Description: With a price on her head, the evil Queen Sophia out for blood, and no idea who to trust, Camellia Beaureguard, the former favorite Belle, must race against time to find the ailing Princess Charlotte, who has disappeared without a trace. Sophia's imperial forces will stop at nothing to keep Camille, her sister Edel, and her loyal guard, Remy, from returning Charlotte to the palace 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 attempt to restore peace to Orleans. But enemies lurk in the most unexpected places, forcing Camille to decide just how much she's willing to sacrifice to save her people.

Review: I really enjoyed reading Dhonielle Clayton’s well crafted fantasy The Belles and eagerly anticipated for the sequel especially after the explosive events left me dangling from a cliffhanger.  Given the unknown status of this series (is it a duology? trilogy?) I have mixed feelings about The Everlasting Rose though I mostly enjoyed it.
 The Everlasting Rose picks up immediately where The Belles has ended. Camille’s innocence has been stripped away and she has become awakened to the exploitation of her Belle sisters. She is driven to liberating her sisters, finding the missing Princess Charlotte, and dethroning Sophia in Orléans. Of course large obstacles stand in Camille's way as Sophia's imperial forces are hunting her,  and her handsome guard Rémy. When Camille learns Sophia is constructing a prison to enslave Belles and chain them to the ugly demands of the kingdom, the stakes spike higher than ever and reinforces Camille's determination to restore Princess Charlotte to the throne before Sophia is crowned queen.
 The Everlasting Rose gives the reader a broader view of Orléans, a world that is a kaleidoscope of beauty, ugliness, whimsical and terrifying all at once. Under the guise of attaining beauty, the reader is exposed to the darker, underlying structures of enslaved magical labor and implicit violence, and the dehumanizing attitudes Sophia emboldens throughout the kingdom endanger Belles everywhere. Although Camille is our heroine, she too is not free from Orléans' taint as she must navigate various alliances such as the new revolutionary group called the Iron Ladies who resist all beauty treatment. 
   My main problem with The Everlasting Rose is that it feels like a middle book. The pacing is inconsistent where the action slowly builds and then everything feels rushed to the end. The Iron Ladies intrigued me and I wished they had more page time to develop in the book. With these issues in mind, I am really hoping for another book in this series as I still have many questions that remain unsolved. Overall this series poignantly uses a harrowing, fantastical tale to illuminate the very real horrors of unattainable beauty standards and the enslavement of marginalized bodies. Don't let my rating for this book deter you from picking this series up. It is well worth the read.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Words of Caution: There is some strong violence that take place mostly off page and disturbing images. Recommended for Grades 9 and up.


If you like this book try: Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, North of Beautiful by Justina Ireland, The Fold by An Na, Such a Pretty Face edited by Ann Angel