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The Beautiful

"He laughed.  Then his expression turned serious.  "One day, someone should tell you how beautiful you are in the moonlight," Bastien said softly."

Celine Rousseau killed a man.  And now she is forced to leave Paris, the city she loves, for a new world in hopes of creating a life that isn't haunted by her past.  Her journey takes her to a convent in New Orleans where she hopes to someday meet a nice man, marry, and be a respectable lady in society.  The problem with that is Celine isn't attracted to nice, respectable men.  She finds herself infatuated with Sébastien Saint Germain, a very important member of La Cour des Lions.  Celine discovers that New Orleans is full of dark, terrible things.  And one of those things wants her dead.

The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh was an absolutely delicious vampire story.  And I love a good vampire story!  It's set in 1872 in New Orleans.  (Side note...New Orleans vampire stories are my favorite type of vampire stories).  It had everything I crave in a vampire book.  Head strong and curious female lead, sexy, smoldering love interest, and a bit of murder.  It also had a nice little who-done-it mystery that made it extremely hard to put down.  The book is written primarily in third person, however, we get little first person snippets from the murderer throughout.  They drove me bonkers in the best way.

Celine was a loveable character from the start.  She wants so badly to be a proper lady.  It just never seems to work out for her.  And in the end she says fuck it and decides to just be herself.  She's full of a lot of attitude and wit and often made me laugh. 

"I imagine it would be freeing to care only about oneself."  She heaved a dramatic sigh.  "Alas, I am not a man."

Sébastien is the boy who catches Celine's eye the first day she arrives in New Orleans.  He's tall, dark, and handsome.  Face of an angel.  No parents.  Mourning a dead sister.  Heart heavy with sorrow.  It all sounds very cliché, but it is all very perfect.  I find that in fantasy books I love my main man to be a bit cliché.  I want him rugged and handsome and just a little broken all while being very much in love.  

The second book in this series is The Damned and it just came out this week.  I cannot wait to get my hands on it!  The first left off on a decent sized cliff hanger, so I'm super excited to dig into the next one!


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