This review is for those who have read or are familiar with the previous book, The Beautiful, or don't mind knowing spoilers for it. This book, however, will not be spoiled.
SPOILER ALERT
Following the events of The Beautiful, Sébastien Saint Germain is now cursed and forever changed. The treaty between the Fallen and the Brotherhood has been broken, and war between the immortals seems imminent. The price of loving Celine was costly. But Celine has also paid a high price for loving Bastien.
Still recovering from injuries sustained during a night she can’t quite remember, her dreams are troubled. And she doesn’t know she has inadvertently set into motion a chain of events that could lead to her demise and unveil a truth about herself she’s not quite ready to learn.
Forces hiding in the shadows have been patiently waiting for this moment for centuries. And just as Bastien and Celine begin to uncover the danger around them, they learn their love could tear them apart.
This is the first sequel The Vampire Book Club has picked thus far, so I was pretty excited to enter this world. I caught up on The Beautiful earlier this week and really enjoyed it, finding it a fun and well-crafted mix of familiar modern and classic stories. With that experience fresh in my mind, and a bombastic ending to boot, I was eager to continue the story and see just where Bastien and Celine got to next.
Apparently Romeo & Juliet should have stayed dead.
Okay, okay, that's not fair. It wasn't fully their fault, but dang, they made for really boring protagonists this time around. Bastien took a more lead role this time around, and apart from some brooding about his new afterlife, waffling between anger, fear, and regret, he actually got very little done. I mean, I can cut him a little slack for having his entire world turned upside-down and losing both his life and his love in an instant, but for all the time spent in his head, I didn't really learn anything from him. Bastien's arc in the first book was practically nonexistent, with his only change being falling in love with Celine, putting her as a higher priority than his uncle, and dying. This book effectively resets him, lets him start anew in a completely new life, once again without Celine. But since we didn't know much of him beforehand, we can't really appreciate most of the progress he's getting through the story, making it so his only persevered change is (once again) his relationship with Celine. And I guess becoming more aware of his uncle's shittiness? Both things we already saw in the first book, bringing us absolutely no further in his development.
As for Celine, she was the unfortunate recipient of a major downgrade. With Bastien stepping into the lead role, her narration was hugely truncated. I didn't fully mind at first, since she was largely beset by magical amnesia, but when the story decided she was ready to step back into the limelight, she was still sorely lacking much of her personality that I'd fallen in love with. She was mostly frustrated and scared for the first part of the story, and once she gains a little autonomy, she's thrust into a fish-out-of-water scenario again, robbing her of any confidence she'd accumulated. The moment she does begin acting independently, the book's practically over.
With both our leads thus hindered, it left the plot to make up for the slack, and though it tried, I just couldn't find myself enjoying it. A lot happens in this book, but without proper development of the leads, it all felt hollow. Motions were being made, but nothing carried any weight on its own. It all just felt like setup for the next story, one big transition. Instead of focusing on the characters' journeys, it was more about transporting them from A to B. And yeah, a lot of middle books fall into that trap, but I expected so much more after loving that first book, that this disappointment hit all the harder.
I guess this book did do a couple things I asked for: better flesh out the lore of the supernaturals, and not give Celine god-mode. My biggest fear from the first book, with the tease that there was something special about her blood, was that all her accomplishments would be retconned as being because of some hidden power. I didn't want her to have a golden tongue, or super-powered persuasiveness, or siren-powers built into her DNA, as that would have lessened the impressiveness of her mind, her personality, her determination. Thankfully, so far she hasn't been revealed to have any special tricks in her blood. I say "so far" because her abilities haven't really been explored yet. Actually, with her mother's heritage revealed, I think she's been retconned out of being half-East-Asian. So that kinda sucks. But here's hoping that's all she has taken from her character...
The one thing I truly appreciated was the expansion of this world's lore. Through some monologuing from Bastien's uncle, and some exploration of the Sylvan lands themselves, we get a lot of history into the supernatural forces of this world, and I ate it up. There are a few things that could still be further explained, but I was mostly content with what we got, especially concerning the vampires' powers, weaknesses, and history. I also greatly enjoyed the expansion of La Cour des Lions members' histories, especially with Jae and Arjun getting a lot more involved this time. I would have loved for some more with Odette and Pippa, but with Celine's demotion so did they get mostly shafted.
Another disappointment came with Michael Grimaldi, the proposed second love interest. While the first book did show preference toward Bastien, it also showed enough scenes and interactions with Michael to give him some viability. Here, that chance got dropped straight off a cliff. Between Celine constantly stating that she'd be settling for a stable relationship, and the fact that her acceptance of his affections happens OFF-PAGE, it was clear that he stood no chance as a love option. Heck, if he didn't suddenly get narration duty in the epilogue I'd have written him off as being dropped entirely. I'm hoping the flash we get from him at the end indicates he might still have a large role to play in the future, because I think he is a fascinating character with lots of complexity to give. I just hope he isn't given the same character assassination Jacob got in that other vampire romance series...
Overall, I wish this story had focused more on the characters' growth and less on transitioning. It felt like it wanted to completely disconnect from the themes of the first book, reworking its characters into something entirely new so they could start again in the next book. And while I appreciated that as a theme of the story—the characters choosing to move away from the old ways of doing things, opting to take steps toward better understanding, mercy, and equality—the execution of it in the plot was too rushed, leaving the characters feeling hollow and stagnant. Though this book didn't live up to my expectations, I'm still willing to give it another shot with the series' next installment (releasing late 2021), so I'll be back to let you know if it was worth it. Because as it stands now, I don't think I can recommend this continuation unless you're already ride or die with these characters.
Read by Lauren Ezzo
Unabridged Length: 12.4 Hours
Listened at 2x Speed
Unabridged Length: 12.4 Hours
Listened at 2x Speed
With a different character (and a Hispanic Male at that) being given the spotlight, I found the narration a bit harder to enjoy this time. Don't get me wrong, I think she did as good a job with her voices and accents as in the first book. But there's a huge difference between having his accent only appearing now and again in dialog, and suddenly having it narrate full chapters and nearly half the book. It's fine as a sprinkle, but I can't say I loved it as a main flavor.
As such, this is one of the few times I would have advocated for changing the audiobook casting. I think, because there were so many narrators splitting the book, I'd have added a male reader to help Ms. Ezzo better convey the story. She could definitely still provide the voices during the chapters starring Celine, Pippa, and Odette, and I don't think I even minded Arjun and Jae's which were still 3rd person. But for the 1st person narration in Bastien's chapters, I would have greatly appreciated a more natural-sounding voice.
Then again, it may very well be that the reader was contracted for the whole series, so changes couldn't be made. I guess that's fair, if that's the case, as I wouldn't want to be robbing her of a paycheck for only doing half the work. But in an ideal world...
Overall, not much else to report. The production quality was fine, and even the action scenes were executed more evenly than before. Other than my suggestion about Bastien's narration, I don't think I would change anything. A solid recording, with the same foreign language finesse I appreciated the first time. If you liked the first audio, expect more of the same here, and I trust we'll be hearing her again come the 3rd book's release.
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