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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
u know it’s going to be a good book when it has a map on the first page and this is a very good book.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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:
Complicated
★★☆☆☆*
The Court of Miracles is a “fantasiesque” historical-fiction novel inspired by [b: Les Misérables|24280|Les Misérables|Victor Hugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1411852091l/24280._SY75_.jpg|3208463] set in an alternate 1820s Paris where the French Revolution had failed. Although I’m not a big fan of Les Mis, the synopsis instantly caught my eye, and it was one of my most anticipated releases of the year as it was marketed as adult fantasy. But the fantasy is inexistent, the writing style is very juvenile, the characters are cliché, the alternate world-building is confusing, and there is a lack of plot, intrigue and logic.
The story follows Nina Thénardier in a first-person narration for several years of her life, with part of the narrative off-page and a few time skips between each part of the book. The story starts off when Azelma, Nina’s sister, is sold by her father to The Guild of Flesh, one of the nine underworld criminal guilds that control Paris, and Nina (a somewhat 10 years-old girl? –despite the year being indicated at the beginning of each section, I still had a difficult time discerning how old Nina was supposed to be) is thrust into The Guild of Thieves to be a new “cat” burglar. She is then decided to save her sister from her terrible fate at The Tiger’s (the Lord of the Guild of Flesh) hands. But this initial plot will change and become confusing throughout the pages as different new characters and plot twists are introduced –and this aspect was one of the several things I didn’t like about this book.
The characters are flat, typecast, and juvenile while their interactions are cliché, boring and predictable: Nina is the average heroine from YA books –a not-so-special girl that is good at everything (even when trying things for the first time) because she’s an amazing thief and accomplishes every mission way too easily–, Azelma is treated as a macguffin to set up Nina’s first revenge plan but it won’t be mentioned again until the last part of the book (it actually seemed not only the readers but also Nina forgot her sister…), Ettie is a naïve girl that appears just to be a new Azelma and be constantly saved by Nina, St. Juste (Enjolras) is the revolutionary that seems his purpose was being one of the three love interests of our main character, Grantaire is the drunkard, Montparnasse is the knife (and other of Nina’s love interests)… and Javert is retold as a woman for the sole purpose of hinting that Valjean and her had previously had something.
I sort of liked the atmosphere of the underworld Paris and how some of these misérables had The Court of Miracles’ Guilds as families, but I was expecting a fantasy novel, and the aspects I moderately enjoyed (it's fast-paced and quite entertaining) couldn't compensate the things I didn't like, so it ended up being an okay reading for me. All in all, I think The Court of Miracles is a forgettable book that doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, and I’m not going to continue reading the series.
*I use the CAWPILE rating system created by Book Roast, and this book was a 4.4/10 for me.
- - - -
«Nous sommes d’un sang»
The Court of Miracles is a “fantasiesque” historical-fiction novel inspired by [b: Les Misérables|24280|Les Misérables|Victor Hugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1411852091l/24280._SY75_.jpg|3208463] set in an alternate 1820s Paris where the French Revolution had failed. Although I’m not a big fan of Les Mis, the synopsis instantly caught my eye, and it was one of my most anticipated releases of the year as it was marketed as adult fantasy. But the fantasy is inexistent, the writing style is very juvenile, the characters are cliché, the alternate world-building is confusing, and there is a lack of plot, intrigue and logic.
The story follows Nina Thénardier in a first-person narration for several years of her life, with part of the narrative off-page and a few time skips between each part of the book. The story starts off when Azelma, Nina’s sister, is sold by her father to The Guild of Flesh, one of the nine underworld criminal guilds that control Paris, and Nina (a somewhat 10 years-old girl? –despite the year being indicated at the beginning of each section, I still had a difficult time discerning how old Nina was supposed to be) is thrust into The Guild of Thieves to be a new “cat” burglar. She is then decided to save her sister from her terrible fate at The Tiger’s (the Lord of the Guild of Flesh) hands. But this initial plot will change and become confusing throughout the pages as different new characters and plot twists are introduced –and this aspect was one of the several things I didn’t like about this book.
The characters are flat, typecast, and juvenile while their interactions are cliché, boring and predictable: Nina is the average heroine from YA books –a not-so-special girl that is good at everything (even when trying things for the first time) because she’s an amazing thief and accomplishes every mission way too easily–, Azelma is treated as a macguffin to set up Nina’s first revenge plan but it won’t be mentioned again until the last part of the book (it actually seemed not only the readers but also Nina forgot her sister…), Ettie is a naïve girl that appears just to be a new Azelma and be constantly saved by Nina, St. Juste (Enjolras) is the revolutionary that seems his purpose was being one of the three love interests of our main character, Grantaire is the drunkard, Montparnasse is the knife (and other of Nina’s love interests)… and Javert is retold as a woman for the sole purpose of hinting that Valjean and her had previously had something.
I sort of liked the atmosphere of the underworld Paris and how some of these misérables had The Court of Miracles’ Guilds as families, but I was expecting a fantasy novel, and the aspects I moderately enjoyed (it's fast-paced and quite entertaining) couldn't compensate the things I didn't like, so it ended up being an okay reading for me. All in all, I think The Court of Miracles is a forgettable book that doesn’t bring anything new to the genre, and I’m not going to continue reading the series.
*I use the CAWPILE rating system created by Book Roast, and this book was a 4.4/10 for me.
- - - -
First of all, I opened the book and got very excited when I saw an arranged list of the different guilds, the map, the rankings.. the members. It felt like a genuine fantasy novel, in a way like it was going to be "the Stormlight Archive," with its different 'sorting' methods.
We've stepped into the role of 'Eponine,' who's having a very tough upbringing with her abusive father who's raised her as a burglar, to do all the dirty work while he takes the credit and the money. It gets even worse when one day he decides to sell off Nina's sister to what we come to know as a 'flesh guild,' which is basically like a brothel.
And I will say, I started out enjoying this a lot. We've got our classic thief, who breaks into legendary places, like palaces, and prisons..
But for some reason I can't really explain, right about 1/4 of the way in, I just ... lost interest. It's the craziest thing! I'm thinking this because I really enjoyed the 'fantastical aspect' of the different guilds and learning what they all do. Then it turns more into of 'okay, we got that out of the way, now let's do the character building.
It tries very hard to make Nina as persistent as possible, and I'm afraid that her real asset gets hidden under the 'cool factor.' She cares deeply about wanting her sister back, and when it's nearly impossible, she latches onto someone who kind of takes the place of her sister, and then this obsessiveness begins.
Ettie is another important figure, she gets passed around through a lot of the guilds in an attempt to keep her safe from one of the Guild Lords, who everyone reveres because he's so brutal. But to cross him means a direct declaration of war, so the guilds are very reluctant to help Nina until she miraculously has a reason for them all to be in debt to her.
It somehow makes her the single-handed mastermind behind all of these legends.. and she gets away with literal things no one else dares to try. Like for instance, it's 'illegal' to enter another guild unannounced, and I can think of at least three that she just strolls into and actively gets involved with.
This may be a spoiler, but even the 'Assassins' Guild.' It's widely mentioned that anyone who even enters without permission is killed on the spot. And she just strolls right in, they do her nothing.
There are several times when she breaks the guild's 'rules' and gets away with minimum punishment. And yes, I know that 'whippings' aren't minor, but compared to what it could have been. She quickly becomes friends with the other guilds by jumping from favour to favour, and I mean, sometimes it be like that.
And I think a lot of it, is that someone said it's based off of.. Les Miserables. It takes place in French around 1800..I never read it and didn't watch the movie. Don't know anything about it. But every now and then words are said in French just as a reminder that we're still in France, but they don't get explained what was said and I didn't have the energy to look it up.
Yes, I live in Louisiana, but that's a different kind of french, okay?!
It's more..historical fiction, than it is 'fantasy,' because there are not a lot of 'fantastical' elements to it, just a girl who's a thief, in the time of a depressing state of oppression in early France. They have the guild members thrown in every now and then which makes it interesting.. but I suppose what I was initially drawn in by was thinking that it was like an old-fantasy theme, like DnD classes, adventure.. something. But it's just not fantasy. There's not even 'romance.' There are several love interests, but for someone who's into romance, there's not a lot of it.. but a teasing hint. And that's fine with me because I'm going to read romance, I want it to be a romance book and not a romance in my book.
So it took me a while to finish it because I realized it was more about following Nina's obsession and a re-telling of an actual historical event. The only reason I pushed through was that the end of the year is coming up in like 2 days, and I wanted to have a fresh start when it gets here.
I couldn't rate it as high as I wanted, though I enjoyed the writing, it was easy to take in. But I'd recommend it for someone who's looking for the keywords, " Thief", "Historical Fiction," or even "Takes place in France," The ending did thrill me a bit, and I enjoyed Nina's periodically morally grey thoughts of self-preservation. I might use 'morally grey protganoist' too, but it didn't feel right for some reason. Maybe because we know she's surrounded by people who are much worse than she is, so it's more of a survival thing, and less of a dark choice.
That's all I have to note about it, I didn't even take notes like usual, I was just winging it and hoped I remembered everything.
We've stepped into the role of 'Eponine,' who's having a very tough upbringing with her abusive father who's raised her as a burglar, to do all the dirty work while he takes the credit and the money. It gets even worse when one day he decides to sell off Nina's sister to what we come to know as a 'flesh guild,' which is basically like a brothel.
And I will say, I started out enjoying this a lot. We've got our classic thief, who breaks into legendary places, like palaces, and prisons..
But for some reason I can't really explain, right about 1/4 of the way in, I just ... lost interest. It's the craziest thing! I'm thinking this because I really enjoyed the 'fantastical aspect' of the different guilds and learning what they all do. Then it turns more into of 'okay, we got that out of the way, now let's do the character building.
It tries very hard to make Nina as persistent as possible, and I'm afraid that her real asset gets hidden under the 'cool factor.' She cares deeply about wanting her sister back, and when it's nearly impossible, she latches onto someone who kind of takes the place of her sister, and then this obsessiveness begins.
Ettie is another important figure, she gets passed around through a lot of the guilds in an attempt to keep her safe from one of the Guild Lords, who everyone reveres because he's so brutal. But to cross him means a direct declaration of war, so the guilds are very reluctant to help Nina until she miraculously has a reason for them all to be in debt to her.
It somehow makes her the single-handed mastermind behind all of these legends.. and she gets away with literal things no one else dares to try. Like for instance, it's 'illegal' to enter another guild unannounced, and I can think of at least three that she just strolls into and actively gets involved with.
This may be a spoiler, but even the 'Assassins' Guild.' It's widely mentioned that anyone who even enters without permission is killed on the spot. And she just strolls right in, they do her nothing.
There are several times when she breaks the guild's 'rules' and gets away with minimum punishment. And yes, I know that 'whippings' aren't minor, but compared to what it could have been. She quickly becomes friends with the other guilds by jumping from favour to favour, and I mean, sometimes it be like that.
And I think a lot of it, is that someone said it's based off of.. Les Miserables. It takes place in French around 1800..I never read it and didn't watch the movie. Don't know anything about it. But every now and then words are said in French just as a reminder that we're still in France, but they don't get explained what was said and I didn't have the energy to look it up.
Yes, I live in Louisiana, but that's a different kind of french, okay?!
It's more..historical fiction, than it is 'fantasy,' because there are not a lot of 'fantastical' elements to it, just a girl who's a thief, in the time of a depressing state of oppression in early France. They have the guild members thrown in every now and then which makes it interesting.. but I suppose what I was initially drawn in by was thinking that it was like an old-fantasy theme, like DnD classes, adventure.. something. But it's just not fantasy. There's not even 'romance.' There are several love interests, but for someone who's into romance, there's not a lot of it.. but a teasing hint. And that's fine with me because I'm going to read romance, I want it to be a romance book and not a romance in my book.
So it took me a while to finish it because I realized it was more about following Nina's obsession and a re-telling of an actual historical event. The only reason I pushed through was that the end of the year is coming up in like 2 days, and I wanted to have a fresh start when it gets here.
I couldn't rate it as high as I wanted, though I enjoyed the writing, it was easy to take in. But I'd recommend it for someone who's looking for the keywords, " Thief", "Historical Fiction," or even "Takes place in France," The ending did thrill me a bit, and I enjoyed Nina's periodically morally grey thoughts of self-preservation. I might use 'morally grey protganoist' too, but it didn't feel right for some reason. Maybe because we know she's surrounded by people who are much worse than she is, so it's more of a survival thing, and less of a dark choice.
That's all I have to note about it, I didn't even take notes like usual, I was just winging it and hoped I remembered everything.
This got me out of such a vicious reading slump! I was unaware it was a series and thought it was a standalone, but it still satisfied me to the very last word. I adore Nina and her passion to get things done. The sprinkles of romance are glorious and handled in such a stylized way that it didn't feel like a character x archetype, it felt like individual x individual. The action and suspense was superb! I couldn't put it down!
This book enraptured me, it was like reading a fairtale in the making. I binge read this book, unable to put it down. It was so immersive and pulled you right in with the adventures and the danger. Not to mention the coy romances like what even.
That cover really grabbed me and the blurb had me intrigued, but I was disappointed because it wasn't quite what I expected from the description. I don't often do DNF reviews, and as such won't leave a rating, but I was so bothered by how it felt like the book was mis-sold to me.
1) This was nothing as complex, character or world-wise, as [b:Six of Crows|23437156|Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1459349344l/23437156._SY75_.jpg|42077459].
2) The characters are named after Les Mis ones, but this isn't a retelling or reworking in a way I'd understand it (which, given I'm not a massive Les Mis aficionado, shouldn't really be a problem, but it was still mighty confusing why they weren't just completely original characters).
3) The plot feels unfocused, hyperactively jumping from one setting to the next as if just to show us how cool the world is rather than seeming to have a coherent reason to do so.
4) There are info-dumps and unannounced time skips. I am not a fan of these things.
This review echoes my thoughts and puts it better than I could.
1) This was nothing as complex, character or world-wise, as [b:Six of Crows|23437156|Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1459349344l/23437156._SY75_.jpg|42077459].
2) The characters are named after Les Mis ones, but this isn't a retelling or reworking in a way I'd understand it (which, given I'm not a massive Les Mis aficionado, shouldn't really be a problem, but it was still mighty confusing why they weren't just completely original characters).
3) The plot feels unfocused, hyperactively jumping from one setting to the next as if just to show us how cool the world is rather than seeming to have a coherent reason to do so.
4) There are info-dumps and unannounced time skips. I am not a fan of these things.
This review echoes my thoughts and puts it better than I could.
adventurous
mysterious
I don't really know how to rate this book. I didn't hate it, but it didn't always make a whole lot of sense. I really like Nina and Ettie, but I was just very....confused by the Guilds and the upper class and....I mean, I know it's supposed to be a retelling of Les Miz, but...I honestly don't even know what to say about this book.