Book Review – Beautiful Creatures by Lulu Taylor

Everyone has heard of the Beaufort twins, but few have ever seen them…

On the eve of their 21st birthday, at one of the most lavish parties society has ever seen, Octavia and Flora Beaufort are launched into the world.

For Octavia, it is one of the most thrilling nights of her life, an evening glittering with the promise of her future. But Flora shrinks from the limelight, fearful of what lies beyond the walls of her over-protective aunt’s house.

As Octavia is swept into a whirlwind of lavish spending and fashionable society, she grasps eagerly at whatever she wants: clothes, houses, men… even a department store. But Flora yearns for security – and when she is rescued from harm by a kind stranger, she seems to have found the love and protection she craves. Prey to all kinds of dangers, the twins soon realise that without each other, they run the risk of losing everything. But is it already too late…?

Beautiful Creatures is like a modern day Fairytale, telling the story of beautiful twin sisters hidden away from society by their wicked aunt until the day they are twenty-one. Opening with a lavish ‘Marie-Antoinette’ themed birthday party where Octavia and Flora Beaufort are introduced to the social elite, Beautiful Creatures is glamorous and dramatic and despite being over six hundred pages is a real page turner and a surprisingly quick read.

As the clock strikes midnight on their birthday, the twins are pushed into the spotlight and their reactions are telling. Octavia shines and thoroughly enjoys the attention; Flora is petrified and tries to shy away from the limelight. And so the scene is set for the rest of the book. The twins come into their inheritance (a seriously huge amount of money) and are free to leave the clutches of their aunt and uncle. They immediately head to London where Octavia persuades Flora to buy a state of the art Chelsea townhouse. While Octavia hits the town in true ‘It Girl’ style, Flora finds it difficult to leave the house and shies away from confrontation of any kind.

Readers of the gossip columns will recognise the hangouts and antics of Octavia’s friends as she falls in with a crowd of girls who are famous for being famous and although the characters are all fictional, reading this book felt like I’d been given an insider view of a very exclusive world. Flora on the other hand keeps to herself and avoids society as much as possible.

Like any fairytale, there are plenty of handsome heroes to tempt Flora and Octavia but also a good helping of wicked villains and both girls have a lot to learn as they meet and fall for powerful men.  This book does need to come with an ‘Adult’ warning; not only are there some seriously sexy scenes, underneath the glitz, some very serious issues are brought to light, including abusive relationships and some readers may find parts of the book hard to stomach.

The book is split into three parts starting in Summer 2008 and moves at a good pace with part two starting two years later as the girls are living apart for the first time. Flora thinks she has found her prince charming and Octavia is leading a jet-set lifestyle, literally mixing business with pleasure as she attends an endless round of parties with her business advisor boyfriend.

I loved the way that Octavia and Flora’s back stories were woven into the plot, particularly the element of mystery surrounding their abandonment by their mother which is not resolved until the end of the book and allowed for a number of twists that I hadn’t predicted. There are also several excellent sub-plots including a running feud between Octavia and Amanda Radcliffe, whose family own a luxury central London department store which Octavia decides she’d like to own.

Lulu Taylor paints a fantastic picture of high society, with six figure shopping sprees, fashion shows, exotic travel and a glamorous and often bitchy crowd of supporting characters, Beautiful Creatures is pure escapism and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have to admit that it’s a while since I read a blockbuster like this so Beautiful Creatures was like a little reading holiday for me and had me gripped from beginning to end.  This is the third book from Lulu Taylor and I’ll definitely be looking to read her others!

5/5

Beautiful Creatures is released on 20th January and I’d like to thank Amelia at Arrow (Random House) for sending me a copy to review.

You can find out more about Lulu Taylor and her books at: http://lulutaylor.co.uk

A version of this review also appears at: www.libripopulus.co.uk