Member Reviews

A VERY good third book! I feel as though it could have been very hard to follow up the first two books, but Ahdieh really pulled through here. I especially ADORE how she tied this world to The Wrath and the Dawn (I squealed. I love that series.) I loved the writing style and the world building and PIPPA AND ARJUN's relationship? AMAZING! I cannot wait for the next book!

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This book was pure enjoyment for me. It took me back to my first year on bookstagram when I originally started this series and I loved that nostalgic feeling! I was concerned at first– since The Righteous centers mainly around two different characters than the first two books did (it’s honestly the main reason it took me so long to finish this)– BUT. I loved everything about it. Arjun and Pippa’s story was so wonderful and, generally, I just loved being back in this world! And while it does focus on Arjun and Pippa, the overall story arc still progresses, with plot twists to boot, and we also get to see the entire gang. Very curious to see how this story will end!

– NOLA in the 1800s
– supernatural factions
– rival families
– parallel worlds
– enemies to lovers
– found family

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I do wish that one of the main points of this book would have been figured out and completed, because I feel like a lot of things happened towards the end and I am scared what that means for the final book. A lot has to be wrapped up.

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The Righteous was a bit difficult to read. This entire series has been one twist after another and not good ones either. I don't like to be misled when I am told a book is a standalone or a duology. I like it to be kept that way. I was not expecting a 3rd or 4th book. It should have remained a duology.

But this book piqued my interest so I thought why not. But this book was vastly different from the other two. I didn't feel like anything happened enough to warrant an entire book. The Beautiful and The Damned were such a great books, and it started to make me dislike characters I once loved. The only saving grace for this book was Arjun. He was the sweetest character. But even that sweet angel could not save this book.

As much as it pains me, I don't think I will read the final 4th book. Mostly because I don't truly believe it will be the end. Maybe I will give it a few more years just to be sure. And maybe then my favorites can get their personalities back.

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This was absolutely my favorite of the series - I love Arjun and I love his story and I love even more that this one focused on him. I had to reread this quickly to to be able to catch up with the fourth book that's now out and I was really remembered how much fun I had reading this!

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I adored the first two books in the quartet, but I’m left unsure with how to feel about this one. I’m not sure if it’s because a little more than three years passed between me reading the second book and this one, so the emotions and circumstances of the characters weren’t as fresh in my mind. Or if it’s because the story itself felt more like setup than actual action.

Either way, I still love Arjun, and how much he cares for others. Pippa frustrated me for a majority of the book, and I found her and Eloise’s dynamic to be annoying. The Celine and Bastien chapters also didn’t excite me like I thought they would.

I still have high hopes for the conclusion of the series because the ending of this book was one I didn’t see coming.

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I’ve tried and tried and tried but I cannot get into this series. I’ve added it to my DNF shelf i thoughts that maybe some day I’ll come back to it?

I think I really enjoyed book one and then rolled into book 2 thinking - okay, maybe? And then here with bill 3 whether it’s the world that isn’t capturing my interest or the characters (or both?) I just can’t do it.

Nothing against the author. She is a lovely writer, but it’s just not a series for me.

—-
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

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I loved this book! It was a wonderful continuation to The Beautiful series. I absolutely loved being able to see more of Pippa and some other characters while also getting a bit more on Celine.

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I loved this book! I have enjoyed the other books in this series but The Righteous blew them all out of the water. I love the dynamics between Pippa and Arjun and the ending was so unexpected that the wait for the next book was painful. I highly recommend this book and this series for fans of Renee Ahdieh's other works, Crave, and the Vampire Diaries.

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I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it.

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I really enjoyed the first book in the series, but the later installments tapered off for me.

I really really like the world and the world building, I think there is a ton of potential and things left to discover.

Unfortunately, the biggest thing for me was my dislike for the characters. I couldn’t find myself to care about them.

Overall, it was fun, I would highly recommend the authors other books!

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I really loved this series but I couldn't get into this particular book, unfortunately. It could be more that I have grown and my reading tastes have changed because I could see younger readers loving the spooky and mysterious book, but I, unfortunately, couldn't get into it enough to finish.

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Wow I was super disappointed with this third book. I could not stand Pippa’s impulsiveness and “righteous.” I get where the author was going for but Pippa really needed to shut up and just listen to others for once. She did not know best. In fact, her determination to defy Arjun at almost every turn had no rational basis and led both of into danger many times. Arjun was by far the best character in this book. Celine and Bastian feature in a few scenes but there’s something off between them. Celine is still fiery but she lost that spark that made her interesting and likable. Bastian felt like some kind of sulking child following Celine around.

I still love the author’s writing but this lacked the characters and lush ambiance the first book had. The plot was boring and I feel like even though we are seeing more of the world, nothing is really captivating me. I’m honestly not sure about the series as my enjoyment has gone down with each book. At this point in time, I’m unsure if I’ll continue the series.

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Fans of The Beautiful and The Damned will not want to miss Renée Ahdieh’s magical and epic third installment of her paranormal gothic series.

At the end of The Damned, our favorite characters were all left forging new paths: Celine and Bastien had left New Orleans for the Vale, the land of the fey. Detective Michael Grimaldi had to come to terms with his newly-awakened curse. The Court of the Lions was left to pick up the pieces while their leader was gone and one of their members was hurt. And that left Pippa Montrose alone to search for her missing best friend. Just days before her wedding, Pippa follows Arjun Desai, the half-fey, half-human solicitor for the Court of the Lions, through a portal to the Vale. Naive in the ways of the fey as only a human can be, Pippa soon realizes her only hope of surviving, let alone finding Celine, will be to cling closely to Arjun’s side. But the Vale is one dangerous adventure after another, and if Pippa thinks she is going to make it back to New Orleans and her fiancé with her heart and soul intact, she has another thing coming. . . .

I was so excited to return to Ahdieh’s world of vampires, werewolves, fey, and magic-wielders in The Righteous. A lot happened at the end of The Damned, and The Righteous picks up with the aftermath in New Orleans. At least briefly. Most of this book is centered around the fey, as Arjun returns to his mother’s land to seek help for the Court of the Lions and Pippa tries to discover what really happened to Celine. Many readers of paranormal fiction will know how dangerous and treacherous the fey can be despite how innocent they may look. Unfortunately, that is a lesson Pippa has to learn firsthand with Arjun begrudgingly (at least at first) by her side. As breathtakingly beautiful as Ahdieh described New Orleans, the Sylvan Vale likewise comes alive in wonderful detail as Pippa discovers that the plants can be just as deadly as the people.

Previously Ahdieh has written duologies, and this third book is a stark reminder of that. While the characters we all know and love from the first two books make appearances, The Righteous is a departure in both location and focus from the first two books. Fans who fell in love with the gothic tones of The Beautiful and The Damned will find quite a bit less of that in The Righteous. With a new focus on Pippa and Arjun as the main characters and the new primary location, this third book often felt like the start of a new series set in the same world rather than a direct continuation of The Beautiful series.

I would absolutely love another book with Celine and Bastien as the main characters, but I did fall in love with Pippa and Arjun in this book. Instead of a distinct gothic vibe throughout the novel, the air was more magical and fantastical. I really enjoyed seeing so many characters taken out of their darker, New Orleans backdrop and placed in the brighter and greener Sylvan Vale.

I’ve been intrigued by Arjun since his first introduction, and I loved getting inside the head of the Court of the Lions’ half-fey solicitor. Arjun has always been a bit of an outlier, even among his found family in New Orleans, but it was exciting to dig deeper into his story, into his past, and see just how his childhood in India and the Vale affected the person he grew up to be. Likewise, Pippa had her own traumas that shaped her, and it was compelling to watch Pippa grow from the brave child she was into the survivor she became during her adventures with Arjun in the Vale.

Although I did spend much of this book missing the gothic feel of New Orleans that Ahdieh so beautifully crafted in the first two books, The Righteous took me to a magically dangerous world and brought together two characters that I loved from start to finish. And with appearances from all our favorites from the first two books, I can’t wait to see how this series culminates in the next book.

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This is NOT the series ender I thought it was going to be and I’m not mad about it. We get to delve into the story of Pippa and Arjun this time and MAN is it good. They both travel to the land of Fae to help their friends in the Court of Lions and become embroiled in an even larger crisis as two warring factions of Fae use them as pawns in a fight for power. Whew! This book. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. And DARN that cliffhanger!!!!!

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I am such a huge fan of Renee Ahdieh, This story is definitely one of my favorites. The vampires are compelling and sexy. The story is definitely one that will hold your attention and have you on the edge of your seat. The only things was that this book was centered more around the secondary characters. Not that there was anything bad with that but I miss reading about our MCs.

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I ended up not finishing this one. I can see that it might work for others but I lost interest early on.

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So going into this book I didn't really know what to think or what I was getting into. I knew this would be following Pippa (whom I love) but I wasn't aware that she would with Arjun and I am here for it! I had no idea how much I needed more Arjun in my life!!! The plot was so good and I must say I enjoyed this way more than the first two books. I'm so happy were got to learn more about the fan world seeing how I personally felt like it was totally random in The Damned. I am so excited for the next book because that ending!!!! Omg!!!! I'M READY!!!!

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I’ve been a fan of Renee Ahdieh since devouring The Wrath and the Dawn when it first came out. And I’ve really been enjoying The Beautiful. Partially because of these absolutely stunning covers, and partially because urban fantasy set in New Orleans is always a winning combination.

Unfortunately, I just couldn’t connect with The Righteous. This one shifts the series fully into the Fae world, and I was not a big fan of the switch in narrators. I had originally been excited to see that Pippa and Arjun were going to be the main characters of this one, but it ended up making the story, which had originally been so wonderful in The Beautiful, feel like just another YA fantasy. Most of what I loved (the character relationships, the banter, the New Orleans setting that felt like another character, the mystery) was missing from The Righteous. Also, Celine and Bastien made brief appearances in this novel, and honestly did not even feel like the same characters.

I ended up skimming the second half of the novel, and I’m not sure that I’ll continue with The Ruined, the next book in the series. But maybe I might be tempted if it switches back to Celine and Sebastien as the narrators.

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Edit: ok so I was really thinking about this last night and I feel like a lot of readers will either not love the direction Renee took with this series- side characters arcs coming to the forefront, more elaborate themes and worldbuilding, new pieces and characters being introduced aka new villains- or really will love it. Personally I did, my review still stands this was amazing!! And it kept me constantly guessing. To put it simply, I get more and more awed with the creativeness of Renee’s mind with each installment, not many authors would be able to transition a series so flawlessly but she does and it works for me COMPLETELY.

**** NOTE: I wrote this… ‘review’ right when I finished The Righteous and idk what I was trying to say so I thought I’d wait until I collected my thoughts to write a real review but what ever Renee put in this book is like crack because I still feel like this so all this stands 😂

*stares off into the distance in bafflement, stewing over the fact that more readers are NOT raving about this series*

Leave it to Renee to leave my heart in shambles and my mind in tatters at the excellence that is The Righteous.

It was like… set up, divide and confuse- CHARGE HEAD FIRST AND LEAVE NOT ONE EMOTION GUARDED- complete annihilation. Like a war zone. To my emotions that is.

I had this whole thing where I was going to say I didn’t think my love of Bastien and Celine could be beat but then Arjun and Pippa got their own book and how I literally worship EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM but then she shook me to the core with that ending and I’m just a blubbering mess

Dramatics aside, Renee really came for our throats with this one. She not only put everything we knew about this series in total tandem, gave us an epic love even greater than her previous ones, BUT SHE ALSO LEFT ME COMPLETELY MINDBLOWN… like is this real life?

I’m genuinely just… in shock and I’m so so excited to see where the Ruined will lead, what doors will be opened and explored and even all the angst and anxiety it’s going to cost me 💯

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