This book had an interesting premise about what a world obsessed with beauty would look like. It had extensive description (which I enjoyed), but I think this is a book I would have enjoyed more when I was in high school (when I was the target audience) than I do today.

It starts off slow, but it’s worth sticking with it. There are a few things that feel as though they won’t fully fleshed out in the story, but hopefully the second book will address those things. I look forward to reading the next book and learn what comes next for the Belles.

3.5

I was really really worried since the first 12 chapters where an explosion of details and a bunch of know-it-all, bratty 16 yr olds who were constantly bickering. So. Damn. Annoying.


And then when the girls were separated I let out a breath. Whew finally. WRONG! In the sisters’ places were yet some more spoiled little brats bickering over dumb crap. I get why. Hell I’d probably be the same if I was in their shoes. All I’m saying is that it got tiresome.

The King.....wait what king?!? He was literally useless and I can’t remember him actually saying more than a couple of words. The Queen is basically useless too and the Princess......well saying too much about her pisses me off. What a horrible, spoiled rotten, narcissist. I want to push her off the castle walls.

Also there was major peer pressure. Like.....death causing peer pressure and these girls folded like tissue paper. Again, I get why but it turned me off the story a bit. MC is supposedly full of piss and vinegar but when she’s really put to the test it’s like she gives up.

The ending was interesting but honestly I’m not in a rush to continue. I read the authors notes in the back and while I see the parallels I felt more anger than enjoyment while I was reading this. Not necessarily a book for me. The fat shaming, impossible and extremely harmful beauty standards and negative lgbtq+ rep reallllllllyyyy bothered me.

The writing was very descriptive and I loved the colors and clothes and places. That along with Remy and Princess Charlotte are the reasons I’m giving a hesitant 3 stars.

I had this on my To Read shelf and then it was picked for my YA book club, so I was excited that we had a book that I actually wanted to read. Boy was I wrong on that! I came real closed to DNFing this about 4 times leading up to the picking of the Favorite.

I understand that she is world-building, but there was just TOO MUCH! Too much description about EVERYTHING-the clothes, the hair, the stupid carriages they rode in. This was on par for Anne Rices' over-descriptiveness in the Witching Hour (where she spends the front & back of 3 pages describing the stupid wallpaper!). If this has been edited to cut out 1/2 of the description, it would have cut the book down by a good 75 pages and I might not have been bored out of my mind.

Once the Favorite was picked, it got a little better, but I was still skimming paragraphs to avoid falling into a description coma. In our group of 11 for this YA meeting, only 2 people actually liked this, so I'm not sure how it has such a high rating. It ended on a cliff-hanger and while we all want to know what happens, we nominated the 2 people that liked it to read the next one and tell us what happens, because we're not interested in actually reading the next book.

This is already one of my favorites for 2018! Camellia is a Belle and the Belles are the only beautiful humans born into a world full of ugly grey. The people in their world do not know beauty without the Belles. Camellia thinks she's ready to bring beauty to the royal family and the rest of the kingdom, but what happens when she discovers the true ugliness that lies behind the palace walls? The Belles is a fantastic read for anyone craving a new fantasy or dystopia series. I can't wait for the sequel!

If Instagram influencers were from God...

3.5 star story in a 4 star world

This is a lushly woven world with exquisite detail and the audio book brings that to life.
Camellia wants to be named the Favorite of the court, giving beauty treatments to the royal household in a world where everyone is grey and must pay to be beautiful. Only Belles, favored by the goddess can alter your look so they are highly sought after and well treated. At least that’s what they think...
Camellia and her Belle sisters come to court where nothing is what it seems and the business of beauty is deadly with a spoiled, unhinges Princess running their world!