Trigger Warnings: blood and murder (vampires y’all), gaslighting and memory fuckery, the consent issues inherent in vampires glamouring their victims.

I honestly love Renee Ahdieh’s writing style. I just love it. In the first 60 pages alone I marked at least ten lines as potential quotes because every line is beautiful and I wanted to remember all of them. I thought it was a little weird that Bastien’s chapters were in first person while the rest of the characters were in third person, but Bastien’s chapters did give me some of my favourite quotes so I’m not complaining too much. I found this book to be a little more simple than The Beautiful, which was much more flowery language. I didn’t mind that though, as I was engaged with the plot and this didn’t have nearly as much ‘second book syndrome’ as I was worried about! In places I was a little confused about the nonchalant way that information was shown – at one point I had to go back to my The Beautiful summary because I thought a plot twist was something I was already meant to know, it was delivered so casually.

I loved Bastien in the first book, but in The Damned? He might be the only fictional man worth respecting. I won’t go into too much detail, because I don’t want to spoil anything, but considering the time setting, Bastien is excellent. He insists on so much personal agency for Celine, giving her a choice in everything that they do and I just love to see it. I love historical fiction, but not when The Man decides everything. Bastien wouldn’t do that to her. Even the love triangle wasn’t that bad – I usually hate them – because the logic behind it tracked and it was clearly based in the society of the time.

In my review of The Beautiful I said that I wanted more vampire stuff in The Damned, and I definitely got that. Seeing a character go through the newborn vampire process was really fun, and definitely had the same energy of the first book. I loved the fae aspects that were added in and how the vampire and fae history was meshed in, different from a lot of vampire books I’ve read. I didn’t realise this was a four part series (because I’m an idiot) and when I got to the 75% mark, I suddenly had the sense of impending doom that this series wasn’t going to be wrapped up in this book. As it is, I can’t wait for the rest of the series, as the end of The Damned kicked things off hard.

In this sequel to The Beautiful, Sebastien Saint Germain must live with the curse that has been thrust upon him, with war between the immortals of New Orleans imminent and his relationship with Celine forever changed.

The Damned is told through multiple points of view. We read from Bastien and Celine’s perspective the most but also Bastien’s werewolf sister Émilie, fellow Court of Lions members Arjun, Odette, Jae and Michael, a friend from Bastien’s childhood and member of the Grimaldi werewolf family. Interestingly however, Bastien’s POV is told in first person while the rest are third person. I would also suggest that while The Beautiful was more Celine’s story, this was definitely Bastien’s.

The Damned opens with Bastien awakening as a vampire for the first time after the traumatic ending of The Beautiful in which Celine reluctantly gives up her memories of Bastien in order for him to be saved by his vampire uncle.

From the very beginning of the story, we are thrust right into the action and the world feels much, much bigger with higher stakes. We are introduced to an array of magical and mythical creatures, new worlds and more, which makes the vibe of this book entirely different to The Beautiful. Where the first book was more of a paranormal romance mystery type read. this felt much more fantastical with a slight less focus on romance.

However what I found really interesting here, and different to other vampire novels I’ve read, is that neither Bastien nor his Court of Lions family want him to become a vampire. Despite being the most powerful Vampire family, it did not end well for Bastien’s mother or father and so there is a huge sense of reluctance amongst them. The strong family bonds are still very clear to see in this story.

As with The Beautiful, there is again a lot of diversity in The Damned. From characters of varying ethnicity to those of different sexualities, I was really happy to see Creole, French, Spanish, Portugese, British-Indian and English characters and those who identify as gay, lesbian, and bi/pan.

I really enjoyed the discussions that Renee also included with regards to sexism and racism. Celine and her friends manage a Parisian clothing store and we hear about how unheard of it is for women in the 1800s to hold credit and have achieved this. Celine also asks very 'modern' for the time, asserting herself and being clear that she doesn't need a man's help in order to do what she needs to do. I loved this!

Although we know the main conflicts of the story going in, the mystery vibes we felt in The Beautiful definitely bleed through here. We have untitled chapters from someone observing Celine and the Court of Lions and it was interesting trying to guess who this could be.

This was a magical tale of vampires, werewolves and more with a forbidden romance and impending war. It made for an exciting read which made me fall in love with Bastien even more than before!

𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: 5/5 STARS⁣
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𝗙𝗔𝗩𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦: Celine, Bastien and Arjun.⁣
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𝗙𝗔𝗩𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗜𝗧𝗘 𝗔𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗦: The first thing I have to mention is how gorgeous Renée Ahdieh’s writing is. There is something so lyrical and beautiful about her world-building, I was swept back into the streets of New Orleans with the first few lines of the book. It was like I read Them Beautiful’ only days before. ⁣
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Another aspect I loved was the characters. It was beyond thrilling to see the individual character arcs be developed in the sequel, each of the characters gained a greater depth. I loved that Celine’s pragmatism, vulnerability, power and femininity continued to strengthen. I loved Bastien’s loyalty, his malleability as a character and his self-awareness that is sometimes missed in male characters. I adored that we got to see more of Arjun, his wittiness made me laugh out loud more than once. ⁣
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Plot-wise, I was constantly on my feet with this one. Every time I believed this was going to fall into a cliché, the story surprised me and left my shocked. The ending left me craving more and wanting to go back and read everything again. ⁣
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Renée Ahdieh truly brought back vampires. There was definitely more of my favourite blood-suckers in this one compared to the debut—which I loved. I think the inner workings, the Korean folklore, the depth in which the world is created is a testament to the effort and development Renée Ahdieh has put into forming this world. ⁣
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𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗣𝗦: Bastien and Celine. They just have my heart. They’re so incredible together and I genuinely enjoyed their angst and romance in every moment. ⁣
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𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗗 𝗙𝗢𝗥: readers looking for their next vampire series.

The Damned by Renée Ahdieh is the sequel to The Beautiful and it's being released today July 7th! The Beautiful was one of my favorite books of 2019 and I was so excited to get a chance to read and review the sequel before it's release. As I stated in my Best Books of 2019 post, The Beautiful sees the re-emergence of vampires in YA novels, and this is confirmed in The Damned. We finally get to see the events of the story happening from the point of view of some of the vampires and we get to know more about their history. I was absolutely stunned by the atmosphere of the novel, the flowery descriptions it was filled with. I also enjoyed getting to see more of the "war" between the vampires and werewolves of New Orleans, and it made me have some serious Twilight flashbacks. One of my favorite parts in the book was when one of the characters we were already familiar with from The Beautiful came out as sapphic and I think it's super important to normalize queer characters in historical fantasies.

As soon as I picked up this book, I could not put it down until I had finished reading it. No spoilers but this book contained one of my favorite tropes from YA fantasy novels, but I've really only seen it done before with white characters, so it was exciting to see a character of color rise to those same heights. While currently the series seems to be only a duology, the ending of The Damned definitely left room for more and I hope we get to see it at some point!

The follow on from The Beautiful, The Damned is enchanting and picks up from where The Beautiful left off, with Bastien awakining into his immortal life, and Celeine recovering from her orderal. I loved the different pov's this time round, with Bastien being the main pov - he is definitely a favourite of mine, even from The Beautiful.

The world building was again fantastic, richly detailed and the smatterings of french were a nice addition. I loved the different parts of the otherworld that were intruduced, especially the in depth look at how the series' vampires exist.

All in all a fantastic read, which I enjoyed more than its predecessor - I'm excited for the follow up!

As with The Beautiful, I was utterly mesmerised by this rich, entrancing tale that expanded beyond the confines of the first book so well. Ahdieh has such a striking, captivating voice that she utilises to great effect in this super sequel.

In a strong cast of characters, Odette still has to be my favourite with her snarky attitude and ability to see the future. I really loved how we actually got to hear her voice this time around and how morally grey and ruthless she truly is. Her beauty is her weapon to lure unsuspecting, foolish people who underestimate her. Indeed, the character work is a real strength of The Damned, with the Court of Lions getting far more fleshed out. We get to know the individual members more, with their tangled web of loyalties and secrets. By giving us this deeper understanding of the members and their history, you’re forced to reexamine some of the events of the previous book in a new lens, constantly revitalising and rejuvenating the rich world you are lost in.

Ahdieh just has the most gorgeous writing. It’s so sumptuous and vividly imaginative, making you really feel immersed in her varied settings and voices. Yet again, it is a compelling story, with really well-executed twists that genuinely make you reevaluate what you thought you knew. I really loved the way that the lore and world was enriched and expanded as it was so expansive and intriguing. It takes the story to new and very interesting places that leaves plenty of material for the rest of the series. In particular, the motif of mirrors and the way in which Ahdieh utilises them was something that I just adored. We also get to explore two distinct new worlds, which I won’t say too much about for fear of spoilers: The Vale and the Wyrld. They serve as direct contrasts, on the surface one appears far better than the other, but closer examination reveals the cracks and potential darkness lurking beneath.

The Damned is a magical story that builds on the foundations of its predecessor to craft a spellbinding, richer story that leaves you hungry for more.

4 stars!

Renee Ahdieh is back with her wonderful vampires and magical creatures. Please be advised this review will contain no spoilers for The Damned but it does inevitably spoil the first book in the series, The Beautiful.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Following that mortifying night in The Beautiful, Sebastien's and Celine's life has changed forever. Sebastien is now a vampire, something he never wished to be. And Celine has lost her memories of everything related to Sebastien and his world. There is an imminent threat of war between the Fallen and the Brotherhood and no one knows who to trust anymore.

I was really close to only giving this book 3 stars, but the final 1/3 of the book completely changed my perspective of it. The first 2/3 of this book are quite slow and uneventful, and it made it really hard for me to be invested in the story. However, things start to pick up really well toward the end and the story evolves into something incredible and rich.

The best part of this book for me, along with the best part of The Beautiful as well, are undoubtedly the characters. Sebastien and Celine are incredibly well developed characters with strong backstories and even stronger morals.

This book delves deeper into the magical side of the world and it was good to finally know how creatures exist and are created in this world.

Overall The Damned was a good sequel, completely saved by the last 1/3 of the story and its wonderful main characters.

I read The Damned right after The Beautiful. I was really excited about this series. I really wanted to read a really good vampire book but the first book didn't have them. The beautiful was dark and mysterious but it has no supernatural elements but the damned has it all. Maybe too much. It was fun to read but there were a lot of things that left without explaining. I think some characters have more roles in this book but we didn't learn all of them. Like Emily. I don't know how i feel about this book. It was an enjoyable read but it didn't give me all the things that i want. I will probably read the next book because i am curious about what is going to happen. Overall it was okay. 2.5./5

We pick up where The Beautiful ended and what an ending it was! We get to see several points of view in the first half of this book which I loved because I really love these vampires, especially Odette! Her friendship with Celine was everything!

This book takes the world we are introduced to and expands it so we see so much more of the world hidden from humans. We get to go to the world of the fae and we learn more about the history of the vampires and werewolves and I loved it so much. It made me see things that happened in The Beautiful in a new light. I love the incredible world building and how it was incorporated into the story so it didn’t feel like it was just info dumping. We are introduced to new characters and we get to see more of some of the characters in the first book. One of my favourite side characters is Arjun and I just hope we get to see more of him in the next book!

"For far too long, Celine had looked to others for answers. It was time for her to look within herself."

Celine starts this book so unsure of herself because she has lost her memories and doesn’t know what has happened to her and she hates how everyone thinks they what’s best for her so she goes looking for answers and ends up learning so much about herself and her history. I loved seeing how she didn’t let anyone dictate her life and took charge of it herself.

"It is was easy for a man to be kind and generous in times of plenty. The real measure of a man was what he did and said in times of difficulty."

While The Beautiful was Celine’s story, this book is Bastian’s. He has such wonderful character development in this book. Through Bastian we also get lots of discussions of toxic masculinity and what truly makes a man great. I loved seeing how he has to unlearn all the things that have been drilled into him by his uncle and he has to consciously choose to be better. It was so wonderful to read and see his development and the choices he makes, especially when it comes to Celine. Everyone insists on knowing better for her but he trusts her to make her own decisions and supports her in those decisions. I just loved it so much!

Renee’s writing is so beautiful and the vivid descriptions were so wonderful and I could really see the world that Renee has created. I loved the vampires who were dark and seductive and you’re just instantly drawn to them and it was also interesting to see how they were different yet similar to the werewolves especially considering their shared history and why they don’t like each other.

"If a mediocre young man could crow to the world about his mediocrity, then why should a superior young woman not do the same?"

I love how diverse the characters are and how Renee has so many cultures seamlessly incorporated into her world and it’s one of the things I love about her books especially that I can see myself in her worlds. There are discussions of how being a person of colour affects how you are treated and it was so wonderful to see this in a book but also people like Arjun, make the best out of their situation.

I absolutely adore this series and I cannot wait to read the next book! I am so happy that we get another book because I am not ready to leave this world and I’m excited to see where the story will go next and who it will follow.

Having read and adored The Beautiful earlier this year, I was delighted to learn that the sequel, The Damned, was being released this summer.
We begin our story pretty much as soon as the first book ends, in New Orleans, with Bastien and Celine learning to cope with their new circumstances. We get much less Odette in this book, but much more of the delightful Arjun (who I can't help but picture as Dev Patel!).
This book is not a heavily set in New Orleans (I don't want to say where the characters travel to as it may be a spoiler? I definitely didn't know ahead of time), which is a shame, although I did enjoy our new settings as well.
It's hard to know what to to say and what not to say about the plot, to avoid the dreaded spoilers, but I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first, however there is a definite sense of urgency for the next book - not the least because the life of a main character hangs in the balance! The writing is more efficient and less descriptive than the first book, so take that as you will.
Overall, my rating is 3.75 stars.

For those who fell in love with Renée Ahdieh’s world of The Beautiful and the mysterious Court of the Lions, welcome back to this lush and dangerous historic New Orleans. This time we know what secrets hide in the darkness....
Expanding both the narrative, and the narrators, The Damned allows for the voices of other characters to shine. Giving characters such as Odette centre stage also provides a way to introduce the history only whispered and alluded to in the first book. While it can be a little expository, it is also satisfying. Rich and glittering, I am glad to explore this expanding landscape, and excited to see where else it may lead.

I loved the direction this book has taken and the expanding supernatural world. I criticised The Beautiful for not having enough vampires in but this has definitely remedied that. For some reason, I thought this was a duology but it's obviously not and I'm really looking forward to finding out what happens next with Celine.

The Damned continues from where the first book in the series left off. Celine made a choice in the name of love and now Bastien has to come to terms with her decision and keep his distance. Their enemy has retreated into the shadows but the threat is still there and now more than ever they need to watch their backs.

This second instalment offers a lot more vampire action. The spotlight is on Bastien but we also get to know more about all the members of The Court of Lions and discover some very interesting facts about Celine's ancestry. The story is told from multiple POV and I enjoyed it because we get to establish a deeper connection with each character, but I do feel like some conversations were dragged out and I found myself skimming through them.

The atmosphere is darker than in the previous book but the writing style is still enthralling. The action is fairly paced, leaving room for character development. Most of the story is focused on Bastien's journey of accepting who he's become but it also grows in term of worldbuilding. We get to travel to a new land and were introduced to various magical beings. The romance between Celine and Bastien while not being front and centre this time, it still fuels the storyline. The chemistry between them is stronger than ever and they can't seem to fight the magnetic pull that constantly brings them close. I loved every moment they were together.

This book ends with yet another cliffhanger that left me hungry for more. There are still questions left unanswered and a new twist that brings another enemy into the light. I'm so curious to see what will happen next.


Thank you Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC.

The Damned: My thoughts

Disclaimer: I received an e-arc from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Since receiving an arc of The Beautiful at YALC last year, I knew that as soon as I saw The Damned on NetGalley, I had to get on that. The Damned continues almost on from the events of The Beautiful. During this book, we see Sebastien coming to terms with being a vampire. Furthermore, with Celine having forgotten him, it does become a little bit difficult to read from her perspective.

Whereas The Beautiful is largely told from the perspective of Celine, we get to experience The Damned from multiple perspectives. I found that with The Beautiful initially introducing these characters, I feel like it didn’t take us long to get used to their narratives. It also allowed for different points of view to come across better.
Celine

Celine continues to be one of the protagonists in this book, however less so than when we journeyed with her in The Beautiful. I feel like we almost see a different Celine in this book. Losing her memories has meant that Celine has lost the part of her that made her independent and sure of herself. It’s almost heartbreaking when she asks people about the past, but they are reluctant to tell her. This adds to the depth of Celine as a person, and as someone the reader can relate to.

Bastien

I’d say The Damned is told mostly from the perspective of Bastien, and how he has to adapt to life as a vampire. Bastien almost becomes cruel in this book, and I feel like losing his humanity hardens him almost. Sebastien is no longer the warm hearted soft boy, and really does play into the role of the “Bad Boy”.

Pippa

I don’t really touch on her much in my review of The Beautiful, but I’m glad we see the development of Pippa. In The Beautiful, Pippa is very much has a right or wrong belief system. As the reader, we see Pippa as someone who wants to get married and have some stability, which in the 19th Century, was perfectly acceptable. Pippa is warm-hearted and I believe keeps Celine grounded. I cannot wait to find out mrore about Pippa in the third book!

Plot

Whereas The Beautiful has a mostly urban fantasy vibe, I feel like The Damned goes hell for leather into embracing more fantasy elements. I did like how we got to spend more time in the heads of the characters and learning about their pasts. I feel like The Beautiful was mostly focussed on the murder mystery aspect, and The Damned is more character focussed. This was initially jarring as I read one book after the other, but for the plot development it makes sense.
Conclusion

To conclude, I really enjoyed reading this book, and felt as a follow-on. The Damned built on the characters that we were introduced to in The Beautiful, yet builds on their pasts and what makes them who they are. Although the plot seems to be heading in a different direction, I am really intrigued by where Renée is taking us.

I gave The Beautiful a full five stars but The Damed I’ve given a half a star less, it was good but just not quite as good as The Beautiful. One type of book that I will always be complete and utter trash for is vampire books. I’m sorry but I love them, come at me all you like but I actually like Twilight, okay. moving on.

Going into this I thought that this was going to be a duology but BOY I’M SO HAPPY IT’S NOT, I need more of this world in my life and I’m just dying for the third instalment already. I couldn’t wait to dive straight back into this world and follow on after the horrific events that happened at the end of The Beautiful and now again I have to wait for the next instalment.. *cries*

The Damed follows on from The Beautiful with Celine recovering from an injury from a night in which she just can’t remember, she spends a lot of this book on the edge of remembering but just can’t quite unlock them and she’s trying to hard. Sébastien has been turned, after the horrific events in which Celine saves Bastien by pleading with his uncle to turn him in exchange for her to lose her memories of Bastien and that world but it always calls her back.

There’s also new threats on the horizon for both Celine and Bastien. Someone watching Celine from the shadows, gathering information on her and the werewolves are after Bastien for two different reasons. No matter how much Bastien tells Celine to stay away, fate always draws them back together.

I love love L O V E D that there was more vampire content within this one, wherein the last one I don’t think it was actually mentioned just hinted to begin with and I just knew that The Damed was going to be filled to the brim with it. There were so many twists and turns throughout the story that I was just gripped from the start, it was just glorious. It was so beautifully well written and I’m just obsessed with it. The Beautiful has to be one of my favourite series now, no doubt, it was one of my favourite reads of last year and now this is more than likely going to be one of my favourites for 2020, it contains many of my favourite things, historical and vampires being the main two and obviously Sébastien 😍

Author: Renée Ahdieh
Genre: YA Paranormal
Format: EBook advanced reader copy
Published: 7th July 2020
Pages: 432
Rating: 3.5 Stars

*I received a copy of this via Netgalley from the publisher, however, this in no way influenced my opinion. Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with a copy.*

In the sequel to ‘The Beautiful’ Sébastien Saint Germain has now been turned into a vampire and Celine has no memories of him. She is recovering from the injuries that she sustained that night in the church but she grows frustrated by the fact that everyone is lying to her about what really happened.

Unfortunately, I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed in this since I absolutely loved the first book ‘The Beautiful’. One thing that I liked was the writing, Renée’s writing is really immersive and pulls you into the story, I hope to pick up more of her work soon.

After the climatic ending of the last book I was hoping for this to be fast paced and full of action however nothing really happens until around 40%. Another positive aspect that I enjoyed was the introduction of new creatures like enchantresses, I found it interesting to learn more about the mythology of this world. We also seen the further development of some of the members of the Cour des Lions, which was great as some of them played a bigger role in the plot of this novel than they did in the first. My biggest issue with this was the lack of Celine, she was barely in the story until the last part. This was disappointing as she was the main character in the first novel so I would have appreciated the story more if she played a bigger part in this story. The twist in her parentage was interesting though I do wish we could’ve seen more of Celine and her mother reconnecting. I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the last 15% of the story, it was intense, action packed and shocking. The death of one of my favourite characters really gutted me.

Also I was under the impression that this was a duology however the way this ended left it open for a sequel so if that’s the case I will pick it up as I want to see what happens with Celine and Bastien next. I’m also curious about Michael’s character since he seemed to turn into a werewolf in the epilogue and Pippa witnessed it.

Overall I am a little bit let down by this sequel but it had some interesting plot twists and I enjoy Renée’s writing.

This was a pretty disappointing read for me, although I do think it picked up in the latter stages. It tells the continuing story of Bastien and Celene in the heady world of New Orleans. Firstly, this book takes a pretty big turn away from the vibe of book one, which was very mysterious and atmospheric. In this second instalment, we have a lot of typical YA fantasy tropes, including fae, goblins, werewolves and others, making this a far more fantastical read than book one. For me, this made the narrative feel really jarring and it didn't feel cohesive as part of the series. I also thought that we had a lot of point of view characters in this book, which meant that our focus was split instead of following Celene throughout, which was a shame. As I said, the plot did pick up towards the end and Ahdieh definitely knows how to write a cliffhanger to keep the interest, but overall, I just found this to be pretty lacklustre.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Beware that there may be spoilers ahead for book 1, The Beautiful!

Last year I read the first book in this dark 19th Century New Orleans supernatural series by Renee Ahdieh. You can find my review here, where I dissect a lot of the characters and complain about pacing. I enjoyed the first book but felt like it really didn’t reach it’s potential, so I was super excited to pick up this sequel and see how to plot develops. I was totally right that this sequel would do so much more for me than the first book, it really came into it’s own.

Honestly, The Beautiful and The Damned felt like two totally different books in different series, it was a bit jarring at first. Where the first book has been really subtle about the supernatural elements, this book is packed with vampires and werewolves and fae. I much preferred the dynamic of this book, but I felt like how disconnected it was from the first book somewhat affected my enjoyment to begin with. It felt at times like I was reading the sequel to a book I’ve not read.

One of the places where this book particularly shines over other similar supernatural historical fiction, is its diverse cast. The 19th Century is a period of time that is often glorified for its industrial revolution, society and fashion – forgetting the plight of members of that society who were not white. Slavery and colonisation was still rife, and this book focuses of characters from many different heritages, both European and Eastern, and many mixed race characters too. This fantasy is just so rooted in those experiences, which I love to see. As much as I love this period of history, the atrocious racism should not be ignored in favourite of the perfect romantic setting for a fantasy.

In terms of the writing style, the perspectives of this book were a little strange and I’m not sure how to feel about it. We follow Bastien as our main character, a new vampire and sexy YA angst boy, and his chapters are written in 1st person present tense, while the many other perspectives we follow are all 3rd person past tense. While I can understand using 1st and 3rd interchangeably to establish Bastien as the main character, the choice to deviate between past and present tense was a bit jarring.

Other than that though, the writing was beautiful. I was a real fan of Ahdieh’s fairyland – it was so dark and twisted, full of strange creatures and atmosphere. We spend a short time in this fairy world in The Damned so I am definitely looking forward to delving into the politics and terrain of this land much more in the 3rd book.

Dark and twisted was the real takeaway from this book – I adored how much vampire content we had. It was violent and ruthless, which I loved. I loved Bastien’s struggle with morality and mortality as we see him learn to cope with his new vampirism. I am a BIG fan of this sort of storyline, and I felt like that was lacking from the first book so it was so great to see more on page vampire brutality, rather than simply allusions like we had in book 1.

I was pretty sad to find that Odette wasn’t much used in this book. In the first book, I was left so excited to see her character develop, and maybe for her to get a romance as the only prominent queer character in the book, but alas, she was a very background character through the whole book. No sapphic content today ☹️ To be fair though, romances with any side characters aren’t really explored and it wouldn’t have any benefit to the plot, Odette just reminds me of Anna Lightwood and I am so here for that content. I’d read a book just about her.

Speaking of the romance that we do see in this book, we follow on from the love triangle that started to develop over the course of The Beautiful between cute but boring Michael, Celine and Bastien. I would just like to stress this point – No one cares about you Michael. Ya boring. I really felt like we were being drawn into a lengthy Edward-Bella-Jacob style triangle here that I did not care about, as that’s how the beginning of the book developed, but the romance did shift from bland and unconvincing, to steamy and sexy and full of spice. I really hope the romance finds its footing and really thrives in book 3.

Overall, I predicted that I was going to enjoy this 2nd book much more that the first and I was totally right. It really satisfied that vampire romance-craving part of my soul. I’m really excited to see what the 3rd book has to offer (though what they’re going to call it is baffling me…). I think if you loved The Beautiful, then you’re really going to love The Damned, but if you didn’t love The Beautiful so much, it’s still absolutely worth picking up the sequel as it’s much more action packed, more developed and has a totally different vibe.

The Damned begins right where The Beautiful ended. We got to see more of Sebastian in this book and his journey after the transformation was brilliant.
There’s more about The Court of Lions including chapters from the perspective of other members like Odette which was something I really enjoyed.
The Damned has more of a focus on the supernatural which was something I had wanted to see in The Beautiful. With werewolves and the introduction of other species The Damned did not disappoint!
Once again Ahdieh created a rich, gothic atmosphere that drew me in and kept me hooked until the last page.
This was a 4/5🌟 read for me.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

While this sequel isn’t set immediately after the end of the first book, it does very strongly knit onto the end of it. If it has been a while since you read The Beautiful, I recommend you reread it before starting The Damned, as I ended up rather confused at the start, having forgotten some of the details of the fast-paced ending. While much of The Beautiful was slow-to medium paced over the course of the story, which I really enjoyed, The Damned kept up the pace of the last part of it, and was consistently fast paced. This will work very well for many readers, but was not ideal for me personally. I preferred getting immersed in the world of the vampires of New Orleans, their society and customs, and getting to know the characters.

To me, it felt like The Damned was trying to do too much in too short a time frame. It solved a number of overarching mysteries, introduced many new ones, but did not leave much space for character and relationship growth through its focus on action and plot. Especially given that this is Renée Ahdieh’s first longer series, I believe that saving some of what happened in The Damned for the next volume would have helped with these issues.

Ultimately, I felt disconnected from the characters due to the pacing. I wanted to know what happened, but I didn’t truly care, not like I did during The Beautiful. I hope that will change again in the next book, as for me that is one of the most crucial elements of a novel. But as I said, this is all due to my personal tastes, and I do believe that many people will love and enjoy The Damned just as much as they did The Beautiful.