Well, this book was a HUGE disappointment. Where do I even begin? First of all, this is such a cliche YA book that you'd think it was published 20 years ago. Every single YA trope you can think of is front and center here: the main character, Celine, is of course, the most beautiful girl ever to walk the Earth. And of course, she is the best seamstress the world has ever seen (at the tender age of 17). Of course, she has a big, dark secret that she ran away from, all the way from Paris to New Orleans. Of course there is a love triangle (if you can even call it that). Our two male interests are Sebastien (another most beautiful human being ever to grace the Earth and who is also tortured by his past. Huge surprise there, right?) and Michael, who is portrayed as being in charge of the entire New Orleans Police Department. Sounds good, right, except for one tiny thing: Michael is Sebastien's childhood friend. We know that Sebastien is 19, so that makes Michael around the same age. And he is in charge of the Police Department?!?! Very unlikely.
The story is set in 1872 New Orleans, but to be honest, it didn't feel like it. There was very little atmosphere and I had to constantly remind myself of the time where the story was supposed to take place. The story felt like a badly written fan fiction of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles.
The most annoying thing to me was the abundance of French phrases with NO translation whatsoever (granted, this could be because I had an ARC and the translations were included in the final copy).
The story is set in 1872 New Orleans, but to be honest, it didn't feel like it. There was very little atmosphere and I had to constantly remind myself of the time where the story was supposed to take place. The story felt like a badly written fan fiction of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles.
The most annoying thing to me was the abundance of French phrases with NO translation whatsoever (granted, this could be because I had an ARC and the translations were included in the final copy).