Why a Booktrail?
1900s, 1910: She witnessed a murder – and now her life is in danger . . .
Belle (Belle Trilogy 1)
What you need to know before your trail
Fifteen year-old Belle is raised in a London brothel but she leads a surprisingly sheltered life for she is kept away from the goings on and is naive about it too.However one night her eyes are opened in the most brutal of ways – she witnesses one of the girls strangled by a client. Soon after, those who know what she saw, come after her…
Belle ends up right in the centre of the prostitution world herself and is taken to a secret location before being spirited away to New Orleans. The journey over there is a strange one and she meets some people who she will cross paths with again.
Belle decides to accept her lot in life – for now – and never stops trying to get home. Always thinking, always plotting until the time is right…
Locations
Reset- France - Marseille
- H: Marseille - docks
- France - Paris
- I: Paris - Rue Parrott
- J: Paris - Ritz hotel
- K: Paris - Moulin Rouge
Travel Guide
What a journey! From the streets of London to a journey across the Atlantic in a rough and ready boat to the squalid streets of New Orleans
Seven Dials, London
Belle’s first home – the Seven Dials of London is where the city first started – where the streets where the heart of London could be found. All walks of life in this small space, crowded noisy and full of vice. Belle knows this as home – and is where she discovers the real reality of her world in the city’s underbelly
New Orleans
It’s a place for sun. People come over the weekend, to let their hair down, to dance, gamble find a woman and hear the music. The music is what stays in your head long after you’ve left New Orleans apparently. This is where Belle is set to endure the most difficult part of her journey so far. Taken straight to a brothel, where the top girls get some 30-40 dollars a time, life here is one nightmare after another. Living in the French Quarter and the area known as Storyville after Sidney STory who sponsored the bill to make prostitution legal.
This is by far the most evocative and horrifying location in the story. Life here in the place where the good people of New orleans wanted hidden away.
Marseille
The next stage on Belle’s journey and where the dockside was ‘ even noisier, more crowded and smellier than the one in new orleans.The new city, the new language and the new stage in life proves to be a testing tome for Belle.
Paris
If you thought New Orleans was the home of the good time girls then Paris is even more so. From the crowded streets close to the Gare du Lyon Station where Belle first lives, to the noisy bustling and vibrant streets of Moulin Rouge, perhaps one of the most iconic places for all kinds of entertainment in Belle’s version of Paris. Danger and prostitution lurk everywhere.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: Belle (Belle 1)
Author/ Guide: Lesley Pearse Destination: London, New Orleans, Marseille, Paris Departure Time : 1910 onwards
Twitter: @lesleypearse Web: lesleypearse.com
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