Review Detail

Belles just flows; it is heart warming and promising - Jen Calonita just kept on giving me more and more, charming me with wonderful memorable characters and amazing scenes!

Isabelle Scott, aka Izzie, is trying to keep her little family together ever since her mother passed away when she was ten. She goes to school, teaches swim classes, takes care of her sick grandmother and all the household chores. She does everything and anything in order to keep her social worker happy so she doesn't have to be placed into foster care... but when Izzie's grandmother's Alzheimer's gets worse, the social worker has no choice but to do what is right and place grandma in a home and reveals that Izzie is going to go live with her long lost Uncle at a nearby town, Emerald Cove.
In one night, Izzie's life is turned upside down. She is taken away from her homely town on the boardwalk and thrust into a gated community, private school, thousand dollar dresses and 'mean girls'.
But Izzie is so well grounded, she knows how to handle herself and does it so well.

Izzie's cousin, Mirabelle, was a bit hard to like in the beginning. As a true southern belle, Mira put on her smile and did her best to just go through the niceties in welcoming Izzie. And of course, we all saw through that. But as the story went along, we see changes in Mira, and hope for the best.

More drama and secrets unfold - you couldn't ask for more!

I really enjoyed how Calonita would smoothly alternate between Izzie and Mira's thoughts. I got to see and hear both sides of their stories. I also love and appreciate how Calonita ended the book. Pure perfection and I cannot wait to read Belles sequel, Winter White, being released on October 9th, 2012.