Belle Révolte

by Linsey Miller

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

2.5*

So. I will start out fully honestly and tell you that I almost DNFed this one at numerous turns. The beginning just seemed so very dull and unrealistic. I mean, there's really no explanation why either of these complete strangers would want to, let alone be able to, fully trust the other woman with her literal life. Look, if some rando comes up to me and wants to life-swap... fine, I'll be tempted but ultimately my mom taught me about Stranger Danger, so. And we jump right into the switcheroo, like it's business as usual. It was hard for me to suspend disbelief is what I am telling you here.

The characters seemed a little too similar to me at first, too. They just didn't start the book particularly fleshed out, and they were pretending to be each other, and there were so many other people around, I just got kind of overwhelmed. And the pacing just felt super draggy, I must say. At least for the first half. Then, things pick up, and since I am already half way in, I just keep going because I am determined to a fault, apparently. And it did get better! I started to actually care about the characters, enough that I did want to finish the book. The problem here is, I can't really tell you much of what I liked because it's all at the end and those are spoilers. But the pacing does pick up, and the characters definitely develop more over the course of the book.

Also! It's a standalone, so you're not invested forever. The concept of the doctors is pretty cool (and dark, but that's always fun) and again, I can't say more, but that was a plot point that I really enjoyed. I also liked a lot of the camaraderie each woman eventually found in her respective place. Again, vague on purpose. This is hard, let's stop.

Bottom Line: It started so slow and unbelievable, but did eventually get to the point where I cared about the characters and what happened to them, so. It's hard to give a definitive bottom line, kind of depends on whether you want to invest in the "meh" beginning.