german and english review

audible audiobook

this review is written in the middle of a heatwave, if it doesn't make sense to you, it doesn't make sense to me either

Inhalt: Glitzernd, glanzvoll, grausam - willkommen in der Welt der Belles! Die Welt von Orléans wird von Hässlichkeit bestimmt, und nur die Belles können den Menschen Schönheit verleihen. Camelia ist eine Belle - schön, begehrt, mit magischen Fähigkeiten. Am Königshof will sie allen zeigen, dass sie die Beste ist. Doch hinter den schillernden Palastmauern lauern dunkle Geheimnisse. Camelia erkennt, dass ihre Fähigkeiten viel stärker und gefährlicher sind, als sie es je für möglich gehalten hätte. Sie sind eine Waffe, die sich andere zunutze machen wollen. Daher muss sie sich entscheiden: Soll sie die Tradition der Belles bewahren oder ihr eigenes Leben riskieren, um ihre Welt für immer zu verändern? Das Schicksal der Belles und von Orléans liegt mit einem Mal in ihren Händen...

Meine Bewertung: Ich kann das zweite Buch echt kaum abwarten...

Wow wow wow wow, das war nicht das was ich erwartet habe. Vielleicht hätte ich es erwartet wenn ich den Inhalttext vorher genauer gelesen hätte aber wer hält sich schon mit solchen Kleinigkeiten auf.

DAS BUCH WAR GUT. Es war so so so so so so so so GUT!!!!

Ich fand die Welt, die hier in dem Buch dargestellt wurde unheimlich interessant. Es ist keine Welt in der ich leben wöllte ABER es war so interessant und so großartig beschrieben. Es hatte genug Details um sich problemlos alles vorzustellen, hat aber genug Raum für die eigene Fantasie gelassen. ES WAR TOLL.

Die Charaktere sind großartig. Wir haben die Charaktere, die ich absolut liebe und wir haben die Charaktere, die ich abgrundtief hasse. Ich mein was will man mehr in einem Buch?

Das Buch fängt ziemlich langsam an, ich finde es von der ersten Seite an interessant aber es ist langsam am Anfang aber es nimmt mächtig an Fahrt auf und hat so viele Wendungen.

Da ich es als Hörbuch gehört habe, möchte ich außerdem noch erwähnen, dass mir die Sprecherin wirklich gut gefallen hatte.

Ich kann das zweite Buch echt kaum abwarten, denn nach dem Ende muss ich einfach wissen wie es weiter geht und vor allem brauch ich ein paar Antworten..

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Summary: 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.

My review: I can't wait for the second book...

Wow wow wow wow, this wasn't what I expected at all. Maybe I should've read the summary a bit more but who actually wastes time with that.

THE BOOK WAS GOOD. It was so so so so so so so so good!!!!

The setting/the whole world in this book was just freaking interesting. I wouldn't want to live in this world at all BUT it was just so interesting and so very well written. There were enough details that I could imagine everything without problems but room enough to get m own imagination going. IT WAS GREAT.

The characters are amazing. Characters that I love with all my heart and characters that I despise with everything in me. What more do you actually want?

This book starts really slow, I still was really interested in everything from the first page but it was still a bit slow but damn, does it pick up speed and twists and turns the story around.

Because I listend to the audiobook (the german one) I have to say, that I truly loved the narrator and thought she did a really good job.

I can't wait to get my hands on the second book, cause after that ending, I need to know where things are going from here and I NEED ANSWERS!!!

I’m seriously brain-fogged right now and stringing thoughts together is hard, so here’s a slightly rambly and likely unhelpful and possibly slightly spoilery review (wow, sorry, I seem to be addicted to adverbs):

This was the most boring, beautifully described revolution I’ve ever read. I guess I’m mostly satisfied with the ending, so I don’t feel like I’ve wasted my time, but I’m weirdly wishing I had the kindle version so I could see just how many times Camille describes herself breaking out into a sweat. It seemed like A LOT. Also, WTF is this romance with Rémy? Is he her rebound guy? Or does she literally fall for every guy who shows a romantic interest in her (all two of them so far)? After Auguste ripped her heart out, maybe a week goes by before she starts fantasizing about kissing Rémy. I’ll give her a pass because she is SPECTACULARLY sheltered and probably far younger than her alleged 16 years (considering how fast baby Belles grow), which makes my eyebrows go up for entirely different reasons, but what does Rémy see in her? Did he get off on her treating him like dirt for the entire first book? Is that it?

Anyway, it was okay. The ending left the possibility for another sequel, but if it ever eventuates I’ll probably skip it so I can keep my headcanon that Tyra Banks’s Modelland is set in this book universe’s future when the whole concept of the Belles has been warped and perverted into the Intoxibellas. It’s the little things that give me joy.

I love dressing up and putting on makeup, but I so seldom have the energy for it that I have to live vicariously through shows like Next Top Model and Project Runway. I bought this book thinking it would scratch that itch while also delivering a pretty strong message about how stupid and harmful arbitrary beauty standards are. And it did scratch that itch. It scratched and scratched and scratched and scratched until it stopped feeling good and started to irritate. Which is a roundabout way of saying that I thought the book spent too much time in wardrobes and beauty treatment salons and not enough time on the plot. I was so bored that I almost abandoned the book in the sagging middle, which would have been a shame because it’s a decent plot once it picks up momentum in the last hundred or so pages. I’m interested enough to read the sequel whenever I can get my hands on it (cliffhanger ending, ugh), but it was a slog. A decadent, beautifully-described slog.

I'm continuing my celebration of Black History Month by reading another book by a Black author. I bought this one when it came out in 2018, which feels like ancient history, so it totally counts!

So it's an interesting read, it's also an interesting concept but honestly I didn't care what happened to the people.

This is a world where in New Orleans people are born grey and only the power of a Belle can make them beautiful.  Camellia Beauregard is one of these Belles and she wants to be the court favourite.  However she isn't at first but later she is and she starts to discover that court politics aren't fun; that things are complicated and that the life of a Belle isn't that great.

These young women were badly educated for their roles and the fact that it came to them as a shock is actually shocking.  Court politics are messy and that should have been a core part of their education, never mind some of the other issues.  

It's an interesting concept novel but I feel no need to continue with the series.  I might pick it up but I'm not hunting it down.