Just think of it like a paranormal murder mystery.

The only thing I’d recommend is don’t go in expecting to get a lot of vampy stuff like drinking blood and fangs. If you’re not into that kind of stuff, this book is pretty fun. If you like the typical, cheesy YA vamp book, this is not going to satisfy you. It felt like the characters just HAPPEN to be vampires, but it wasn’t super necessary to the story. The fact that vampires existed in this world felt less like a plot point and more like a small detail. I went in thinking I was getting a vampire story, when in reality I was getting a murder mystery that happens to have vampires in it (if that makes any sense). While I enjoyed this book, the reason I didn’t give it a higher rating is because it left me feeling unsatisfied. She’s basically the perfect blend of bravery and human that I think a lot of YA fantasy authors struggle to write. She also has a healthy dose of fear and survival instincts. She does not cower in the face of a challenge, but she’s not all-powerful and invincible. In many YA fantasy books, the protagonist usually feels unbeatable. I find that in a lot of YA vampire books the main female character tends to be written as a damsel in distress. I also love that Celine is unapologetic about who she is. There’s something so magical/spooky about New Orleans that I think the author captured beautifully. I love that it’s a paranormal book set in the late 1800s New Orleans. I’ve been in a reading slump), but The Beautiful hooked me in from page one. I’ve been having a lot of trouble lately staying interested in any of the books I’m currently reading (a.k.a. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface. and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose-one Celine is sure has set her in his sights. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of Le Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sèbastien’s guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

She soon becomes embroiled in the city’s glitzy underworld, known as Le Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group’s leader, the enigmatic Sèbastien Saint Germain.

Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and-especially-to the danger. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she’s forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead.

The beautiful series by renee ahdieh