Reviews

The Beauties by Lauren Chater

beclupton's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

kestrela's review

3.0

I am not usually a fan of historical fiction, but I enjoyed The Beauties! I liked learning about the 1660s royal family in England and the Netherlands.

There are three parts to the story; one is the story of (real life Royal figure) Anne Hyde, one is Henry the painter’s assistant, and one is Emilia, the one described in the blurb.

Emilia’s story I thought was the least interesting. It definitely felt the least believable and it mostly was not that engaging. Yeah she was grappling with the offer from the king, but mostly she was just living a surprisingly easy and fun life with her famous actress BFF and a handy random woman who had oodles of money to employ them both.

Henry was lovely and I liked reading about painting back in the day and his apprentices.

Anne Hyde’s story was by far my favourite, living in the Princess’s royal court and figuring out life. I think it definitely elevated the book from a fairly superficial and predictable love story to something a bit deeper.

bmichie31's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

4.0

tawa's review against another edition

funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

itsjade_g's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

krista1605's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

4.25

touchingmyshelf's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

I don’t read a lot of historical fiction from this time period but I am so glad I went outside of my comfort zone because I really enjoyed this one! 🤗 As you read this one you flip between three different characters, beauty Emilia who gets noticed by the king after she loses everything, Henry who is assistant to the court painter who has been commissioned to paint a series of portraits of “The Beauties” - beautiful women, and lastly Anne from The Hague who is acting as a ladies maid to the princess 6 years in the past. As we jump between the pov’s, you slowly piece together how all this people were linked and where it was going but it definitely took me a bit to get myself situated and remember who we were reading from. It also took me a bit to notice that Anne’s chapters were being told from the past, 6 years earlier than the other two so watch out for that! I think where I enjoyed this one is that even though this is set well in the past, the feelings these women had and the internal struggles they battled were still so relatable - my heart absolutely ached for the characters and I shared their frustrations. The way Lauren writes 🙌, her descriptions made the book easy to picture and described the characters feelings so vividly. I also dipped into the audiobook for this one and *chefs kiss* very good. Gaahh a beautiful novel! I will be taking this one home for my mum to read asap! 💕