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bmagrace 's review for:
The Court of Miracles
by Kester Grant
Out-of-Demographic Alert:
If I read this when I was a young, broadway-obsessed teenager... I may have really liked it. I may have accepted how perfect Eponine was, and selected a favorite suitor from her roster.
It was a quick read, and parts were undoubtedly fun. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the Court. I liked the scandal of the murderous nobles. Plus, some of the little references & name drops were clever.
I don't regret reading the book by any means. It just didn't live up to what I would hope for in a concept with such strong source material.
Basically the concept is:
What if Eponine was the puppet master behind every single moment of Les Mis, and also... every single man who ever saw her immediately fell in love.
I can deal with that. I could have handled the idea that Nina is SO cool, and clever, and resourceful that everyone wants to be her, or be with her. I could have handled the three, or four, or however-many potential love interests like she was competing on The Bachelorette.
The part that bothered me most, though, was the fact that everything seems to happen off-page. Most of the important character developments, the building of relationships, the scheming of revolutions, the plotting of heists... all happen away from the eyes of the reader. Every time some problem is set up to raise the stakes, a "shocking twist" reveals that everything was carefully manipulated ahead of time, and it's all part of Nina's great plan.
This doesn't even account for the time jumps that bury away a lot of potentially exciting moments we hear about after the fact. (Nina's training to become such an amazing thief. The time spent with the students growing close enough that she's almost a part of their group. The "finding" portion of any of the many "found family" dynamics... etc.)
It wasn't bad. I just think I needed it to be a bit MORE.
If I read this when I was a young, broadway-obsessed teenager... I may have really liked it. I may have accepted how perfect Eponine was, and selected a favorite suitor from her roster.
It was a quick read, and parts were undoubtedly fun. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the Court. I liked the scandal of the murderous nobles. Plus, some of the little references & name drops were clever.
I don't regret reading the book by any means. It just didn't live up to what I would hope for in a concept with such strong source material.
Basically the concept is:
What if Eponine was the puppet master behind every single moment of Les Mis, and also... every single man who ever saw her immediately fell in love.
I can deal with that. I could have handled the idea that Nina is SO cool, and clever, and resourceful that everyone wants to be her, or be with her. I could have handled the three, or four, or however-many potential love interests like she was competing on The Bachelorette.
The part that bothered me most, though, was the fact that everything seems to happen off-page. Most of the important character developments, the building of relationships, the scheming of revolutions, the plotting of heists... all happen away from the eyes of the reader. Every time some problem is set up to raise the stakes, a "shocking twist" reveals that everything was carefully manipulated ahead of time, and it's all part of Nina's great plan.
This doesn't even account for the time jumps that bury away a lot of potentially exciting moments we hear about after the fact. (Nina's training to become such an amazing thief. The time spent with the students growing close enough that she's almost a part of their group. The "finding" portion of any of the many "found family" dynamics... etc.)
It wasn't bad. I just think I needed it to be a bit MORE.