At its center is the Count’s only heir, his nephew Bastien. In reality, the Court of Lions is a collection of inhuman beings under the purview of Le Comte de Saint Germain. Celine quickly becomes drawn to a young woman named Odette, who hires Celine to make a dress for a Mardi Gras masquerade and invites her to the Court of Lions, which Odette refers to as a gambling hell for mentalists. She arrives with several other young women from Europe and they are all to be settled in a convent together until they marry. The Beautiful takes place in 1872 New Orleans, where a young former dressmaker named Celine arrives after fleeing Paris. I deeply, deeply enjoyed The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh. TW/CW: Murder, attempted rape, beheading/separated limbs. 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.Īt once a sultry romance and a thrilling murder mystery, master storyteller Renée Ahdieh embarks on her most potent fantasy series yet: The Beautiful.Genre: Historical: American, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult

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 La Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sébastien's guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

She soon becomes embroiled in the city's glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group's leader, the enigmatic Sébastien 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 is the first book in The Beautiful series by Renée Ahdieh.

Renee ahdieh the beautiful