The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton

By -

The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton



This is the second book in The Belles series. So be prepared, if you haven’t read The Belles spoilers are abound in this review. Proceed with caution

                Camille, Edel and Remy are on the run. The Queen is dead and Sophia is positioned to take the throne. Even though Camille revived Princess Charlotte before she fled, rumors are circulating that she too is dead. But that’s not the only thing troubling Camille. Most of what she has known her entire life is a lie: where she comes from, how she can use her powers, what lives in her blood. There is so much more to it than just the existence of other Belles outside the favorite generation and it rattles her to her core. And now she is also learning about the Iron Ladies. The resistance trying to tear the concept of beauty down in Orléans.
                I reread The Belles before starting this book and I am so glad I did. All the nuances and references to the existent of the Belles and their lives as slaves to beauty was so evident the second time around. Clayton expands on that concept really well in this book. Where she was slightly more nuanced before, this book really ups the ante and is very straightforward on the perception of the Belles. The world building in this book is just as lush and opulent as the first one. I love that we learned more about some of the tertiary characters in the first story. Most of this book takes place outside of the capital city and I enjoyed seeing and exploring so much more of Orléans.
                My only problem with this novel had to do with the pacing. There were moments that I felt were a little rushed. And other moments where I felt like we lingered too long. I also would have loved to dive deeper into the use of the arcana. Once Camille starts really exploring the use of her powers it’s really incredible and I would have love to have learned more about that. Overall though, I thought this was solid sequel. If you enjoyed the The Belles I can see you enjoying this one as well. I give this 4 out of 5 stars.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt by Steve Johnson

By -
Image
Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt by Steve Johnson Bringing to life the story of a notorious pirate to a modern audience isn’t an easy task. We’re too used to the comfort of easy travel, the mythos of pirates and the commercialized imagery produced by movies and television. Images of Jack Sparrow and Long John Silver have been part of entertainment for so long that the idea of true piracy and all it’s ruthlessness has almost been washed away. It isn’t until you’re able to wash away the false images and submerge yourself into the actual history that you can see piracy for it’s truly brutal nature. It also brings up many questions about governments, laws, corporations, scandal, colonization and other factors that allowed piracy to flourish and exist in the manner that it did for so long. Piracy didn’t exist in a bubble. Enemy of All Mankind takes the story of one pirate, who helped usher in the Golden Age of Piracy, and exa
Read more

Odetta: A Life in Music and Protest by Ian Zack

By -
Image
Odetta: A Life in Music and Protest by Ian Zack          In my case it is always the image of Odetta that comes to mind when I hear her name. The tall, undeniably Black woman, hair in an afro, guitar in hand. It must be that I simply did not know enough about her life, her struggle, and even her music to convey more than that image. But her image is memorable and her presence something not easily described. This book fills in the gaps in the story of Odetta that I didn’t know. Looking back at my childhood, her most memorable songs are the ones I’ve known most of my life, singing in my school’s chapel along with hundreds of other Black students, the words having meaning that I can only truly comprehend decades later as a Black woman.          Zack takes his time with this biography, letting the readers learn as much about Odetta as we do the time from whence she came. Her migration from Alabama to California, her feelings of coming from a loveless, forced marriage,
Read more

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

By -
Image
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood I’m going to cut right to the chase. This book is well written but we didn’t need it. I expected more. I wanted more and this fell flat. I’ve read The Handmaid’s Tale , more than once, and I genuinely enjoyed it. The single narrative of Offred lent itself to the story well and it was genuinely a terrifying society. I watched the first two series of the show and though I have my reservations about it, I still thought it was a good show. It does a great job answering questions that the book could not because of its singular narrative. It filled out the world. This book revolves around three narratives: Aunt Lydia, who we know had a helping hand in stripping women of their sense of self and molded them to be controlled by the men of Gilead; Agnes, raised in Gilead with a Commander as father, privileged and set to marry well; and Daisy, a teenager raised in Canada hating Gilead and the abuses women endured that she’s learned about since she
Read more