The Beautiful and the Damned

by Jessica Verday

[Suz @ Bookish Revelations]

The Beautiful and the Damned is dark and beautifully damned paranormal romance, that will enchant and ignite your passion for for reading. The first book in a spin-off series to the Hollow series, fans of Jessica Verday will absolutely not be disappointed. Cleverly compelling and intriguing, it's filled with dark romance, an unlikely pairing, and more danger than one could hope for. Verday does not disappoint, as she fills the novel full of dark, haunting, and entertaining characters and plot narration. It's chalk full of scary intense moments, mystery, and dark intrigue.

Cyn is different, she's an Echo who doesn't know exactly what she is and Avian, is the one person who does know and tells her. She's been suffering from blackouts that she has no absolute clue about why or what might be causing them. Avian, who has vowed not to help Echos again, sees something in Cyn that he can't shake that causes him to want to help her, it's as if there is a magnetic pull that she has on him. She's a wonderfully tortured and confused character, that I was instantly drawn to and was able to connect with on an emotional level. These terrifying blackouts that she's been having are really starting to take their toll on her and there's this massive confusion that she's having to muddle through that seem to be pulling at her in more ways than one. It's hard not to feel something for her.

Throughout the course of this novel we see Cyn and Avian resisting their attraction to one another and trying to push away from the connection they obviously have. The most terrifying element of this novel, is the idea that someone's body could be hijacked and taken over, possessed. This is where we learn that Echos are conduits for the souls of the deceased and there is a man who is stalking her and wanting revenge for something she may or may not have done. The fact that a soul is wanting out to free itself of her body and the only way to do that is by killing her, raises the tension and the creep factor of this novel to a higher degree.

All in all, I really enjoyed this novel immensely. The realness of the slow developing relationship between Cyn and Avian, the fact that each of them had their own burdens and demons to deal with, and the overall suspense of the novel itself. It had a wonderfully balanced mixture of all things truly evil, with just a touch of humanity to redeem it. Clever and creative, fans of the Hollow series and paranormal romance in general will really enjoy this fast paced, action packed, and wonderfully intensely suspenseful novel.