Where Beauty Lies by Elle and Blair Fowler (Review)

If you liked the LA Candy series by Lauren Conrad then you will love Elle and Blair Fowler’s newest book Where Beauty Lies. And if that is the case, just skip this review, because its not going to be a very positive one. While some people have the ability change media platforms smoothly and with talent, these two YouTube beauty gurus do not have the ability to write a good story.

Two things are needed to create a good novel, writing ability and a creative and interesting story. Neither happened in this book. Where Beauty Lies is the second novel written by Elle and Blair and follows the story of the London Sisters. Many similarities can be drawn from things that happened in the Fowler sisters own lives, and in the London sisters. One of the things I was really bothered by in this novel was that it picked up months after the first, and the first left off on a cliffhanger. Rather than spending the time writing what could have been a great novel about the London sisters being arrested, proven innocent, and the people who tried to frame them and their friends, they brushed it aside, giving it only a few lines to get on with something else.

Skipping the months between the novels puts Ava and Sophia London in New York where they are designing a new fashion line for Fashion Week. Of course craziness ensues, Sophia’s boyfriend Hunter becomes overly possessive and paranoid, Ava and Dalton go back and forth on whether they should be together or break up, and to top it off someone on the London Fashion Team has been leaking the designs making it look like the London sister’s are stealing from other, better known fashion designers.

So far, this to me could have the potential to be a good THIRD novel (I am still annoyed that we didn’t get a novel chronicling all the stuff that happened in-between), now the writing isn’t very good, but the potential for a good story was their… until the last third of the book. To me it felt like Elle and Blaire were just trying to end the novel and do it fast. If you don’t want to know how it ends stop reading this review, because I am giving away the cheesy and annoying envy.

As it turns out, Hunter is the one who has been behind everything bad the London sisters have been through. Going back to the first book he helped steal the money from the animal shelter. In Where Beauty Lies, Hunter is responsible for kidnapping Ava and Sophia’s pets, leaking their designs, setting fire to a house that the London sisters were planning on using, and countless other troubles the sisters have faced. He claims that he did it all to help Sophia because he loves her, but really? It just seems crazy and stupid. To top it off, the man who swoops in to take Hunter down is a man that Sophia had feelings for from the first book, who of course it turns out, is now a rich Count.

The whole novel just seemed overly cheesy, like one of those 3pm midweek after school special from the mid 90s. The writing wasn’t good, and the story’s ending frustrated me to no end. I think that Elle and Blair should stick to their YouTube videos and makeup lines, it is something they are good at, writing novels should be laid to rest.

Austere Academy (Series of Unfortunate Evens #5)

I think that the Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket might be one of my favorite in the series. This is the first book where the Bauldelaires meet the Quagmire triplets, and their story arch is one of the best in the series. 

The book begins with Violet, Klaus, and Sunny beginning boarding school at Prufrock Preparatory School where the motto is "Memento Mori," latin for "Remember You Will Die." Not a pleasant motto for a school. The children meet their new Vice Principal Nero, a ghastly man who insists on playing the violin for hours despite having no talent for it. He forces the orphans to sleep in a shack with crabs that pinch their feet, fungus that drips from the ceiling, and ugly pink and green wallpaper. Classes involve listening to stories about milk and measuring frying pans and pencils, plus there is no weekend. School goes for all seven days, and concludes with a violin concert that every student is forced to sit through. 

Carmelita Spats is also introduced for the first time in this novel (her role becomes much greater in future books). She is mean, rude, and insists on making fun of the orphans for losing their parents and constantly calls them cakesniffers. Despite Carmelita, the horrid housing, and the violin concerts the Baudelaire children have one silver lining, they meet and befriend the Quagmire triplets.

As it turns out, the Quagmire's have inherited a large fortune when they  lost their parents in a horrible fire, just as the Baudelaires did. Only the Quagmires also lost their brother, leaving only Duncan and Isadora. 

The Baudelaire children should know better to be hopeful in any situation. Within days, Count Olaf was at Prufrock Preparatory School disguised as the new gym teacher, forcing the orphans to participate in his S.O.R.E. program in the hopes that Vice Principal Nero would let him home school the children and become their guardian. 

With the help of the Quagmire triplets, the Baudelaires are able to defeat Count Olaf... But at a price. Two if Count Olaf's associates, the white faced women, kidnap the Quagmires. While speeding away, Duncan yells out, "The V. F. D.  You need to know about VFD!" 

This concluded the book, leaving the Baudelaires again with no home, but now with a purpose. To not only find out what VFD means, but more importantly to save their friends. This novel starts the connection between books. Before, they were all individual novels, tied together by Olaf chasing the children, but now things start to get more in depth. Characters reappear, and ideas and the VFD become important in the children's lives.