Review: Bellegarde by Jamie Lilac*

*I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.

Title: Bellegarde
Author: Jamie Lilac
Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction

Trigger warnings:  Death Of A Parent, Bullying, Classism

Rating: ★★ 

 Evie Clement has perfected the art of avoiding attention as she works at her family's bakery and dreams of a life where she can trade dusting flour for designing dresses. Her focus is on honing her sewing skills - she doesn't need to be fawned over by some teenage boy.

Least of all Beau Bellegarde - the playboy of Paris, the second son of the ultra-wealthy Bellegarde family, the most popular guy in their prestigious high school. Others may swoon over his rakish charm and winning smile, but not Evie.

Unfortunately for Evie, Beau needs her. His conniving step-brother has roped him into an impossible bet: turn the biggest wallflower they know into the winning Bellegarde Bloom at the annual Court of Flowers Ball, or lose his entire fortune.

Evie can't understand why Beau has taken an interest in her, but she can't help but be intrigued. As she befriends Beau, entering a world of high-status parties, she has to ask herself one question... why?

 

Bellegarde is the debut novel from YA author Jamie Lilac. A historical retelling of the classic 90s romcom movie She’s All That (which is in itself a retelling of Pygmalion, the play which was adapted into the musical My Fair Lady), our story swaps 20^th century America for the ballrooms of 18^th century France.

I want to preface this review by saying that although my thoughts are not overly positive at all, I do recognise that I perhaps was not the intended audience of the book. Bellegarde is perfect for the reader who wants a historic twist on a cheesy 90s romcom but isn’t too fussed about historical accuracy or authenticity. Personally, these are things that I need from a historical fiction novel and my review does reflect this, but I can still see this being an enjoyable read for other readers and especially a teenage audience.

To start with the things the book does well, both of our protagonists were well written. The story is told through a largely dual POV narrative, sharing the perspectives of both Evie and Beau (with occasional input from one of our antagonists Rachelle) and this did help us to connect with both characters. Evie was a headstrong female main character with admiral drive and passion, something I think would be inspiring to a teenage reader. Beau was an incredibly charming male main character and love interest for Evie who, again, I’m sure teenage readers will love. There is a wide range of supporting characters (although admittedly some are written with more depth to them than others and some are completely pointless inclusions altogether) and I was particularly drawn to Evie’s friends who live on the houseboat. I think they were really interesting characters who could make for fantastic protagonists in another story should Jamie Lilac choose to make this a series. I did also really warm to Jo and Mia as characters and exploring their relationship as a same-sex couple in 18^th century France could provide an alternative pathway for a sequel.

My primary criticism of this book is that it felt like for most of the book the narrative simply forgot it was supposed to be set in the 18^th century and mistook itself for a contemporary fiction novel set in a modern-day American high school. We did have occasional references to Marie Antoinette (if you know your French history enough to pick up on them) but that was largely it. The use of repeated unintentional anachronisms, unfortunately left the book feeling like a poorly-executed attempt to jump on the bandwagon of period dramas such as Bridgerton. This was particularly surrounding the language choices made by the characters but also a significant number of the events read as contemporary fiction too. The fashion also was not completely authentic to the time period either, which was a significant flaw in the story given how much of the narrative focused on Evie’s passion for fashion design. Whilst her designs are meant to be ahead of their time, the use of things like zips meant that they felt more like 21^st century fashion than styles you’d expect from 18^th century France.

The whole idea of a group of young men choosing a girl to make the subject of their bet like they were shopping for meat at a livestock market was sickeningly misogynistic. Whilst I do understand that the blame for this largely lies with the source material the story is based on, it did feel like the book made no attempt to adapt this aspect of the story for a more feminist 21^st century audience, which was disappointing.

I did also find that I wasn’t rooting for Evie and Beau’s relationship, which is a shame as I think that is a pretty crucial thing to need from a romance story. She had far more chemistry with the Duke character and their relationship had far more to it than the one which was the focus of the story unfortunately.

Overall, I was regrettably really disappointed with this novel. As I’ve said, younger readers or anyone who wants a cheesy rom-com story without minding about historical authenticity and accuracy might like this book but it just wasn’t for me.