Reviews

The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant

lilmonkey30's review

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I cannot wait to pick up book two. The Court of Miracles has quickly placed itself as my second book in my top five this year!

aprilreads_andwanders's review against another edition

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4.0

3.5 Stars
Synopsis: In the violent urban jungle of an alternate 1828 Paris, the French Revolution has failed and the city is divided between merciless royalty and nine underworld criminal guilds, known as the Court of Miracles. Eponine (Nina) Thénardier is a talented cat burglar and member of the Thieves Guild. Nina's life is midnight robberies, avoiding her father's fists, and watching over her naïve adopted sister, Cosette (Ettie). When Ettie attracts the eye of the Tiger--the ruthless lord of the Guild of Flesh--Nina is caught in a desperate race to keep the younger girl safe. Her vow takes her from the city's dark underbelly to the glittering court of Louis XVII. And it also forces Nina to make a terrible choice--protect Ettie and set off a brutal war between the guilds, or forever lose her sister to the Tiger.

I enjoyed this! It was fast paced (maybe to a fault?) and I was immersed in the criminal underbelly of this alternate French world in no time. I guess my theme here for this review is I really enjoyed it; I just wanted a little more (not scope necessarily but depth)

This is how it started;
with a sister weeping in her bed;
a child so terrified she sold herself to a thief;
a girl so lovely, the world went to war to possess her”


One of my favorite aspects was the gritty alternate Parisian world where twelve guilds rule the criminal underworld. I am a complete sucker for a well developed, imaginative, intricate world and this definitely has the makings and promise for that. We get pretty well acquainted with a few of the guilds, but (and here comes my theme) I wanted more. I want to know more about their history, their sacred beliefs and traditions, which guilds are allies and which guilds clash and why. I want to know ALL the things. Speaking of the world I really hope there is a map in the finished copy and some kind of family tree for each guild would be AH MAZING

There is a well rounded cast of characters and I loved Nina's character and development. From a scared little half pint to the clever, badass, most lethal weapon of the Thieves Guild. I'm definitely intrigued by so many other characters (St. Juste, Grantaire (hilarious!), Monteparnasse to name a few) but I don't feel like I really got to know them. I love it when you have a cast of characters and each of them are developed enough to stand on their own. Where you feel like you know them, their history, what motivates them, their traumas, their quirks. And I think we had the start of that...just needed more.

I did enjoy the writing and the storytelling. The quotes from the Jungle Book and the added folk tales of the mice and cats added a nice little spin. My main complaint here is that it seemed a little jumpy. There were a lot of place and time transitions that made some of the writing feel kind of clunky. I think that things could have actually slowed down a bit and then maybe I could have had my details...my "more" and the pacing really wouldn't have suffered for it.

This is solid a first installment and I will for sure pick up the next book. I want to see where this goes and I want to meet those other guilds!

I received an advanced copy of this title from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not effect my opinions of the book in any way. Thank you Knopf Books for Young Readers and Netgalley for the review copy!

darkskybooks's review against another edition

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4.0

The French Revolution is providing some fertile ground for fantasy literature at the moment - we already had Kat Dunn's excellent Dangerous Remedy, and now we get The Court of Miracles.

The Court of Miracles is essentially a retelling of Les Miserables from the perspective of Eponine (Nina) and the criminal underworld. What follows is a swashbucklingly fun tale of how Nina rises in the Court of Miracles (the criminal council that runs the underworld). Nina is a great heroine figure - adaptable and skilled.

The main thing to say about this story is that it is simply fun. It uses characters that we are familiar with from the classic telling of Les Mis and fleshes out their stories providing interesting twists on plot elements we already know. All the favourites from that story are here from Gavroche to Thernadier to Javert to St Juste. It removes a lot of the dour setting of the original and replaces it with a more exciting adventure stylings. What fantasy there is here is very much of the low variety lending a realism to the story as well.

Whilst this is nothing revolutionary in a literary sense, it is a fun retelling of a revolution.

sophs_mood_reading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Alternate revolutionary France where the revolution has failed and the underworld criminals of the city of the wretched have formed guilds as part of the Court of Miracles. 

Nina (Eponine) the guild of thieves cat burglar has already lost her sister to the guild of the flesh & is now trying to save Ettie (Cosette) from the same fate. 

To do so she must enter in to bargains with other lords of the guilds but to what cost. 

This is a brilliant alternate retelling of Les Miserables meets Six of Crows, that I could not get enough. Familiar characters wound into a non-stop adventure of mystery and corruption with a touch of desire. 

Trigger warnings a plenty as there is no shortage of dark themes so check these before reading. 

Read if you like
Historic Fiction
Magical/fantasy realism
Found family
Alternate realities 

ziyal's review against another edition

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2.0

I received an arc of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
My reaction to this book is a mixed reaction. One the one hand I found this to be an interesting book with an interesting dynamic. My favorite part would probably be the court dynamics and the court hierarchies. I just found that to be a very interesting element and I enjoyed learning about how each court was set up and just how the court system worked in general, I do wish we got to hear more about the Sisters because they seemed like a very strong court.
The politics of the royalty vs the commoners was intriguing and the only part about that that I did not like was that it seemed to the Les Mis aspect. The whole ball scene and the revenge on the royals was a masterpiece. Also I did not like the royal family when they were talking about how the peasants wronged them when they are the ones who started killing and I really wished Nina confronted the dauphin with all the deaths of the commoners when he was talking about the funeral professions for the nobility.
I also found our main character, Nina, to be an interesting character. She knew what she wants and she goes for it and I really appreciated her protector status that she developed. I also found her dilemma over whether or not she should trade Ettie for her sister was interesting. I loved that internal conflict and all the bits and pieces that went with it. I thought the Nina’s internal conflict of trying to justify selling Ettie to get her sister back was very intriguing and I think it added a lot to the beginning of the story. I do agree with her decision in the end and I think the path she choose says a lot about her character.
Now for a couple of the things I didn’t like. I didn’t like the fast pace. Usually I like my books to have substance and have action, but there just seemed to be action after action after action. I just felt as none of the big action scenes got the time they should’ve or deserved. For example when Nina broke into the prison. She talks of how hard it would be and how no one can do it, but yet she seemed to accomplish it pretty easily. Also there would be pretty major time skips with no warning attached. It seemed that when Ettie was kidnapped the next chapter jumped two years and there was no warning and no time stamps to indicate how much time had passed.
Nina’s development bothered me. We did not watch her grow at all and it seemed she was a master thief to begin with and I don’t think we saw her really be challenged by anything and that was disappointing. We did not see her plan anything and it seemed everything was done on the fly or planned off screen and it would have been really cool to see Nina’s thought process and her working things out. Because the whole deal with Ettie kidnapping kind of confused me. There was also no failure, no learning and since there was no failure and no learning there seemed to be very little character development. And because of the fast pace and that we never saw planning the ending didn’t really feel like the ending and there seemed to be a few points during the last few chapters that could have been better.
I did not like the romance aspect either. This was not just a simple love triangle because there were like three different guys that Nina all seemed to like and was seeming to be pushed towards. Probably my least favorite thing in regards to the romance was that when Nina first met the Dauphin she broke into his room and when he woke up she kissed him to distract him. Listen I don’t care that she was a girl and that she was trying to avoid to arrest, but it is 2020 it is time we stopped having non-consensual kissing in books between characters who don’t know each other because let’s be honest if Nina was a guy and the dauphin had been a girl that scene would have caused a lot of outraged. It was still wrong for Nina to do that.
The final thing I’m going to discuss is Nina’s relationship with her sister Azelma. It seemed at some points she was planning on rescuing her sister, other times she had given up on her sister, and then other times where she was thinking of revenge and not rescue. It kind of confused me, because we kept going back and forth on was Azelma alive and ready to be rescued. I just wished the Nina’s thought surrounding her sister stayed consistent, because I did not like being in a constant guessing game over whether the plan was to rescue Azelma or had Nina just given up on her. With that being said the found family aspect was strong and I did think that Ettie’s relationships with the ghosts was cute.
I was not pleased with the book and I do think there were a lot of things that could have be written or explained better.

bibliophilebookclub's review against another edition

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2.0

I had seen lots of hype about The Court of Miracles, so I was definitely interested to see what it was like.

What I did not realize (partly because I tend to avoid blurbs etc) is that it’s a retelling of Les Mis.

I will put my hand up here right now and say I am *not* a fan of Les Misèrables. At all.

So therein lies the problem with this one for me. I couldn’t engage with the characters, and didn’t feel invested in the outcomes for any of them either.

And while The Court of Miracles is not a bad book, it just wasn’t for me.

prested's review against another edition

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4.0

After the French Revolution failed, the underworld of Paris is divided into 9 guild and all are trying to keep their heads down and earn a profit.
Eponine Thenardier's father has been teaching her his trade from an early age but after he attempts to sell her into prostitution, she joins the Guild of Thieves using the skills he taught her to make her way in the world.
Yet Eponine can't forget her older sister who was sold into prostitution to protect her and is willing to do anything to find and save her.
--------------------------------
This book was so much fun to read!
I was shocked because historical fiction isn't really my thing but this was more historical fantasy which is my jam. I'm going to try and get that illumicrate edition of.

This book is a bad Les Misérables retelling, which is why so many people had issues with it because it bastardizes it a lot but I enjoyed a good au so I was having fun.

I love Nina so much! Her character development was well done and I enjoyed her POV so much.
The side characters were enjoyable though it was a little weird that all the male characters around her age was into Nina.

It was interesting how Grant portrayed the Les Mis cast. Javert was a woman and had a relationship with Valjean. But I don't get why she didn't keep him as a man? It would've been interesting if they were gay. (But you could argue that Javert motivations for chasing him was because she thought he ruined her)

The only genuine issue I had with this book was the pacing/time.

There was a couple time skips that happened and it wasn't always clear. I don't know the age of Nina and all I know is that she was young in the beginning and got older by the end of it.

Personally, I really enjoyed this book so much and it's best to not think too much and just take it as a Les Mis fanfic au.

astarions_bhaal_babe's review against another edition

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3.0

“Do not cry for me, I am already dead."
"No, not dead, the dead at least are free.”


It was okay, I guess, but not nearly as remarkable as I expect a book that's advertised as Six of Crows meets Les Mis, to be.
It had its moments, which were a little more than a few and allowed me to speed through this despite it not being the book of the year, but I definitely didn't like this as much we I thought I would when I first added it to my tbr two years ago.
There were, for example, weird time jumps that cut the timeline between chapters, and that weren't really clarified, so you'd start a new chapter with lots of confusion and a wtf.
And not a positive one.

I also found it incredibly hard to relate to and understand Nina's character. I feel like she wasn't properly developed and I had the same problem with a far-fetched world building. I felt like I was always missing a piece of backstory and there were so many names and titles thrown at me it was impossible to keep up without further descriptions.
I'll bypass the historical inaccuracies because I don't want to sound too picky, but I appreciate when an author puts effort into creating a believable world, and Grant's wasn't the case.

I'm not saying the entire book was a waste, because overall it was tolerable and the chapters aren't long; maybe it was wrongly and overly advertized, and that's a marketing problem, but it was definitely not the book I wanted and I'll forever be bitter about the fact that I was Les Mis-baited.

lilredslibrary's review against another edition

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2.0

I grabbed this book because of the ‘failed French Revolution’ meets fantasy plot. This book took me a while to really get into, I ended up reading the full story in 14 days. I didn’t feel compelled to pick up the book and read it and at times it was almost like a chore (for the first half of the book really) once we met the Dead Lord things did start to pick up for me, however ultimately I found I didn’t really care about the characters and if they survived or not unlike so many other books. I will probably read the second book to satisfy my curiosity and I hope it meets the expectations I had for the first book. Overall, I enjoyed the world building and the fast paced movement of certain events but the overall story felt messy and monotonous.

umairah's review against another edition

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3.0

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 3/5
Writing: 3/5

The Court of Miracles was a novel inspired by Les Misérables, set in an alternate, early 1800s Paris where the French Revolution had failed. There was a lot that I liked and enjoyed about the book but I also felt a lack of connection to the characters and the plot which lessened the overall impact for me.

The story followed Nina Thénardier for many years of her life, with a few time skips, who was a member of the Thieves' Guild of The Court of Miracles constantly trying to protect those she loved. The Court of Miracles was basically a criminal underworld consisting of people cast out from and struggling in society, seeking the safety, protection and belonging they couldn't find anywhere else. It was divided into nine guilds with different specialties for example The Guild of Thieves, The Guild of Smugglers, The Guild of Assassins, etc. Things like race, religion and even family ties made no difference in the Miracle Court.

Nina was clever, agile and decisive, the best thief of her guild and known as 'The Black Cat'. She often got herself into and out of dangerous situations and came up with complex plots to achieve her goals. There was no boundary, no obstacle she would overcome to protect and save her loved ones. I admired her survival instinct and bravery but there was something missing and I couldn't bring myself to care. I think it's because I found the writing style quite detached and sometimes even disjointed and I struggled to understand her feelings, motivations and thought processes. However, I did find her relationship with Ettie (her adopted sister) really sweet.

The mysterious Miracle Court with its rules, conflicts and lore was well fleshed out and I also liked how the book conveyed the grim depths of the struggles of the poor and contrasted it to the opulent indifference of the rich. The plot had multiple time skips and minimal explanation of what was happening in favour of explaining the world and history that made it very hard to follow and connect with, so much so that even the major plot twists at the end had little to no effect on me. However, I had no prior knowledge of Les Misérables so maybe if I did it would have helped, I'm not sure.

Overall, I liked The Court of Miracles but while it had the makings of a new favourite it fell short for me and I'm still not sure if I'll want to read the sequel, however, if it sounds like an interesting read to you I'd still reccomend you to give it a try.



Thank you to the author, Kester Grant, for providing me with a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.