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thedutchbookreviewer 's review for:
The Damned
by Renée Ahdieh
The review is originally from my blog, you can view the post here
[MY MOST ANTICIPATED SEQUEL]
*there might be spoilers in here for the Beautiful*
Thank you Hodder & Hodder for providing me an EARC via Netgalley!
The Damned starts where the Beautiful ended. 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.
Where overall The Beautiful was more of an introduction to the world and mostly New Orleans. In the Damned we dive into the darker underworld of New Orleans, which has more secrets than ever expected! I loved the writing style of Renée Adhieh so much, and how she explained how everything worked was so good!
Where in the first book we mostly followed Celine, in this book we follow more different characters and the focus mainly lies on Bastien and La Cour de Lion, due to all the characters having their own journey after the events of the Beautiful. I loved having the focus on Bastien, it was something I loved. Thanks to all the different views, we get to know La Cour de Lion really well. I loved understanding everyones motives and getting to know their history.
The family of the Cour de Lion is one of the main topics in this book, The family is one filled with loyalty, which is something that was made really clear in this book, due to getting to know all the characters in the family. Love and loyalty are two things that are priority in this family. Even though the love is born out of loyalty. Loyalty that is sometimes born out of fear thanks to a *strict* Nicodemus, or other events that are happening, that have to make sure the family is one.
The book has a slowish part, and a super fast-paced part. The second, fast-paced part was a bit shorter, and things that happen do feel a bit too “perfect”, there is no hesitation in any character, which was different than things that happened in The Beautiful, where things didn’t feel too “perfect” at all. This made mainly Celine a bit of a bland character, which was a bit disappointed, since she had a great start in this book!
Certain things where wrapped up a bit strange and got pushed to the background, but I only noticed it after finishing the book and going through my notes. I wasn’t that noticeable while reading, since there was so many things happening.
I really enjoyed the sequel, and I’m pretty sure we’ll get more books in this world, since I really need more!
I ended up rating it 4,5 out oof 5 stars!
[MY MOST ANTICIPATED SEQUEL]
*there might be spoilers in here for the Beautiful*
Thank you Hodder & Hodder for providing me an EARC via Netgalley!
The Damned starts where the Beautiful ended. 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.
Where overall The Beautiful was more of an introduction to the world and mostly New Orleans. In the Damned we dive into the darker underworld of New Orleans, which has more secrets than ever expected! I loved the writing style of Renée Adhieh so much, and how she explained how everything worked was so good!
Where in the first book we mostly followed Celine, in this book we follow more different characters and the focus mainly lies on Bastien and La Cour de Lion, due to all the characters having their own journey after the events of the Beautiful. I loved having the focus on Bastien, it was something I loved. Thanks to all the different views, we get to know La Cour de Lion really well. I loved understanding everyones motives and getting to know their history.
The family of the Cour de Lion is one of the main topics in this book, The family is one filled with loyalty, which is something that was made really clear in this book, due to getting to know all the characters in the family. Love and loyalty are two things that are priority in this family. Even though the love is born out of loyalty. Loyalty that is sometimes born out of fear thanks to a *strict* Nicodemus, or other events that are happening, that have to make sure the family is one.
The book has a slowish part, and a super fast-paced part. The second, fast-paced part was a bit shorter, and things that happen do feel a bit too “perfect”, there is no hesitation in any character, which was different than things that happened in The Beautiful, where things didn’t feel too “perfect” at all. This made mainly Celine a bit of a bland character, which was a bit disappointed, since she had a great start in this book!
Certain things where wrapped up a bit strange and got pushed to the background, but I only noticed it after finishing the book and going through my notes. I wasn’t that noticeable while reading, since there was so many things happening.
I really enjoyed the sequel, and I’m pretty sure we’ll get more books in this world, since I really need more!
I ended up rating it 4,5 out oof 5 stars!