I’ve got two bite-sized reviews for you today: a YA new release and a MG contemp. I hope these bite-sized reviews will be enough to feed your fiction addiction!
The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton Series: The Belles #1
Published by Disney-Hyperion on February 6th 2018
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 448
Source: ALA
My content rating: YA (Nothing more than kissing, some violence)
My rating:
Camellia Beauregard is a Belle. In the opulent world of Orléans, Belles are revered, for they control Beauty, and Beauty is a commodity coveted above all else. In Orléans, the people are born gray, they are born damned, and only with the help of a Belle and her talents can they transform and be made beautiful.
But it’s not enough for Camellia to be just a Belle. She wants to be the favorite—the Belle chosen by the Queen of Orléans to live in the royal palace, to tend to the royal family and their court, to be recognized as the most talented Belle in the land. But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favorite is not everything she always dreamed it would be. Behind the gilded palace walls live dark secrets, and Camellia soon learns that the very essence of her existence is a lie—that her powers are far greater, and could be more dangerous, than she ever imagined. And when the queen asks Camellia to risk her own life and help the ailing princess by using Belle powers in unintended ways, Camellia now faces an impossible decision.
With the future of Orléans and its people at stake, Camellia must decide—save herself and her sisters and the way of the Belles—or resuscitate the princess, risk her own life, and change the ways of her world forever.
The central messages in this book are fabulous! The book highlights our images of beauty and how far we will go to attain them. This is a society that sees itself as “ugly,” so people will endure great pain (and spend tons of money) in order to “fix” themselves. This is such an interesting commentary on our world, and not that far off from the truth. How many people will go to great extents to achieve a certain standard of beauty? We’re sort of obsessed.
Camellia’s personal desire to be the Favorite (an official title of the Belle that works for the royal family) leads to a break in her relationship with her best friend (who is basically family). And then there’s the intrigue behind what’s actually going on with the princess—things look more than a little shady. These two issues keep you turning the pages. I did think parts of the book were a little slow, but overall this was a great read!
***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via ALA Annual ’17 in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
The Ambrose Deception by Emily Ecton Published by Disney-Hyperion on February 13th 2018
Genres: Middle Grade, Contemporary, Action & Adventure
Pages: 368
Source: The Publisher
My content rating: MG (Nothing questionable, in my opinion)
My rating:
Melissa is a nobody. Wilf is a slacker. Bondi is a show-off. At least that's what their middle school teachers think. To everyone's surprise, they are the three students chosen to compete for a ten thousand-dollar scholarship, solving clues that lead them to various locations around Chicago. At first the three contestants work independently, but it doesn't take long before each begins to wonder whether the competition is a sham. It's only by secretly joining forces and using their unique talents that the trio is able to uncover the truth behind the Ambrose Deception--a truth that involves a lot more than just a scholarship.
With a narrative style as varied and intriguing as the mystery itself, this adventure involving clever clues, plenty of perks, and abhorrent adults is pure wish fulfillment.
This book is perfect for a middle grade reader (and for us moms who like to read middle grade too!). It has super fun characters, an educational element (that isn’t prominent enough to make it obvious it’s teaching you anything) and a cute and wacky mystery.
The book takes three unlikely scholarship hopefuls on an adventure across Chicago to try to solve riddles. The educational element comes in because you end up learning about some of the lesser-known sights in Chicago (and some of the more fun elements of the city as well, since Wilf doesn’t take his scholarship opportunity all that seriously). I really enjoyed the escapades that the kids go through to figure out their clues, and the ending to the book has some elements that kids will LOVE that I don’t want to spoil. What can I say? This book is adorable and adventurous and is pretty much middle-grade gold, in my opinion. I plan to give it to my daughter to read next because I’m convinced she’ll love it.
***Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***
That’s it for now! Have you read either of these? What did you think?
I’m sorry The Hazel Wood didn’t work out for you. I was really eyeing that one generally because of the cover. thank you so much for the review! I’ll probably pass it up for now. I’d rather not waste my time with a frustrating main character. so many books, so little time.
It really depends on your sensitivity to an unlikable main character. Some people don’t mind that at all, but I’m usually not a fan.
I have The Belles, and really need to get to it. One of the things that attracted me to it (besides the author), was those themes you talked about. I am sad to see your review for The Hazel Wood (I have that one too), but I struggle with angsty characters too. I taught a bunch of angsty kids for more than a decade, and am pretty much over that. I don’t read a ton of MG, but I keep discovering more and more books that have me wanting to read them. I really liked the way MG author’s approach certain topics, and you really have me wanting to check out Ambrose. Great reviews!
I’ve made it a goal to read more MG this year, and I’m really enjoying it!
I definitely need to read The Belles, it sounds so good. I am really sad to see you didn’t like The Hazel Wood. I loved that story. I guess it wasn’t for everyone. Thanks for sharing your honest reviews!
The Hazel Wood is one of those books that I could tell as I was listening that some people would LOVE because of all the creepiness. It just wasn’t for me.
I like your bite sized reviews. I feel like you add enough to let us know what the book is about and why you did or didn’t like it. I’m planning to write mini reviews for most of my books so I will try to do as well as you have. I did do some mini reviews last year so I know I can…lol!
I have looked at The Hazel Wood, but I don’t really like unlikable narrators so I don’t think it would work for me.
I’m starting to think these mini-reviews are really better because people are more likely to pay attention to them. I’m not abandoning my longer reviews altogether, but I’m doing more and more of these.
The Belles sounds like such a great read. The message about beauty seems like such an important one.
I’m with you on The Hazel Wood. I had such mixed reactions to that book when I read it.
Glad I wasn’t the only one who felt this way about The Hazel Wood. There were aspects of it that were fantastic, but overall I just couldn’t enjoy it.
I haven’t yet heard of The Ambrose Deception, and I LOVE books set in Chicago. I need to pick this one up soon!
This is a great Chicago book—I think you’ll love it!
Lovely reviews! I have my copy of The Belles right next to me as I’m typing this and I can’t WAIT to start reading it, I have been anticipating this book for a while now. I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it 🙂
I’m sorry to hear The Hazel Wood wasn’t for you :/ I had a great time reading it, but I understand where you come from, the main character was a bit frustrating at times ahah.
I think The Hazel Wood is one of those books that will either really appeal to people or be too frustrating. It really depends on your sensitivity to unlikable narrators (I have a LOW tolerance for them).
Yeah, I’ve heard really mixed things about The Hazel Wood. I think I’ll skip. I’m so glad to see you loved The Ambrose Deception. I did too!
-Lauren
I remembered you saying you enjoyed The Ambrose Deception and it made me eager to read it!
I’m excited to see such a positive review for The Belles. It’s such an interesting concept and I’m looking forward to picking that one up. I’ve read numerous reviews of The Hazel Wood that say basically the same thing about Alice – that’s she’s a truly unlikable character. That’s a shame because it surely impacts the enjoyment of the story.
There are reasons that she’s unlikable (which would be spoilers), but it was hard to listen without getting really annoyed with her.
Sorry to hear Hazelwood didn’t work for you since I’ve heard great things from others. I get what you mean though about how, even when there’s a reason for it, sometimes a character is still unlikeable. The stories sound interesting at least!
Willow Sparks sounds kind of interesting too, but yikes, I think it’d bother me too that she solves a lot of problems by punching :-/
I just realized that I made it sound like Willow went around punching people all the time—she only did it once. But it was one of those storylines where the uncool girl suddenly becomes cool by punching a mean girl—that message is a huge pet peeve of mine.
The Hazel Wood marketing really created the wrong expectations for that story. And I agree unlikable characters aren’t my thing… The Belles was one I thought about but it read like a book I would be on the fence about… no ones review has changed that opinion but I’m glad you enjoyed it. ♥️ I can’t stand the art for Willow… and from what you say it sounds random. ?
I’m not sure what the expectations were, but I just didn’t think Hazel Wood quite delivered.
I’m kind of relieved that I’m not the only one who found The Hazel Wood was slow and frustrating. I really like this idea of bite-sized reviews, I discovered a couple I had never heard of.
I wrote a post not long ago where I compared the results of bite-sized reviews and “regular” reviews. These bite-sized ones seem to help when it comes to spreading the word about “lesser known” books, so I love them for that.
I’m really looking forward to The Belles. Hazel Wood seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it. I won’t go out of my way to get it, but if it’s on the shelves when I’m at the library, I’m likely to give it a try. That cover…
And yes, I’m another fan of your bite-sized reviews!
I’d definitely give it a try if you see it. It wasn’t for me, but I can understand why some people love it!
Aw crap, so I am not going to like Hazel Wood, eh? I agree with you about The Belles- love the story, if it wasn’t for the slowness it would have been kind of perfect. Speaking of, The Ambrose Deception sounds awesome! I may need to pick that one up. And I feel you, I don’t like that message in Willow Sparks either. Great reviews as always!!
Maybe you’ll like Hazel Wood better than I did? You don’t have as much of an issue with unlikable narrators as I do, so it might not bother you so much. I just could never really connect and ended up being sort of bored.
I can understand how The Hazel Wood cannot be everyone’s cup of tea and yes, Alice does sound angry throughout the book, lol. The Belles has received so much praise both before and after its release, I’m really excited to pick it off my shelf soon 😀 I just finished The Altered History of Willow Sparks and I’m having the same thoughts as you. The illustrations were pretty especially the color scheme but the character development held me off from enjoying it very much. Lovely reviews <3
It’s great to hear that it wasn’t just me when it came to Willow Sparks—I wanted to support this smaller publisher, but I just didn’t love it.
YAY! I’m so glad that you enjoyed The Belles! First off, that cover is absolutely gorgeous! And secondly the story sounds like a lot of fun, so I’m happy to hear that it turned out to be an enjoyable book. Ohhh The Ambrose Deception….. adding that to my list for my boys to read when they’re older, thank you!!!!
My daughter’s reading The Ambrose Deception now and really enjoying it!
I suppose it depends who she punched! Lol, I’m totally responsible *shifty glances* Nah, to be fair, if she punched a random dude, that’s bad – but if it was like, a demon trying to steal her soul or something, I think that’s OK, lol. XD
She punched the mean girl at school. I guess I’m just sort of tired of seeing that as a solution to the bullied kid’s problem—like they just punch the mean girl and then everyone likes them. I get frustrated with that storyline.
I saw a lot of hype about The Belles on twitter before it was released and I really want to read it now! I think it is a theme that will interest and be relatable to a lot of people. Because people definitely do a lot to pursue or feel beautiful. I was interested in The Hazel Wood but I have seen a lot of negative reviews so I’m not too interested in it anymore.
It’s so true that the pursuit of beauty is just neverending in our society!