Title: The Court of Miracles
Series: Court of Miracles
Author: Kester Grant
Page count: 464 pages
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
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.
Goodreads blurb
I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
They killed one-third of the mice for reason, and one-third for sport. The the cats hanged the six little mice before all of their brethren to teach the mice fear.
The court of Miracles by Kester Grant
To start with, I loved the setting. The author did a really good job of establishing the tone and overall aesthetic of the story. The story, like Les Mis, takes place in 1830s Paris. However, in this book the French Revolution was a failure so the monarchy is still in power. In the book, there are 9 total criminal courts that have arisen due to this, but only 5 of them are ever truly explored: the Guild of Thieves, Guild of Letters, Guild of Flesh, Guild of Beggars, and Guild of Assassins. Hopefully we’ll get to see the other 4 fleshed out in the sequel. Each Guild is lead by a Lord or Lady and have to abide by a set of Laws, which includes things like no slavery, all Wretched (members of a guild) are equal, do not commit crime for pleasure (only survival), the Guild must provide for all its children, etc. The Tiger, who is the leader of the Guild of Flesh, is consistently breaking these laws but no one wants to do anything about it because they’re all afraid of him (shocker). That’s where our main character, Nina, comes in.
Nous sommes d’un sang. We are Bloody.
The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant
Nina is a member of the Guild of Thieves, which she joined at a very young age to prevent being sold to Tiger like her older sister was. To become a member, she steals the Pendant of Charlemagne from the dauphin while he’s asleep. Years later, Ettie is spotted, and thus desired by, Tiger. Thernadier, Nina’s father, tries to sell her to him but Nina whisks Ettie away from him and has her join the Guild of Beggars to protect her. However, this is not enough because apparently Tiger doesn’t like it when he’s denied something he wants. So starts a spiral of events involving Nina doing everything she can to protect Ettie while also trying to free her older sister from Tiger. In the process she somehow meets and charms 3 different men even though she’s constantly being described as plain, especially when compared to Ettie. She also seemed very one-dimensional, which is weird considering the other characters experience so much growth throughout the book.
All in all, the world building and the secondary characters are what saved this book for me. While I do typically prefer books that are more plot driven than character, Nina just didn’t have any discernible personality or development. Hopefully we’ll see that in the sequel, which I am still very excited for.
What are your thoughts on the book?
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