I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Just like the beauty described within, The Belles is beautiful yet ultimately flawed.
Camellia is a Belle, blessed by the Goddess of beauty with the gift to change the appearance of the people of Orleans, who have been cursed to be born grey and without colour. Trained from birth along with her sisters, Camellia sees it as her duty to offer such an important service and wants nothing more than to be picked by the queen as the favourite, honoured with the role of beautifying the royal family. But things don’t always go to plan.
I’ll start with the positives. The descriptions of the environment, the girls and their beauty treatments are lush, detailed and full of colour (although very food orientated at times, especially in relation to skin colours). It’s also a well thought out and reasonably well developed world. There are hints of Japanese teahouses and rich carnivals that help to define the world and ground it in a sense of its own reality. The glimpses we see of the wider world outside of the palace were often the highlights for me, as they were so vibrant and intriguing. I would have liked more time here.
The pacing is slow, especially in the first half of the book as nothing really seems to happen other than meeting a large number of characters that seem to serve little purpose. However, the mysteries and intrigues encountered by Camellia on her journey had me hooked. I wanted to know the various ins and outs and why’s desperately, and this had me reading on even with the slow pace. I did start to worry at about 80% of the way through as not all of my questions had been answered, however most of them were resolved by the end - although not necessarily to their full extent, and the finale felt rather rushed. It felt like I’d been dealt half a pack of cards, with the author holding back a few intrigues for a second book. Which I admit, did irritate me.
The main characters, for the most part, are ok. Camellia as the main protagonist is the standard YA heroine. Special gifts, but with a rebellious heart and a need to bend the rules. Naive, yet a good egg. She was likeable enough to carry the story, but a bit bland. There was no bite and no feistiness. No depth to her character. Her sisters all follow a similar vein, although we rarely see them, which was a shame. There was potential here to develop a strong bond of female characters that I thought was wasted. Sophia was the main draw here, as she makes a great antagonist. Unpredictable, lashing out when you least expect it, and coming up with some devious and often awful deeds to make others suffer. She’s also harbours an obsession that runs as an undercurrent throughout the whole population. With the Belles, their power and most importantly their beauty. As with most of the inhabitants of Orleans she’s beautiful, but wants to be the most beautiful. She’s insecure and this manifests as a deep rooted, all consuming desire to control everything and everyone. I loved it.
The secondary characters, unfortunately, are the main downfall here. They seem to be thrown under the bus on multiple occasions just for the sake of the plot, instead of being properly developed. Several times I thought there was potential to really drive a plot with a unique and underplayed character in YA (such as the queen and her female lover, or Sophia’s lady in waiting and her secret love affair with her female servant) only for them to trail off into nothing. Or be used as a pointless plot device. It was deeply disappointing. I want more from my YA these days.
I think by the end, this was my final impression of the Belles. It was pretty, but without any real substance. Will I continue on to read the next in the series? I’m unsure.
The Belles is available to purchase now from: Amazon
- 3 stars
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