by Dhonielle Clayton
The Belles were created to bring beauty to Orleans. But the people of Orleans have become too obsessed with beauty, and so has their power-mad princess. It’s up to one Belle to make a change…
This book was beautifully written with vivid characters and loads of action and intrigue. (It reminded me of Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard if the world was run by beauty queens.) If you’re not into makeup and clothes, at least a little, it might be a bit much—I started skimming the descriptions of clothes and flowers and food by the time I got halfway through the book. I also wasn’t a fan of how everyone seemed to have a lover on the side, either gay or straight, and it was just an expected part of life, with no respect for marriage. But I think Clayton did an amazing job of painting a world where people will give anything to be beautiful and of exploring what the costs might be.