Eh. Ultimately disappointing.

I think, in the end, that world building I was hoping for in this was too much. We had a pretty solid beginning, with a setting that was perfect for a vampire story... and now all of a sudden it's like the author was like, "Okay now that your belief is suspended, HERE'S ALL THIS OTHER LORE TAKE IT ALL."
And I didn't like that.

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Ezzo's Narration Makes a Messy Story a Rough Read

I really loved the first book, The Beautiful. I found Lauren Ezzo's narration to be serviceable there, but it was nothing to write home about. Through no fault of Ezzo's own, though, her performance here was, at best, distracting, and at worst, utterly laughable when it came to accent work and making some characters stand apart from one another.

This is a book which contains one of my greatest literary pet peeves in that it has multiple POV's, but, rather than all of these POV's being written in a consistent style (either first-person with immediate past tense, or third-person with present tense) the style will change between certain POV's and it is infuriating. What's more, the one first-person with present tense POV we get is Bastien's and, rather than hiring a man to read the only first-person chapters in the book, the producers make Ezzo read his chapters. This is not entirely an uncommon or unforgivable thing, but the most frustrating and grating part is that Bastien has a French accent and Ezzo's French accent sounds like a Swede who is constantly gagging over her words. It is truly one of the most unpleasant experiences I've ever had with an audiobook, and Ezzo's struggles with accents neither begin nor end with Bastien's chapters. There is a character who is meant to have a Yorkshire accent in this book, but no matter how good and "Close Enough to Yorkshire" the beginnings of Ezzo's sentences begin, they always devolve into something that sounds like a cowboy in a bad western.

Unfortunately, the combination of Ahdieh's confused switching in POV's and Ezzo's extremely poor accent work really made this a difficult experience and, if I hadn't wanted to find out what happened next so badly, I would not have made it to the end. The story is still one worth experiencing, I think, but if you've read The Beautiful and wish to find out what happens next, I'd certainly suggest skipping the audiobook on this one.

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LOVE LIVE LIVE BUT NOT IN THE BEGINNING

afterwards I listened feel head over heeyou need to be able to pay attention to understand the story. Wow its beautiful though

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I Was Not Expecting What Happened

Damn, I was not expecting any of what just happened! From start to finish, I was on the edge of my seat. Getting the perspectives of everyone who has been around Celine has been helpful in understanding of the events after The Beautiful. Renée Ahdieh surely knows how to weave every twist and turn to keep a reader in anticipation of what will happen next. I loved every moment and can't wait for more.

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Not the worst

I bought this not realizing it was the second of the series. so I checked out and read the first one. I never got into the story. Everything felt a little glossed over for me. I was hoping the performance for the audiobook would have snagged me into the series, as there are some fun elements.
Nope. Made it worse. I did not care for the performers choices. Which pulled me out of what little depth I got into the story.
The story itself did get kind of interesting 3/4's of the way through this book.
I can't quite place my finger on what is missing from this book for me. As I mentioned, there are good elements. Just not enough depth.

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Hard to follow

Honestly the story was very difficult to follow . Maybe reading would be easier but as an audio book the story will confuse you entirely , sadly this was the only audio book that I have not finished ….

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Better then Twilight

I feel like this book and series is everything I wanted twilight to be. The characters are more dynamic an interesting. You can relate to their internal struggles and growth. I also feel that the setting and magical world is so much more diverse and engaging. I love it!

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Great voice!

I loved this book!!! The narrator had a great voice, I can’t wait to continue the series!

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Much better

This 2nd book is much better than the first! Flows much better! Glad I stuck it out. Now onto the next.

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Boring

I liked the first book (audio) so thought I'd give the 2nd a try. So boring. I know it's for "young adults" so maybe I'm just too old! The narrator is pretty good with the New Orleans pronunciations, her French is slightly less good, but she can't seem to say words like "grosgrain." After listening for more than an hour I'm over it.

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