She's All That – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: Bellegarde

Author: Jamie Lilac

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 320

Publication Date: 7/11/23

Publisher: Harperteen

Categories: Young Adult, Romance, Coming of Age, Retelling, Historical Fiction

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

Thank you to Harperteen for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Ooh la la! A historical rom-com with a modern twist — perfect for fans of Bridgerton, A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, and She’s All That.

Evie Clement has perfected the art of avoiding attention as she works at her family’s bakery and dreams of a life where she can trade dusting flour for designing dresses. Her focus is on honing her sewing skills–she doesn’t need to be fawned over by some teenage boy.

Least of all Beau Bellegarde–the playboy of Paris, the second son of the ultra-wealthy Bellegarde family, the most popular guy in their prestigious high school. Others may swoon over his rakish charm and winning smile, but not Evie.

Unfortunately for Evie, Beau needs her. His conniving step-brother has roped him into an impossible bet: turn the biggest wallflower they know into the winning Bellegarde Bloom at the annual Court of Flowers Ball, or lose his entire fortune.

Evie can’t understand why Beau has taken an interest in her, but she can’t help but be intrigued…

Can love bloom in the most unexpected of places?

“The She’s All That historical romance retelling of my dreams! When I wasn’t savoring the lush, descriptive prose, I was eagerly devouring the smart, perfectly paced, heart-pounding romance. There’s no doubt about it: Jamie Lilac makes a sparkling debut. — Brian Kennedy, author of A Little Bit Country

Content Warning:

I was obsessed with She’s All That when it came out in 1999 so when I saw this was a retelling, I had to request it! I think the story did a great job with retelling She’s All That and I like that Evie is a promising fashion designer, sort of like how Laney Boogs was an artist in the movie. It was fun reading the book, but because I know the movie so well there weren’t too many surprises for me in Bellegarde.

I thought Evie and Josephine were fun characters. The best friends had each other’s backs and seem to have lots of fun together. Beau was just okay – he was definitely a carbon copy of Zack from She’s All That but I didn’t feel anything for him. I kind of wanted Evie to end up with the duke!

As for the setting – I like that it takes a historical fiction approach with it being in Paris, France and the popular kids have titles and wealth. In my imagination I could imagine some opulent scenes if they were ever to make this story into a movie on Netflix. t would be cool to see Evie’s fashion creations come to life. The only thing that was a little bit jarring for me was that the characters spoke in modern speech and it took me out of the story a bit. I thought overall the story was cute and I think it will appeal to younger readers.

Why you should read it:

retelling of She’s All That
teenage drama and romance

Why you might not want to read it:

it’s historical fiction with modern speech

My Thoughts:

I found it fun seeing how the story compared to the movie and it pretty much follows the whole thing minus a few changes here and there. For me it was just okay, but I think this will definitely will appeal to younger readers.