From the Bookshelf of Challenge Corner…

The Beautiful (The Beautiful, #1)

Renée Ahdieh

Start date: October 1, 2019

Finish date: October 31, 2019

Discussion: Book of the Month

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What Members Thought

Oct 30, 2019 Dr. Andy rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2022, reread, bipoc-author, read-2019, rad-reads-2022, biracial-rep, asian-rep, bookclub-read, queer-side-character

Okay I really enjoyed this one. The antagonism and attraction between Celine and Bastion was so good. And I actually realized that Pippa is a lesbian this time around. Very curious to see what will happen next.
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3.5/5

1872 New Orleans is a whole new world for Celine and the other girls who travel with her to start a new life in the States. Celine is ready to be free from her past and her grievous mistake. Taken in by the convent, Celine Okay I really enjoyed this one. The antagonism and attraction between Celine and Bastion was so good. And I actually realized that Pippa is a lesbian this time around. Very curious to see what will happen next.
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3.5/5

1872 New Orleans is a whole new world for Celine and the other girls who travel with her to start a new life in the States. Celine is ready to be free from her past and her grievous mistake. Taken in by the convent, Celine isn’t sure she wants the kind of life offered. When she meets Odette, a seemingly mysterious and dangerous young girl, Celine is instantly entranced. Odette introduces her to the world of the Court of Lions and Celine falls in love with the thrills of a darker kind. As she becomes entangled in the world of The Beautiful, she begins to fall for its most dangerous occupant, Sebastien Saint Germain. However, when girls begin showing up murdered Celine doesn’t know how to protect herself or those she’s come to love.

This was a fun vampire/murder mystery. The mystery was a really slow burning one. I liked the perspectives we had from the killer/mastermind. It was very creepy and definitely added a horror type vibe to this. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed it too. By the end, I was pretty stunned to see who was behind everything.

Ahdieh did an amazing job with the whole court of vampires and how they operate. The whole time I was constantly debating whether Sebastien was truly a vampire or not. There were so many signs that pointed both ways! The New Orleans backdrop brought the atmosphere alive with magic and a tantalizing loss of inhibition. In many ways, it reminded me of the feel of The Casquette Girls.

I wasn’t super crazy about Bastien and Celine, but I will admit that they had a certain kind of chemistry. I think I liked Detective Grimaldi more. Who she’ll end up with is hard to say at this point. I really loved Celine and Pippa’s friendship. We don’t get to see much of the other girls, but Pippa had a fierce devotion to Celine that she definitely didn’t deserve at times.
Overall, I think this was a really promising start to the series and I’m excited to see where it will go next. ...more

19 likes · Like · see review

Mar 19, 2020 Tbirdplanstoread rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: signed, own-hard-back, fairyloot, z-2020-read, catalogued, 2024-05-may

2024: I definitely keep my 4/5 rating! If anything, I may have enjoyed this a lot more this second time through since I took my time and tabbed things as I went.

That ending!!! I can't wait to finally be able to read the rest of this series now that it's finally complete!!

2020: 4/5 ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Dec 27, 2019 Lee added it · review of another edition

Shelves: dnf

DNF at 34%

I was eager for a good vampire novel, but let me tell you, this just wasn't it for me. I kept waiting for things to pick up, but it never did. We get poor world-building and a lack of vampires. Where were they? Was I just not patient enough for it? Really, I don't care. I was so bored with this book I couldn't focus at all.

There was insta-love and a weird POV that is randomly inserted and seems to make no sense. I'm honestly upset that I waited so long for this book on Libby to be thi ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Aug 26, 2019 Kayleigh {K-Books} rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

The Beautiful Review on K-Books

"When life becomes difficult, the only source of strength we have is love. Love of others, love of self, love of life in its entirety."

There are no words to explain just how excited I am to have already read The Beautiful. I am a huge fan of Renee Ahdieh and have read all of her books to date and loved them all. I was so excited to see her go into a new genre and I have to say I loved every single second of this book.

The Beautiful is very different from Renee's The Beautiful Review on K-Books

"When life becomes difficult, the only source of strength we have is love. Love of others, love of self, love of life in its entirety."

There are no words to explain just how excited I am to have already read The Beautiful. I am a huge fan of Renee Ahdieh and have read all of her books to date and loved them all. I was so excited to see her go into a new genre and I have to say I loved every single second of this book.

The Beautiful is very different from Renee's previous books and honestly, I think this may be my favourite of hers to date. It's dark, romantic and unputdownable. The Beautiful is set in 1800s New Orleans, a city ran by vampires. Celine has just arrived in New Orleans and finds that there seems to be a string of murders. Never one to back away from danger she is determined to find the culprit before someone else is killed... but has she just put herself in the killers sights?

One thing I adored about this book is that it is not your typical YA vampire book. I was so excited to see a new vampire book but at the same time a little bit worried, as I feel like vampire romance books were so overdone back a few years ago after the rise of Twilight. I needn't have worried at all! This is not your typical vampire romance. It is so, so much more and it was beautiful and perfect. I am a sucker for anything serial killer-eske so to find that at the forefront of this story was perfect for me. I was so engrossed in this story and trying to figure out who the killer was. I loved that it was essentially a murder mystery but with vampires and magical creatures. I loved every single second of it.

Renee Ahdieh is one of my all time favourite authors and this book shows why. She's strayed away from her typical genre of epic high fantasy, and honestly she does paranormal/mystery even better. I don't think there is anything this woman can write that I won't fall in love with. The world was incredible. Her world building of 1800s New Orleans was fantastic and I truly felt like I was in that time period while I was reading it. The glitz, the glamour and the danger was all entwined in this fantastic tale. The characters were just incredible. I loved Celine and how she is warring with a darkness within herself and how she is drawn to the magical Court of the Lions. And don't even get me started on Sebastian. He is just the most incredible character and I am well and truly in love!

The Beautiful was everything I could have wanted and more. It was stunning and beautiful and there are no words to truly describe my utter love and obsession with this book. It is one of my favourite reads of the year so far. I already just want to go back and read it again and cherish every word. I am so excited for the second book already. If there is one book you're going to read this Autumn/Fall then make sure it is this one. You will not be disappointed. Come to the dark side and get caught up in the gorgeous and dangerous Court of the Lions.

"Love of any kind is a weapon to be used against you, when weilded by the right hand."

...more

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Oct 01, 2019 Anne Marie rated it it was amazing

Thank You Penguin Teen and Renee Ahdieh for giving me this copy.

I do love a good Vampire book, and this fit the bill! I can’t even think of one thing I would change about it. Celine chose to travel to New Orleans for a fresh start. She had a past she wanted to keep from others and what better way? Move to a place no one knows you and you can start fresh. She starts to see that things in New Orleans are not as they should be. Women are being killed but not just killed, drained of their blood! Ce ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 17, 2021 Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, fantasy, look-at-the-pretty-cover, romance, paranormal, would-rather-watch-paint-dry, 2021, read-on-my-kindle, 2-stars, was-expecting-more

2 stars. Wasn’t awful but damn was it extremely boring. I honestly can’t recall any of the characters names and I just finished this freakin’ book. It’s long, dry and a bit aimless for a good majority of it. However, I do think the last 2-3 chapters really picked up and I did really like how this ended and am interested in book two just because of that. I wasn’t expecting it to end like that so that was a nice surprise. Also, the writing is gorgeous. I love Ahdieh’s writing style, her books afte ...more

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Jan 17, 2020 Penny rated it it was ok

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really wanted to love this book. It gets one star for being a book, and one star for effort on the part of the author to write a historical fiction, vampire romance with feminist and lgbtq+ characters.

Honestly, this book wasn’t terrible in the sense that some trash books are terrible. In fact, if it had been written as a trashy vampire romance I think I would have liked it more because it wouldn’t have been pretending to be something with depth. It fell flat. The writing was all clichés and m I really wanted to love this book. It gets one star for being a book, and one star for effort on the part of the author to write a historical fiction, vampire romance with feminist and lgbtq+ characters.

Honestly, this book wasn’t terrible in the sense that some trash books are terrible. In fact, if it had been written as a trashy vampire romance I think I would have liked it more because it wouldn’t have been pretending to be something with depth. It fell flat. The writing was all clichés and metaphors and the characters lacked depth or any semblance of relatability. The love story was brief and seemed physical more than emotional. The “witty banter” was neither witty nor entertaining and tended to make me cringe a bit at the predictability of it all. I ended up being more interested in Michael Grimaldi, a lots of nonsense NINETEEN YEAR OLD detective who hates the main protagonists love interest, and seems to teeter between self-righteousness and inexplicable malice the entire story. Apparently he also loves the protagonist but he also treats her like crap and also doesn’t know her at all so that’s dumb.

This book was supposed to be about sexy vampires banging and eating mortals or whatever. At least that’s what I thought. It wasn’t. The vampires don’t really do anything spooky or vampiric and it’s basically all about the protagonists own inner turmoil the whole time which is also boring and hard to relate to.

Spoilers ahead:
The main girl is Celine and she flees Paris in 1872 to go to New Orleans because she killed a dude who tried to rape her. Sounds interesting right? Somehow this plot device is super boring and lacks any kind of on the body moment to break through the objective factual ness of its presentation. Basically it’s presented in a very cold and dull way, like a bit in a true crime story before the good gory stuff. But then it never gets good and gory. You don’t really feel anything about it except like a general good human “yeah, good for her for defending herself. I’m glad she was not actually raped and I am sorry that happened.” But there’s nothing emotional about the retelling you make you feel strong empathy towards her situation. Or fear, or morally conflicted, or sad, or outraged.

That’s basically how the entire book ended up playing out. Not much happens. Celine has a friend who came over to NO from England with her own dark past but we don’t know what that is. Her friend is nothing but goodness and propriety and sweetness apparently and Celine feels she’s a bit too edgy for her. Celine meets Odette (enter our lgbtq character that’s thrown in to only forward parts of the plot instead of act as an interesting character and add to the story in a nuanced and interesting way). Anyway a lot of boring nothing happens and in between it all bodies end up mutilated wherever Celine seems to be at the time. Michael is this random baby detective who seems more obsessed with caging our heroine than actually solving these serial murders, but whatever! Nothing matters at this point.

All the while we meet other characters like the Mother Superior who’s equal parts bitch and wise old sage apparently. The aging vampire uncle who insists on doing everything with “lethal calm” but doesn’t seem to actually do anything useful so why he’s even in it idk. Then of course you have Bastien the main hottie with a body who we all assume is a vampire but turns out he’s not, he’s just like Six of Crowing it with a bunch of vampire, friends? Aunts & uncles? Bodyguards? It’s hard to say.

I think people will read this and either love it and swoon over the very long and detailed description of fabric, hats and other fashions of the day, or they will be like me and sit there wondering why they spent over 400 pages on a vampire novel where basically no one drinks blood.

I will try this author again, maybe read the sequel even, because I still believe the story has potential, but I wish the author would spice it up more, write more minimalist and give me some real inner turmoil, some real conflict and serious tension. Everything is resolved too easily, and I want more sexy vampire action. Is that too much to ask?

I hope y’all like this more than I did! Here’s hoping the sequel is better! 🖤 ...more

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