My Favourite Quotes from The Damned by Renee Ahdieh

To say I adore this book is an understatement. I love everything that Renee writes, and The Damned was so good and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I read it.

You can also read my post where I shared my favourite quotes from The Beautiful.

So here are some of my favourite quotes from The Damned and I hope they entice you all to go read this wonderful series!

People tended to recall things not as they were but as they wished them to be.

But the best heroes possessed flaws. And the best mortals never forgot that fact.

Men were the worst kind of heroes. Riddled with flaws they refused to see.

Feel your anger, but do not succumb to it.

If a mediocre young man could crow to the world about his mediocrity, then why should a superior young woman not do the same?

I don’t want someone who understands and accepts the world she is given. I want someone who expects more. Who fights for it and isn’t afraid to dirty her sleeves in the process.

Food is life, after all.

Life is not a given to any of us. Neither is love. A hundred thousand years will not teach you that truth. You must accept it for yourself.

This is what it means to live. To choose a path and face the consequences.

I am tired of allowing society to dictate my behaviour.

When had justice ever prevailed when it came to a richly entitled young man and a young woman of modest means?

It was easy for a man to be kind and generosity in times of plenty. The real measure of a man was what he did and said in times of difficulty.

She was not a damsel in distress, waiting to be rescued by a knight on a shining horse.

This is the life I chose. It is mine and no one else’s.

So these are just some of the many quotes I highlighted when I was reading The Damned and this is how you know Renee’s writing is incredible because I just want to highlight so many poignant moments in the book and omg I just love these books so much!

PS. Here is my review for The Beautiful and The Damned

My Favourite Quotes from The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh

I absolutely adore every single book Renee has written and one of the things I especially love is her beautiful vivid writing. The way she immerses you into the world she has created. I never want to leave. Just reading some of my favourite quotes from The Beautiful to write this post had me wanting to go reread the whole book and all the emotions I felt reading came rushing back. I really need you all to go read her books because they are incredible and we are sleeping on these amazing books.

PS. If you want to know more about The Beautiful you can read my review

So anyways back to why I wrote this post, the amazing quotes that were in this book! Honestly I was tabbing away as I was reading but I only chose some of my favourites to share here because well, you need to go read the book to find out the rest.

She was no lamb. She was a lion.

I’m a girl who would rather experience life than watch it pass by from my window.

I imagine it would be freeing to care only about oneself. Alas I am not a man.

Sometimes a girl must make her own magic.

Then know this: the truth is not always what you see.

For if we do not understand fear, how are we to cherish safety?

Though I’ll admit I’ve never fancied the top hat. Men have no need of the extra height; they lord over everything enough as it is.

The mind is a sword. Knowledge is its whetstone.

The men enjoy keeping us in cages at every waking hour. That way we’re contained. They’re afraid of what would happen if we’re free.

No it wasn’t just her pride. She was simply tired of being told what to do.

Knowing who you are is necessary in order to determine who you want to be.

Rage is a moment. Regret is forever.

Love is looking at someone as if the stars shine in their eyes

Hope was its own kind of magic.

So these are some of my favourite quotes! Have you read any of Renee’s books? Do you have a favourite quote?

Books As Outfits

So I don’t know if everyone has seen but on twitter there was a whole trend with books as outfits and I saw so many beautiful ones that it made me actually change out of my pyjamas and do some myself!

So I thought I would share with you all on here too because I am actually really proud of how they came out!

So here are some of my favourite books as outfits:

The Kingdom of Copper by S.A. Chakraborty

Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh

The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala

Love From A to Z by S.K. Ali

I hope you like them! I had so much fun matching my outfits to books! I even convinced my husband to get in the last photo with me to match the cover!

Have you seen the books as outfits on twitter? Did you do some yourself? Share them with me if you did!

My Favourite Quotes From Renee Ahdieh’s Books

Renee Ahdieh is one of my favourite authors. I especially love her beautiful writing which has me completely immersed in her books and leave me thinking about the books long after I have finished reading them.

So I thought I would share some of my favourite quotes from each of her books!

The Wrath and the Dawn Duology

My soul sees its equal in you.

For nothing, not the sun, not the rain, not even the brightest star in the darkest sky, could begin to compare to the wonder of you.

You have a beautiful laugh. Like the promise of tomorrow.

You are strong. Fierce. Capable beyond measure

And he smiled a smile to shame the sun

Flame in the Mist Duology

The only power any man has over you is the power you give him

To me, you are magic

Words are foolish. Promises are useless. Anyone can say anything to get what it is they desire. Believe in actions and actions alone.

Love was a sunrise. A welter of crimson that rose much like a warning. Slowly and almost in secret.

All I strive for each day is to convince my shadow I’m someone worth following

The Beautiful

She was no lamb. She was a lion

I’m a girl who would rather experience life than watch it pass by from my window

I imagine it would be freeing to care only about oneself. Alas I am not a man.

Love is looking at someone as if the stars shine in their eyes

Sometimes a girl must make her own magic

I highly recommend you read her books if you haven’t they are absolutely amazing!

The Beautiful By Renee Ahdieh – ARC Review

Thank you to Hodder and Stoughton for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have loved all of Renee’s books and The Beautiful was no exception! Once I started reading I was completely hooked!

Rating: 5/5

Synopsis from Goodreads:

In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she’s forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city’s glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group’s leader, the enigmatic Sébastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of La Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sébastien’s guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.

Renee has made me completely and entirely fall in love with her books and her writing. Ever since I read The Wrath and the Dawn I have been hooked! If you haven’t read any of her books then you need to go fix that asap!

The Beautiful is set in New Orleans and although I don’t know much about it, after reading this book I most definitely want to go and see it. Renee’s writing is beautiful and you become completely immersed in her world. She creates this wonderfully dark atmosphere with rich and vivid world building from the setting to the clothes and food. I could see all of Celine’s beautiful clothes and was practically salivating reading the scenes which describes the food they ate.

I’m a girl who’d rather experience life than watch it pass by from my window

One of the things I love about Renee’s books is that her female main characters are all so wonderful and Celine is no exception. She is smart and witty and outspoken. She fights for what she wants and doesn’t let anyone walk all over her. I related to her so much and how she was so tired of being told what to do and being treated as if she isn’t capable of doing anything herself and just needs to be saved by a big strong man. She is a badass and won’t allow men to talk for her.

And of course a Renee Ahdieh book would not be complete without a swoon worthy male main character, in the case of The Beautiful, his name is Bastien. Say hello to you newest book boyfriend. I loved him from the moment we met him. He is roguish and charming and because we see him from Celine’s point of view it made him really mysterious and intriguing, and even though we know that is no gentlemen you can’t help but fall in love with him.

And I really loved the scenes between Bastien and Celine. They have such great witty banter and the romance that slowly builds between them is intense and left me screaming at them to just admit their feelings! The angst and the tension that builds up between them was done so well! I also really loved the side characters, every single character is so complex and there’s more to them than we initially see from them.

It’s the land of the free in idea only, then.

One of my favourite things in this book was seeing how diverse it was! All the diverse characters including both Celine and Bastian. And I really loved how Renee showed the social inequalities and how being a person of colour meant they were limited in what they could do in life despite being capable and qualified and how unjust that was. It was also interesting to see that Celine was white passing and as a result of that she had to hide half of herself and her heritage to the point where she doesn’’t even know anything about her mother and where she is from and so feels like she is missing part of herself but that because of this she is able to take opportunities that would otherwise be denied to her.

The story itself is intense and thrilling and will keep you on the edge of your seat wanting to know more. It kept me up reading late into the night because I was so enthralled by it and I just needed to know who the murderer was. We are slowly given the information and as it becomes more tense near the end and then when all is finally revealed you are left with your mouth hanging open because you did not see that coming! We are left on one hell of a cliffhanger and I have no idea how I am going to wait until next year to get my hands on the next book!