The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh

The Beautiful (Beautiful, #1)

by Renée Ahdieh

Now in paperback, the first book--an instant bestseller--in the sumptuous, sultry, and romantic YA vampire series from New York Times bestselling author Renee Ahdieh.

In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans is a safe haven after she's forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent, Celine is quickly enraptured by the vibrant city becoming embroiled in the glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group's enigmatic leader, Sébastien Saint Germain.

When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in Sébastien's own lair--the second dead girl to turn up in recent weeks--Celine must battle her attraction to Sébastien and suspicions about his guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

Reviewed by lauriesbookshelf on

2 of 5 stars

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Review posted on https://lauriesbookshelf.com
When I first saw The Beautiful appearing on social media, I was curious. It's about vampires and I really wanted to go back in the days and read a good young adult novel about vampires. All reviews I've read were glowing, so I decided to go ahead and read it.











The Beautiful started of interesting. Celine just arrived in New Orleans after fleeing her home in Paris. What has she done that she even had to flee? The next chapter was a weird one however. It's about a girl, Noémie, but she doesn't make another appearance at all in the rest of the book. Why? What? Huh? How?



Unfortunately, The Beautiful is not the young adult vampire novel I was hoping for. In fact, it was just revealed in the final chapters that its about vampires although we all knew it from the promotions. The Beautiful is more of a murder mystery and historical fiction combined.



I couldn't enjoy this book. Actually, I was super bored whilst reading. The characters and the murders didn't interest me at all. I was not curious to find out who the killer was. I really didn't like Celine and her inner monologues, there were way too many of them. Although the story was super slow, I could read it fast because of the writing. However, I was very relieved when I finished the book. The final chapeters were the most interesting, but it was too late to save this book for me. Unfortunately, another hyped 2019 release I don't like. I probably won't continue this series.
This review was originally posted on Laurie's Bookshelf

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  • Started reading
  • 3 November, 2019: Finished reading
  • 3 November, 2019: Reviewed