Camellia Beauregard is a Belle. In the opulent world of Orléans, Belles are revered, for they control Beauty, and Beauty is a commodity coveted above all else. In Orléans, the people are born gray, they are born damned, and only with the help of a Belle and her talents can they transform and be made beautiful.
But it’s not enough for Camellia to be just a Belle. She wants to be the favorite—the Belle chosen by the Queen of Orléans to live in the royal palace, to tend to the royal family and their court, to be recognized as the most talented Belle in the land. But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favorite is not everything she always dreamed it would be. Behind the gilded palace walls live dark secrets, and Camellia soon learns that the very essence of her existence is a lie—that her powers are far greater, and could be more dangerous, than she ever imagined. And when the queen asks Camellia to risk her own life and help the ailing princess by using Belle powers in unintended ways, Camellia now faces an impossible decision.
With the future of Orléans and its people at stake, Camellia must decide—save herself and her sisters and the way of the Belles—or resuscitate the princess, risk her own life, and change the ways of her world forever.
3 STARS
I read the Belles with my friend Ericka who runs the YouTube series Java and the Librarians on her channel Life of a Bibliophile, and we decided that we kind of liked the book... and we were kind of indifferent to it. The Belles is about a group of woman who have the power to beautify a population that is born grey, wrinkled, and "not beautiful". Belles are coveted members of Orleans society, and the most coveted is chosen by the Queen of Orleans to be the Favorite. Camillia's mother was the Favorite during her time as a Belle, and Camillia hopes to be chosen as well. It doesn't take long before we realize that being a Belle isn't all is cracked up to be, and being the Favorite is probably the worst position of all.
I felt a lot of feeling around this book. At first I wasn't super exited to read it. I struggle to read book that center around appearance. It's just so darn exhausting to think about. When I started reading the book, I realized that it wasn't as shallow as I'd portrayed it to be in my mind, and then when I read Clayton's authors note, the book took on a whole different view. I almost wish the authors note was in the beginning to the book because I think I would have read it differently.
If you choose to sit through at least half of the hour and forty-five minute video that Erick and I recorded on Saturday, you'll learn that characters in the book are pretty one dimensional. Strangely enough, aside from the crazy princess who we watch slow boil into one of the craziest maniacs I've read about in a while, everyone basically is the same at the end as they were in the beginning, our exception might be Remy the bodyguard, but we don't see enough of him for that to have a huge impact, although I do hold out a lot of hope for him in book two.
Overall I liked this book, there are so many questions and so much intrigue that I think it would be a great read for reluctant readers. Princess Sophie, is CRAZY, and such an interesting character to read about, and the secretes that are revealed about the Belles are pretty off the wall, and clearly just the beginning
While this wasn't my favorite read, and, if you watched the video, I predict an unnecessary love triangle for book too, I do plan to read it.
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