go into a brand new story with Pippa and Arjun - two characters that until now had barely any story whatsoever. Not to mention that 50% of the book covers only one day, leaving the other half to cram up so much action and so many different plots that at one point I wasn’t sure what exactly I’m reading. I finally gave up when I read the words time-travel. That’s where I drew the line…

If you liked the first two books, then you’ll probably love this one too. For me though, it’s a big no!

I enjoy the previous two books, but I think this was is actually my favorite. In the previous books I wasn’t a fan of Pippa and Arjun but The Righteous changed my mind. I simply loved them here. It was great getting to know more about them in this book.

I was captivated by The Righteous since the beginning and couldn’t stop reading.

I can’t wait for the next book in the series to see where to author takes the story next.

Arc generously provided via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.