the court of miracles (#1) by Kester Grant

Fifty-fifth book of 2020

Reading period: July 04th 2020 – July 13th 2020

Summary

In the dark days following a failed French Revolution, in the violent jungle of an alternate 1828 Paris, young cat-burglar Eponine (Nina) Thenardier goes head to head with merciless royalty, and the lords of the city’s criminal underworld to save the life of her adopted sister Cosette (Ettie).

Her vow will take her from the city’s dark underbelly, through a dawning revolution, to the very heart of the glittering court of Louis XVII, where she must make an impossible choice between guild, blood, betrayal and war.

Rating

Review

I don’t know what to think of this book. I overall like it, but it has its flaws which sometimes bothered my reading, and make it too long.

I like to read a book with a historical change; here, the French Revolution didn’t happen. I like to see how the author imagines the fate of a country.
I like this Court of Miracles, and how it’s working, it’s a complicate and sometimes cruel place, but also a family for a lot of them.
Moreover, the descriptions of the buildings you come across the novel are so well done that you can easily imagine how they look like, and you see a lot of historical buildings.
There are a lot of characters that I like, especially the ones who are a part of the guilds.

Nevertheless, all those positive points don’t make the flaws disappear.
There is one point which I struggle a lot with which was the relationship between Nina and her guild father. This relation exists, but you don’t see why Nina acts as she worships him as through the whole book, you don’t have enough facts that show that they are proximate.

In the beginning, I didn’t realise that there is a time skip of three years, so I was a little lost as I was reading. I feel that the start of the story was too fast, and I had the same feeling at the end of the story.
I didn’t expect anything from this book, but at the same time, I was a little disconcerted by the end. When I finished the book, I was surprised that this book is part of a series. It looks like more of a stand-alone.

The last thing that bothered me was that I didn’t see the purpose to use the name from Les Misérables, except for Thénardier (I hate him.)

I am not against reading the next book; it’s even the contrary. I want to know more about the big image of the story and where the author will take us in the second book.

Liz.