A nice introduction to what looks like it will be an interesting series , it felt slow at times, but I felt was due to scene setting, world and character building required, it began picking up towards the end and my interest really picked up too. Will be interested to read following books to see where the story takes us to 

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Belvedor and the Four Corners published over 5 years ago but it has stood the test of time! I recently received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, and this is it. Book 1 of 4, this one sets up a vivid story of fantasy and intrigue. Even during a pandemic I felt like I didn't have enough time to sit down and take in this book. I wanted to forget everything else and wrap my brain around the story being laid out before my eyes. Intrigue, romance, I've seen others explain it as a mix of Harry Potter, Divergent and The Hunger Games - and that's how it felt! I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of this series and see how it all plays out.

Thank you NetGallery and the author for this copy in return for an honest review.


I found the world building of this book very interesting and the action scenes very intriguing. I thought Arianna and Lessa's friendship was well written but overall this book was just not for me. It is a nice introduction to this series and I would recommend this to Hunger Games fans.

ARC from NetGalley

2.5 stars

This was a bit of a slog. We follow Ariana for far too long in the Jar. The mystery of the tunnels also takes far too long, although it is at least a bit less bleak and more interesting in terms of a setting. This was a really long way to open a series, and I wonder if the author stretched everything out a bit to make it a 4-book series, 4 corners, yada yada. It wasn't a bad book, but it unfortunately wasn't gripping or terribly interesting. 

The book is really quite bleak. Not a lot of things happen that are positive. There isn't any romance to sort of pull at the heart strings. There isn't anything really driving the story forward aside from the escape, and that gets tedious after a time. Ariana is such an idiot so many times in the beginning of the book. She is in a life or death situation, threatened with the pit if she misbehaves. We know that the general kills people constantly just for shits and giggles, and yet she deliberately disobeys her master several times just for a fucking flight of fancy essentially. It makes no sense, and it was frustrating to read.

We don't really gain a lot of knowledge as we trudge through the story. We learn essentially nothing about magic. We learn about the king from that laughable story that they were so surprised to learn that he had written himself (or so they suspected." I mean... duh? Who else would write such a contrived story of their having been wronged. It was so very obvious that it irritated me as I read it. There was little to 0 character growth. Essentially, too little happened in too many words, I didn't care if most of the characters lived or died, and I don't want to read the next one.

Words cannot express the level of mastery in articulation and writing skills Ashleigh Bello has. I was at the edge of my seat until the very end. I was so scared for all of them, A. B. tells the story so well that you can feel the fear, the excitement, all the experiences of the characters.

An amazing book. I hope to read the next one

This book has a lot of potential! I found that the world was unique and interesting, it had some suspenseful action scenes, and the friendship between Arianna and Lessa was sweet. Unfortunately, though, this was not a book for me. Some points of the storyline were a little awkward like how four slaves from different districts just happened to meet as they escaped. There was also a lot of dialogue. I know that some people really enjoy this, but I prefer a balance between dialogue and colourful prose.  

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I liked this book, but it didn't totally suck me in. The characters were good and I liked them and how they interacted with each other. There was some romance which added to the story and was sweet and clean. The writing had some nice descriptions and was easy to follow though sometimes wasn't exactly smooth. The plot overall had a lot of potential and it was exciting, though I would've liked to have seen more of an ending and it kind of left me hanging. The book overall was good, and I can't wait to read the sequel to finish off the loose ends.

“Belvedor and the Four Corners” tells the story of a gifted warrior slave dreaming a future where she is free.  Vivid descriptions and a unique world made me continue to read this book; however, the book left me with too many questions and not enough satisfying answers.

This story was ok.  I was curious how it ended, but I had so many questions that weren't answered.  I don't know if those answers come in subsequent books, like who were the lead characters parents, but the whole issue of how these kids up as slaves needed to be better explained.

I am not invested enough to read more.

Thank you Netgalley for a the e-ARC

Bello’s novel is a young adult fantasy; I’m not sure why, but I thought it would be more adult than it was when I picked this book up. The story has a solid idea to build on - a dystopian version of a fairy tale world, where magic and fae alike have been outlawed, decimated, and forgotten.

In this world, everyone is born a slave and must prove themselves worthy of freedom once they come of age in an annual festival known as Free Falls. Arianna, a slave in the Warrior District, stubbles upon a secret cavern under the barracks, where she meets Lessa, a slave of the Healer’s District. The slaves of the four Districts of the Jar are forbidden to interact with one another, so their newfound friendship places both girls in great danger. The secret doesn’t remain hidden, and the girls are hidden away from authorities and learn about the fabled magic. Arianna and Lessa escape into the tunnels beyond their cavern in a bid for their freedom, discovering more about magic and forgotten creatures, forming new alliances, and casting off their slavery.

The novel has a good foundation, but it wasn’t a book for me. I did enjoy the easy camaraderie that Arianna and Lessa shared; it was refreshing to see a friendship in a YA novel that didn’t involve petty jealousy, hatred, or the girls trying to one-up each other. I didn’t like a couple of things; the briefly mentioned Liam and Arianna’s unrequited love for him, and the instant connections between the four slaves from the different districts and how they just stumbled upon one another while escaping. Liam is barely mentioned, and Arianna saves him, announces her love for him, and shoots her down immediately; it seems like an unnecessary situation. I imagining Bello is setting up something for the ever-present YA love triangle later, but it just seems like this scene is forced.

Bello’s Belvedor and the Four Corners has a story with the potential to be interesting, and there is an audience out there for this, but it’s not a series for myself to continue. I enjoyed the idea presented, but the immediate idyllic relationship of the group of strangers who discovered one another in a cave and how the situations always seemed to solve themselves quickly made me lose interest in the plot.