Name: Midnight Beauties
ISBN: 9781328811905

Megan Shepherd

Seventeen-year-old Anouk is forced into a sinister deal with Crown Prince Rennar in order to help her friends, who are trapped in their animal forms, and save Paris from the Coven at Oxford.

Midnight Beauties

Tate

I absolutely loved this book up until the very end. I felt the ‘twist’ was out of left field and ultimately unnecessary.

Savannah Winchell

DNF at 271
IDGAF I’m literally so bored I can’t
Also I skipped ahead as the only thing I liked turned into some bullshit and SPOILER!!!!! The girl ended up with a literal Labrador turned human lmfao how dumb is that

Katharina Hoffmann

I really can't help it; I enjoyed this book more than I should have.

What I really liked:

1. Hunter Black is BACK (one could almost say: Back to Black XDDD)
Black was my favourite character from book one and after that ending I was just super glad to have him back!

2. The plot
The plot was one bang after another, fast-paced, super entertaining and the author introduces the reader to new locations and characters and rituals. The creativity Shepherd brings to this story is simply amazing. WOW.

What I didn't like:

1. The effing love-triangle. Please just spare me. 



I hated it, it was unnecessary and it didn't do anything for Anouk's character arc. It only made everything worse.

2. Towards the end Shepherd found a really, really convenient way to get rid of a certain character. After said character had done their duty and fulfilled their role within the story, the author needed to get rid of them and she did it in such an obvious way; it was incredibly frustrating.

3. QUEERBAITING
Remember that one gay character from book one? Yes, they are still in love with the straight character and it's just so sad and almost disgusting to read what the author has done with that character (more like: what she didn't do) and while many characters get a happy ending the gay one doesn't. The gay one is literally 'doomed to love a person who doesn't love them back'; doomed to be unhappy and unable to find love. URGH!!!

I still enjoyed this book and it definitely had me hooked and kept me entertained and I loved it but I also hate it for its issues, so that's that.

Narah Quinn

"There's a place for you in this world. Find it. Write your own story. I promise you, it'll be told for ages to come by Pretties gathered around campfires, by Goblins over tea, even by Royals. You're magic, Anouk."

What can I say about this beautiful book? 

It was full to bursting with story, and stories within stories. It brought back all our favourite characters, a host of new ones, and even those we didn't like so much, and it made us feel. Everything.

I had almost forgotten how much I adored Grim Lovelies when I read it last year. It took me by surprise and left me wanting to visit a magical Paris and find my own place in it. I will admit that while Grim Lovelies was on my radar, it was not high on my list of books I wanted to dive into, I even leant it to a friend as soon as it arrived (though to be fair, it arrived at the same time as Muse of Nightmares and my 'friend' had not warned me about the ending that was Strange the Dreamer) but back to Midnight Beauties. 

Megan Shepherd weaves together a wonderful world of magic and folk tales and takes us on a journey to the Black Forest, through Paris and into a London that is nothing like the one we know. 
She delicately (and indeed, also, with a full on shove) shows us the damage technology can do to a world that was magic long before we got here, and shows us that family is what you make it, that it's the people whose "survival would be preferable to your death" that matter. 

I don't want to take any of the surprise from this sequel, all I will say is that if you enjoyed Grim Lovelies, you will love this, and you will not be disappointed.