JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

I am a Belle. I control beauty.

In the opulent world of Orleans, the people are born grey and damned, and only a Belle’s powers can make them beautiful. Camellia Beauregard wants to be the favourite Belle – the one chosen by the queen to tend to the royal family.

But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favourite is not everything she always dreamed it would be. Behind the gilded palace walls live dark secrets, and Camellia soon learns that her powers may be far greater – and far darker – than she ever imagined.

When the queen asks Camellia to break the rules she lives by to save the ailing princess, she faces an impossible decision: protect herself and the way of the Belles, or risk her own life, and change the world forever.

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton explores the dark nature of beauty, and how one’s obsession with being beautiful can be incredibly harmful and can contribute to society’s high expectations for people to look a certain way.

This book is set in the fantasy world of Orleans — a world where a person can change their body however they want. Everyone is born with red eyes and grey skin, but they don’t need to stay that way. They can change the colour or texture of their skin, they can change their hair colour, eye colour, thigh size, waist size, and pretty much anything else they can think of. And the only people who can successfully help people change their appearance are women known as the Belles. It is their job to fulfil the wishes of their clients, each and every time they book in an appointment.

“You are to act as if you’re an artist floating through this world. Your sole purpose is to beautify, and transform the Gris. You are a Belle.”

People go through immense pain to change their body, but they do it because society thinks they should look a certain way. And this desired look can change every day. Tabloids and news reports are always speculating on what is ‘in’ right now, and then young girls will come in to see the Belles because they once again want to look like what society thinks they should look like. These young girls are never satisfied, and neither is society.

The Belles may be a fantasy novel, but it explores themes of beauty and identity. Any reader who has ever felt disappointed by how they look will relate to this novel. Any person who has ever wished that one small part of their body could be changed will relate to this novel. Because it’s never just one thing. If you were able to change your body however you liked, I’m sure people wouldn’t be able to stop at just one change. The world would be a very different place.

“The rest of the day zips by like in a lightning flash. Women come with their beauty boards, attendants, and friends. I alter bodies, change hair colours and skin tones, give a man a songbird voice, erase age-lines and try to reassure frantic courtiers about how beautiful they are.”

Admittedly, it did take me at least 50 pages to fully understand how the Belles’ power worked and how they were able to change appearances, but once I could wrap my head around the world I was really mesmerised by the originality of the premise and the depth of the world that Dhonielle has built.

The Belles is both haunting and enchanting — Dhonielle straddles the two throughout the book and as a result, readers go through a range of emotions when reading this book. Dhonielle’s prose is very polished, with poetic lyrical sentences that entice the reader. The world-building, whilst talking a little while to be fully explained, is very unique and intriguing and something I hadn’t yet come across in a novel.

“Bree wheels over a cart of chafing dishes. Triangular color blocks sit on tiered trays like a series of sugary petit-cakes. They melt in glass skin-tone pots creating every pigment imaginable: ink black, sandy beige, eggshell white, desert brown, lemony cream, soft sable, brown sugar syrup, and more.”

Dhonielle Clayton presents an unlikely villain in this story, but it is rather satisfying. Princess Sophia is at first friendly and trustworthy, but you soon learn just how manipulative and calculating she is. The characterisation of Princess Sophia is one of the strengths in this book.

Unfortunately, I felt that the relationship in the book wasn’t developed as much as it could’ve been. I didn’t feel like there was any chemistry between Camellia and her love interest, and so I wasn’t really that invested in their story.

Young readers will love this book, enticed by the beauty, magic and obsession that fills the world and the dark, sinister twists and turns. There’s plenty of murder and betrayal to maintain interest.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Belles
Dhonielle Clayton
February 2018
Hachette Book Publishers

On A Beautiful Day by Lucy Diamond

Treasure every moment. Life can change in a heartbeat.

It’s a beautiful day in Manchester and four friends are meeting for a birthday lunch. But then they witness a shocking accident just metres away which acts as a catalyst for each of them.

For Laura, it’s a wake-up call to heed the ticking of her biological clock. Sensible Jo finds herself throwing caution to the wind in a new relationship. Eve, who has been trying to ignore the worrying lump in her breast, feels helpless and out of control. And happy-go-lucky India is drawn to one of the victims of the accident, causing long-buried secrets to rise to the surface.

On A Beautiful Day by Lucy Diamond is a novel that explores friendship, family and the importance of letting others in. The novel is set in England, and at its core, it is about unexpected events and wake up calls — it is about tackling the unknown and not being afraid to let others in.

When these four women — Laura, Jo, Eve and India — witness a car accident, they’re shook. The driver had a heart attack and unintentionally ploughed into multiple people. The four women were so close to where it happened — it could’ve been them pinned under that car. And so the accident affects them all in different ways.

“They hadn’t discussed IVF before, or undergoing any tests. As a sales manager for a medium-sized insurance firm, Matt could talk for Britain about claims and premiums; as a lifelong United fan he could bore on for hours with his mates about managerial tactics or the pros and cons of the 4-4-2 formation; but ask him to go into detail about his baby-making skills and he would fail uncharacteristically silent.”
LAURA

At first glance, these women may appear to lead perfect lives. But underneath, they’ve all got their struggles. Laura and her husband have been trying to get pregnant for years but they’ve suffered many miscarriages and it’s starting to feel like this will never happen for them. Jo has split from her husband and has just begun a new relationship with a man, but his step daughter Maisie is quite rotten and difficult. Eve keeps secrets from her husband, and she’s not even sure why. And India has long-buried secrets that she’s never told her husband and she must learn to face them so she can let go of this secret that is holding her back.

On a Beautiful Day is about being brave, confident and determined even when your whole world is in turmoil. The characters are full of emotion and passion, and despite the fact that I thought there were too many characters in the novel and I sometimes found it hard to keep track, I did read this book rather quickly and I enjoyed following the characters on their journey post-accident.

The novel alternates between the four different point of views, allowing the reader to follow each character as they confront the issues that they have been ignoring or keeping secret for some time now. Personally, I was more invested in Laura’s storyline. Her marriage and her hopes for a baby are shattered after the accident, and I kept reading because I wanted to find out what would happen to her.

“It wasn’t as if they didn’t talk — they did, all the time; anecdotes about work and friends, what to do each weekend, news and gossip. But not the big stuff. Not the exes.”
JO

Unfortunately, most of the men in the book are quite unreliable and pretty disappointing. The four women are fun and determined, but their partners are all very flawed and I wish there wasn’t so much of an imbalance. Laura’s husband is unable to cope with difficult conversations, Jo’s new partner likes to keep his head in the sand and doesn’t realise that his daughter Maisie is manipulative and troubled, India’s husband brushes her off all the time and she feels undervalued, and Eve’s husband is quite self-absorbed and doesn’t really pull his weight around the house. I found myself growing quite frustrated as the book progressed.

The book is set after ‘happily ever after’. All of these women have found love, had children, and are now facing what’s next. For some of them, it’s a new start, and for others, it’s about strengthening what they already have.

“Tuesday night was the one evening of the week when India actually peeled herself away from the sofa and TV in order to venture out for some self-improving Pilates with Laura.”

On a Beautiful Day might have some deep and important lessons for the reader, but aside from that, this is also a fun read. I think if you love reading novels that feature strong friendships, then you’ll love this novel. And if you’re the kind of person who likes historical fiction, then I think you’ll enjoy this read as well.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

On A Beautiful Day
Lucy Diamond
February 2018
Pan Macmillan Publishers

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King.

To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.

In doing so, she becomes embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, discovering her own capacity for bloodshed. But as civil war threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is the first novel in a really complex, compelling trilogy. Jude is a mortal human, but she is raised in a world of faeries and magical beings. She despises her adoptive father because he murdered Jude’s mother and father, and she grows distant from her sister Taryn because Taryn is determined to wed in the Court and fulfil their adoptive father’s wishes.

It has been ten years since Jude’s parents were murdered and Jude and her sisters were kidnapped and taken to the High Court of Faerie. She is determined to become a Knight and learn how to fight, but she is despised by many of the fey just because she is human. She is determined to succeed regardless.

“Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever. And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe.”

Holly Black brings faeries to the forefront in this novel, and despite the tension and violence present, The Cruel Prince is a rich, vibrant tale that readers will love.

The novel explores the concept of power and the complexities surrounding magic. Jude is considered weak and inferior because she doesn’t possess magic, but her determination and her gut instinct do make up for this.

I loved that Jude doesn’t fall into any stereotypes within this fantasy genre. She doesn’t cower away or get spooked easily. She is violent and confident, and she’s also a murderer. She does what she needs to do to survive, and she’s a really strong protagonist.

“Even though I am holding a knife, even though I’ve avoided his attacks twice and disarmed him, even though I’ve stabbed him once before, he grabs for my throat again. His fingers sink into the flesh of my neck, and I remember how it felt to have fruit jammed into my mouth.”

Jude is smart and strategic. After ten years of being raised by a violent man, she’s learnt a thing or two about getting what she wants. And she’s also very good at keeping secrets.

The novel explores power, family and abuse. The Cruel Prince is lyrical and at times poetic, taking the reader on a journey that is both lush and brutal. We question what it’s like for Jude and her sister to grow up in this new land, away from the human world. They have been raised by an evil man, but lear that there’s nothing they can do about it. The Cruel Prince forces the reader to think about what horrible actions we should deem ‘necessary’ when survival is the end goal.

“The next day at school, Taryn walks beside me, swinging her lunch basket. I keep my head high and my jaw set. I have my little knife with me, cold iron, tucked into one of the pockets of my skirt, and more salt than I reasonably need.”

There’s one aspect of the book that I didn’t like. The Cruel Prince follows the stereotypical trope of ‘boy is mean to girl because boy is in love with her’ which I find a little unrealistic and overdone in YA fiction.

I’d recommend this to fans of young adult books, but also anyone who has a vested interest in fantasy. The Cruel Prince reimagines the tropes of the genre and presents a unique story with fascinating characters. Holly Black pulls us into this world and leaves us desperate for the sequel.

The Cruel Prince
Holly Black
January 2018
Allen & Unwin Publishers

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zelie’s Reaper mother summoned forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were targeted and killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope.

Now, Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must outwit and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where snow leoponaires prowl and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to control her powers—and her growing feelings for the enemy.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi is the first novel in a stunning new fantasy series, inspired by West Africa.

Essentially, it’s about a mission to restore magic to the world. The characters race against time to complete a particular ritual before the solstice is over; if they fail, they won’t ever get another chance and they will continue to be oppressed and beaten and dictated.

Children of Blood and Bone doesn’t feel 100% unique, but it does have a really compelling premise and layers upon layers of history and world-building. The characters are strong-willed and determined, driving the book and drawing the reader in. Additionally, the novel highlights a lot of larger issues beneath the surface — Tomi draws attention to the consequences of power, privilege and desire, but also racism, racial violence and prejudice.

“They killed my mother. They took our magic. They tried to bury us. Now we rise”

Set in the fictional land of Orisha, the book switches point of view between three characters: Zelie is a fierce warrior maji, referred to as a ‘maggot’ by people who look down on her. She’s the main character in the book. Princess Amari has discovered that magic is slowly returning to this world, so she steals something from her father and joins Zelie on the run. And Prince Inan, whose father orders him to hunt down Amari and return the object she stole. He struggles to understand what he should and shouldn’t do, and his emotional and moral turmoil is a big focus when we read the chapters that are from his point of view.

I actually felt that Amari’s point of view wasn’t needed, because we were getting similar events from more than one perspective. Throughout the book, she’s in most scenes with Zelie and some with Inan, so without her point of view we still would’ve got enough of the plot and her story. Additionally, the novel felt way too long and the book definitely could’ve been edited down a fair bit.

“Amari’s screams reverberate through the trees. Inan and I freeze mid-attack. We whip our heads to see Amari struggling with a masked man just a few metres away. Though she thrashes, a black glove closes over her mouth. Her eyes glaze before rolling back.”

Tomi tackles pacing really well, and the dialogue is relatable and believable. The dynamic between all of the main characters allows the reader to really sympathise and understand them. The characters may be flawed or naive at times, but they’ve got determination and will.

This book is both plot-driven and character-driven. It did take me some time to wrap my head around the massive cast in the book, and at times I had to remind myself how certain characters knew each other, or how they were related. There’s a fair bit of world-building but Tomi has embedded it in the story by scattering it, so that the reader doesn’t feel overwhelmed with too much information at once.

“Kill her. Kill magic. My plan is all I have. Without it, the world slips through my fingers. My maji curse threatens to break from my skin.”

Children of Blood and Bone is about rising up against your oppressors, and will be popular with fantasy readers, as well as fans of young adult.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Children of Blood and Bone
Tomi Adeyemi
March 13th 2018
Pan Macmillan Publishers

Redemption Point by Candice Fox

In a dark roadside hovel called the Barking Fog Inn, the bodies of two young bartenders lie on a beer-sodden floor. Only the night-time animals in the surrounding forest were close enough to hear their screams.

Crimson Lake’s resident private detectives are hired to take on the case. Disgraced former police detective Ted Conkaffey and convicted murderer Amanda Pharrell are uneasy allies working alongside DI Pip Sweeney on her first homicide investigation.

For Ted, a new case serves as a welcome distraction from his fight to clear his name over the abduction of a teenage girl.

For all three, the hunt for the truth will draw them into a violent dance with evil. Redemption is certainly on the cards – but it may well cost them their lives…

Redemption Point by Candice Fox is a crime novel set in Far North Queensland in Australia. The novel follows on from the events in Crimson Lake, after Ted Conkaffey has been released from prison and has returned to work as a police detective.

I hadn’t read Crimson Lake, and I was still able to follow the plot of this novel. There’s a fair bit of backstory to be learnt, but thankfully Candice wove it into this plot so that it didn’t matter if you hadn’t read Crimson Lake.

And for any reader out there who has read Crimson Lake but your memory has faded, there is plenty of information dropped into the book that will help you jog your memory just in case it’s been a while since you finished the last book.

“Three or four weeks after I was arrested for Claire Bingley’s sexual assault and attempted murder, my wife gave up on me. She surrendered to the relentless pursuits by 60 Minutes and gave them an interview distancing herself from me, stopped visiting me as often in remand, stopped appearing in the gallery at my committal hearings.”

Redemption Point is a crime novel that offers relief from the usual tropes found in this genre. Amanda Pharrell is as bizarre as she is skilled, and her comic dialogue is entertaining for the reader. Ted Conkaffey is working hard to clear his name of rape and attempted murder, whilst also working to solve the murder of two young people in a bar. He is wounded, but also defiant.

“I’d watched Dale looking over the pages for a little while, knowing exactly the kind of dark thoughts that were swirling through his brain. It’s a shock to learn for the first time that there are far more sex offenders around in polite society than the newspapers report.”

This book has two storylines running parallel — there is the investigation into the double-murder in the bar, and then there’s the investigation into Claire Bingley’s assault and attempted murder.

Claire’s father Dale hunts down Ted, but then when he realises that Ted may actually be innocent, the two of them pair up to try and find the real perpetrator. And in addition to this, interwoven throughout the book are first-person diary entries from the real criminal, Kevin.

With this many layers to the book, it’s almost impossible for the reader to be bored.

“Dear Diary,
I walked to Penny’s front door with the dog in my arms like a peasant come to put an offering before my queen. I remember the feeling of her, warm and struggling against my chest, a young dog who just wanted to explore the new sights and smells of the front of the house.”

I do think that the weakest element of this book was actually the investigation into the murder of the couple in the bar. It was still entertaining to read, but I was far more interested in Kevin’s story and Ted’s partnership with Dale.

Crime fiction readers will love Redemption Point; they’ll love the characters that Candice Fox has crafted. The novel is thrilling and maintains the interest of the reader and entices them to keep turning the page. Redemption Point is punchy and pacy.

Thank you to the publisher for mailing me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Redemption Point
Candice Fox
February 2018
Penguin Random House