The Beautiful and the Damned by Jessica Verday

The Beautiful and the Damned
by Jessica Verday
272 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: October 1st 2013
Rate: Average+

Synopsis:

Cyn’s blackouts have deadly consequences in this sexy, suspenseful spinoff to the New York Times bestselling Hollow series.Cyn and Avian are far from a perfect match. She’s a witch who casts spells on men so she can steal their cars. He spends his time being judge, jury, and executioner to the truly evil in the supernatural realm.

When the blackouts Cyn’s been having ever since her time in Sleepy Hollow start escalating, she finds herself unable to remember where she’s been or what she’s been doing. Frightened, she seeks guidance at a local church, and it’s there she meets Avian.

The unlikely pair soon discovers that her blackouts are a side effect of what she truly is—an Echo—a conduit for souls of the dead. The only way to prevent Cyn from losing complete control is to return to Sleepy Hollow and vanquish the source of her power—but she may not survive the process. And if she does? She won’t ever be the same...

The Beautiful and the Damned completely confused me. At first, without reading the synopsis, I was a little lost and didn't understand what was Avian or if there were more like Avian and Cyn and how many types of demons were in this story. 

I kept reading it because Cyn's story was pretty intense and interesting. I felt sorry for her for finding her boyfriend brutally murdered to her side, and living with the fear of thinking about the possibility of her being the murderer. I seriously wanted to know what happened to Hunter and if it was really Cyn who murdered him. 

She's an Echo. She has the ability to cast spells on me so she can compel them to do whatever she wants. But she's a different Echo, she's not selfish as the others, and only uses her ability to steal cars, and then return them, to feel the adrenaline rush and when its only necessary. But being an Echo also mean being a conduit for souls of the dead. And that means that from time to time, a soul that is not Cyn's soul takes control of her body.

In this story, you also read Avian's point of view. He's half demon, half angel and a revenant. I'm still kind of processing this. He could be categorized as the bad boy in the story and although he's an asshole to Cyn, you know these two have to end up together. 

I liked how the author uses the story to "free" Avian. He was tormented by the death of another Echo he fell in love with, and he's described with black winds. But after saving Cyn he's described with white wings. I think those last chapters were my favorite from the book.

And my favorite character in the story? The hellhound. I know. But from what I read, he was in the "good" side, in Cyn and Avian's side, so he earned points and it's described as a dog. I love dogs. I couldn't help but like him. And he also "saves the day". If you read the book, you'll understand why I just say that.

The plot was pretty interesting and had a lot of potential, but as I said at the beginning of the review, I felt a little bit lost during the story and when they explained Cyn and Avian's "world" I still felt like something was missing or that it was not accurate enough. It's not a problem of not understanding what Cyn is or what Avian is (although Avian was difficult to understand what he was), but their surroundings and the other creatures. Because there're more.

The ending was a almost perfect ending. I liked the ending, but I was heart-broken. I am one of those readers who need a happy ending to love the story and even sigh after reading it. Ms. Verday wrote a realistic and almost happy ending, but I was hoping for more conclusion since it's not a series. At least not now. I hope we have more stories about Cyn and Avian. I would definitely read them all!

The Beautiful and the Damned has the perfect title for Cyn and Avian's story. This dark paranormal romance is one of those stories that you enjoy reading if you are a Young Adult addict. I recommend you to enter Ms. Verday's world and read this book. 

Jessica Verday is the New York Times bestselling author of The Hollow Trilogy, published by Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse. She wrote the first draft of THE HOLLOW by hand, using thirteen spiral-bound notebooks and fifteen black pens. The first draft of THE HAUNTED took fifteen spiral-bound notebooks and twenty black pens. THE HIDDEN took too many notebooks and too many pens to count. Find out more at jessicaverday.com.