I love New Orleans and I love vampire stories, so this one was definitely a treat! I enjoyed every single sultry word of this book.

This was not for me. I am a character driven reader and I really struggled to feel attachment to any of the characters. The plot also did not move as fast as I would have liked. The writing consisted of a lot of purple prose but it lacked substance.

another amazing book of renee adieh. she really knows how to captúrate cultures and ambiences. cant wait for the second book to discover the rest of the story

** I was provided an electronic ARC by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

My undying and ever-endeared love for all things written by Ahdieh. I was super grateful to receive an early snippet of this new coming novel, and it got everything in me ready to run out and buy a copy of The Beautiful when it was released. As a frequent traveler to New Orleans, I couldn't help but jump at the combination of her writing and one of my favorite destinations, and I was so pleased to see that she captured the deeply vibrant and lust chaos, bustle, magic, and wonder of New Orlean's so well in her writing. I absolutely want to know more about these groups in the city, and I hope this opens the door for the return of great vampire literature to YA.

Overall, this was an amazing read and I wait to read the sequel now! I cannot wait to see how Celine gets back on her feet in the sequel and what will become of Bastien. The plot twist was awesome!! This is not my favorite genre and I am so glad I went in without knowing anything about it. That made me life it even more!
This book didn't truly feel like a historical book to me. Celine starts out living in a convent. There are a few conversations of inequality and clothing in the beginning of the book, but the way Celine talks and how she doesn't hold to the social standards of woman at the time, made me question if it really was the 1872. It seemed that the author forgot it was to be historical. .

Initially I got a short sneak peek expert of The Beautiful from NetGalley, giving me access to the first chapter of the story. I thought it would be silly to only give a review based on that small conclusion so I purchased the book in order to fully relay my judgement. So here we are.

This book created a fantastic foundation for the story, it is slow paced in areas but the vibrancy of New Orleans in 1872 more than makes up for it with its rich colours and festivals at night surrounding it all. You very much get the sense of what happens in New Orleans stays in New Orleans. There is a lot of mystery around the characters as to who could be the potential murderer as well as secrecy surrounding the city, a perfect setting for a dark underworld of the undead and mystic beings, even though they are rarely mentioned in detail, you get a vague sense of whats going on around you.

Whilst the main story with our protagonists Celine and occasionally Bastien is told in the third person, I really enjoyed how the perspective jumps to the dark unknown killer and how he speaks directly to the reader. It made his thoughts all the more unique and personal, you actually come to like and understand him when seeing the world through his own eyes. He’s determined to get revenge on the people that betrayed him with a fascinating charisma that will keep you wanting more of his dark murderous thoughts as you progress through the story.

The characters were altogether compelling, from the mysterious Bastien and his group of mixed cultured followers, to Odette and her desire to wear mens clothing and her means to challenge society and convention makes me love her all the more. The fact that the story was based in the 1800s goes to show how uniquely different the group of divine mystical beings were in Jacques.
I wasn’t even annoyed by the handsome detective Michael that was clearly brought into the story as love triangle that will have no effect because clearly we will be routing for the other guy – but its moments with him and his family and how he becomes so protective over Celine that a tiny part of you will wonder.. what if?

Honestly I wasn’t sure what to think of Celine, she was a good protagonist with a dark past, one although she ran away from, does not regret her actions and still chases the danger that always seems to surround her. I wasn’t sure whether she was strong in her resolve to discover the truth whether or not it put her in the crossfire, or weak because she reacted so badly when it all went wrong – which it always did. She was always going on about how she has an inner darkness that wants to come out and play – but honestly it just felt blah. Yeah that’s right, blah. So she can’t help but feel attractive to the mysteriously dangerous Bastien, I hated their confession of attraction towards each other, both claiming they wanted to kiss the other and then both walking away like it was a conversation about the weather. Seriously? It lacked the passion I was hoping for between the two of them.

Bastien was a really interesting character as the only human around mystical undead beings and vampires, yet remained in charge and was feared as powerful with his title. He’s not afraid to stand on his own and whilst he does rely on others, he relies on them as strength in numbers as a family rather than paid manpower. We only managed to see parts of his world through his eyes, mostly his unexpected desire towards Celine which was an unwanted distraction since they could never work, but the more he spent time around her, the more he wanted her which I thoroughly enjoyed since she continued to surprise him by pushing him away. Something he was clearly not used too. I wanted to see more of Bastien’s world through his eyes, but I get the feeling we will in the next book based on the ending.

I enjoyed improving my French as the story went on, as the characters often spoke to each other in a mix of English and French. Most of the time there was a translation but occasionally you had to speculate or actually look up what they were saying which I actually quite liked. It added to the additional mystery that was still left to be uncovered although it would have been nice to have a bit more information surrounding the feud going on in the background from the Court of Lions, something about a Brotherhood, and a group called The Fallen, none of which really gets explained, even at the end.
I’m looking forward to reading the next book ‘The Damned’, as things are starting to get interesting!

I wasn’t sucked into this story like I had hoped to be. For being about vampires there were very few of them.

This is an intriguing sneak peek. Celine is a seventeen year old seamstress from France with a secret. As she begins her new life in New Orleans, a murder happens. I enjoyed the writing style and I find Celine and her friend Pippa quite entertaining. I can't wait to read more of this story.

From the excerpt, I am intrigued and looking forward to reading more. The allure and details of New Orleans are wonderful, and the setup makes the storyline interesting.

This was a great sneak peek of this new book! I have liked other books written by this author and hope this one is just as good. I am really looking forward to reading the entire thing!

I have not yet read anything by Renee Ahdieh - beyond this excerpt - though she has been on my radar for a while now. I was a little hesitant to pick this one up - there are a lot of YA stories about vampires currently out there - but it sounds interesting enough. I might give it a read in the future, but it's not at the top of my list.

A review of this title is avaliable through Goodreads - and later through my blog. The Goodreads link is available below!

****I was provided this book in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley and Penguin Publishing Group****

I am a sucker- pun intended- for any and all vampire novels. So when I read the blurb for this new series by Renee Ahieh, I jumped at the chance to read the sneak peak! Holy cow Batman! I was hooked after the first page! I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good murder/mystery sprinkled into a vampire novel. The writing was exquisite and made me wanting more. more, morrreeeeeeeeeeee! This was my first taste of Ahdieh's work and I am thoroughly intrigued to know the ins and outs of her work.

Thank you for allowing me early access! I immediately purchased the preorder of this book after I read this sneak peak!

This was not a full book, just a sneak peek of a few chapters, so my comments will be shorter than normal.

After reading the first few chapters, I’m intrigued by the characters, Celine is mysterious and Poppa is interesting. I’m putting the book on my library hold list right now to finish the book!

This book was AMAZING!! You can never go wrong with vampires and the magical city of New Orleans!!

Renee Ahdieh brings the magic of The Beautiful throught the pages.

In 1872, New Orleans is ruled by the dead. But to Celine Rousseau its her safe heaven whe she is forced to . runaway from her home in Paris. Celine is quickly to fall in love with the magic New Orleans has to give. The music, the fancy soirees, including the dangers and mysteries this magical city has to show.

She then finds herself intruiged by this handsome man Sebastien Saint Germain, but is she in danger with him or is she safe with him. As murders start to become more and more she is cought in between Sebastien and the secrets she is about to figure out about him. And being now in the sight s of now a serial killer roming in thhis magical city.

Will Sebastien be able to save her and maintian his distance and not fall in love with Celine as she is slowly falling for him???

I‘m always a little conflicted as to how I rate a sample, it’s simply not the whole book.
But this was good enough for me to actually buy the physical book now so I can go on reading the whole thing!
I love vampires and I bet this is getting even better!

3 stars! Vampires (well kind of) of course it is a great read! Looking forward to reading the sequel!

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I’m very excited to read this book! I thought this sample was going to be the full book so I was a bit disappointed about that. However as someone who has lived in New Orleans, I love the entire premise of this book. Based simply on the sneak peek, I would definitely buy this book and recommend it to others!

Based on this preview I bought the book for my spooky October read! Cannot wait to read the full book!