My heart could hardly take the torment of Belle's life. However, as Belle grows and learns, so does the reader. Belle is understandably a damaged soul; her first moments of life were filled with a mother who neglected her, then flat out wished she never existed. From then on, she had one hardship after another, from finding and losing her only best friend, to losing children she fosters and loves. Belle seems to take everything in stride, until one moment causes all those previous heartaches to culminate into tragedy. The novel begins with Belle reuniting with her best friend Jim, and him proposing to her. These two have undeniable electricity and chemistry. They love each other, faults and all. They make each other better people, build each other up, and heal the broken pieces. I love their love story, as cheesy as that may sound. Tess is another beautiful character, large and full of life and love to give these fragile children she fosters. She takes this broken Belle and mends her heart. She gives her a home, a family, a mother to love. She is funny, kind, and ready at the drop of a hat to soothe with a box of chocolates, cookies and tea. She might just have been my favourite character. With all the hardships and heartache that Belle faces in her life, you can feel the push to be away from the pain, to escape her life, to give her loved ones a life without her. While it may seem selfish, years of her mother's hate and contempt have invaded her heart and mind. This makes Belle believe that her grief, loss and pain are her own fault, instead of just sad circumstances of everyday life. Belle and Jim are champions of goodness. Taking in foster children, creating a youth centre, helping out in their community. Belle's reach is so great, it would affect so many people if she simply "poof" was gone. A wonderful lesson on the impact we all make, whether we realize it or not. We must remember, even in our darkest moments, that there may be someone out there that needs us, our love, our generosity. We are all connected, all important, and we must learn to accept our grief, loss and pain and slowly begin to heal with love. We are the masters of our own fate. Why did I not give it a full 5 stars? Due to a few inconsistencies that pulled me right out of the novel. One example, Jim has two brothers and one sister; however, Belle tells Jim, in the world without her, that he has one brother and one sister in her world. I am anal that way, and need the book to be consistent with the information that I am being given about a character (editing should have caught this error). Postscript: let's talk about the cover below for a moment (nothing to do with book itself or my rating); I like it, it is beautiful, but who the heck is the woman on the front of it and how does it pertain to the book? Belle is a caramel skinned, dark haired woman; why not feature her on the cover? I mean, the book even talks about how the colour of Belle's skin effects her life, with her feeling like an outsider, different, that her mother did not want her because of this...and then the cover of the book features a white woman. I am confused...did the person who made the cover not know anything about the book? There is another cover (maybe the U.K. version?) which seems to accurately portray Belle on it, on the Ha'Penny...plus it is a cute illustration (think I missed out on not getting that one). Maybe this is being tedious, but I like when covers tie in with the book.
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