"...romantic new series set in 19th century New Orleans where vampires hide in plain sight."
Well, they hide so well we don't even get to see but one, and at the very end...
I was deeply disappointed in this book. I have loved all of Renee Ahdieh's other books, and The Wrath and the Dawn was such an epic love story that when I heard "vampire romance" I was waiting for this to blow me down with swooniness. Instead, I constantly blew out my breath in frustration.
I'll hit up points I enjoyed first. The setting was wonderful, I love the old time New Orleans setting and it's perfect for a creepy tale. The banter between Celine and Bastien was witty and sharp and full of Shakespeare quotes to remind us that its the 1870s and that's all they had to read back then (with one nod to Alice in Wonderland, published 7 years prior to the events of this book, and so unlikely to have made it into a seamstress's hands in Paris before this, but whatever, suspend disbelief!)
Okay, what I didn't like...
1) You cannot bill a book to be a hyped up romance novel that is "bringing vampires back" when THERE ARE NO VAMPIRES. The love story was between two mortals, the end! I mean, finding out Bastien was a true mortal and not faking it was just a serious deal breaker. And the rest of his crew? Described as magicians, we're never really told what they are. I mean, we're essentially told they're undead, but then, they also have powers? So are these Twilight's vampires, where each one has an additional gift they receive upon their mortal demise? Because I thought we were trying to bring back vampires better than Twilight? According to all advertisements? And they don't need to survive off of blood? Or do they? Any explanations here? Le sigh. And on this train of thought...
2) No explanations about the supernatural activity of this book. Stuff happens, deaths occur, mystical occurrences pass, and eventually we are told who causes the things, but never HOW. What BEING are you to bring about these events, good sir / madam??? Let's just make things happen and have the reader take a guess at what's going on because I am too lazy to bring explanations? Nuh uh, not my cup of tea.
3) Celine's contradictory character. I did not enjoy the character wrestling with her demons vs. her predisposition to defy the rules of 1870s society. She murdered her would-be rapist. Awesome. She flaunts societal etiquette and decorum to be seen in public at places of ill-repute and with people like the Court. She doesn't like that men are in charge and asserts herself to all men, always. AND YET. She internally berates herself mercilessly the entire book about killing a man. Calls herself evil and a monster. Punishes herself by seeking a life she does not want as a dutiful wife to a respectable man. Lord, this was a lost character. If she's so outlandish and brave, she wouldn't disparage herself internally for killing a freaking rapist! Maybe she'd worry about her immortal soul a wee bit, but she clearly isn't terribly pious and she definitely wouldn't spend the entire book thinking about how terrible she is. It didn't work to bounce back and forth between the two. Either she is brave and independent and strong enough to defend herself from rapists, or she is meek and obedient and deeply regretful over her accidental killing of a poor man. But she cannot be both at once, it made for a very hard read.
4) The killer point of view chapters were utterly pointless, unless their point was to prove that no one we knew was the killer. Each time, the killer essentially knocked a suspect off the list, I just got more frustrated. I thought this was supposed to be a mystery. Generally, in a mystery story, the villain isn't some rando that never appears in the main plot.
5) The random werewolf at the end. Really? I feel like I got more werewolf than vampires in this bizarre VAMPIRE ROMANCE book.
The more I think about this, the more I find to dislike, so I think I'm going to stop. If the first book in a series is meant to lay the foundation for the rest, this structure is in need of an overhaul...
Well, they hide so well we don't even get to see but one, and at the very end...
I was deeply disappointed in this book. I have loved all of Renee Ahdieh's other books, and The Wrath and the Dawn was such an epic love story that when I heard "vampire romance" I was waiting for this to blow me down with swooniness. Instead, I constantly blew out my breath in frustration.
I'll hit up points I enjoyed first. The setting was wonderful, I love the old time New Orleans setting and it's perfect for a creepy tale. The banter between Celine and Bastien was witty and sharp and full of Shakespeare quotes to remind us that its the 1870s and that's all they had to read back then (with one nod to Alice in Wonderland, published 7 years prior to the events of this book, and so unlikely to have made it into a seamstress's hands in Paris before this, but whatever, suspend disbelief!)
Okay, what I didn't like...
1) You cannot bill a book to be a hyped up romance novel that is "bringing vampires back" when THERE ARE NO VAMPIRES. The love story was between two mortals, the end! I mean, finding out Bastien was a true mortal and not faking it was just a serious deal breaker. And the rest of his crew? Described as magicians, we're never really told what they are. I mean, we're essentially told they're undead, but then, they also have powers? So are these Twilight's vampires, where each one has an additional gift they receive upon their mortal demise? Because I thought we were trying to bring back vampires better than Twilight? According to all advertisements? And they don't need to survive off of blood? Or do they? Any explanations here? Le sigh. And on this train of thought...
2) No explanations about the supernatural activity of this book. Stuff happens, deaths occur, mystical occurrences pass, and eventually we are told who causes the things, but never HOW. What BEING are you to bring about these events, good sir / madam??? Let's just make things happen and have the reader take a guess at what's going on because I am too lazy to bring explanations? Nuh uh, not my cup of tea.
3) Celine's contradictory character. I did not enjoy the character wrestling with her demons vs. her predisposition to defy the rules of 1870s society. She murdered her would-be rapist. Awesome. She flaunts societal etiquette and decorum to be seen in public at places of ill-repute and with people like the Court. She doesn't like that men are in charge and asserts herself to all men, always. AND YET. She internally berates herself mercilessly the entire book about killing a man. Calls herself evil and a monster. Punishes herself by seeking a life she does not want as a dutiful wife to a respectable man. Lord, this was a lost character. If she's so outlandish and brave, she wouldn't disparage herself internally for killing a freaking rapist! Maybe she'd worry about her immortal soul a wee bit, but she clearly isn't terribly pious and she definitely wouldn't spend the entire book thinking about how terrible she is. It didn't work to bounce back and forth between the two. Either she is brave and independent and strong enough to defend herself from rapists, or she is meek and obedient and deeply regretful over her accidental killing of a poor man. But she cannot be both at once, it made for a very hard read.
4) The killer point of view chapters were utterly pointless, unless their point was to prove that no one we knew was the killer. Each time, the killer essentially knocked a suspect off the list, I just got more frustrated. I thought this was supposed to be a mystery. Generally, in a mystery story, the villain isn't some rando that never appears in the main plot.
5) The random werewolf at the end. Really? I feel like I got more werewolf than vampires in this bizarre VAMPIRE ROMANCE book.
The more I think about this, the more I find to dislike, so I think I'm going to stop. If the first book in a series is meant to lay the foundation for the rest, this structure is in need of an overhaul...