The Beautiful

By: Renée Ahdieh

Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo

Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

The first book—an instant bestseller—in the sumptuous, sultry, and romantic YA vampire series from New York Times bestselling author Renee Ahdieh.

In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans is a safe haven after she's forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent, Celine is quickly enraptured by the vibrant city becoming embroiled in the glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group's enigmatic leader, Sébastien Saint Germain.

When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in Sébastien's own lair—the second dead girl to turn up in recent weeks—Celine must battle her attraction to Sébastien and suspicions about his guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

©2019 Renée Ahdieh (P)2019 Listening Library

Critic reviews

“The Beautiful, which kicks off a new series, returns the vampire novel to popular form, evoking the style of Anne Rice and breathing fresh life into the genre.”—Entertainment Weekly

“It's true: Vampires are back, and they're more seductive than ever.”—Bustle

“Ahdieh brings New Orleans vibrantly to life, particularly when exploring the complicated racial and gender restrictions of high society through main and supporting characters of mixed-race origin. Sure to please fans of the author and of the vampire-romance genre.”—Kirkus

Lyrical, dark and rich in details

Lots of detail setting the scene, a little slow to get going but worth it

Beautiful

I’ve enjoyed other books by this author. This one was “eh”. The story just kind of dragged on, in my opinion. Most of the narration was excellent. The creepy voice didn’t work so well, at least for me. The story wasn’t riveting. Maybe I’m wrong.

Overall was expecting more

I was very excited to read this book because I loved the wrath and the dawn. But this book was definitely a bit disappointing. I was hoping for a love story but nothing even happened between the 2 main characters for almost the entire book.

decent story, hard to listen to

The majority of the narrative was fine, but the Shiver chapters were hard to listen to

a dark goddess and a beautiful devil

beautifully written with characters that are absolutely enthralling! loved every moment of this book, reminded me of why i love the vampire genre so much. definitely would recommend for a read, a listen, everything!

Performance was icky at times

The performance at certain chapters of the book (the demon chapters) was odd and honestly too dramatized. The story is good but those chapters personally give me the ick.

Awful Voice Talent

I am about an hour in and find the story to be good, but the voice talent is seriously lacking. She makes the main male seem like he has a slow brain. Her accents make me cringe. I wish I would not have waisted a credit on this book. I will end up buying the paperback and finishing the story since it has me intrigued.

good book

I liked the story. i wish it would have given me a bit more depth into some of the characters that play a bigger roll towards the end though. overall pretty good

Thank Goodness for the End

I was very excited when I started this. I had high hopes. Sadly I was kind of disappointed. The story was very slow and I didn't truly enjoy the book until the last quarter of the book. With a book based in the 1800s in New Orleans and immortal creatures roaming the streets for their next victims, I had hoped the pacing would be much better. I also often found myself lost in the story not knowing what was going or able to follow the plot. I will say the narrator's voice is mesmerizing. What I enjoyed most was the way she interpreted and pronounced different accents. It's very lovely. As this book ends with a cliffhanger, I may get the next book. However I will not be listening to it soon.

A little slow, but good story

This was overall a slow read because the story seemed to drag out and was sometimes hard to follow. The concepts were great, but it just lacked the “wanting” factor that you get when you can’t put a book down. The characters were perfectly designed and entertaining. The additional perspective of the “creature” was great, and read in a delicious manner and added depth to the story. The reader was delightful, she had the right voice for the story.