E-Audio, 12:20:28
Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo
Release Date: July 7, 2020
Published by: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Read from: July 25-28, 2020
The Beautiful, #2
Source: Library (Overdrive)
TW:
For fans of: Fantasy, Paranormal, YANew York Times bestselling author Renée Ahdieh returns with the second installment of her new sumptuous, sultry and romantic series, The Beautiful.
Following the events of The Beautiful, Sébastien Saint Germain is now cursed and forever changed. The treaty between the Fallen and the Brotherhood has been broken, and war between the immortals seems imminent. The price of loving Celine was costly. But Celine has also paid a high price for loving Bastien.
Still recovering from injuries sustained during a night she can’t quite remember, her dreams are troubled. And she doesn’t know she has inadvertently set into motion a chain of events that could lead to her demise and unveil a truth about herself she’s not quite ready to learn.
Forces hiding in the shadows have been patiently waiting for this moment for centuries. And just as Bastien and Celine begin to uncover the danger around them, they learn their love could tear them apart.
*MY THOUGHTS*
I’m pretty sure I’m like everyone else who knew they had to read this after the way the first one ended. That ending was crazy and I had to know what happened in the sequel. Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly my favorite.
After his transition, both Sébastien and Celine are experiencing turmoil. Celine is fighting with not having her memories and Sébastien is fighting with the fact that he knows what happened and all that she gave up. Add on to the fact that the treaty has been broken and its a recipe for disaster.
I liked The Beautiful good enough, so I was expecting this to be good as well. Unfortunately, I thought it gave off that dreaded sequel vibe. Like for the plot, I didn’t care for. I didn’t feel like much happened. It was kinda boring if I’m being honest. It just really didn’t feel like it was much going on. Until the very end. And I mean the VERY end. That ending definitely left things open for more in the series!
And then, for this to be about vampires, it was mainly about other creatures. I’m glad we got that look into other creatures, but I really wish I had learned more about Sébastien and how he was adjusting. I wanted to see more of him BEING a vampire.
The characters were what saved it for me. I was so happy to be back with them! I love Sébastien and I love “Take no ish” Celine. But even though I liked them, I don’t feel like they had their time together. I know that’s not important, but it was to me. I’m always the one who wants to see more romance, and this one had almost none. But man, that one scene where there WAS romance, it was like omg lol There IS sex in this, but it doesn’t go too indepth.
The narrator was very weird for me too. The way they did the male’s voices were weird and it always sounded like she had something in her mouth. Maybe it’s just me making something out of nothing, but it really bothered me. It was especially bad when I sped it up to 2x’s the speed. It just sounds really weird.
This was NOT my favorite, but I am really hoping there is more to this series. I really want to see more of the two of them and make sense of the bombs that were dropped at the end of this installment to the series.
Overall, I give this
