The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant (Website, Twitter, Goodreads)Published by Random House Children's Books on June 2nd 2020
Genres: Action & Adventure, Europe, Fantasy, General, Historical, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 416
Les Misérables meets Six of Crows in this page-turning adventure as a young thief finds herself going head to head with leaders of Paris's criminal underground in the wake of the French Revolution.
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.
The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant is a book I had on my to read shelf the moment I read the summary. It is described as Les Miserable meets Six of Crows and I have to say, I think it is pretty accurate…and this is from someone who LOVES Six of Crows.
Nina is our main character and having grown up somewhat protected by her older sister from the underworld criminal guilds (known as the Court of Miracles) she is suddenly thrust into a world she has to quickly learn the rules to if she wants to survive when her father sells her older sister to the flesh guild. Nina ultimately ends up with the Thieves Guild and becomes known for her daring and ability to steal anything which helps her out greatly in the long run. As Nina gets older, she becomes protective of Ettie, an adopted sister who has caught the eye of the Tiger, the Lord of the Flesh Guild (the same one her sister ended up at) and Nina realizes she will do anything to stop him and protect Ettie.
I thought the world building was done well by Grant. Of course, having Paris as a backdrop helped as Nina finds herself mingling with royals and criminals over time but having the development of such varying scenes from ballrooms, to alleys, to jail cells helped to add to Nina’s story and growth. The rules crafted around the guilds helped create structure and provided more context around what Nina could do to save those around her.
The one thing I thought was less clear was the jump in time from one section to the next. It did not come across as smooth and it tended to take me a minute to gather my thoughts on the timing so I could correlate it to the story going forward.
There are a number of secondary characters that help drive the story forward…some good and some not so good (in character). I’ve mentioned the Tiger and he is definitely a villain, but I would also throw Nina’s father right up there. He is only interested in money and position and deserves everything he gets. There’s St. Juste, the Guild Lords and Ladies, Montparnasse, and the Dauphin…all great additions to the story and in most cases, interesting too!
Nina’s objective, other than protecting Ettie, did not become fully clear to me until the end of the story when everything suddenly came together. All of a sudden, the dots were connecting, and I could see the bigger picture whereas in the moments I did not necessarily put it all together. Kudos to Grant for being able to break the story out and get me to focus on the moments until it was completely critical to understand Nina’s endgame. Overall, I enjoyed this book and I will definitely pick up the next book in the series. I will be curious to see where Grant takes the story in the next book. Make sure you grab this one when you can as it has interesting characters and an engaging story…my favorite things in a book!
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.
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