#the beauty trials

[the-final-sentence]

'Me.'

Dhonielle Clayton, from The Beauty Trials

[curlyhairedbibliophile]

Cover Art | The Beauty Trials by Dhonielle Clayton

In this all-new novel from the world of Dhonielle Clayton’s sweeping, lush fantasy series the Belles, rebellious, outspoken, fan-favorite Edel Beauregard enters The Beauty Trials—a deadly competition to find the next Queen of Orleans. With the dangerous, erratic Princess Sophia imprisoned, Queen Charlotte decides to invoke the ancient tradition of The Beauty Trials—a series of harrowing tests meant to find the one true ruler of Orleans. Edel, who has always aspired to be more than just a Belle, decides to enter and, after promising to bind her arcana to keep from having an unnatural advantage, joins a few dozen other hopefuls intent on becoming the next Queen of Orleans. But the trials are far worse than any of them bargained for. As the women are put through dangerous tasks meant to test their strength, confidence, composure, and bravery, many perish, and Edel is mysteriously attacked by one of the other competitors—forcing her to use her powers just to survive. Will her subterfuge cost her the crown, or is there a larger conspiracy at play?

Artwork by Katt Phatt

Release date | Feb 14, 2023 Goodreads

[platoapproved]

And that's the end of it. There's nothing else.

[letsplaythermalnuclearwar]

Homer!Odysseus and Epic!Odysseus would try to kill each other if they ever met

[hollymbryan]

Series Repackage Tour + #Review: THE BELLES series by Dhonielle Clayton (w/ #giveaway)!

Welcome to Book-Keeping and my stop on the Rockstar Book Tours blog tour for the gorgeous series repackage for The Belles series by the incredible Dhonielle Clayton! Book three, The Beauty Trials, just released, and the whole series got a beautiful redesign. I’ve got all the details on the new covers for you below, along with my review of the first book. There’s also a giveaway for all three books with the new covers, so be sure to enter!

About the Books

title: The Belles (The Belles #1) author: Dhonielle Clayton publisher: Disney Hyperion release date: 6 February 2018

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. But it’s not enough for Camellia to be just a Belle. She wants to be the favorite—the Belle chosen by the Queen of Orléans to live in the royal palace, to tend to the royal family and their court, to be recognized as the most talented Belle in the land. But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favorite is not everything she always dreamed it would be. Behind the gilded palace walls live dark secrets, and Camellia soon learns that the very essence of her existence is a lie—that her powers are far greater, and could be more dangerous, than she ever imagined. And when the queen asks Camellia to risk her own life and help the ailing princess by using Belle powers in unintended ways, Camellia now faces an impossible decision. With the future of Orléans and its people at stake, Camellia must decide—save herself and her sisters and the way of the Belles—or resuscitate the princess, risk her own life, and change the ways of her world forever.

Add to Goodreads Purchase the Book Available to read free via Kindle Unlimited and to listen free via Audible!

title: The Everlasting Rose (The Belles #2) author: Dhonielle Clayton publisher: Disney Hyperion release date: 5 March 2019

Add to Goodreads Purchase the Book Available to listen free via Audible!

title: The Beauty Trials author: Dhonielle Clayton publisher: Disney Hyperion release date: 14 February 2023

Add to Goodreads Purchase the Book

About the Author

Dhonielle Clayton is a New York Times Bestselling author of The Belles series, the coauthor of the Tiny Pretty Things duology which debuted as a Netflix original series, and the author of the MG fantasy series The Marvellers. She hails from the Washington, D.C. suburbs on the Maryland side. She taught secondary school for several years, and is a former elementary and middle school librarian. She is COO of the non-profit We Need Diverse Books, and co-founder of CAKE Literary, a creative kitchen whipping up decadent—and decidedly diverse—literary confections for middle grade, young adult, and women’s fiction readers. She’s an avid traveler, and always on the hunt for magic and mischief.

Sign up for Dhonielle’s newsletter (scroll to bottom of page)!

Connect with Dhonielle: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

My 4-Star Review of Book One

The publisher was kind enough to send a set of the redesigned series my way for this blog tour, but I decided to check out the audiobook for book one, The Belles, for this review. It turns out if you have an Audible subscription, both books one and two are available to listen to for free! So I downloaded it, hit play, and was swept away to an incredible fairy tale world. The world-building is absolutely amazing, with descriptions that have you envisioning every little detail in your head. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book that gave me such intense visions of the world, and I can’t say enough about how Dhonielle created this incredible fantasy and had me seeing every scene in such detail. The characters are also all richly drawn, and the narrator did a great job differentiating them with different voices and accents. She had me wishing August was real, as she gave him a lovely Irish accent, which I’m a sucker for, ha! 

I love the world Dhonielle created, the story she told, and the characters she made real. And the ending, what?! I am about to dive into the audiobook for book two now and I can’t wait to go back to Orléans with Camille. If you haven’t read the books yet and enjoy listening to audiobooks, I highly recommend this series on audio!

Rating: 4 post-balloons! (which I SO wish were a real thing)

**Disclosure: I received copies of the books from the publisher for purposes of this blog tour. This review is voluntary on my part and reflects my honest rating and review of the book.

About the Giveaway

One (1) lucky winner will receive all three books with the new covers! This one is US only and ends 14 March. Enter via the Rafflecopter below, and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Tour

Today marks the start of the final week of the tour. Check out the schedule below so you don’t miss anything!

Week Five:

3/5/2023 - Book-Keeping - Review/IG Post      **you are here! 3/6/2023 - @froggyreadteach - IG Review 3/7/2023 - @drew_ambitious_reading - IG Review/TikTok Post 3/8/2023 - Momfluenster - IG Post/Facebook Post 3/9/2023 - @enjoyingbooksagain - IG Review 3/10/2023 - @thebookishfoxwitch - IG Review

[demigod-shenanigans]

Commission by @fedzzzart that came out so so gorgeous and brings me immense joy whenever I look at it!!!

The art looks so happy, doesn’t it! I did hold a poll on whether to ruin that for you all, but I ultimately decided I couldn’t bring myself to do it, so carry on believing that it is if you like and check the reblogs if you want to be sad (this is for a fic I’m working on)

[churrorat-art]

I found some beautiful solangelo art on Instagram thought more people need to see it

The account is: @_r3nni3_ on Instagram

[nalyra-dreaming]

Be careful, it's one of a kind! - Or: the trial script.

I took a few screenshots and put them through the editor, and there are a few interesting tidbits of information that can be gleaned from the few shots we got of the final trial script:

Supposedly the trial was written by the "Vampire Santiago", and the "Vampire Samuel Barclay". With... "additions made" by the "Vampire Lestat de Lioncourt".

Now the last part is particularly interesting, because as we see in the screenshots we get, that there are quite a few "additions" that Armand makes, but he is not listed there.

We now have (additional) confirmation by Assad (at the SDCC 2024 panel) that Armand was the one who orchestrated Claudia's / their deaths, so let's keep that in mind here. Especially since he is not listed.

"Our red curtain. Our spotlight. Santiago acting as master of ceremonies. But this is the only part of the play that will mimic our normal fare. That and our finale."

There's several aspects to this.

We know that - at least in Armand's tale - Santiago "took over". "Master of ceremonies." But only acting, not actually being. The "mimic our normal fare" both hints at this being not what they normally do, and, given the mock aspect of the trial - it acknowledges the farce it is. It is not a play, not a trial, but something in between, framed as neither, while implementing both.

Santiago's entry speech. With an interesting annotation by Armand: "You are standing half in and half out of your light."

Only, Santiago isn't actually standing in and out of the light. (At least in the version we got to see.)

Now, those who know the books know that the force of Lestat's personality is often called a "light", and not always in a wholly positive manner.

For example there is this comment by Nicolas, which refers to it:

And for every aspect of our proposed damnation you found exuberance, and there was no end to your enthusiasm and the passion coming out of you-and the light, always the light. And in exact proportion to the light coming out of you, there was the darkness in me! Every exuberance piercing me and creating its exact proportion of darkness and despair!

The lights of the stage obviously put them all into focus, too, something that was forbidden before Lestat came and destroyed the old ways. The "walking in the places of light" was one of the things the Children of Darkness accused Lestat of when he encountered them.

I think the comment there is a kind-of-meta comment, of Armand being half in shadow hand half in light. There is a choice here, for light or darkness.

Here, he chooses darkness.

Some things we haven't heard in the episode:

"If the prosecution's evidence convinces you to condemn those HERETICS for the heinous trampling of the vampire laws we will carry out our sentence before your very eyes as only we at the Théâtre des Vampires know how: slowly, inventively, gruesomely."

And then, this lovely stage direction 💀:

"Agency: If and when Claudia or Louis speak, (drive) them together, close their throats, (Santia)go will address it with the audience, as per the below:"

"I don't need to hear from you..."

That part we heard in the trial.

Apart from the stage directions and the part we didn't hear Armand's notes are also interesting once more: "Remember to comment...." and something starting with "Fi"... "Fine" - or "Find their thoughts" (could fit I think). Because this note, even largely unreadable proves once more that Armand was fully in on what they did to Louis and Claudia there. Made sure that the blows... would land.

This one. This one we didn't get to hear! (The part after "Tik Tok")

Santiago reading from her diary: "He soaks in the light from everyone around him, making it all about Lestat. This is most definitely about you and your death."

Light reference again! (See the quote above.)

And (accompanied by Armand's notes to have Santiago hand the diary to the audience):

"I know she was your favorite. I know she was your baby lu. But she had us all fooled. She's the best actor of all of us. She lies so sweetly, doesn't she. But look closer. When the mask falls away, she's a monster."

Oof. When the mask falls away... Pot to kettle.

"I can't hear you." - say it louder.... Lestat.

And then: Lestat's entrance. Being seated in an especially prepared "Bergere en cabriolet".

And here we have another "I can't hear you! Let me f...". It's the counterpart to the blend-over (below), another read from Claudia's diary there, after Lestat talks about loneliness and Louis "abandoning him". (Btw, I don't buy this shift to blame to Louis and Louis "hunting" Lestat for one second, for the record^^. I think that was all very much BS for the trial, in order to make Louis seem guilty to the audience.)

Armand's comment (on Lestat's first lines) makes it seem as if Lestat was less than enthusiastic - or weak. Now, I said before, I think there's quite enough evidence to suggest that the "real trial" might have gone a bit more like in the book, with Lestat mostly out of his mind and his mind meddled with as well (see below).

But the counterpart to the blend-over is actually the most interesting one, imho:

(This is a hard one to see, it's only seen in blend-over and Louis' hand moves across it before the scene fades to Armand scribbling down the note!)

"It This is too early for Lestat to acknowledg[e...]"

This is too early for Lestat to acknowledge. Louis and Claudia, would be my guess. This direction is proof that Armand made directions for Lestat especially as well. It's the only one (we have so far) where he actually writes the name.

Armand knew he could make this direction. And he made it.

Given Lestat and their history this, for me, is proof, that Lestat's mind has been meddled with as well, at times at least. Because there is no way that Lestat would have followed Armand's directions there, imho. Would not have done something, especially in that moment, where they set up the execution.

Yes, Sam is on record saying that Lestat played along with the play itself so he could get into the audience's heads, and therefore make it easier for him to make them shift Louis' sentence to "banishment" (that's where the "additions" come from, in all likelihood), but there, at the point of judgement and the execution being set up he does not look at Claudia (but he does look at her afterwards!), he's staring straight ahead, swaying on his feet.

Taken out of the equation, so to speak.

(That's an extra shot btw, extra shots always carry meaning.)

So.

Quite the script. -.-

Clear stage directions for Santiago, Lestat, and the other coven members should Louis and Claudia try to do something.

Now. I know there have been a lot of posts about Armand "master mind" or "villain" or victim, or what not. And I am glad that Assad has been so very clear on that just recently, though all of it is already given with what the show gave us, imho.

Armand did plan the trial. Did master-mind it. Did pretend. Did direct. Did lie.

He orchestrated their deaths.

And Lestat interfered with Louis' death. At the very least.

And.. Armand continued to betray Louis. For 77 years.

I said it before, I don't quite buy the tower scene, I expect it to get more context, at the very least.

It will be very interesting to see if they return to the trial next season, and in what capacity.

Because all the "hints" are, all the evidence is there already.

[kanjichris]

"why don't you want him to know how much you love him?" "that's a little personal. he knows." "uh-huh."

[inafieldofdaisies]

[cookiecrumbconundrum]

the pariah // "fuck your idols; we make our own fate"

a webweave for an npc from my sci-campaign who never wanted to be saving the universe but she wasn't going to sit around and wait for some bs chosen one

blythe baird, if my body could speak | kim dorland, night swimming | adrienne rich, planetarium | josé saramago, cain | susie benes, from blood, wings | ocean vuong on earth we're briefly gorgeous | susan smith, wych elm | tory adiksson | becca stadtlander | ask polly | richard siren, war of the foxes | esa/hubble & nasa, m. sun, hubble views an active star-forming galaxy | euripides (tr. anne carson), grief lessons: four plays by euripides | fyodor dostoyevsky, the brothers karamazov | @/inkflowergarden, eclipse | anne carson | mira lightner, when i met you | neon genesis evangelion | tennessee williams, notebooks | amy schmidt, abundance | @/astrono71153462 | fadwa tuqan

[lotuslate]

I did @pakhnokh’s challenge from twitter to draw this in your style! Here’s the original !

[raincandyart]

I don't like this one. Oops!

[ID: Saturated art of Maya Fey and Dahlia Hawthorne. Maya Fey looks over at Dahlia with a grin as Dahlia looks down while fake crying. Dahlia says, "How I reclaimed being called a cunt-". Maya cuts her off with, "By being one?". End ID]

[mayziii]

Sonic…. But shadow

[bugfayce]

Outlast trials oc her name is Amelia and i love her dearly (i want to kick her down the stairs)

[moodyseal]

OOH OOH CONCERNED-POLLO?? MANS IS MOTHER™

Y E S

Poor guy's stressed out over everyone's safety 24/7 consciously AND subconsciously