C. E. Wilson (1)

Eleven is a number. It's not a good number, but it's not a bad number either. Eleven is a lie. Eleven is a person. Eleven is Grace. In this Utopian society, everyone is a number from 1 to 20. 20 being a beauty and anything under that, well, you only get a certain few chances to become a beauty. Grace's life now belongs to a family of beauties and if she truly wants to become like them, then she must learn their ways and adhere to their rules. Even if those rules make her life a living hell. Chained and locked in a gilded cage, Grace tries to make of her life what it is. But then she meet's Reese and things begin to take a turn.… (more)

Here is the summary of what the book is about. Two Books in One Volume! (Five Seven Five & Five Seven Six)

White Frost has only ever known the darkness. Everything outside of her closed society is The Unknown - a strange and dangerous place accessible to only a chosen few.

White's only glimpse of the world beyond comes from her beloved cousin in the form of mysterious collections of words that hint at astonishing wonders. When an accident upends her simple existence, she's given an unlikely chance to see the truth for herself.

What she finds is greater and more terrible than she could have imagined, and before long she is forced to make the most important choice of her life: does she accept her safe, limited world that she's known or take a desperate gamble in a world not meant for her with the Boy with Words?

What can I say about this book? I found this book to be intriguing and a little strange. I can't imagine going through life in darkness and being lied to all my life the way White Frost did. This book has some twists and turns and some surprises in it.
I thought the author did a great job writing this book. What an imagination she has? I would recommend this book.… (more)

Once again, C.E. Wilson has amazed me with her beautiful writing, wondrous world-building, and an imaginative story. UNTITLED BEAUTY is certainly much darker than anything she has written so far and while it was a nice short read, I felt that there were some aspects could be more fleshed out.

―3.5 stars―

“Terrified. The girl is only a year or two younger than I am and yet she's terrified of me because of my title. If I had been declared a Beauty on my fifth birthday then Celia and I might have been friends.”

In a world where beauty determines everything, people are given a rating based on how they look. Anyone who is considered a Beauty is allowed to live a normal life, whereas those who are not Beauties are treated like slaves and ranked on a scale of 1 to 20. Achieving a score of 11 or above means that the person is a Potential and has a chance at becoming a Beauty.

UNTITLED BEAUTY draws inspiration from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST but the beauty is no longer trapped by the beast, instead they themselves have enslaved the beast. It follows Eleven's story, a Potential with a score of 11 who was just purchased by a Beauty to serve his daughter's.

Even though the overall story concept is rather original, the events, however, were quite predictable. C.E. Wilson's books seem to follow a common pattern: a forbidden love, two people who initially did not see eye-to-eye with each other but eventually came to realise that they have more in common than they thought, lots of angst, a falling out, one of them moving away (regardless of reason), realisation of how much she misses the guy (bc usually it's written in the girl's POV), guys comes to find her and they live happily ever after. I will continue to read her books, but just to see what new world and story her imagination will cook up next.

Short books are great for reading in one sitting but I really wouldn't mind more details if it meant adding more depth and realism to the characters.

I would love to know more about the history between Eleven and Reese before the events in the book. Of all the slaves he could have chosen, why Reese? What was their history like that made her so special? All we know is that they were once at the same facility when they were younger. I'm not even sure if they interacted a lot then but they had definitely exchanged names and perhaps somewhere along the way developed a crush on each other.

I feel that the relationship between Shawn and his wife should be developed past the very obvious fact that they don't really like each other very much and simply tolerate the other party's existence. Could that be the reason for some of the things he does with Eleven? That maybe his wife isn't everything he envisioned a lover to be? Or is he simply sexually deprived?

Okay but since this is apparently the first book in a series, hopefully we'll get more details in future books.… (more)