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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Fan of edging? Look no further! The smut you’re looking for is not here, only angst and messy pants.
Following the whirlwind ending of Book #1 we begin ‘The Damned’ with Celine having no memory of Bastien or La Cour des Lions. She’s safely engaged to safety match Michael, while Bastien watches their coupling from the shadows, struggling with his transformation into full bat-boy.
Read More... https://docgilbs.substack.com/p/book-review-the-beautiful-quartet
Following the whirlwind ending of Book #1 we begin ‘The Damned’ with Celine having no memory of Bastien or La Cour des Lions. She’s safely engaged to safety match Michael, while Bastien watches their coupling from the shadows, struggling with his transformation into full bat-boy.
Read More... https://docgilbs.substack.com/p/book-review-the-beautiful-quartet
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A very solid sequel. Not better than the first, though. The chess that Émilie played in this novel was something so serious.
Everything hurt.The betrayal of Jae, the true development of Bastien, the death of Odette, the promises of Arjun, the transition of Michael, the confusion of Pippa, the burning of Jacques’ like this book was just straight anguish.
Everything hurt.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood
Minor: Sexual content
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was such a mess. I don't know what I was expecting when I started it, but it sure wasn't this. I actually think the beginning of the book was intriguing, but it took so long for the story to get started, and then the story got so convoluted, that I quickly lost interest. I did end up reading the whole thing, but I skimmed a lot of it.
Let me first tackle the world-building. In the first book, we had vampires and werewolves. That was fine, and it was pretty refreshing to have so many POC characters for a change. This book not only committed the sin of a character info-dumping through dialogue, but it also introduced fairies into the mix. Why? Vampires and werewolves in 19th century New Orleans is enough! The author really should have taken advantage of her setting rather than dump even more stuff into the story.
How the author handled the characters was not the greatest, either. I was sort of into Bastien dealing with his new immortal status at first. The problem is the narrative didn't stick to him--it kept jumping around to ten other characters. Celine doesn't even get a POV until almost halfway through the book. It would've been so interesting to have the two contrast as Bastien tries to figure out his new reality at the same time Celine is questioning hers. Also, why is Bastien's POV in first person but everyone else is in third? I've read books with multiple POV's before, and while this wasn't bad, there were too many characters. Some of them we didn't even know that well from book one, so it's harder to invest in them.
I'll be honest, I was getting interested in the unmaker side-plot. I don't think it ever went anywhere, though. Why even introduce this if you aren't going to let the plot play out? Having Celine be investigated for murder would have been a fine side-plot, too, if the reader was actually told this was going on rather than spring it at the climax. I also got excited when it looked like one of the characters was going to die. Alas, the author threw in a loop-hole. That's why I'm not all that concerned with this other possible death that happened in the climax. If I find that the character actually remains dead in the next book, I'll be surprised.
Most of the stuff I liked was in the beginning when Bastien was working through his new reality. Yes, it's angsty, but it was interesting to me. A lot of the other stuff I liked ended up being dropped. Michael was still a nothing character despite him having the potential to be super interesting. The guy is a police detective and he does almost nothing in the whole book! I don't like the reveal with Celine, either. There was no need to make her be something super-special.
I really don't think I'll continue with the series. I just don't have faith that the author is actually going to allow interesting things to happen to these characters.
Let me first tackle the world-building. In the first book, we had vampires and werewolves. That was fine, and it was pretty refreshing to have so many POC characters for a change. This book not only committed the sin of a character info-dumping through dialogue, but it also introduced fairies into the mix. Why? Vampires and werewolves in 19th century New Orleans is enough! The author really should have taken advantage of her setting rather than dump even more stuff into the story.
How the author handled the characters was not the greatest, either. I was sort of into Bastien dealing with his new immortal status at first. The problem is the narrative didn't stick to him--it kept jumping around to ten other characters. Celine doesn't even get a POV until almost halfway through the book. It would've been so interesting to have the two contrast as Bastien tries to figure out his new reality at the same time Celine is questioning hers. Also, why is Bastien's POV in first person but everyone else is in third? I've read books with multiple POV's before, and while this wasn't bad, there were too many characters. Some of them we didn't even know that well from book one, so it's harder to invest in them.
I'll be honest, I was getting interested in the unmaker side-plot. I don't think it ever went anywhere, though. Why even introduce this if you aren't going to let the plot play out? Having Celine be investigated for murder would have been a fine side-plot, too, if the reader was actually told this was going on rather than spring it at the climax. I also got excited when it looked like one of the characters was going to die. Alas, the author threw in a loop-hole. That's why I'm not all that concerned with this other possible death that happened in the climax. If I find that the character actually remains dead in the next book, I'll be surprised.
Most of the stuff I liked was in the beginning when Bastien was working through his new reality. Yes, it's angsty, but it was interesting to me. A lot of the other stuff I liked ended up being dropped. Michael was still a nothing character despite him having the potential to be super interesting. The guy is a police detective and he does almost nothing in the whole book! I don't like the reveal with Celine, either. There was no need to make her be something super-special.
I really don't think I'll continue with the series. I just don't have faith that the author is actually going to allow interesting things to happen to these characters.