The Beautiful & The Damned: A Release Day Review
- Cat
- Oct 8, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 17, 2019
Cat's Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
As you may know from reading one of our previous posts, we love Renee Ahdieh's The Beautiful here, and that's for a very good reason. It's bringing vampires back, not just to YA but in general, and in the best of ways! In New Orleans in the 1800s with an actual darkness lurking under the surface that no other vampire series has managed since Anne Rice.
Yes, the whole thing still has the sexy aspect, but above all, when the vampires show themselves, they're actually terrifying. You want to run from these vampires once they announce their true intentions, and that's where things get tricky.
Celine enters New Orleans fresh off the boat from France, darkness swirling inside and around her. She's sure she's damned, and she believes this convent is her only chance to live and potentially redeem herself.
Then the brutal murders of young women starts, and when she's pulled into a club full of young, powerful, rich people by a woman named Odette, the murderer comes for one of the girls she traveled with.
While Celine is running from herself and the darkness within, she's also running from her attraction to one of those powerful, rich young men, one Sébastien Saint Germain. Their first encounter finds her interrupting him and his friends as they threaten another man in an alley. Then in the restaurant where she's set to meet Odette, and after that, they can't seem to stop running into each other.
There's just one problem, though she knows she's attracted to him, he is beautiful after all, she's pretty sure she hates him, and also that he's the murderer. The only evidence she has is he's frustrating, mysterious, and also a ribbon from the murdered convent girl was in his coat.
Either way, now there's a detective on their trails, who's determined to prove Sébastien is the murderer, while also wooing Celine, who doesn't really want much to do with his determination to see Sebastian ruined, not really.
Romantic and dark things occur, and we slowly unravel the true murderer and we meet the vampires, which leads to Celine and Sébastien being forced to make choices that will change their lives forever. I won't spoil anything else, because you all really, really need to read this welcome back party for vampires.
Here's where I gush about just how much I love Celine, Sébastien, the other characters and this world, and I'm going to start with Celine. She's into the feminine, but she has that darkness within, and as a woman who while growing up, thought she was messed up for thinking these thoughts delegated for men, this book was such a breath of fresh air. It, and Celine were reminders that women are human too, and humans have darkness and light in spades within them.
Celine, personally means a lot to me, not just because of her duality, but because she's so stubborn, and also because she, like me, has a body type that society just has a problem with. It's hard to find full figured young women in YA that are allowed to exist without for some reason losing weight and suddenly becoming to typical form, never mentioning their previous weight and form at all. But Celine is full and she loves herself and so too do the people she comes to love. She is never made to feel truly lesser for it.
And Sébastien, dear Sébastien, he's suffering, and it's mostly because he believes he deserves it, because he survived and his family did not, and he's stuck with an uncle who controls him strictly, because he is his only remaining heir, amongst other reasons. He sees Celine and recognizes her spirit, but because of the way his uncle is, he knows he could never have her, he's destined to marry a girl that will bring them something more than love.
Then there are the cast of characters that surround them, my favorite of which is Odette, the mysterious woman who steps into Celine's life and pulls her into the lively underworld that is the club she so beautifully resides over. She keeps secrets, she flirts, and she above all adores Celine for who she really is, a woman destined to be more than what the world is trying to force her to be.
So, this is where I leave you with the whole hearted command that you buy this book immediately, and prepare for the most decadent, bloody ride of your life. If you adored the romance of the Vampire Diaries, the darkness of the Originals, and you always adored the Vampire Lestat, then here is a whole other plethora of reasons to pick it up today.
Congrats, Renee Ahdieh, on the launch of your incredible new series, it's time to pop some bottles and celebrate the magic you've created. I know I already told you how much I adore this book at SIBA, but I truly am, madly in love with this book. Thank you Renee for writing some of my favorite books ever, and for being such an incredible person.
Where Can You Buy This Book?
Right here at Bookmarks! You can order it through our website or if you would like to ensure you get a signed copy, you can call the store and we can ship it to you, or if you're up for the drive, you can stop on in!
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