I read one really great review of this title. I read a few chapters and I could sort of see where the story was going, although there wasn't enough information early enough. It seems many authors have a difficult time striking the right balance between hinting that there's more to the world but not flooding the reader with backstory. I would have given the author a few more chapters to sort it out, but there were serious problems with the prepub file that made it impossible to read. The punctuation was sprinkled sparingly around, mostly missing, and nearly all the quotation marks were MIA. I spent far more time trying to parse sentences than trying to figure out the world.

I will have more coherent words later, but right now, it's just holy crap, you guys. Holy crap. That was AMAZING

I enjoy a good surprise and an unpredictable story and that is what this book was for me. I find myself waiting and hoping for more. Great characters and we'll written!

An enthralling story set in a unique world. I can't wait to see what happens next!
The Belles is set in a world of tightly controlled magic innately born in a group of women called Belles who grow to young adulthood over the course of a year and are carefully trained to then serve in the capital for one year to mold the populace and the court (who would otherwise have gray skin and hair) into whatever shapes and forms have been deemed beautiful. The book follows the twisty road of a particular Belle who has great talent but greater creativity than allowed by her elders as she discovers the hidden secrets behind their world of careful tradition and the great ugliness behind the beauty. Mysteries include crying heard in the night, the disappearance of friends, the true nature of the Belle's powers, and of course the inevitable question of who can be trusted in a court oozing with intrigue?

Absolutely enchanting! This is a refreshing take on elements that have been done before in YA fantasy, but THE BELLES brings a new voice that must be heard. It's truly a gorgeous read.

The Belles is a refreshing, magical read with a cast that is interesting, refreshing, and, yes, beautiful. With a strong heroine at the center, the story has some wonderful developments that will no doubt be explored in the coming sequel.

It was a bit slow in the beginning, but it really picked up. The world she created was fantastic and well constructed. I'm looking forward to the next installments!

This book has one of the most interesting concepts I have read in awhile. Basically you're in a dystopian society where women called "Belles" are forced to do magical cosmetic surgery on citizens because they are naturally gray with red eyes. Belles is full of scandal, betrayal, and teensy bit of romance. I hope that this becomes a series, because I have way too many unanswered questions to be able to resist reading another!

I didn't love this book. I get where the author was trying to go with her discussion of gender, physical appearance, and identity (which are all awesome things to tackle--and are all things that need to be tackled in YA) but this book just kind of left me feeling indifferent at the end. I also felt like I was reading two separate books, because towards the end a few of the characters take a hard right into crazy-town and everything goes ham.

There was also a lot of world building that took place, but it often seemed like there was information that the author was expecting the readers to know (even though very little and sometimes no explanation happened--so I often felt lost and slightly confused).

I don't know, maybe weird steam-punk-y, dystopian whatever just isn't my genre. I'll be adding this to my library collection and hopefully it will find an audience with my teens.

I read this book in an entire sitting and was pleasantly surprised at its unpredictability.

Camellia is part of an elite squad of beautiful women known as Belles who have an inherited magical ability to change others' appearances. This gift is highly valued, as all people have been cursed into a sort of zombie/wraith appearance, with sunken, wrinkled gray skin, red eyes, and dull, straw-like hair. People spend exorbitant amounts of money for monthly maintenance sessions with a Belle to keep up their artificial beauty.

Camellia's new glitzy world of beauty is hiding dark secrets, however, and the more she learns, the more she realizes that she can no longer move through this world as a passive observer, but must use her abilities to try and make things right.

This book's only weakness was that it occasionally got caught up in its descriptions -- while extended descriptions of outfits, makeup, and hairstyles may be necessary for screenplays or scripts, I'm not especially invested in what kind of outfits the characters are wearing. These parts were easy to skim through.

I was also disappointed to discover that this is book 1 in a new series. I was under the impression it was a stand-alone novel until I reached the final few pages and it began to dawn on me that there was no way the plot was getting resolved anytime soon. Book 1 offers no resolution. I am, however, looking forward to book 2, whenever that may be.

*I was provided this book by NetGalley in return for an honest review*

"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."

This was quite an interesting fantasy book that had me hooked from the very first chapter. While this is a book that focuses on beauty and outward appearance the main character is able to change from the person she is meant to be and grow strong and independent. While I started off disliking the love interest an event happens later on in the book that made me change my mind. I really enjoyed that there was a diverse array of skin tones though the society was still one who preferred skinny figures and who worked to change the original skin tone of the society.

Overall, this book was interesting in the society it created and how it was different from this world. I would have liked to have more of a back story into the Goddess of Beauty and how the Belles were created, but I enjoyed my read of this book.

a fine read. at times it leaves gaps int he world building

I adored this book. It was the perfect beginning to a series that I'm sure will take us further than we ever imagined possible. The Belles introduces a world that is lush and exotic and brimming with excess, yet is uncomfortably finish to the reader. It's just enough of our own world to draw you in and watch the brilliant elevations of the world be created. I loved the intracies that Clayton set up to be explored in later books and can't see what is yet to come.

This book was not what I was expecting; instead it was so much more. I thought the Belles would be portrayed as "beauty fairies" who were tasked with fulfilling the beauty wishes of the kingdom and that the story would be about the Belles' conflicts/and or love interests. Entertaining fluff. Instead the book tackled topics such as body image, the price one is willing to pay for beauty, court intrigue, jealousy, and sisterhood. Clayton's world building skills were incredible. I want to live in a world with teacup animals.

If I had read this book as a teenager, I know I would have been obsessed with it. The setting is so exciting and colorful and richly drawn, it definitely takes me away from wherever I am. I like when a story surprises me and the mystery behind the Belles was well-thought out without being obvious. I know my YA group will love these characters and go wild over seeing a black girl on the cover. I can't wait to recommend this to so many teens.

OMG, you need to go read this book immediately!
I had heard all the fuss, but I honestly wasn't sure why people were raving about this. And then someone handed me an advance copy. I was hooked from the very first page.
Strong female characters? CHECK.
Gorgeous and rich descriptive language? CHECK.
Amazing storytelling and world building? CHECK.
There is absolutely nothing to not love about this book, except for the fact that I have to wait wayyyy too long for the next one! This book was seriously addictive and I cannot recommend it enough. Go preorder it. Now!

This book had a lot of fun elements and enjoyable characters. The writing style was fun and the book was a good read. The worldbuilding was amazing and the main character was inspiring. Would recommend to fans of steampunk and fantasy!

Thank you, NetGalley for this advanced reader copy.

The Belles, a fantasy set in an indeterminate past, presents a world obsessed with beauty to the heights of dysmorphia. The God of the Sky made the people of Orleans ugly--gray skin, red eyes, and hair the texture of straw. The Belles beautify the ugly by changing their skin, eyes, and hair to any color desired.

This is the story of Camellia, a Favorite Belle assigned to the queen's palace. It's what she always wanted, but once in the palace, things immediately take a dark turn. I could go on here, but what really caught my attention is the examination of beauty, and this is what I want to explore.

The Belles redefines long held Western ideas about beauty as they pertain to the color skin, eyes, and hair. The people of Orleans value color; all colors are beautiful. Herein lies a book that wonderfully transforms the definition of beauty to include the colors of all races. But that's where the transformation ends.

In Orleans, beauty is a female's business. Only a female can have arcana in her blood (arcana gives them the ability to alter bodies), and it comes through the lineage of a goddess. The Favorite Belle works with the Beauty Minister (a female) and the queen to write Beauty Laws. This trio of women have the power to define beauty, and they sadly and shortsightedly create a culture that undermines all females. Their laws do not respect the Goddess of Beauty and only favors youth, royalty, and wealth.

The Goddess of Beauty gives each female her shape, yet this these varied body shapes do not figure into the Beauty Laws. Instead, the trio uglifies women's body shapes by writing ever changing laws for the size of waists and breasts. Women further uglify their beauty by complaining, criticizing, and altering. More disheartening still, females seek smaller waists and larger breasts because it's the only way to attract a man.

Wrinkles are not attractive even though they are a natural part of living. Older women, even the queen, ask The Belles to erase their wrinkles (perplexing because the queen has the power to define wrinkles as beautiful). And Belles with damaged arcanas may develop wrinkled faces that they must hide under a veil. Beauty belongs to young, unwrinkled faces.
Beauty is for royals and the wealthy. Treatments are expensive, and servants have beauty restrictions. Even though the queen wants to make treatments more affordable for the Gris (those individuals who still have gray skin, red eyes, and hair the texture of straw), the trio is complicit for they set the prices. Beauty is not for the poor.

The Belles is the first in a series, so it is setting the stage for additional books and, hopefully, more transforming ideas about beauty.

I only hate that I have to wait so long to be able to put this book in my students' hands!