The Belles: beautiful, haunting and magical

“I AM A BELLE. I CONTROL BEAUTY.

In the opulent world of Orléans, the people are born grey and damned, and only a Belle’s powers can make them beautiful. Camellia Beauregard wants to be the favourite Belle – the one chosen by the queen to tend to the royal family. But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favourite is not everything she always dreamed it would be. Behind the gilded palace walls live dark secrets, and Camellia soon learns that her powers may be far greater – and far darker – than she ever imagined. When the queen asks Camellia to break the rules she lives by to save the ailing princess, she faces an impossible decision: protect herself and the way of the Belles, or risk her own life, and change the world forever.”

When I initially heard of the Belles, it was a bunch of my trusted Twitter folk who were RANTING and RAVING about this book, saying it was absolutely incredible. I was very lucky then to be invited to get a review copy from the publishers and then invited on the blog tour… so I knew I would be a fool to say no. And man, I absolutely loved it. 

There’s an incredible duality in this book in the beginning of beauty – the rich, lavish life of the rich versus the impoverish, dull world of the poor. The initial few scenes really struck a chord with me. The Belles changing a poor person into a beautiful person to show off their talents – imagine seeing that unfold infront of you. Imagine having the power to do that. I don’t think I would cope. Not with the competition, not with the expectation, not with the burden. I’d love the magic, but not with the expectation and competition that comes with it. 

Throughout the book there’s old belief systems and traditions which run through, which imprint on you so you are part of the world – whether you agree with them or not is matterless. Then BAM, there is all of a sudden this explosion on the beliefs with a whole chunk of deception and lies. A web of well wound deception. Mix this with an incredible power battle and you have an incredible story which you will most definitely want to be part of and you’ll want to read on. I look forward to what comes next, a lot. 

There’s 2 main themes running through this book: beauty and belonging. What is beauty? What does it mean to be beauty? Does it matter? Should we be able to control or change it? Who should you trust? Do you truly trust the people you’re around? Do they trust you? 

The further you read into this book the more you will be gripped. This book has the makings of an incredible book – secrets, lies, power, love – these all make for a gripping and thrilling book. You won’t be disappointed. 

Thank you so much for reading my post! Check out the others on the blog tour, there’s some brilliant reviews up so far! Check out The Belles!

S x