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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
3.5 STARS
Vampire Academy/Bloodlines is my all time favorite YA Series, so I go into Richelle Mead books with above average expectations. After reading the synopsis and a few early teasers, I was thrilled to get this book via Penguin First to Read. The Glittering Court was not “Edge of my Kindle” and “Must have book two tomorrow” excitement I have felt numerous times with books written by Mead. However, I liked this first installment and think it’s a promising start to a new series.
The key issue I have with this book is the category situation. It does not feel like fantasy at all; it reads much more like historical fiction. For most people, that is likely not even an issue. However, I am an avid fantasy reader and spent most of the book waiting for elements and story lines that never appear. Also, at times the pacing was slow and I found myself wondering what the book was even supposed to be about. Also, despite the length the ending chapters are rushed and key events glossed over. Despite pacing and subject issues, there are some highlights.
No one writes a YA heroine like Mead, and Adelaide is another testament to her uncanny ability for creating a badass leading lady. I adored Adelaide from the first chapters and she never lets up throughout the book. She is intelligent, sassy, and relentless in her endeavors. She is far from perfect, but I empathized and admired her immensely. There are also several other strong and likable female characters that are interwoven in the story, and I hope we see more of them in future books. Of course, I can’t forget to mention Cedric. The chemistry between he and Adelaide is more of a slow burn. However, I wanted more intensity especially given the personality of these two.
I encourage all Mead fans and those newer to the fantasy genre to give this one a try. I will definitely be reading the next book to find out what adventures await Adelaide and others.
Vampire Academy/Bloodlines is my all time favorite YA Series, so I go into Richelle Mead books with above average expectations. After reading the synopsis and a few early teasers, I was thrilled to get this book via Penguin First to Read. The Glittering Court was not “Edge of my Kindle” and “Must have book two tomorrow” excitement I have felt numerous times with books written by Mead. However, I liked this first installment and think it’s a promising start to a new series.
The key issue I have with this book is the category situation. It does not feel like fantasy at all; it reads much more like historical fiction. For most people, that is likely not even an issue. However, I am an avid fantasy reader and spent most of the book waiting for elements and story lines that never appear. Also, at times the pacing was slow and I found myself wondering what the book was even supposed to be about. Also, despite the length the ending chapters are rushed and key events glossed over. Despite pacing and subject issues, there are some highlights.
No one writes a YA heroine like Mead, and Adelaide is another testament to her uncanny ability for creating a badass leading lady. I adored Adelaide from the first chapters and she never lets up throughout the book. She is intelligent, sassy, and relentless in her endeavors. She is far from perfect, but I empathized and admired her immensely. There are also several other strong and likable female characters that are interwoven in the story, and I hope we see more of them in future books. Of course, I can’t forget to mention Cedric. The chemistry between he and Adelaide is more of a slow burn. However, I wanted more intensity especially given the personality of these two.
I encourage all Mead fans and those newer to the fantasy genre to give this one a try. I will definitely be reading the next book to find out what adventures await Adelaide and others.
I’m really struggling to come up with the proper rating for this one. Granted, I’m not exactly the target audience but I do know a good book when I see it and I know a well-intentioned one that has fallen short of the mark.
The positives: At the surface, this is a nicely told romantic story of a young woman of royalty who, rather than accept her own idealized future with a husband through an arranged marriage, decides to take control of her own future by taking on the identity of her own servant, Adelaide, and seeking a new life in the New World. We’ve certainly seen that set up for a book or movie before but the author takes the plot in several new directions. Adelaide travels to the New World in order to take part in the “Glittering Court” a sort of year-long finishing school that prepares girls of lesser circumstances to become adept at the finer points of civilized society such as how to dress, eat, and play hostess at fine functions. Gentlemen of the New World will then bid for the girls in hopes of gaining a wife that will enhance his prospects in business or government circles. Adelaide and her two roommates quickly become the best of friends. But Adelaide is not the only one with a secret and so the plot perks along at a nice clip with the main characters dipping into and out of mischief throughout. There is mishap and mayhem, backstabbing rogues, glamorous parties, frontier gold mining adventure, and even pirates. Practically something for everyone. But at its heart, this novel is a romance, pure and simple.
The negatives: The novel never attempts to go any deeper than the surface. I do so enjoy a good young adult novel that does not dumb down the situation and is not afraid to go deeper…but this ain’t it. Why go to the effort to introduce such serious themes as the objectification of women or religious persecution but not deal with it at all other than to imply that it isn’t “fair”. It’s as if the author does not have enough faith in her readership to do any more than gloss over what is happening in the society that she created. We skim along enjoying the romantic adventure and hope that true love will win out in the end but that’s it. There is even an attempted rape scene but the consequences to both villain and victim are absent. Adelaide herself is adamant about the unfairness of an arranged marriage but is perfectly willing to go along with the concept of being trained to be a proper hostess in order to further the business dealings of her future husband. She does take action, finally, to go after the feelings of her heart but that is forced by circumstances much more than by her own thoughts of what she should do. She never connects the dots about the accepted norms of the society and whether or not that is right or wrong. One more example: when her beau reveals himself to her to be a practitioner of a forbidden religion, (he would even be executed if found out) Adelaide worries for his safety but simply thinks him foolish for practicing such a religion in the first place. No thoughts enter her head about why a particular religion is shunned. And both of them together think nothing of committing crimes themselves in order to “get ahead” including art forgery and duping an innocent purchaser in order to pay off their own debt.
One side note: I have no problems with reading a book wherein the protagonist and major characters have dubious morals or are in-your-face criminals or even just naive. That’s not what I am talking about here. The two main characters in this novel are simply inconsistent. Not because of a personality flaw but because of poor writing. One chapter will depict huge self-sacrifice by one or both of them while the next glosses over one shallow action or another.
The biggest negative though is the ending. The two main characters have gotten themselves into so much trouble from so many angles that a previously unknown character has to save the day by coming up with a loophole that allows them off the hook. I’ve rarely seen a better example of a Deus ex Machina ending. Sigh.
This book is billed as the first in a fantasy series but there is no fantasy here. There is no world building per se other than using our own European and New World frontier history and changing the names of the places and religions. It suggests the author is in too much of a hurry to “get another one out there” to please her fan base rather than put effort into creating an original world system.
And a note about the cover: some people like real models for the covers and some people hate that. I am indifferent but at least use a model that resembles the character(s) in the book. This one doesn’t even have the hair color right, assuming it is supposed to be Adelaide and so I am left to wonder who is depicted there.
Sorry to make this review so long but it touched a nerve in me somewhere. But despite all of the negative points I’ve droned on about, this isn’t a terrible book. Most of the plot was decent and I did care about what happened to the major characters (most of the time). The story of Adelaide seems to have been wrapped up in this one volume so I suspect future books in the series will have different POV characters, most likely Adelaide’s two roommates who had closely guarded secrets of their own throughout the novel and still yet to be revealed.
The positives: At the surface, this is a nicely told romantic story of a young woman of royalty who, rather than accept her own idealized future with a husband through an arranged marriage, decides to take control of her own future by taking on the identity of her own servant, Adelaide, and seeking a new life in the New World. We’ve certainly seen that set up for a book or movie before but the author takes the plot in several new directions. Adelaide travels to the New World in order to take part in the “Glittering Court” a sort of year-long finishing school that prepares girls of lesser circumstances to become adept at the finer points of civilized society such as how to dress, eat, and play hostess at fine functions. Gentlemen of the New World will then bid for the girls in hopes of gaining a wife that will enhance his prospects in business or government circles. Adelaide and her two roommates quickly become the best of friends. But Adelaide is not the only one with a secret and so the plot perks along at a nice clip with the main characters dipping into and out of mischief throughout. There is mishap and mayhem, backstabbing rogues, glamorous parties, frontier gold mining adventure, and even pirates. Practically something for everyone. But at its heart, this novel is a romance, pure and simple.
The negatives: The novel never attempts to go any deeper than the surface. I do so enjoy a good young adult novel that does not dumb down the situation and is not afraid to go deeper…but this ain’t it. Why go to the effort to introduce such serious themes as the objectification of women or religious persecution but not deal with it at all other than to imply that it isn’t “fair”. It’s as if the author does not have enough faith in her readership to do any more than gloss over what is happening in the society that she created. We skim along enjoying the romantic adventure and hope that true love will win out in the end but that’s it. There is even an attempted rape scene but the consequences to both villain and victim are absent. Adelaide herself is adamant about the unfairness of an arranged marriage but is perfectly willing to go along with the concept of being trained to be a proper hostess in order to further the business dealings of her future husband. She does take action, finally, to go after the feelings of her heart but that is forced by circumstances much more than by her own thoughts of what she should do. She never connects the dots about the accepted norms of the society and whether or not that is right or wrong. One more example: when her beau reveals himself to her to be a practitioner of a forbidden religion, (he would even be executed if found out) Adelaide worries for his safety but simply thinks him foolish for practicing such a religion in the first place. No thoughts enter her head about why a particular religion is shunned. And both of them together think nothing of committing crimes themselves in order to “get ahead” including art forgery and duping an innocent purchaser in order to pay off their own debt.
One side note: I have no problems with reading a book wherein the protagonist and major characters have dubious morals or are in-your-face criminals or even just naive. That’s not what I am talking about here. The two main characters in this novel are simply inconsistent. Not because of a personality flaw but because of poor writing. One chapter will depict huge self-sacrifice by one or both of them while the next glosses over one shallow action or another.
The biggest negative though is the ending. The two main characters have gotten themselves into so much trouble from so many angles that a previously unknown character has to save the day by coming up with a loophole that allows them off the hook. I’ve rarely seen a better example of a Deus ex Machina ending. Sigh.
This book is billed as the first in a fantasy series but there is no fantasy here. There is no world building per se other than using our own European and New World frontier history and changing the names of the places and religions. It suggests the author is in too much of a hurry to “get another one out there” to please her fan base rather than put effort into creating an original world system.
And a note about the cover: some people like real models for the covers and some people hate that. I am indifferent but at least use a model that resembles the character(s) in the book. This one doesn’t even have the hair color right, assuming it is supposed to be Adelaide and so I am left to wonder who is depicted there.
Sorry to make this review so long but it touched a nerve in me somewhere. But despite all of the negative points I’ve droned on about, this isn’t a terrible book. Most of the plot was decent and I did care about what happened to the major characters (most of the time). The story of Adelaide seems to have been wrapped up in this one volume so I suspect future books in the series will have different POV characters, most likely Adelaide’s two roommates who had closely guarded secrets of their own throughout the novel and still yet to be revealed.
This book was better than I expected, but that is not saying much. The whole premise that a countess would run away from marriage to voyage to a new country to be sold off into marriage just didn't sit well with me. But, it was Richelle Mead, so I felt like I had to pick it up. I listened to this as a Playaway from my library, and the narrator made this book so much more interesting for me. She did a great job and sounded just like I imagined Adelaide would sound like. If not for her, I would not have continued this book to the end. The romance felt very love-at-first-sight to me, and the "villain" wasn't very villain-y, until all of a sudden he was portrayed as the most evil of all the villains. I wasn't a fan and I won't be continuing the series.
Okay so all in all, I did enjoy this book. I thought it was really good, and the plot was commendable. Having said that, I didn’t feel a connection to the characters, which is what I really love about good books, so I don’t think my ‘absorbency’ (if you will) into this new world, was the best it could’ve been. While it was a good read, I wouldn’t consider it outstanding.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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:
Yes
4.5 stars
Very good. Slow in some parts, and I still have some unanswered questions that I hope will be answered in future books (there will be one from Tamsin's point of view, right?), but overall very enjoyable and engaging.
Very good. Slow in some parts, and I still have some unanswered questions that I hope will be answered in future books (there will be one from Tamsin's point of view, right?), but overall very enjoyable and engaging.
Oh, where to begin with this story.
Firstly, I love everything Richelle Mead has written. Her creative ability to write a series set in such magical, seemingly real, places is amazing. I fall in love with her characters every time. So going into The Glittering Court, I was both awed and a little disappointed.
First with the good:
Our main character, "Adelaide" is truly amazing. Mead has a way with creating brave, smart, and beautiful main woman characters. This one was no less as amazing compared to the others she's written about. Adelaide, or Countess of Rothford, is amazing. With a marriage to someone she doesn't want, she runs away to a world that's full of mystery. She has no idea what's going to happen, but with The Glittering Court ready to turn her into a skilled woman-which she already assails at-she knows she'll be able to marry someone better.
Taking her housemaids identity, she signs a contract and heads to Blue Spring Manner, where she'll spend a year learning etiquette. After that year, they'll be showed off and married to the man who can pay for them. So almost like mail order brides.
Adelaide meets Tamsin, a fiery woman who knows what she wants, and Mira, the...
If you'd like to finish this review, please check out my blog! http://abibliomaniacs.blogspot.com/2016/04/book-review-glittering-court-richelle.html
Firstly, I love everything Richelle Mead has written. Her creative ability to write a series set in such magical, seemingly real, places is amazing. I fall in love with her characters every time. So going into The Glittering Court, I was both awed and a little disappointed.
First with the good:
Our main character, "Adelaide" is truly amazing. Mead has a way with creating brave, smart, and beautiful main woman characters. This one was no less as amazing compared to the others she's written about. Adelaide, or Countess of Rothford, is amazing. With a marriage to someone she doesn't want, she runs away to a world that's full of mystery. She has no idea what's going to happen, but with The Glittering Court ready to turn her into a skilled woman-which she already assails at-she knows she'll be able to marry someone better.
Taking her housemaids identity, she signs a contract and heads to Blue Spring Manner, where she'll spend a year learning etiquette. After that year, they'll be showed off and married to the man who can pay for them. So almost like mail order brides.
Adelaide meets Tamsin, a fiery woman who knows what she wants, and Mira, the...
If you'd like to finish this review, please check out my blog! http://abibliomaniacs.blogspot.com/2016/04/book-review-glittering-court-richelle.html
Um excuse me? Romanticizing colonialism in the first 10 pages? absolutely the f not lol. Yes, women were interested in men who were sailing to unknown lands and enslaving the people BUT DO WE NEED TO WRITE A BOOK ABOUT THAT, RICHELLE?!?! no, no we do not.
I’m fascinated with royalty and books like this so I am giving it a 4. It’s just a long and winding book with many sceneries and continuing plots.