Hi dear friends!

Today is the second and last day of The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh’s fanfic that we imagined Julia @acourtofwordsandpages and I!

You can find the first post HERE.

Remember don’t read this post if you haven’t read The Beautiful yet but plan to! You would get massive spoilers!

For today’s fun you’ll get my own personal theory about what next book’s plot will be!

I had fun trying to imagine the possible twists and turns as well as unexpected reveals!

Ready? OK let’s go!

• The memory loss

Céline will awaken with only memories of Michael and Pippa.

“Céline opened her eyes with a start, as if she’d fallen from a tower in her dreams. Her body felt battered and sluggish, like the hull of a ship after a summer storm. A cloud hovered over her mind, causing everything around her to appear filtered as if through a haze.”

“Michael.”

“Do you want some water?” he asked.

“Please.”

“Is Pippa all right?”

“Pippa is fine. Everyone is …fine.”

New Orleans is an enchanting city to discover on Michael’s arm.  Nicodemus’s work has been thorough and no rakish handsome devil named Bastien inhabits Celine’s thoughts …at first.

Michael will capitalize on his time alone with Céline to court her thanks to Shakespeare poetry. Céline is his dream girl as: “She’s sharp and quick-witted. Notices details others would miss. Despite her own difficulties, she manages to be warm and selfless. Moreover, she refuses to bow at the altar of money.”

Céline enjoys Michael’s company and is flattered by his attention. New Orlean’s best detective is doting on her and she’s found a new family with Michael’s grand-mother.  A family, something Céline missed terribly. Everything is warm, everyone welcoming. Michael’s family help her set her shop and she begins to make dresses, becoming the modiste every lady seeks after.

Her fortune seems so good so why can’t she fall completely under Michael’s charm? Every time he takes her hand to delicately kiss her fingers, her heart recoils. Each bouquet she gets is another disappointment when she reads the accompanying card.

Every time her path crosses a broad-shouldered man clothed in elegant tissue and walking “as though the air around him were not air at all, but water. Or perhaps smoke” her heart skips a beat. She has to stop walking, her head is spinning. A veil is lifting. What is real and what is dream? Is it a memory? A wish?

• Céline otherness

As time is passing by Celine is haunted by strange dreams filled with dangerous creatures. Some wear fur, other fangs their mouths filled with blood. More often than not she catches glimpses of a ripple surrounding Michael or his family. Some kind of distortion allowing her to spot a wolf beneath the man.

Strangers on the street look like vampires. Céline is frightened by the demons her mind conjured. She must be losing her head, becoming mad!

When she does not think she can hide it anymore a chance encounter with a fortune teller will provide more information about her mother and the gift she transmitted her daughter.

Céline’s daughter was a powerful seer and her daughter inherited her legacy.

Some protective spell put on Céline had locked everything inside her, allowing Céline to be inconspicuous. Nicodemus erasing her memory has unlocked her dormant gift. Surrounded by werewolves, vampires and other magical creatures living in New Orleans Céline’s abilities explode. She is a powerful seer, able to see through glamour, to recognize others from humans and catch glimpses of future paths.

I base my theory on this particular passage that’s never been exploited in the first book but left me wondering: “The arrangement looked vaguely familiar to Celine. Lingering traces of incense and scented candles curled into her nose, painting flashes of memory across her vision. Recollections of a low table decorated in a similar fashion, the fragrances of fruit and myrrh suffusing the air.”

When choosing a yellow ribbon to adorn a ball gown, Céline’s memories come back with a vengeance! Bastien’s absence is like a chasm inside Céline’s heart and soul.

• Bastien’s fury

Everyone is mourning Nicodemus’s heir’s death. To protect Bastien and monitor is transformation into a vampire Nicodemus had him whisked away to his NY estate. After days between life and death Bastien awakes a vampire.

Angered by the loss of his humanity, crazy with hunger but fighting with the idea to take a mortal’s blood Bastien is also obsessed with Céline’s memory.

Nicodemus tells a tale of rejection and flight. Céline has been repulsed by what Bastien was becoming and chose his nemesis, Michael.

Furious and fixated on Celine, Bastien wants his revenge. He loathes this idea of her and craves her destruction. Kept in NY under Nicodemus’s order Bastien prepares his escape. Creating a diversion thanks to Odette’s help he’ll flee in the night with one goal only: find Céline and make the traitor pay.

But as his blood frenzy abates with time Bastien ponders on what his uncle told him. This picture of disloyal Céline does not fit with the girl he knew, the girl so loyal and protective of others that “She would bring no more darkness here. She’d run away once to begin a new life. She could do it again, without a single glance over her shoulder.”

No that was not his Céline at all.

Nicodemus must be mistaken!

He must speak with her. Find her. Show her he is still the same underneath it all. Find a way to make it work and have his beloved back.

Now burning with determination Bastien will observe the Brotherhood’s quarter, bidding his time to speak to Céline alone.

One cold night, hidden in darkness Bastien will spot a well-known silhouette entering the Grimaldi’s house. The way it moves, the port of the head, …it all reminds him of his deceased sister.

Surely that can’t be her!

• Final act

When Céline finds a letter under her door, she knows who wrote it. That proud and elegant writing, that scent …it can’t be anyone else than her beloved Bastien. She will find him under cover of darkness reuniting with the one who has haunted her dreams since her gift awoke.

So taken in their own bubble they won’t see Bastien’s sister spying on them.

Enraged because Nicodemus chose to save Bastien while he left her dying so many years ago, she is determined to destroy her brother and make him hate Nicodemus.

She plots Céline’s kidnapping leaving clues leading to Nicodemus. Bastien is desperate to find Céline again, save her from his uncle’s wrath. But while he is sent on a goose chase Michael is not convinced Nicodemus is behind this. He is not New Orleans best detective for nothing!

He will find Céline hanging from the cathedral’s rafter, hold only by a rope circling her waist. When Bastien’s sister is about to cut it Michael jumps on her. A fight to the death ensues. Michael is deeply wounded and when he is about to be killed Bastien will jump like a devil out of a box and kill his sister once and for all. United in this final act, Brotherhood and Fallen will become allies for the first time in history.

Epilogue

Bastien forgives Michael as he saved Céline’s life. Now a seer she is a tremendous asset for the immortal community and Nicodemus recognizes her worth. Her gift will help predict any enemy’s move. Bastien and Céline will marry on a beautiful day, surrounded by their friends and families. Of course they will dance till the wee hours of the morning.

So what do you think? Believable? Would you buy my book? 😉

Thank you so much for reading this! We had so much fun Julia and I!

Julia’s bio:

Hellooo everyone!🏻 I’m Julia aka @acourtofwordsandpages I’m a hufflepuff, fantasy-loving, book obsessed fangirl. I’m 23 years old and I’m studying to be a speech-language pathologist. The Beautiful was one of my favorite reads this year so I am soo honored that Sophie (@bewarethereader) wanted to coordinate a blog post with me! I hope you guys enjoyed the book and liked our fanfic/theories. Happy reading loves

Find her on IG (her feed is the bomb!)  https://www.instagram.com/acourtofwordsandpages/

And on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/49067466-julia

Julia & Sophie