RELEASED 7TH MARCH 2019 IN THE UK!
Title: The Everlasting Rose
Series: The Belles
Author: Dhonielle Clayton
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Publisher: Freeform, Orion Publishing Group
Release Date: 7th March 2019
BLURB from Goodreads
Camille, her sister Edel, and her guard and new love Remy must race against time to find Princess Charlotte. Sophia's Imperial forces will stop at nothing to keep the rebels from returning Charlotte to the castle and her rightful place as queen. With the help of an underground resistance movement called The Iron Ladies-a society that rejects beauty treatments entirely-and the backing of alternative newspaper The Spider's Web, Camille uses her powers, her connections and her cunning to outwit her greatest nemesis, Sophia, and restore peace to Orleans.
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REVIEW
As
I finished The Belles, I knew there was no question, I had to read the next
book, and then I discovered the title that pulled me in even more, made me
wonder if there could ever be an Everlasting Rose in the world The Belles is
set in. To say I was impatient to begin reading this book.
I
loved the cover of The Belles but wow, the cover of The Everlasting Rose is striking.
It hints of what is to come from inside the cover. There’s lots of intrigue,
betrayal, sacrifice and loss in this instalment of The Belles story. The genres
listed for the book are YA and Fantasy, which whilst I agree with. I would
point out I am certainly not in the YA age bracket and I have adored this
series so far! Also, I would add that the books could also be added to the dystopian,
and possibly futuristic genres.
The
book picks up just after we left the characters on the run from Princess Sophia
and her followers. It’s been an action packed three days for Camille, at the
beginning of everything being at the Palace, being thrown in the dungeons,
Princess Charlotte waking up, and then the surprising help of false papers and
transport from Arabella.
To
begin with it is Camille, Edelweiss, and Ambrosia who escape with the palace
guard Remy. They have escaped with very little, just their arcana which reside
within them ready to be called and used only on others. Camille also has her
teacup dragons, Fantóme, Poivre, Eau, Feuille and finally Or who is very fond
of Remy. The fugitives need to evade capture, find, and help Princess Charlotte
return to the Palace to usurp Princess Sophia from the throne and take up her
rightful place.
This
may sound simple, but it really isn’t, with wanted posters all around wherever
the Belles and Remy go, all offering large reward for their capture and return
to the Palace.
Princess
Sophia also has her own ideas on not only how the Palace runs and the laws of
the land, she also wants to breed many more Belles, and makes several attempts
at doing this with disastrous results producing inferior Belles which are
disfigured. When those in the know such as Arabella attempt to explain the
process and say she must slow down, she does the opposite even saying the
Belles do not need to be attractive, just be able to use their arcana’s to make
others beautiful! It seems all Princess Sophia wants to do is make money from
Belles and become the Queen to change laws to meet her personal requirements.
We
learn one Belle in every generation is stronger and carries something “extra,” within their blood that helps to make the next
generation. Arabella is the one whose blood contains the aether that is needed
for the next generation. I am not going to reveal who has the aether in her
blood in the latest generation of Belles.
Two
of the Belles that are on the run discover their arcana talents can in fact
help them travel undetected. The Belles are always on their guard knowing they
could be captured at any moment. When Princess Sophia targets the palace guard
Rémy’s family, Camille insists he go back and try to help his family. There’s
the delightful beginnings of a relationship between Camille and Rémy in this
book as well as the differing relationships between the girls. It’s difficult
for them to trust anyone, but help does come along in the shape of the
mysterious, rebellious Iron Ladies.
I
thought the Belles was written extremely and that nothing would ever live up to
it but, The Everlasting Rose is even better! The scene setting is stunning, you
can really visualise it all. I think the quotes and certain phrases in the book
are remarkable. So now I have raved about them I guess I should share a couple.
“My thoughts are an overfilled teacup, drowning it’s saucer” “Maman never told
me what to do when the world falls apart like a dress ripped at it’s seams, the
beads scattering into faraway corners, the fabric a storm of shredded pieces
left destroyed and unrecognisable”
The
way the Iron Ladies say farewell to each other when going on one of their
missions is, “May our threads remain strong and our webs serve us well”.
My
favourite character is I guess predictably Camille, at the beginning of this
book she is still somewhat stinging about how Auguste betrayed her and proposed
to Princess Sophia, after professing his love to her! I also love how friendship
turns into more with Rémy, her palace guard whilst they are on the run. Camille
cared for all her sisters in book one, and continues to do so in this book,
despite Edelweiss warning her on more than one occasion that Ambrosia has
changed and its not for the better. On many occasions Camille is willing to
sacrifice whatever is necessary, including herself for the good of others.
Everything
continues to build up to am ultimate climax, with many putting themselves in
the firing line of the power hungry, Princess Sophia. Though it is Camille who is
at the very centre of a plan that will either go perfectly well or horrendously
wrong! I actually had to put this stunning book down at 88% yep with only 22% I
had to put the book down as for us older readers life sometimes gets in the way
at the most inopportune times! I left the book there and had questions and
scenarios of what may happen galore popping in and out of my head. Such as, Can Camille manage to be literally under
Princess Sophia, soon to be Queen Sophia's nose, and be able to rescue her
sisters, Beauty Minister, Fashion Minister, the love of her life, his family
and make sure Sophia doesn't become Queen? Camille a heavy weight on her
shoulders! Will Camille & the Iron Ladies plan work? Whose side is Auguste
really on?
What more can I say, as I am not willing to go into more detail as I don't want to spoil the reading experience for everyone else. I truly loved reading this book, even more then The Belles, which I didn't think possible. I highly recommend reading this series.
The
covers & the content still reminded me of The Perfected series by Kate Jarvik
Birch, The Lone City Series by Amy Ewing and The Selection Series by Kiera
Cass. So if you haven’t read those and have loved The Belles & The
Everlasting Rose I can highly recommend them to you.
