Review!!

SPOILERS!! You can also read it from my blog!

4 Stars!

What I expected: A YA Historical fantasy with beautiful pose that talks about the social norms of beauty.

What I got: A YA Dynopian, Sci Fi, Historical Fantasy which not only breaks down the social norms of beauty but gets down to the dirtiness of it with its commentary. What people would do to themselves or to others in order to maintain or obtain beauty and power. From magical plastic surgery, to straight up slavery to mass production process. Which also feel like if the Hunger Games was only focus on the people in the Capital and not the games itself.

The Belles are revered in the World of Orleans ( which is highly influence of French Culture) because they are with magic in their bloods, the Acrcana which can not only alternate a person skin color, but can alternate their height, weight, body shape and anything in between. In a sense, they are magical plastic surgeons who were blessed with their powers from the Goddess of beauty.. Camellia, a 16-year-old Belle which finally made her debut to the court of Orleans, is desperate to become the favorite, the Belle who highly revered in the World of Orleans for maintaining the beauty of the Royal Family with beauty treatments. At first she doesn't become the favorite but during a turn of events, she becomes the favorite and is thrust into the place life which she realized that is not all what it seems.

This book is like an onion which has layers. Once you peel back layer , you have another and another until you get to its core. You thought at first that onion was a solid onion for you to use but once you get its core, you realized how rotten it is which you have no choice to throw it out.

This book at its core aside from the beautiful cover and color descriptions of food and people skin tone is ugly. It's ugly in a sense that it doesn't hold anything back in the commentary of beauty norms and what people would do to obtain beauty. The only drawback for me and which is the reason why it's getting 4 stars cause it's takes 50% percent of the book for the layers to start peeling. But once they do,they don't stop until you are left with a rotten onion core at the end of the book.

Especially me because what I though beauty treatments for like 50 % of the book were compare to what they actually is for the second half of the book is a complete WTF moment.

What I though Beauty Treatments was:A day at your local spa or Hair salon.

What Beauty Treatments actually is: A day at your local plastic surgeon.

Like I keep saying The Belles are magical plastic surgeons. This on a whole new level than them being magical makeup artist which I though they were. Like I honestly was thinking " Oh All they are doing is glamour which would wear off in a couple of weeks." not magically alternating a person appearance.

That's why they was are so converted in the kingdom to point that they were being mass-produced and being sold into slavery cause this kingdom is obsessed with being beautiful. Even to the point of dying to be beautiful. The mythos around the goodness of beauty and why the people are born grey is just amazing.

Ok

Let's get to the Characters

Camellia- Camellia is our heroine in our story who I can get behind. I love how she wanted to see the beauty of others and realized that being the favorite is not all what it's cracked up to be. Also realizing that a Belles powers it's not just making people beautiful. A belle's powers can transform, recreate or even kill a person at will. It takes her a while to realized things but once she do it's like " What the ****??" Which was pretty much my expression for the last 50% of the book. Oh lets not forget that she's black!! YES BITCH!! A BLACK HEROINE!!

Remy- Camellia's body-guard and hopefully potential love interest in the next book. I loved loved loved his character. He didn't really say much but he was that type of character who seemed grumpy but would have your back. I love his interaction with Cam especially when she got to see interacting with his sisters. He was very protective of her and kind of become the person she can rely on. Oh yeah he's black too! YES!

Auguste- Camellia's main love interest in this book. Boy I couldn't trust his ass at all which paid off. He was that type of character who popped up at such a convenient time like a jack in a box. Like you can tell he was tugging Cam along the whole time which he was. I think in the next book he's going to be one of the main villains along with...

Sophia- Omg! This little spoiled rotten to core bitch right here. She's like if you mixed the little girl from " Cats don't dance" with Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland with a little dash of Evil Louie from the Man in the Iron Mask ( The remake with Leo) with the voice of Moaning Myrtle if you listened to the audiobook. This bitch is EVIL! EVIL!! She's the queen youngest daughter which will do anything to be the most beautiful and powerful person in Orleans. I mean this is the list of things she has done in this book.

1.Killed her mom( Yeah the queen was sick but she didn't die that instantly)
2.Poisoned her older sister.
3.Indirectly killed one of her ladies ( I'm going to get to her in a min)
4.Broke Cam hand
5.Told Cam to give one of her ladies a pig nose.
6.Poisoned Cam and blamed it on Cam trusted servant.
7.Using the Belle's blood in order to mass-produced Belles so they can be sold to other tea houses. ( they are not born but grown wtf)
8.Tried to burn Cam alive in her own bed.

**** I may have forgotten some **** but this bitch is evil as hell. I have never seen a villain like her.

Claudine This is one character that I felt the most for cause she honestly got screwed over the max. She was one of Sophia's ladies that was killed thanks to a contest between Cam and Amber on the request of Sophia to make her smaller in order for her to marry Sophia cousin who almost sexually assaulted Cam during a beauty treatment. Also the fact she was in love with one of her female servants which made her one of the three queer characters in the story. Sophia treated her character like **** for liking to eat pasties and I think for being Queer even tho her Mom has a female lover who is essentially her wife. So even tho she was a minor character, her impact on the story and on me was huge. It showed how evil Sophia could be and it showed how sympathetic her character was.

It was some other characters in here ( Like Edel and Amber) but I really don't feel like discussing them tho. lol

The only major con in this was the freaking pacing.

The pacing in the book for the first 50% was so slow. I understand that she was trying to build up her world but feel like it took forever for Cam to become the favorite and took longer for her to have her first official plastic surgery I mean beauty treatment on someone. After you got over that hump it become really good and the ugliness she had hidden between the beauty of pose, world-building and sweets start to show.

As a black person reading this book from a black Author, Dhonielle really hid gems in this book that I think really hit home for the black community.

Slavery - That's a big one cause you come to realized that the Belle's are essentially slaves to the world of Orleans. They start to be coveted as a property because the people of Orleans are so desperate to be beautiful all the time.

Beauty Black features ( hair, lips, butt skin,etc) on black women has been seen in a negative light by society but somehow are becoming a trend for none PoC people (aka whites) to get those features by enchantments ( aka Blackfishing,Kylie Jenner, and others)

Henrietta Lacks- This didn't really come to me to after I read and though about the fact that Sophia was taking the Belles Blood without their consent and doing experiments with them. Henrietta Lacks was a black woman who John Hopkins hospital took her cancer cells when they were doing surgery and did cancer research with her cells without her permission. Oprah just recently did a movie based on the book by the same name.

I don't know why but I have a huge feeling that next book, Dhonielle may allude to the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment . You know what? She may already have but I just haven't caught it yet.

All and All Don't judge a book by its pretty cover.

Also I WANT AN ARC OF EVERLASTING ROSE DAMN IT!!

If you want to see a behind the scenes look of the making of the cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=wJY5e8vEoeQ

The Belles - Likewise Book Reviews

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