Gr 7 Up--Set in New Orleans, Ahdieh's latest resumes after the events of The Beautiful. Sébastien is cursed. He is in love with Celine, but has been told to stay away from her. Struggling to remember her past, Celine feels lost and worries that she has set in motion dangerous events that may end her life. With dark forces working against them in the shadows, can the two find a way to be together? Narrator Lauren Ezzo does a great job of portraying the characters' French accents and bringing them to life. Her intonations are clear and crisp and draw the listener into the story. Her pace fits well with the Ahdieh's writing style. The author skillfully builds the supernatural world of Celine and Sébastien. The plot is well-developed, full of twists and turns, and ends tightly wrapped up, but still keeping readers pining for more. VERDICT Fans of Ahdieh, paranormal fiction, romance, mystery, and adventure will enjoy listening to this book. A great addition to library collections where paranormal romance is popular.--Jessica Moody, Olympus J.H., Holladay, UT

Following The Beautiful (2019), Bastien and Celine struggle with the consequences of her deal with Nicodemus. After Celine traded her memories of them in exchange for his powerful vampire uncle Nico's turning him, Bastien's reborn as a vampire--and he's not happy about it. Volatile, he embraces vices until his uncle, having given up on molding Bastien as a human legacy, decides on even higher aspirations for Bastien, ambitions in the Otherworld that the vampires had been banished from. The mythologies hinted at before (the Fallen, the Brotherhood, the Otherworld, the Sylvan Wyld's Winter Court, and the Summer Court of the Sylvan Vale) are unveiled in expansive worldbuilding. On top of that, multiple members of the Saint Germains' vampire family gain greater prominence in third-person point-of-view chapters that frequently reveal their backstories. Meanwhile, Celine recovers from residual traumas from experiences that she can't remember--because of a head injury, or so she's been told. Handsome detective Michael is patient with her every step of the way; she wishes she could return his feelings, but nagging flashes of memory have her looking for someone else. But those returning bits of memory shouldn't be possible, not with how powerful Nico is. Eventually, the romantic storyline gets quite steamy. Historical, multicultural New Orleans is depicted with all its racism--Bastien is multiracial (quadroon and Taíno) and Celine's French father was always secretive about her Asian mother. Decadent escapism. (map) (Fantasy. 14-adult) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.