The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant
Book: The Court of Miracles
Author: Kester Grant
Rating: 7.5/10
Would I reread it: Yes!
I received an eARC of this book on NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Court of Miracles has been hyped so much that It had a lot to live up to. For the most part it did.
This is a debut by the author so I do give it a little leeway for that and round my rating up to a 4.
The story very closely resembles Les Miserables as it is a retelling, however now there is a criminal underworld which is very interesting. I also can’t recall if there is still the French nobility in that story but they are in this one, so an alternative history which is always fun.
The writing was good for the most part, the eARC definitely needs some editing which I assume will be done in the finished copies. However the style was a little choppy sometimes, especially around the time jumps that occur. We start when the main character is only nine or so, jump a few years for a chapter or two, jump again for the meat of the story, and jump two years again for the conclusion. It just wasn’t as smooth as I’d hope for and I’m not going to lie, I got a little confused and had to go back to the page where it says what year it was and make the connection that way.
The characters themselves were really interesting though a little flat. This follows Eponine aka Nina aka Black Cat of the Thieves Guild instead of Jean Val Jean though we do mean him.
One of my main disappointments in this book was the lack of seeing the inner workings of the Court of Miracles. We really don’t see much of this criminal underworld at all. I’m hoping we do in the sequel because it sounds like it would be really cool, please show it to me!
We do follow more of the revolutionary storyline that is in Les Mis and how Nina works with them to follow through on her main goal: to take down the guild leader of a rival guild in the Court of Miracles.
One of the twists at the end was so blunt and I didn’t see it coming, I do think there should have been some clues but perhaps I missed them? It just didn’t feel quite right and then a character ended up where I didn’t think they were with no explanation so I was slightly confused about that too. It all worked together in the end and the big “battle” was quite satisfying. I still have a really good image from it burned into my brain as it would make a creepily beautiful scene in a movie.
I will be keeping my preorder of the Waterstones edition of this book (what a beautiful cover and naked cover!) as the US version is not nearly as gorgeous. I hope the sequel follows through and gives me more of that criminal underworld I’m hoping for, it sure seems like it is being set up for it.
Author: Kester Grant
Rating: 7.5/10
Would I reread it: Yes!
I received an eARC of this book on NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Court of Miracles has been hyped so much that It had a lot to live up to. For the most part it did.
This is a debut by the author so I do give it a little leeway for that and round my rating up to a 4.
The story very closely resembles Les Miserables as it is a retelling, however now there is a criminal underworld which is very interesting. I also can’t recall if there is still the French nobility in that story but they are in this one, so an alternative history which is always fun.
The writing was good for the most part, the eARC definitely needs some editing which I assume will be done in the finished copies. However the style was a little choppy sometimes, especially around the time jumps that occur. We start when the main character is only nine or so, jump a few years for a chapter or two, jump again for the meat of the story, and jump two years again for the conclusion. It just wasn’t as smooth as I’d hope for and I’m not going to lie, I got a little confused and had to go back to the page where it says what year it was and make the connection that way.
The characters themselves were really interesting though a little flat. This follows Eponine aka Nina aka Black Cat of the Thieves Guild instead of Jean Val Jean though we do mean him.
One of my main disappointments in this book was the lack of seeing the inner workings of the Court of Miracles. We really don’t see much of this criminal underworld at all. I’m hoping we do in the sequel because it sounds like it would be really cool, please show it to me!
We do follow more of the revolutionary storyline that is in Les Mis and how Nina works with them to follow through on her main goal: to take down the guild leader of a rival guild in the Court of Miracles.
One of the twists at the end was so blunt and I didn’t see it coming, I do think there should have been some clues but perhaps I missed them? It just didn’t feel quite right and then a character ended up where I didn’t think they were with no explanation so I was slightly confused about that too. It all worked together in the end and the big “battle” was quite satisfying. I still have a really good image from it burned into my brain as it would make a creepily beautiful scene in a movie.
I will be keeping my preorder of the Waterstones edition of this book (what a beautiful cover and naked cover!) as the US version is not nearly as gorgeous. I hope the sequel follows through and gives me more of that criminal underworld I’m hoping for, it sure seems like it is being set up for it.
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