Belle Révolte is a book about girls changing the world, following their dreams, and fighting a system of exploitation. It’s a book full of hope, sacrifice, and power.
Summary
Emilie des Marais is more at home holding scalpels than embroidery needles and is desperate to escape her noble roots to serve her country as a physician. But society dictates a noble lady cannot perform such gruesome work.
Annette Boucher, overlooked and overworked by her family, wants more from life than her humble beginnings and is desperate to be trained in magic. So when a strange noble girl offers Annette the chance of a lifetime, she accepts.
Emilie and Annette swap lives—Annette attends finishing school as a noble lady to be trained in the ways of divination, while Emilie enrolls to be a physician’s assistant, using her natural magical talent to save lives.
But when their nation instigates a frivolous war, Emilie and Annette must work together to help the rebellion end a war that is based on lies.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from Netgalley. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
TW: The book does feature sibling deaths (on and off the page), executions (beheading), references to child neglect and abuse, and discussions of drowning…The book also contains violence; murder; gore; and medical neglect, abuse, and violence.
From Linsey Miller’s Goodreads Post
Belle Révolte is a book about ambition. The ways society wants to limit what we can do because of our gender or economic status. It features Annette, a biromantic ace spectrum magical MC, a talented girl who yearns to be seen. It’s a dual POV book which also features Emilie a girl rebelling against the conventions of what her class and family expect of her. She’s driven and wants to use her magic to be a physician. In a world that doesn’t expect much from either Emilie or Annette, their ambitions and heart will end up changing more than just their world.
I have a soft spot for girls who live in a society that doesn’t expect anything of them. They are the ones who shine despite blankets of darkness and disbelief. The limitations of being a woman, what we are worth to the world, family, to our future. Escaping gilded cages of society and decorum. I loved Annette and Emilie. Annette for the ways she is driven by what is right, even when she’s in a precarious position in a castles of her dreams. Emilie for her commitment to science combined with her compassion for people.
Overall,
The world building in Belle Révolte is stunning. It’s a world of lies, exploitation, and rebellion. There is magic that twists our wildest dreams and channels power that defies expectations. The politics in Belle Révolte demand to be heard. No one has known their hunger and desperation to be seen. It’s a mission of not only justice, but the rising up of a group of people who refuse to be used. Belle Révolte examines the responsibility and limitations of power.
Find Belle Révolte on Goodreads, Amazon, Indiebound & The Book Depository.