BEAUTY IS WITHIN

filled star filled star star unfilled star unfilled star unfilled
edit~a Avatar

By

~The God of the Sky fell in love with the Goddess of Beauty after the world began. Sky showered Beauty with gifts of his loveliest objects—the sun, the moon, the clouds, the stars. She accepted his offer to be his wife, and together they had the children of Orléans. But Beauty loved her new children so much, she spent all her time with them. After she refused to return home, Sky sent rain and lightning and wind to drown the first humans. When Beauty protected the people from harm, Sky cursed them with skin the color of a sunless sky, eyes the shade of blood, hair the texture of rotten straw, and a deep sadness that quickly turned to madness. In return, Beauty sent the Belles to be roses growing out of the dark and ravaged soil, destined to bring beauty back to the damned world, as the sun brings light.
-from The History of Orléans~

I have to say that even though I really liked the plot it was a slow paced book which was my main issue. That said, having an interesting plot does not mean that the author succeeded in executing it. It was obvious that she had too many ideas but it was also quite easy to understand that she did not know how to combine all of these in one place.

Let's start with the Belles' strength. The used terms were not really defined. We got a new of a power or something, but never what it really was, not what it did, but where it came from, how it worked, etc. Another thing that bothered me is that in every single step we found out they can do something new but they did not really use that strength.

I hate when the information is obviously there but characters still play dumb. In this case after hearing the cries she actually saw the other Belles, so when her sisters asked her about the cries, why was she confused I did not get. It just painted her to be a quite dumb character.

~Beauty is in the blood.~

I did not like Ambrosia's character, since the beginning she acted like an egoistic brat. Yes, Camellia had those thoughts but she never said others did not deserve to become the Favorite just that she was better, but she THOUGHT these things, never said out loud. While Ambrosia acted like a bitch instead of being a friend.

Many readers applauded the book for its tame romance, but that was another minus for me. I love romance, I do not say it should take over the plot but I like a good amount of romance in he book and there was barely none. Especially, that was surprising, since in this chaos of uncertain mix of plots and the slow pace, Auguste and Rémy were the only exciting part, I was looking forward to reading only their parts. Honestly, I almost never root for the second guy, but I loved the twist. I thought August was fun and all, with his no-rules attitude, but the fact that he messed around with girls to get to Camellia was ok for him and appeared also sexy for her did not sit well with me. Meanwhile Rémy might have been too good at following the rules but he was such a genuine character I could not help but root for him more.

I hope YA readers will see how shallow our society is becoming, and unfortunately this book hit the bull-eye when it comes to the values that we hold now. I just hope that after reading this, young-adults who are growing up in the plastic surgery, Instgram pictured, Snapchat filtered era, will see how little it is worth if you are not beautiful inside, and how important it is to see your worth and love you just the way you are. Despite my low rating I cannot wait to read the second book. I just hope the author will have a more clear idea which plot she is going to focus on, and there will be more romance there.