The Belles

When I was in my twenties, I had a conversation with one of my girlfriends and she was complaining about how men didn't appreciate the pain and money that women spent trying to be beautiful. We discussed perms, hair dyes, dieting, and shoes that hurt your feet.

In the country of Orléans, beauty is a commodity that is purchased at a high price - both financially and with physical pain. The people of Orléans are born with gray skin, red eyes, and hair that looks like straw. Only the Belles who are not born with these features can transform them into beautiful people. 

The Belles transform the people in the kingdom by giving them color and beauty. They can give a person muscular definition or a smaller waist. They can even change a person’s manner or personality by making a person more charming or less stubborn. People pay huge amounts to Belles for beautiful transformations and drink cups of Belle tea to deaden the pain that they feel during transformations. 

It's not long before Camellia starts to wonder if beauty comes at a price - even for the Belles. Why are there official and unofficial Belles? Why do the Belles who have been at court wear long veils? 

Still Camellia is thrilled to be the favorite Belle at the royal court, that is, until she discovers Princess Sophia’s dark side. Princess Sophia is obsessed with being the most beautiful princess in the kingdom. The princess is cruel and capricious. Princess Sophia even asks Camellia to give a courtier a pig’s nose! The Queen has asked Princess Sophia to heal Princess Charlotte so that Princess Sophia will never be queen. But healing Princess Charlotte may kill Camellia. Will she try to heal Princess Charlotte and help out the kingdom even though it may mean her own death? Is trying to heal Princess Charlotte the only way Camellia can keep the other Belles, her sisters, safe?