The follow up to The Beautiful ups the paranormal activity and action, but misses the mark by introducing a love triangle element with little romantic tension.

After the events of the first novel, Sebastian Saint Germain has been forever changed and forced into the shadows. Surrounded by his brothers and sisters, a found family of sorts, he must confront his new cursed life and try to forget about the woman who gave up everything so he could live - Celine. Sebastian is a very conflicted character, who spends a lot of the first half of the book internally questioning his every move and motive. He hates his uncle. He hates himself. And he hates this world he's been forced into. There's a push and pull of power between Uncle Nicodemus and Sebastian, with the former pushing his will on the latter. Honestly, I just found the whole plot a little irritating and dull. Without Celine, there's nothing exciting about Sebastian, and he easily falls into the 'tortured soul' trope.

Keeping Sebastian and Celine apart for a good part of the novel doesn't work in its favour. Their romantic, sexual tension was the real highlight of The Beautiful and it's severely lacking here. The forced chemistry between Michael and Celine just feels stilted and off. The reader knows she's never going to pick him over Sebastian. Also, Celine feels like a completely different character throughout most the book because of the tropey 'amnesia' storyline. It got old, really quickly, going from this strong feisty woman to a woman constantly haunted by dreams and questioning everything. It felt very out of sorts.

The world building is also really lacking any kind of depth. Gone are the rich descriptions of New Orleans, replaced with large info dumps about a magical underworld and an age old war, with various fae, halflings and shifters thrown in for good measure. It all feels a little out of place and confusing as it's thrust upon the reader without any real in-depth explanations to its purpose. Couple this with a very slow plot, (we spend the first 20% of the book focusing on one night) with lots of self reflections and recaps on family history and I just found myself bored.

Full of tropes. Confusing, slow moving plot and not enough chemistry between the characters. Very disappointing.

I don’t know where to start with this review, this damned (hehehe) book has left my mind a hot mess. I’d blame it all on Bastien but that wouldn’t be fair.

Okay, here it goes.

After the events of The Beautiful, we move beyond the world that Celine and Bastien created for themselves, a lot more is at stake – more than their love. Dun dun duuuuuuun.

Renèe introduces many more POV’s in this book, some that took me by surprise. There weren’t many of Celine, as to be expected after the ending of The Beautiful, but I did miss her wit and formidable nature. But we do get more on Bastien YAY, but boy did his first few chapters make me hella sad. Also Arjun and Pepper.. hmmmm? HERE FOR IT!

This book takes us beyond the New Orleans we come to love and more towards the origins of the creatures of the dark and maybe a few others creatures….

The Damned did start off a tad info dumpy, but rationally thinking that was to expected because The Beautiful managed to maintain the sense of mystery around the supernatural and thus we received the history etc in The Damned and it was quite an interesting take.

I found the ending a tad rushed but also WAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!! THAT ENDING WHAT.?!!! NOOOOO!!!!

I find myself still in shock because OH MY GOD! With that last chapter and the epilogue I find there is much left open for us to discover, like A LOT, maybe a third book…. hmmm is Renèe finally writing a trilogy? OR is there a going to be a spin-off duology?

Ahhh all questions to which I have zero answers. I shall now be in a perpetual state of agony until I find out. Because that ending WAAHHHHHH!

„I’ve seen you at your best and at your worst. And you are beautiful to me in any light.“


The Damned is a fantastic book. It is the second book in a series by Renée Ahdieh. This time the focus is more around Bastien.

„Before my mother succumbed to the bloodthirsty, she used to say we are given one lifetime. In that lifetime, we have countless chances to become the best version of ourselves.“


It was so good to get to know his point of view. And finally we get the backstory of everything. The side characters in La Cour des Lions were explored much more and I was happy to know of their stories and their personalities.

I want to highly recommend that book. This book was a good edition to the first one. There was a lot of new things to see and a lot of new creatures and characters introduced. It is packed full of action and it gets never boring. I am looking forward to read the third book. There I hope we will more learn about Michael and Pippa.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton or an ARC of by Renée Ahdieh.

I love everything about this book. I was so obsessed by the first book, this one definitely did not let me down! I loved the writing, the characters and just the story overall!

The Damned is everything I wanted from a The Beautiful sequel and more.

It admittedly took me longer to read than I expected, but this was probably due to my strange affliction of wishing to take my time with the sequel to one of my top ten books of 2019, and savour this story rather than devouring it overnight in a hot chocolate and sweet infused craze.

The Damned is a book I could have done either with. Ahdieh really has outdone herself again, throwing the reader directly into New Orleans in late 1800s, a world of petticoats and bowler hats- deliciously infused with the tempestuous magical underworld which is like a breathe of fresh air in the smog of early America.

All the characters you loved before are back, with many more perspectives and even more sumptuous family and blood feuds.

Renée is back, and she might not spare your heart this time.

I was really excited when I saw I was approved for a copy of the Damned, but I don’t think that this was the best book for me. Personally, I can see why people loved it and I really hope it does really well. But for me personally it wasn’t a book for me. It felt pretty slow but also it didn’t have enough *oomph*, though the one thing that it had going for it was it still had that lush and beautiful world-building that is jaw dropping. But everything else about this book felt confusing and not really for me. So unfortunately I DNF’ed it.

Wow! I literally just fjnished this book and it was even better than the first! All the characters are well round and even the bad guys you are kinda liking and feeling a bit sorry for them! My head is buzzing with thoughts and ideas, I cannot wait for the next book!

In this second instalment of the series, we start to get answers to some of the questions that so niggled me in the opening.
This time round we begin with the aftermath of what took place with Celine and Bastien. Celine has asked for her memories to be removed in exchange for letting Bastien live. He has been turned into a vampire, thus breaking an old agreement that looks as if it’ll cause trouble. She seems to be settling into her new life, even looking forward to a future with Michael Grimaldi, but we soon learn she is not fully unaware of her past experiences.
The answers behind Celine’s immunity to the mind-altering came as something of a surprise (I wondered if there were details I’d missed from earlier). I enjoyed her determination to be true to herself, in spite of what those around her say, though it didn’t really seem that we were in a particularly different time.
It won’t come as any surprise to see Bastien and Celine are more closely linked than people might like them to be. We get hints of a much bigger picture, and the references to the past and the other worlds suggest that there could be exciting times ahead.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this prior to publication.

Honestly, I am just so confused at this point. I've been obsessed with Ahdieh's writing for the longest time, the lush descriptions, the flowery language. But this duology just was not for me. After a rocky start in The Beautiful where I was annoyed by the insta romance, the lackluster characterization and endless repetition, I hoped that The Damned would turn things around for me which, sadly, wasn't the case.
Once again I found myself annoyed with the "plot twists" that felt very been there done that and the repetition. The repetition just always put me off. It's one thing to talk about being in love with another character in the book but most of the sentences felt recycled from book one so I found myself skimming entire paragraphs which has never happened before with an Ahdieh book.
However, I am definitely in the minority here and can see that a lot of people adored this duology so this is for sure a it's me, not the book type situation.
I also still love Ahdieh and will pick up whatever she releases so...I guess until the next book, then.

wow wow wow, this book was phenomenal.

I adored the beautiful when I read it back in April but the ending slightly let me down. this book however really fixed all of the problems and had me hooked from very early on in the story

I haven’t been able to read this yet as haven’t read the beautiful but will update review as soon as I have

Received an Advanced Reader’s Copy from the publisher, Hodder and Stoughton, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! 

One of the most prominent things I can say about Renée Ahdieh's writing is that it is very consistent. When I had gone back to check out my review for The Beautiful, just to give myself a quick brush up (because of course I didn't take notes, being super confident about my memory), I had made some remarks on Renée's work and I can say surely after reading The Damned, I stand by those very same remarks. Renée's writing has that steady flow to it that cannot be missed; but when you see past it to how poignant the words are, you're rather enthralled by them. 

I must admit, for the first time, my memory failed me and I had forgotten quite a bit of what had happened in The Beautiful and I'm not sure why, so I would definitely recommend a re-read so that you can feel what you're meant to as this book starts. 

Sébastien Saint Germain is a man on a mission, but is it one of self-destruction or self-discovery? He has now all the things within the reach of his fingers, but he likes none of it. He struggles with his situation and I definitely enjoyed the slow transformation of the boy into a man. Celine too had her own growth, though hers was very restricted to her situation and for whatever reason, I was not as attached to her and Sébastien as I was in the first book. But not in a bad way at all, more so in a way that supports the new way that book was unfolding. 

This book has multiple POVs, which gives you such a broad understanding of the characters, their greyness, their past, present and all the little foreshadowing that is being done. The book has so very many little twists and turns and each character comes to their own and you have this warmth and love you feel for every single one of them and not just for the protagonists. There's a wonderful moment of foreshadowing of literally the whole book in a certain point of the story (I keep secrets. I am intriguing.) that you don't think to keep in mind, but as the book progresses you start seeing it all stitch itself together and you're just sitting there wide-eyed. 

Four and a half stars! You may only struggle with the writing because it is descriptive and at a very steady pace that makes it feel slow, but just keep at it and you'll find yourself swept into the little moments of insight and the nuances of what Renée is trying to say which endears you to the book very much.

Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Writing: 4/5
Overall: 4/5
The Damned was a magical read that expanded upon the first book well, answering many of the questions that I had whilst giving me more. I loved diving back into the glamorous yet monstrous world of The Beautiful and learning more about the characters. However, it wasn’t a five star read like the first book was for me because I felt like it tried to cram a bit too much in without adequate explanation.

Celine was grappling with the trauma of what happened to her at the end of The Beautiful. She felt like she had lost herself in the midst of confusion, nightmares and terror gripping her when she was perfectly safe. For Celine, this book was about self discovery– in more ways than one. She showed even more fortitude and determination than in the previous book and I was rooting for her throughout.

Celine took centre stage in The Beautiful and Bastien had little character development, whereas The Damned saw him take the spotlight and have his own arc too. His POV chapters were in the first person and in the present tense, as opposed to everyone else’s POV chapters being in the third person and the past tense, making it feel as if it was primarily his story. We get to see the most of his inner conflict as he dealt with his own trauma and navigated uncharted waters in a familiar world. He wanted to be a better version of himself despite the darkness inside him and he went on a journey to find out what that meant. I liked discovering more depth to his character and it helped me to better understand him.

“Love and loyalty are not always the same thing. Loyalty is easy. Love is doing what is right, even when it is difficult.”

I loved getting to learn more about the side characters especially Odette and Jae. I think they both deserve their own spin off books because they’re amazing and have the most interesting back stories. We get to see the POVs of so many more characters in comparison to The Beautiful such as Bastien, Odette, Jae, Arjun and more. I was actually surprised that we don’t see Celine’s POV until around a quarter of the book. I liked reading from new perspectives even though at first it slowed the pace down too much.

The Damned didn’t hold back with the supernatural: vampires, werewolves, fey, goblins and more. We are introduced to the magical realms of the summery Sylvan Vale and the wintry Sylvan Wyld– equally dangerous despite their appearances. The plot became more about the greater picture than any one character’s goals which I liked but, as I mentioned earlier, too many components were introduced without being properly fleshed out. The conflict between the Brotherhood and the Fallen could have also felt more high stakes.

I really enjoyed The Damned but it felt like it was mainly setting the stage for the next book. I originally thought this series was a duology but it turns out there’s going to be a third book and I cannot wait!

This story follows on from Renee Ahdieh’s first book ‘The Beautiful’. Bastein has awoken cursed and immortal. A treaty has been broken, and his life as he knows it, is about to change forever. Celine has paid the highest price though, and attempts a life without Bastien, but her dreams terrorise her and keep her awake at night. But what do they mean? She is also about to learn the truth about herself and her past…

I wasn’t too optimistic about reading this book to begin with after not really enjoying ‘The Beautiful’, but I can definitely say I was pleasantly surprised! This book had a lot of what the first lacked, suspense, mystery, and action.

The book begins exactly where the last ended, with Bastien coming back around – and Celine, gone. It’s unclear whether Bastien will survive his transition, and they can only hope!

I just felt like there was so much more to this than ‘The Beautiful’. It was fast paced, and had me keep wanting more and more from it! I enjoyed how the vampire characters were explored more, and that it was more about the vampire side of the story.

There’s a bit of romance in this, but not nearly enough to be considered cringey *cough* TWILIGHT.

I also like how there’s more to Celine’s story in this book too, I felt like in the last she was a little ‘wishy washy’ and quite a flat character. In ‘The Damned’ Celine’s past is explored and things come to light that make sense, and make the story that much more interesting. Especially as it turns out that her bloodline is a known enemy to vampires. And I think this will make it an interesting story for the next book, if there is to be one. There is still a lot of unanswered questions that I’d like answers to, and I feel as though the story could definitely go on, as it was kind of a ‘cliff-hanger’ ending!

Now I’m all for lots of different characters in a book, and I LOVE reading from the perspectives of them, but when reading like ten characters thoughts it gets a bit much. I felt as though sometimes it was unnecessary for certain parts to be included, and at times it got confusing working out who was who, who was good, who was bad…

I do also think that the story perhaps dragged just a little longer than I felt it necessary, but overall I did enjoy the book. And based on this one alone, I look forward to reading the next in the series!

4.5 Stars

The Damned is the sequel to The Beautiful, a book set in 1872 New Orleans that follows the main character Celine Rousseau. This is still the same in the second book. I gave The Beautiful 3.5/4 stars and mentioned in my review of it that I was hoping we’d get to explore the Vampire side of New Orleans more in The Damned. I was not disappointed. The pacing of this book was quick and it felt like there was constantly something happening. There was also plenty of frustration, anger and yearning in this book so that definitely made this book more interesting.

The Damned is mostly told from two perspectives throughout, those are Celina and Bastien. I quite enjoyed having a dual perspective in this book as I think it was definitely needed after the events of the first book. I was really interested to read from Bastien’s point of view and to get to know this character better. I was also happy to be back with Celine as I quite enjoyed her character in the first book. This book follows Celine and Bastien as they deal with the aftermath of the first book. As mentioned in the blurb, what happened cost Celine a great deal and she can’t quite remember all that happened. This definitely made things more interesting.

The Beautiful set the stage for The Damned so that we could explore more of everything. As with most second books, we were given the chance to get to know the characters from the first book more, along with seeing more of the setting. I was keen to learn more about Celine and her heritage and background, and I wasn’t disappointed. I was also keen to know more about the vampires of New Orleans and thankfully, I was rewarded with this knowledge. I was more than happy to learn about La Cour des Lions and explore the darker side of the city.

Despite everything that happened in the first book, I was pleased to see that Celine Rousseau hadn’t let it affect her spirit or values. She was still the same character that we had got to know in the first book and hadn’t changed much, which I was thankful for. As I mentioned, I was keen to learn more about Celine’s character, including more of her heritage and I wasn’t disappointed. Bastien was a surprise. I mean, I knew I liked his character from the first book but we really got to know him as a character, including everything that had happened with him in the past to make him the person we see on the page. Learning more about him meant that I felt as if I could sympathise with him and understand his struggles a lot more.

The yearning and pining was definitely real in this book. I felt like a lot of the emotions were heightened as a result of what happened in the previous book. Due to previous events, there was also a lot of anger, fury and confusion thrown into the mix of emotions. It was interesting to see the characters of this book work through their feelings and read about how they dealt with them. Alongside this, there were also themes of friendship and family that I enjoyed in this book. I especially loved the friendship between Celine and Pippa.

Like The Beautiful, Renee’s writing of this book was just as addictive and made me want to keep on reading. In fact, there was so much going on in this book that I just wanted to keep reading and not stop until the very last page. The writing was easy to follow consistent throughout, this was helped by a great plot. I really felt as if there was always something happening and I just wanted to keep pushing through to get to the next twist or turn.

Final Thoughts

The Damned was a thrilling sequel to the first book, full of mystery, pining and just like the The Beautiful, it was dark and delicious. I have got to admit that I preferred The Damned to The Beautiful. I felt like this book gave us much more than the first and that the pace was so much faster. I really enjoyed this book and if you are looking for a YA full that is dark and atmospheric, I’d absolutely recommend reading this series so far.

So I had to take a couple of days to write my thoughts down on this book. Do you know why? As it literally blew my mind, it was such a good fantasy book and definitely become one of my new favourite reads.


Renée Ahdieh definitely captured my attention from the start of this book. I mean I don't want to spoil anyone but Holy Moly. My heart upon reading this book from the first chapter had my heart in my throat. There was enough action, character development, secrets and adventure for me to turn page after page. And can I just say WHAT WAS THAT ENDING.


I thought The Beautiful was good but The Damned is so much better.


Yes that statement deserved a paragraph of its own. I am rarely blow away by fantasy books as they all feel the same, but Renée Ahdieh I felt created something special. For those of you moaning about there not being enough Vampires in The Beautiful you definitely have more in The Damned. They are still subtle enough that I didn't felt overwhelmed and that is what I loved.


The characters, my gosh the characters. I fell in love with Sebastian St. James in The Beautiful but he became more in The Damned. He I felt grew as a character and his love for Celine definitely felt right and not forced. Celine I really liked and felt that she was developing more and more in this book. The secondary characters I felt were given more reading time in this book. They made the storyline more to me, they made it more enjoyable with their banter and their love of both Bastien and Celine.


I really do like how Bastien is stronger than he thinks he is. That his love for Celine is the one true thing that is keeping him real. His relationship with Odette Valmont is one of my favourites. You can see the respect and love they have for one another. As siblings do, how they protect one another.


To some they may feel that there is too much information given about the magical world, I felt however that it made me know the characters and the way that how are they are more. It allowed you to have more of a back story as to why things were done in The Beautiful and how they paved the way in The Damned.


I loved the different factions of the magical world. I definitely want to know more about them. I mean you have different types of supernatural creatures and courts. They all work differently and have different agendas. All are aiming for their own goals without thinking about how it impacts others.


Can we also not discuss how the last few chapters ripped my heart out, was stomped on then forced back in my chest. I mean, nope you are going to have to read it. It actually made me well up.
I really loved this book and its only the fifth book this year where I gave five stars to a book. I am so excited for the next book I just hope my heart can cope with it!

Following on from the events of The Beautiful we find our ensemble cast of characters dealing with the fallout of betrayal, memory loss, and transformation.

I found The Damned to be a much more enjoyable read, and in part, I credit this to the extra perspectives that were included. The Damned included chapters from the perspective of Jae, Arjun, Odette, Emilie, Michael, Pippa, and the usual of Bastien and Celine. Not all of these perspectives were as frequent as Bastien's and Celine's (who it took 100 pages, give or take, for her first chapter!), some only appearing once or twice, but I found they provided much needed insight to their thoughts & their motivations. Without them - Jae's and Emilie's, for example - I believe the story would have faltered (unless Ahdieh decided to make up for it by including a long monologue, where they sat and explained every detail...which they already do at times...).

The perspective chapters, and seeing more from Bastien's POV, allowed for the ensemble cast to be fleshed out further, each character becoming more distinct. I believe the first book struggled with this, as the only ones I could ever remember (from Bastien's Court of Lions) were Arjun (because I love him), Boone (he's a lol), Jae (the scary one), and, of course (one of my faves) Odette. The two sisters I still find hard to distinguish from each other, but they became more memorable in this as their backstories, personalities and relationship dynamics were slowly revealed.

Also! This book finally provided answers and explanations! The last novel kept banging on about a 'Brotherhood' and the 'Fallen' and talked about all these magical creatures and the different world and I was just '????' I got the idea that there were different factions that were in disagreement with each other/didn't like each other (the whole Michael v Bastien thing, and it mentioned Bastien had broken the Brotherhood agreement by punching him). But I feel the first book just skirted around the idea, without saying anything. Which, yes, Celine did not know about these things - but hers was not the only perspective. Like with this, the reader can be aware of things that Celine (or the other characters) are not aware of.

So, I really enjoyed seeing more from all of the characters, and seeing more of the world (or worlds) that they live in. I still hold the belief that more of the answers (i.e. defining what the Brotherhood / Fallen is) should have been given & made clearer in The Beautiful, and that the characters should have been fleshed out more and then built upon in the sequel.

With that said, while The Damned is an improvement and a great sequel, I often felt that it was being too ambitious with what if it was trying to do. The Beautiful wrapped itself in secrecy, while The Damned wanted to bring out all those unexplored elements and pack them in to this sequel.

While I enjoyed many of the POV's, it felt like The Damned had too many plotlines, and not enough focus. For example, (view spoiler)

Overall, I really enjoyed The Damned. It has it's faults - feeling a bit too rushed / jam packed / not taking it's time to develop - but it is a decent enough read, and an improvement from The Beautiful. If the pattern continues, I think the next novel will be even better! (Hope I haven't jinxed it). I just really hope that it will manage to tell it's own arc and still be a part of a larger story, as opposed to just being a long introduction / set up to the next book (unlike the first, and part of the second...)

I was glad to have the opportunity to read the sequel to The Beautiful so quickly after having read the first.

We were certainly thrown in with all the characters, some from the previous book and some new, and also thrown into the action. I found that the change to chapters from different POVs to be a bit jarring, as we had not had this with the previous book. I also found at points that there were just too many characters to keep up with. The shift seemed to focus more on Bastien rather than Celine, which felt a change from the previous book, where it was definitely more focused on her.

I found that at times the plot was too confusing, attempting to do too many things in one go. There were points where I thought "great plot point" then it went on to something else and we didn't go back to it.

My feelings about the book kept going up and down as I read, some parts I enjoyed more than others. Overall, a good book and sequel but it didn't quite captivate me like the first.

3.5
hmm... i'm not fully sure how i feel about this book. I didn't love it but i don't dislike it either. The story did take quite a few unexpected turns and also a few predictable turns, though it did not go in the direction i thought it would when i finished the first book . Also many more POVs are introduced. <spoiler> In my review of the first book i mentioned how i would've like to see more of the Sylvan Vale and Wyld in the story and this is exactly what i got in this book. Lots of it. And i really enjoyed the new unique worlds explored here and the world building. </spoiler> The world building in this second book becomes much richer and the plot thickens and becomes quite complicated. My major complaint is that, the first half of the book is quite slow and not much is happening and because of that i had a hard time getting into the story. Considering that i was already familiar with the characters and the world, it shouldn't have been that hard. The second half of the story though,very fast-paced, so many twists and turns happen and so much more is introduced, that it made the whole first book feel like a prologue. In my opinion, too many things start happening all at once, but i am curious to see where all this will lead in the next book and how everything will unravel.

The Damned is the sequel to The Beautiful and after that shocking ending in The Beautiful I couldn't wait to get my hands on The Damned. The Damned is a perfect sequel. The story continues right after the events of The Beautiful. This time around we learn more about the side characters and their background, which I absolutely loved. All these characters are so well-layered and interesting. It's hard to pick a favorite! The main characters, Celine and Bastien, continue to be amazing and even more compelling than in The Beautiful.

The stakes were also higher this time around and the story contained more action scenes. More wolves vs vampires scenes please!! The expanding of the magical world made for even more intrigue and suspense. Ahdieh's writing is just lyrical and beautiful and completely pulls you into the story. Time and time again you are shocked by the various turn of events and revelations. The Damned is just that good. I can't wait to continue Celine's and Bastiens story.