Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Goodreads synopsis
In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she's forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city's glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group's leader, the enigmatic Sébastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of La Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sébastien's guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.
When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.
Review
When I first heard about this book I found myself getting excited at the prospect of having a new YA series with vampires at its core. Then the early reviews started to come in and I found myself getting nervous at the mixed reviews. I love Renée Ahdieh and absolutely adored her Wrath and The Dawn duology so I knew I had to give this book a go and ignore what everyone else was saying.
I’m glad I did.
I really enjoyed The Beautiful and found myself completely captivated by this historical YA novel. This is a thrilling and atmospheric read where Ahdieh’s way with words finds you transported to the larger than life city of New Orleans. This book features an extremely diverse cast which I thoroughly enjoyed and loved!
I found myself really liking Celine and how brave she is, even if at times she’s incredibly reckless. She’s made a lot of sacrifices in her life and I couldn’t help but love her endearing she was. I loved her friendship with Pippa, who is the most loyalist of friends, and I soon found myself loving the slow burn romance between her and Bastien.
For me it was hard to really grasp Bastien and his characteristic as this book is mainly told in Celine’s perspective so everything you learn about him is what she has perceived. I would have liked to have read from Bastien’s point of view just to get a clearer insight of who he is.
This book did however fall flat for me in a couple of places. The first being that I felt like this book has been heavily marketed as being the re-birth of vampires in YA books. However, I felt that that book severely lacked vampire presence and can only hope that Adhieh touches on more in the next book!
Another minor issue I had with this book was the lack of translation for some of the dialogue. As I was reading this as an e-arc I don’t know if the physical book will have anything at the end but I found that there were sentences in French which weren’t translated and honestly found myself a bit confused as other sentences had previously been. Again, a minor issue and something that I would need to review once I have a physical copy of the book.
Overall this was a highly enjoyable read and I cannot wait for the next book in this series!
Rating: 4/5 Stars
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