CW: Violence / Gore / Medical Neglect / Sibling Death / Executions / References to Children’s Neglect / Abuse / Discussions of Drowning

Belle Revolte is a magical life swap story that ended up surprising me. Not because of the plot or the setting. Because of the characters that ended up drawing me in.

Emilie de Marais lives in a society with a very socially gendered magic system. Beware of that going in. Men can train to be warriors or physicians while women are expected to be taught in the ways of divination, and even there often only ladies. This is not to her liking. She would rather become a physician than to learn how to properly divine and has been experimenting at home. Until her mother sends her away. When she meets Annette, she devises a plan. Annette will go to the finishing school in her place and Emilie will be going on to become a physician.

If you think this is a story where there is going to be a gender swap, you are wrong. Emilie goes into the training as an assistant, those that the physicians often use to draw power from when needed (and often causes them an early death). Even as a female she is allowed to do this. This was such a nice change to the normal live swap stories to be honest.

In addition to the socially gendered magic system it is balanced out a lot by there being trans en non-binary side characters throughout the story. While not entirely accepted in society (trans character isn’t all out) it is still normal between the characters. Accepting.

That was also why I ended up falling for the characters. They all have their unique things. I was perhaps less drawn to Emilie as a person who is very driven and has a tendency to push people away a bit. But the people around her; Laurence, Charles and the siblings, filled around her amazingly. Where with Annette I was not quite as taken by her story plot but I could resonate with her so well. She is asexual as I am. But also biromantic.
As the story progressed our characters grew, talking about the politics and gender norms of the society they resided in. They struck something with me and I still think very fondly of them after having finished the book a week ago.

The story in itself was solid at best . A bit weak in places. So it certainly isn’t a perfect book but if you love a diverse queer book than this is certainly for you.

It is a standalone for now, but I can certainly see openings in that ending for a potential companion book.

The swapping roles trope intrigued me initially, but this book felt very half formed. The world-building was barely there (I never at any point knew where Serre or Kalthorne or any country was in relation to each other, and I also don’t even know all of the country’s names vs the names of towns.) Annette and Emilie were very much interchangeable, so I had a hard time keeping their stories straight. I never fully understood “hacks,” nor did I comprehend the extent of their magical abilities because they could seemingly do everything and yet they were constantly easily defeated??? I was bored at times, probably because I had trouble following the storyline, and all the French names were weird and difficult to pronounce. This book was really just not for me.

This book got off to a slow start and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to complete it. Thankfully the pace picked up and it was well written so persevering was not as difficult as I expected. I mostly enjoyed the book, although the magic annoyed me in parts. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC egalley.

I really enjoyed reading Belle Révolte, but I’m only giving it four stars instead of five, one star being taken off because of the pacing and plot.

The pacing was very slow in the beginning, despite the fast introduction there was of Annette and Emilie almost instantly meeting each other and switching lives. It just took quite a while before the main plot, involving Laurel, began. Once the pacing of the book picked up, however, it was hard to put it down!

The system of magic, with the hawks and everything having to do with the physicians, was all so much information to take in. I did somewhat understand it, but I never completely got it or was interested in it.

The queer romance was amazing! It was so sweet yet not rushed and not annoying. I even got hints of other queer romances in the book, and I loved, although sweet as it was, that the romance didn’t overshadow the main plot. Emilie had to learn about being a physician, and Annette had to learn about being a lady of high status.

Both the girls had to keep their identities a secret from everyone else and were likable characters, but between them I liked Emilie more! Even with her high status, she was incredibly kind and willing to be helpful to others that needed her help.

There were twists I didn’t see coming in this book but that were all well executed by Linsey Miller and added something to the story. The cast of characters overall was fantastic, and I was very happy with how things wrapped up at the end.

I believe this is a standalone, but I definitely wouldn’t mind a sequel to this in the future!

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a free copy to review!

Emilie and Annette come from two different worlds. Emilie, a rebel from an aristocrat family that wants to study the masculine side of magic and become a physician, swaps lives with the talented but overlooked Annette. Annette attends a prestigious boarding school under Emilie's name to study the midnight arts while Emilie rides to the front lines of a war in the name of medicine and magic.

Overall, the princess and pauper idea was well placed and had good intentions, but the characters fell completely flat and bored me. I found myself waiting for interesting side characters to liven up the story. The magic descriptions seem all over the place and generic while settings were blown over. I loved the idea, but this didn't really do it for me.

2.5, rounded to 3 stars for trying something new.

Overall, this book was mostly meh. I absolutely loved the trans/queer rep & the overall diverse cast, but unfortunately I feel it mostly fell flat. I feel like the two MC's didnt have enough of their own voices for me to easily tell them apart even with each chapter starting out with their name. Maybe if one had been first/third person or if they were both third person it couldve been better? There were also too many conveniences & confusing moments throughout the book.

I really wanted to like this, but it unfortunately was not for me. Thank you netgalley for the ebook!

This book is a wonderful story filled with magic and struggles and relationships. It’s a story that jumps right in and runs through a gamut of emotions. It’s a well thought out timeline but with many characters and storylines that all culminate in a fight for good.

There was a lot I liked and some I didn't. This was essentially a gender swapped Prince and the Pauper meets French revolution with magic, which I was totally sold on. Positives - complete standalone novel (which feels rare these days), good ace and transgender representation (one main character is explicitly ace biromantic and one secondary character discusses being trans briefly, and both are well rounded, interesting characters (view spoiler)), and very thorough world-building.

However, I had a really hard time getting through the first third. I didn't connect with either of the leads and there were a lot of names and titles thrown around so I struggled with keeping everyone straight. There were also some major deaths in the latter half, which I GET because this is a coup and war and things are terrible, but I wanted them to survive because this is fantasy. That's just a personal preference though.

All in all, I would still recommend it. I think some people will totally love it, and reading good representation is always good. Plus the cover is gorgeous.

Unfortunately I have been dragging myself through this book for 6 weeks now, so I'm calling it a DNF at 20%.

The pacing of this book is very strange. The perspective characters make a huge, exciting decision at 4%, but the plot seems to stall there and slow down drastically. I still have no idea what the major plot arc was going to work through 1/5th of the way through the book. There were odd time jumps in one perspective, where small observations are made in a paragraph or two and then days are skipped and we pick back up at another small conversation. I had little connection to the characters and no reason to care about their journeys.

Neither of the main characters seemed to have any connection to people in their lives, which I found very odd and I think added to the disconnect.

I also read several times in the marketing materials that this is a work of high fantasy, NOT historical fiction, but it does read a lot like historical fiction. The writing style takes on an affectation I particularly dislike to give it a historical feeling.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC!

Belle Révolte is truly and wonderfully put, an empowering book. It exemplifies the struggles that Emilie and Annette face beautifully as girls in a world that challenges them at every turn, where the system of magic is so rich and fascinating that it will keep you stuck to the page. I believe that this novel is a lovely example of what we, as people, can do to in order to follow our dreams in a system that defies us. Belle Révolte honors delicate topics seamlessly and truly immerses you in a world where there is rebellion and magic behind every door. I enjoyed it in its entirety. (Plus ace representation and a trans side character!)

I would highly recommend this book to those who have enjoyed An Affair of Poisons by Addie Thorley and The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi.

TW: death, war, description of body parts and surgeries, gendered society and magic system (challenged throughout the novel)

Before I start this, I do want to say I overall enjoyed it. I’m definitely going to reread this physically once it comes out, as I feel I can better understand it and appreciate it with the ability to go back and remind myself of character names and take my time while not feeling

The world-building was unique and easy to understand, as it is a binary, gendered magic system that is called out throughout the book. The noonday arts are considered men’s work and involve healing and fighting magic while the midnight arts are women’s magic, including illusionary arts, scrying, and divination.

Annette and Emilie were very strong characters. It’s a rushed beginning to their meeting and deciding to swap lives, but their personalities come out afterward, with Annette being anxious and worried about her abilities with magic and Emilie being ambitious and ready to prove herself as the best.

Both sets of friendships were great and some of my favorite parts were of Annette being with her friends.

The two main relationships are m/f with the love interest being a trans man and f/f with the main character being biromantic asexual. Several side and background characters are trans and nonbinary.

Issues of classism and gender roles are handled throughout the novel in a way I really liked.

My main issue with this was pacing. Events seemed to happen with little build-up. I can kind of understand this as this is a standalone, but some aspects of the main characters journey felt rushed. For example, the decision to swap lives is made in the first chapter. I think with more space to allow events to happen, I would’ve liked it even more.

I think maybe making the book longer would’ve allowed for parts of the story to be fleshed out, but I think it’s still a solid standalone. The pacing isn’t so egregious that I think it needed a whole second book.

This was a unique standalone fantasy that tackles real world issues that I feel I could enjoy even more with a reread.

The Princess Switch but make it Fantasy.

I wanted to like Belle Revolte more than I did. Yes, please to all the f/f and diversity. But I couldn't get into the story. A couple chapters in and I was bored. I unfortunately had a hard time telling the main characters apart too and I'm a big fan of mutli-narratives. I also never really understood the magic system. It didn't make sense to me.
I think others will like this book, it just didn't live up to the hype in my opinion.

This was an interesting and surprising read. I love all the LGBT+ rep in a fantasy. The story focuses on our two main girls who both want more from the life they have. An opportunity presents itself and they take a chance to switch identities to pursue their dreams.

This is a standalone fantasy which was breath of fresh air. My only problem though is with the pacing. Being that it is a standalone things move incredibly fast and trying to learn about the magic of this world alongside the history of the rebels and kingdom could and would become a bit confusing. Other than the characters were very dynamic and interesting especially side characters.

I highly recommend.

Without spoilers, there is bi-romantic ace and trans representation in this book, a f/f relationship and racial and economic diversity. Viewpoints are challenged, heads are butted, and characters grow. Characters are presented in a human and honest way, most of them chafing against the boundaries of their assigned roles and trying to figure out a way to be authentically themselves in a rigid society.
Emilie, born into an incredibly privileged family, ends up confronted with realities that she had not been aware of before. While she tries her best, she commits blunders and mistakes due to her naiveté, but to her credit, she learns from her mistakes and grows immensely as a person. Similarly, Annette has a lot of her own growth to do. The side characters, such as Madeline, Coline, Laurence and Estrel, or Charles are no less nuanced. They all have to let go of preconceived notions in order to realize what is happening on around them and truly band together.
The nation is in shambles, and a mysterious figure calling themselves Laurel is causing uproar. Over the course of the story, it becomes clear that there is more to the war happening than the people are aware of, and that their king is privy to insidious goings-on. So who or what is Laurel, and what is the change they are promising?
Belle Révolte is extremely well written, gripping and will not let you go. It is a book that hit all my soft spots and made me fall in love with it.

**Review to be posted on my blog on 1/23/20**

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read this eARC.

Belle Revolte is set in a French inspired world where magic use is known as the noonday arts and the midnight arts. Emilie a noble girl wants to be a physician but only men can aspire to that profession. So Emilie swaps lives with Annette a commoner who wants to elevate her station by studying the midnight arts. Emilie sneaks away to learn noon day arts and train as a physician as a rebellion is growing in their kingdom. The rebellion is lead by someone named Laurel. They find out that everyone who is in the rebellion is called Laurel and they are ready to change things for their kingdom.

Which side will Emilie and Annette take in this rebellion and will they see their dreams become reality?

What I Like:

*The magic system in this book was interesting, to a point. We have the noonday arts which is used by soldiers and physician. The magic is used for fighting and healing. Midnight arts is used for divination and scrying among other things. The midnight arts is in some form usually present in other fantasy books with a magic system but the noonday arts was somewhat different. I thought the medical training Emilie undertakes was more fascinating than the usual midnight arts. I can see why she says the noonday arts changes lives – especially in that sense.

*There is trans and ace (asexual) representation in this book and honestly, I think this is the first young adult fantasy I’ve read with asexual representation! There is some romance in the book, but this story is not romance driven.

*Strong female characters are featured in this book which is always great. We have Annette and Emilie trying to make their dreams a reality. Emilie especially in her male dominated field but Annette takes a big risk as well posing as a noblewoman.

Things That Made Me Go Hmm:

*The beginning of the book kept me interested but by the middle I felt my attention waning. The magic system didn’t keep me interested, they either had magic for healing or fighting and magic for divination and scrying. We see how Annette and Emilie use it to help in time of war but other than that…I’m not sure there was anything else special about it.

*I’m all for the life swapping trope, it’s a chance to have someone on the other side experience a different role and life, some good, some bad. But I felt no connection to the characters. It was a life swap but not a name swap – I think it threw me off a little. Annette was posing as Emilie and being called Emilie. But Emilie was still Emilie, but with Annette’s last name! So…they were both Emilie. 😟

*Triggers: War, death

Final Thoughts:

The story of two girls trying to change their fate and a kingdom on the verge of revolution is inspiring. Unfortunately I failed to connect to the characters and I lost interest midway into the book. Despite my experience, I think others will enjoy this story very much.

Thank you Sourcebooks for the ARC. This book was wonderfully written and super entertaining. The story focuses on two girls ( Emilie and Annette) who trade places so that they can follow their dreams. However while chasing their dreams both girls discover that a revolution is coming and they both have to decide if they will stand on the right side of history even though that may cost them everything they have worked so hard to achieve.

I loved Linsey Miller’s Mask of Shadows duo and was super excited to read this book and let me tell you it didn’t disappoint. The book was just as diverse as Mask as Shadows. This is the first time I’ve ever read a YA fantasy with an Ace character and I thought it was important for representation how Linsey Miller actually had the ace character explain how attraction works for her.

I've previously read Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller, and the sequel is currently sat on my TBR waiting for me to read it (I try not to think too hard about the inescapable crush of my owned TBR...), so I knew a little bit about what I was getting into. Mask of Shadows was gloriously 'ya' and the concept of Belle Révolte seemed to hint at a similar familiarity. know some people really aren't here for 'tropey' young adult fiction (or just fantasy fiction for any age), but personally, I find that if I read other things interspersed I often find that familiarity of a trope to be a comforting presence. 

The main thing I will say about this book is that it asks quite a lot of you right at the start. When I read the premise I assumed that a good portion of the book would be taken up with building the relationship between these two girls and then the swap would happen, if not that, then perhaps there would be a presupposed relationship between the two of them, the building blocks of which would have happened before the book even started.

Nope.

I don't think it'll spoil the book for you (it happens within the first few pages)to say that essentially Emilie gets out of her carriage, finds a girl who is similar looking and they swap lives just like that. That's essentially it for the setup, the book requires you to just sort of nod and smile and pretend that you can't see any potential issues with that idea. Personally, I was able to do that and just let the actual plot of the book happen - but if you don't think that's something you can do then I'd suggest leaving this book for now. 

If you can suspend disbelief for just a little bit, I think you'll get to read a very fun and interesting YA fantasy novel. Yes, it is tropey, but it also talks about some themes which I always love to see in YA, dismantling power structures, imbalance of gender, privilege and so forth. Does it take place in a world where there are two kinds of magic and of course they are named after the sun and the moon - yes of course it does! Did I mind? Not so much!

I can't think of too many other YA fantasy novels that have crossed my radar where the main character wanted to become a doctor/healer. I know often they are, or they have healing powers or some such, but I found I could connect to Emilie's desire to learn and to comprehend and to help people, just as I could connect to Annette's sense of being a misfit, of feeling like a constant failure. I appreciated that, while this was a 'life swap' scenario, the two girls aren't pitted as polar opposites, the story acknowledges their similarities as much as their differences.

The plot of this book, unsurprisingly, focusses in on war and revolution in the country (that is probably not France...) in which these girls are living. Initially, I wondered if I would get that dissonance you get in books that start in peace and go into the war (not necessarily a bad thing, look at The Poppy War) but actually, it's a fairly smooth transition, largely because one character remains in one place. 

If you know the plot to Mask of Shadows you'll know that it's USP is that the main character is gender fluid. With that in mind, I thought there would probably be some kind of gender non-conforming representation in this book too - especially in a world where the magic is primarily split by gender. Happily I can say there is trans representation in this book. Much like in Mask of Shadows it's a 'here is this character who happens to be trans' as opposed to any kind of brutal outing as emotional fuel for the book. I appreciated the discussion of gender in the book - it was a happy addition to the story. 

Mostly I thought this was a fun, fast-paced read. I will say that I feel it was perhaps a little too short. In order to properly develop some of those key concepts, as well as the ending (which also fell a little flat for me) I almost feel as though you could have added a third to the length of the book. Perhaps then it would have dragged, but I think that some more time to dwell on finer details would have been pertinent.

My rating: 4/5 stars

I received a digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions are my own. 

Belle Révolte publishes February 1st!

I was super excited to read this. I loved the queer rep and the premise of the story. I haven’t read a good swapping places story in a while and in that sense, this did pique my interest. But I had trouble following the writing. It just didn’t flow very well for me. The characters were great, especially Emilie. But there were times what it moved too fast for me to really get the grasp on character development and pace. This is a stand-alone book and still deserves to be checked out due to the fact that the representation of women being able to fully excel in a world where they are looked at as less was really great! I look forward to reading more from this author!

DNF at 20%

Sadly, this one just wasn't working for me! The concept sounded super fun and I thought it could be a good one to snuggle up with and tear through in a weekend, but I just couldn't get into it.

The pacing was completely off -- within the first 5%, Emilie is running out of her carriage and proposing to swap places with a complete and total stranger who looks like her so she can study medicine. It all happens so fast it was just completely unbelievable -- I felt like I was missing a big chunk of backstory or something that would make me invested in this decision and why these girls were taking such a huge risk. Then, the pacing slows to a halt and I really struggled to stay invested in the story.

I'm a big stickler for worldbuilding and magic and both felt incredibly messy to me. It just didn't seem to make much sense!

I wanted to love this, but it just wasn't for me.

I was selected through NetGalley to receive an early copy of Belle Révolte, so that I could write a review!

Two girls, separated by wealth and desires but united by the physical similarities they share. Emilie wants desperately to go to university to study to become a physician, who channels noonday magic to heal the injured and sick. Her noble mother has strictly forbidden it, however, as the channeling of magic can have dangerous affects. Instead, she is sent to boarding school, where she will learn the art of midnight magic, which is used to create illusions and scry distant places. On her way to the school, she runs into a girl bearing a passable resemblance to her, and a plan is struck. Annette comes from a peasant family, and has been taught to underestimate herself constantly. When she is offered the chance to study at a boarding school and hone the magic she already possesses she cannot pass it up. Both girls are at great risk, for if they are caught, the punishment could be dire.

Lindsey Miller is one of my favorite fantasy authors, because of her frequent and diverse LGBTQ representation and her complex story lines! Belle Révolte is her latest novel, which boasts a cast inclusive of asexual, lesbian, and trans identities, all of which could we could use significantly more of in fantasy. I really loved the dual perspective used in the story too, and the ways that the two girls lives interweave to create a full story

You can get your copy of Belle Révolte on February 4th from Sourcefire Books!

My Recommendation-
If you are seeking to diversify your fantasy reads, Belle Révolte is an amazing choice. If you love stories of magic, revolution and female perseverance, you will be delighted by Belle Révolte. If you love Natasha Ngan or Marie Lu, Lindsey Miller’s books will be an excellent fit.