I saw a lot of 'average' reviews about this book as wasn't expecting a massive amount, but it was brilliant!

It has a great narrative, I love that parts of sentences are written in French and Nina is amazing. I am not certain if there is going to be other books in this world but I really hope so!

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2020. From the moment it was announced I have been dying to read this and I’m so thankful to NetGalley and Harper Collins for an e-arc of this.
I was not disappointed!
I’ve never read or watched Les Miserables, so apart from reading the blurb I went into this blind about what would happen.
This was truly, beautifully written. I enjoyed every word, every letter, from start to finish. I normally devour books, but this is the first book I’ve read in a long time that I felt the need to make last! I just didn’t want it to end.
I adored Nina and Ettie and the bond they made. I LOVED the Ghosts and Orso himself. The vibe of The Court of Miracles was so dark and mysterious and I really felt ruthlessness and also their dedication to their Guilds.
I need the next book right now!

https://lynns-books.com/2020/05/28/the-court-of-miracles-a-court-of-miracles-1-by-kester-grant/
4 of 5 stars
Let me start this review by saying I really enjoyed The Court of Miracles. At a time when my concentration has been a little lacking (at best) this book really drew me in. I enjoyed the writing, the atmosphere and the world and it was always a pleasure to return. All that being said I’m going to turn things on there head a little and address some of the hype and other notions that are attached to this book.

This book is being marketed as a number of things, not least a retelling of Les Miserables meets Jungle Book meets Six of Crows. Strong comparisons indeed for some very popular works of fiction and I might also add, just to complicate the mix even more, I picked up nuances of the Hunchback of Notre Dame and even a sprinkling of Dickens with the Ghosts of the story having a strange resemblance to Fagin’s ragtag gang of pickpockets.

So, this book is clearly influenced by Les Mis but I wouldn’t call it a retelling as such and to be honest I think you could pick this up without any knowledge of this particular classic and you wouldn’t be disadvantaged at all. For me, being a little familiar with that tale, it was interesting to hear the names and make some of the connections how they fit together but I think you could pick this up without knowing anything about Les Mis and enjoy it simply for what it is. The Jungle Book suggestion – well, there is a rather nasty character known as the Tiger who stalks innocent young people, and there are a good number of characters named for animals – such as Loup – but that’s about as far as that goes. Finally, Six of Crows – well, this book lives in the seedy underworld of an alternate historical Paris with all the grime, crime and suffering you would expect. The Court of Miracles is made up of nine criminal factions, thieves, assassins, smugglers, etc, each ruled by a crime Lord – for example The Tiger is the Flesh Lord – I’m sure you can figure out his particular house. The Lords adhere to a strict criminal code which prevents infighting and all out war between the different factions although some do bend the rules. However, a heist, this is not. All that out of the way, lets focus on my thoughts.

As the story begins we meet Eponine (Nina). Her sister is taken by the Tiger and this provides the fuel for the story and the motivation for most of her actions. She becomes a daughter of the Lord of Thieves and, being young and nimble, a cat burglar of talent. Cosette (Ettie) is Nina’s adopted younger sister and also a pawn in the longer game. Ettie is beautiful and, in a brutal world, remains charmingly innocent – a strange combination that was always going to attract the wrong attention.

The majority of the story revolves around Nina seemingly jumping from one task to the other in pursuit of her own goals and in a desperate attempt to win friends and influence people who can help her. At times this can lead to a slightly jumbled feeling or at least a sense that the story lacks a strong cohesive focus but I can’t deny I enjoyed all Nina’s adventures and I would say you have to keep in mind the longer picture and what it’s all working towards.

In terms of the world building. This is an alternate version of Paris, the French Revolution failed, the Royals are still eating cake and the social divide is yawning wider than ever. People are dying on the streets, bodies piled unceremoniously and voices of discontent are gathering behind closed doors. Revolution is in the air but whilst young men dream of wild pursuits and overthrowing the nobility the Royals are also scheming.

I really enjoyed the author’s writing. There is a real sense of atmosphere and I loved reading about Paris and picking up the references to various very well known places.

Criticisms. Nothing that spoiled the read for me but perhaps worth mentioning. Ettie seems to have no end of admirers – at least three gentlemen seem enamoured by her even though she seems completely oblivious and the Lords themselves also give her a lot of leeway. I wouldn’t say the potential romantic element was a problem as such as this is more incidental rather than central to the plot – although it does mean that Ettie frequently seems to have assistance when she gets into sticky situations and I think I would have preferred her to use her own cunning a little more in some of these situations. There is also an element of Ettie being unreasonably good at what she does. I’m just going to say – go with it. If you’re expecting explanations of why she’s so good or how she achieves such miraculous stunts then you’ll be disappointed because this isn’t part of the story. She just is. Enough said. Also, the fantasy elements of this, so far, are more based on the alternate history as oppose to magic, monsters or other fantastical elements.

Criticisms and slight detours aside I really enjoyed this. It kept me fully immersed and I never had any hesitation in returning to the world.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

Thank you HarperCollins and NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book has one of the most beautiful covers I've ever seen. Then to top it off, it's a retelling of one of my favourite stories, Les Misérables, that is described as being similar to another of my favourite books, Six of Crows. It is everything I could ever want. My thoughts on reading it are very mixed, but the premise is brilliant and I think it definitely has a lot of potential.

The world described in this book is quite complex, it is set in Paris around the time of the French Revolution in which there are several criminal organisations known as Guilds that run under the surface. I really liked the blending of history with a typical fantasy world and I liked learning all about the different Guilds, what they do, and who they are. Though the story itself didn't really have many fantasy elements, the world it was set it definitely had an urban fantasy vibe.

I generally liked the different ways that the characters and storylines from Les Mis were used throughout the book and the roles that they played within the story, especially with Ettie (Cosette) and with the students like Grantaire and Feuilly. However, I felt that a lot of the characters deviations from their original counterparts didn't feel right. Valjean felt extremely cold and disconnected, St. Juste (Enjolras) seemed to lose some of his neverending drive and I cannot get over him being given the surname St. Juste.

I'm glad there was very minimal romance in the book, but I felt like it was very forced and straight. Nina herself has implied romantic storylines with 3 different boys that was completely unnecessary. Another romance implied later in the book with other characters had the same issues. 

Overall, I did enjoy reading most of the book and I think that Nina is a great character to read about. She is really clever and will do whatever it takes to protect the people she loves and to do what she thinks is right. I had some issues with the book, but I think it has a lot of potential and I am open to reading the sequel.

Dark and captivating, this alt-history story is a rich tapestry with a believable, sympathetic character in Cat. Her interest in protecting her sister makes the story real.

I had a copy of this book early through Netgalley.

This is a story of a fictional France where the revolution never succeeded and the characters of Les Miserables walk the streets. Where the Court of Miracles is a real institution with laws, and lords and ladies. The use of fables within the book and on occasion a certain stateliness of language helps to set the period. The way words are used is clever as well – Robespierre the Incorruptible who was a martyr immediately conjures a different man to the historical Sea Green Incorruptible although they both died on the guillotine.

The phrase, ′Pay it forward′ in real life usually refers to a kindness, but in this book an underlying theme seems to be that cruelty is paid forward. The failed revolutionaries of 1789 died as martyrs, but not before they torture Louis XVII as a child, and that child grows up to be a tyrant. A child is sold to a slaver, and grows up to shackle others. But this makes the book seem very grim and instead it is a fast-paced adventure where there is kindness and loyalty. The Black Cat who is the protagonist of the story is fun to be with and uses her particular talents to drive the plot, but I was also fond of Ettie who has a tender heart which is also an advantage in some situations.

If you know something about French history or Les Miserables then there is a delight in seeing how things have changed, but even without that pre-knowledge you could pick this book up as a straight fantasy and still enjoy it. I think other books are going to follow in the series but it is completely self-contained as a standalone story.

Ive had this book on my radar for a few months and i was so happy when netgalley allowed me to have an arc. However i was so disappointed with this book. Dont get me wrong i liked the characters and i was intrigued to see how the plot would play out but it was not executed well enough for me to enjoy it. It was a bad retelling of Les Miserables and i hate the fact that i didnt like it.

Thanks to Harper Collins UK and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm aware that there has been quite a lot of hype about this book on Book Twitter and other social media and my interest was further piqued when I read the synopsis. You can think about this book as something between a retelling of Les Miserables mixed with a story about post-revolutionary France in an alternate reality where the revolutionaries lost, and the French monarchy is still very much in place…yup. There’s supposed to be some tie in with The Jungle Book too apparently but that passed me by completely.

The main character is the famously friendzoned Eponine, or Nina as she is generally called in this book. She inhabits a Paris split into Daywalkers and Nightwalkers (there is no weird vampire stuff here, don’t worry). Daywalkers are essentially normal people and Nightwalkers have aligned themselves with the dark underbelly of Paris which is made up of a number of different guilds. There is a Thieves Guild, an Assassins Guild, a “Flesh” guild (the sex trade) amongst others. At an early age Nina's sister is sold off to the Guild of Flesh by her father (who is just as awful in this book as he is in the original novel) so for her own safety, Nina is initiated into the Thieves guild as a child and over time becomes the Black Cat - a master thief.

A lot of the criticism I have seen levelled at this book has to do with the fact that we don't get to read about Nina’s childhood training in the Thieves Guild and we are supposed to just accept that she is an amazing thief. This wasn't something that bothered me personally, and I was actually quite glad we didn't have to have some kind of dull childhood training montage to explain how she became a master thief. She just is, and that’s ok with me.

The setting of 19th century Paris was portrayed really effectively, and it was clear the author had done her research or knows Paris really well. It was fun to imagine an alternate history for some of the most famous Parisian landmarks like the Tuilleries Palace and the Catacombs. I liked the easter eggs and cameos of famous figures from French Revolutionary history which adds another level of interest for anyone who enjoys learning about this period of history.

I also liked the relationships Nina had with the other characters, particularly with Cosette. The romantic entanglements were relatively slow burn and best of all forget love triangles, in this book we get a love SQUARE.

The plot is fast paced with lots of action, excitement and twists and turns. The main antagonist was genuinely disturbing and awful without being completely one dimensional. There were some continuity and timeline errors in the sense that the book mentioned things like Faberge Eggs which were not invented by this period and there were a few other little things like that which niggled a bit to read but no biggie.

This book had interesting characters, a fast-paced plot and I thought the Guild setup was pretty cool although a little confusing sometimes. It is by no means perfect, but I had a hell of a lot of fun reading it and I will definitely be picking up any sequels. There have been quite a lot of French inspired books recently such as Serpent and Dove and Enchantee but this book is definitely one of the better ones.

This book is beautiful and brilliantly written. I loved it, atmospheric and lyrical this book really is something different. I’d like to write a lot more, but this is a story best read ‘cold’ wIth no prior knowledge of the storyline...so I’ll just say read it!

Crazy, original, unique and incredible Story, I absolutely loved this book! Set in an alternative Paris, the revolution has failed and now this glorious city is divided into Royalty and the mass of the underclass. These wretches have banded themselves into nine Guilds, under the umbrella of The Court of Miracles. These Guilds comprise of the Thieves, Beggars, Assassins,Gamblers,Mercenaries,Smugglers,Prostitutes,
Opium Eaters and Men of Letters. Each guild has a leader, dedicated followers and a law of behaviour and codes to follow. At times, this reads like a twisted morality tale, but it is the continual fight between good and evil that is the central tenet. Anything that can mix the story about Mice and Les Miserables, is a sure winner!.
Nina is the narrator, a young feisty fighter, concerned with finding her sister who has been sold into the guild of flesh, by their father. Lord Kaplan, who rules this group is terrifying, yet, throughout we read hints of a sad beginning to his young life, and we guess that he wishes revenge upon the Court of Miracles for a wrong done to him. Revenge and justice shine throughout this enjoyable, yet gruesome romp, and I was cheering all the way! Nina certainly has the required killer instincts, and I hope these will be explored further in other books that must surely come in this series!!
I love the descriptions and the usage of names in this book. Charlotte Corday as the leader of the Assassins guild, that’s too delicious for words!! The rescue and escape from The Grand Chatelet, was rich in all senses of the word. The mere mention of Jean Valjean, provoked singing of the lyrics of that fine film, Les Miserables, and the revolutionaries at the barricades, likewise.
A remarkable book, full of likeable people. Nina, brave and loyal. Femi who swore an oath to protect Nina, that he absolutely adhered to. I loved the hapless St. Juste, always getting into drunken troubles, having no sense of self preservation, and a nicely sense of inflated ego.
The hypnotist at the Royal ball and the subsequent boiling of hands was different, and the young Dauphin was rather sweet, if rather naive. The descriptions of the French Patisseries were sublime, I could almost taste them!
In short, mere words have a hard job to describe this wonderful novel. The sort of book where you want to both find out what happens, but don’t want it to finish. When do we want the next one? Why, yesterday, of course! A five star read in every sense. Such ingenuity and delight in every page. I heartily recommend this book, and intend to buy this for my daughter when published. I would run this by my eldest grandson, but when I tried to give him a book I had enjoyed as a child, he just looked up and said, Did you have books when you were a little girl Nana?, and I’m only mid sixties!! Read and enjoy, and spread the love for this novel.

# The Court of Miracles - Review

If you haven’t heard of this book where have you been? It feels like suddenly one day this book popped up looking stunning and took the book world (from where I could see it) by storm. Suddenly the arc was one of the most looked for, for a while and then waterstones, illumicrate AND goldsboro books announced the most stunning editions of this book. So with all this hype around it three questions arose, 1) This has to be a great book right? 2) How on earth did you manage to get an eARC Ben? 3) Will it fall victim to over hyping? I’m going to answer all three of these questions hopefully and you’ll be able to see if this is the book for you.

In Short: Heists + Secret Underground Courts + Mystery + Intrigue + Revolutionary France = The Court of Miracles

I really enjoyed this book. It took me just over a day to finish it and even then I still wanted more. I can see this being an absolutely stunning trilogy so I can’t wait to see what the next book has in store for us. We’re chucked face first into this seedy, criminal underworld split into 9 different guilds of which we mainly focus on 3 out of the 9 guilds. I really hope we get to see more of the different guilds throughout the trilogy because it’s such an interesting premise and plot, I just hope it reaches it’s full potential.

I have to admit this is a pretty good book. Not even that it’s just shy of stunning but it does have a few little quirks that drag it down, not many but enough to annoying at times. The Court of Miracles starts of really strong by throwing you straight into the action. You’re met with a young girl whose life is about to turn upside down and it’s enthralling and gripping until you reach the end of part one and you approach a time jump. That’s one of my only gripes with this book and it all stems from how it tackles moving forward in time. You start off in 1823, go to 1829, go to 1832 but it’s only made clear by mentioning the dates and it felt very much jerky.

I didn’t even realise a time jump had happened and had to go back a few pages to figure out if it was a new perspective to something. But it took me a second to realise that it had moved on 6 years because it didn’t say “6 years on” or anything, just literally 1829 as if it expected me to remember after 4/5 chapters what year we were in and assume a jump. Because of this after each jump I felt momentarily taken out of the story as I was left to figure out if i’d missed something again (I had).

Though if you take away that one tiny negative the book shines. If for example as I did you think of these as 4 little short stories that link up into one big narrative it’s bloody excellent. Each part has a heist of it’s own and for that I love it. When I first heard about it everyone was comparing to six of crows but in reality it’s nothing like six of crows apart from it involves heists. I love the way heists are set up in this book, each part has a little bit of set up and then BAM heist time. Sometimes they feel slightly rushed but overall you come because of the setting and story and you stay because of the heists.

It’s a fun book, it’s a book that totally does deserve the praise it’s getting but it also does fall victim to the hype train. All these stores doing different special editions of this book? Great right? But then it kind of sets you up for something incredible like you expect this grand book to end all books kind of situation. Though it’s not that, it’s an extremely enjoyable story with dark twists and turns that deserves this light that’s being shone on it but then at the same time you also need to remember books aren’t perfect they all have flaws as well.

All in all, I hope you’re leaving here with a balanced view of this book, because in reality it’s great but I don’t think it can be as great as the hype that surrounds it. You should totally read it and I hope you’ll love it just as much as I did, but personally to do that it feels like you need to take it at face value. It's a book set in the French Revolution which has many dark twists and turns. It also has some really fun heist scenes which actually make the book so good. It’s not six of crows in France. It is its own thing, it’s great on its own but it just starts to fall down when you compare it to all these huge books.

(3.5/4 stars)

REASON TO READ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Lushly realised, Intoxicating debut #fantasybook inspired by Les Misérables. Full to the brim with interesting, multi layered characters and a story packed with action and intrigue that will leave you wanting more.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
REVIEW⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I have said it before but we are living in a golden age of #fantasybooks. There are amazing stories from many different perspectives that are starting to break down the barriers of race and gender to tell amazing relevant stories. #TheCourtofMiracles, debut novel from Kester Grant is in this bracket. It sets itself a mammoth task of reimagining the classic novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, it swings hard and strikes big. This book is without a doubt one of the fantasy debuts of the year. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The book is subtly influenced by Les Misérables. It’s a slow build, but worth the wait. It takes the ‘what if’ the revolution failed approach and moves its story forward in an alternate history, where the royalty survived and are viscous and cruel and the streets are ruled by the Court of Miracles a collection of multiple criminal guilds including thieves, assassins, whores and more.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The books protagonists are Victor Hugo characters Eponine and Collette - Nina (thief) and Ettie (sold by her father to the Court of Miracles) here. It’s through their eyes that we explore this beautifully detailed world and experience their many trials that change both of these characters by the books end.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Stunning debut. Can 2020 get any better ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of five⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

2.5/5

It had a really strong start and I did like the fact that it was a retelling of Les Miserables. I liked the idea of the guilds and assassins and thieves. However, this book lacked a lot.

It lacked originality -- the characters literally had the same names and the exact same events happened to many of them as happened in the original story. There was a lack of historical accuracy -- Fabergé eggs were mentioned, which were part of the Russian royal family, not the French royal family. Fabergé himself wasn't born until 1846, yet this book ends in 1839. There was no suggestion that this was a magical fantasy book, more so an action-adventure historical fiction hybrid, so the inclusion of hypnosis from a mesmeriser was a little strange.

The first third or so was really promising, but it went downhill after that. I found myself bored with confusing plots and three different forced romantic ploots that would not have made much sense. I'm sad that this didn't work for me as I had high hopes! I highly commend and appreciate the concept itself; I just don't think the writing or the execution of it was the best it could have been.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Voyager for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed were my own.

The Court of Miracles, a retelling of Les Miserables mixed up with a touch of The Jungle Book. It follows Eponine (Nina) as she tries desperately to protect her sister from the Tiger, leader of the Guild of Flesh. To do so, she becomes embroiled with the other criminal underground guilds, mixes with royalty, and winds up in amongst plans for revolution.

When I first head about this book, I was instantly drawn to it, if just out of curiosity. I love Les Miserables and could not get my head around a blending of that and The Jungle Book, so was very much interested in seeing what it would end up being like. In the end, what intrigued me the most on first hearing about the book ended up being the weakest part for me.

There was so much to enjoy in The Court of Miracles. Nina was a brilliant character from the start and there was a large number of other intriguing characters, from guild members, to students, to royalty, that she interacts with. Watching her navigate her way through the various societies she encounters, and the problems and dangers she faced really kept me turning the pages.

Unfortunately, I did spend a large amount of time trying to figure out which characters matched up with which from Les Miserables and The Jungle Book, as well as how the story was going to tie in those. It was fascinating to see how those two stories were blended into this one, but I also felt that their presence detracted from the heart of this book. The characters and general plot essence were different enough that the The Court of Miracles could have stood on its own without them, and where it did try to tie in, those scenes ended up feeling a bit forced or unbelievable.

Aside from that, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The story was captivating and the world was so intriguing, I kept wanting to find out more about the various guilds and how everything connected to one another. Kester Grant did a brilliant job of weaving together the story with the historical setting and events. The writing was evocative and really drew me in. This is apparently the first book in a trilogy, but it also works well as a standalone in its own right.

Having not read either Les Miserables or Six of Crows I wasn't sure what to expect of this novel. For me it felt quite disjointed in places, and while it was nice for a plot not to have romance at the centre this storyline still fell somewhat flat for me.

Sometimes we must pay a terrible price to protect the things we love.”

Court of Miracles pretty much hits the ground running, part 1 of the book is only around 16% and yet SO much happens! When we first meet Nina she is living in her fathers Tavern with her sister Azelma, a sister who usually loving has all of a sudden distanced herself. We find out the reason for this and what happens sets into motion a chain of events that no one could predict. Nina is whisked away to the underworld of Paris and swears herself to the Lord of Thieves becoming his Black Cat. Her journey takes her to the world of revolutionaries, day-walkers, people who a generally unaware of the criminal underground and who the guilds have little do do with; and the Palace to the side of the Dauphin himself. She makes herself invaluable to those around her racking in debts along the way, so when the time comes her wishes might just be granted, and her one chance to rescue her sister will depend on those debts being called in.

“Escape my Lord? I’m the Cat of the Thieves Guild.’ I smile in the darkness. ‘I’m here to steal you.’

Like I said above the book certainly starts with a bang and what follows can only be described as a big ass fire work display. A lot happens over the course of this book and though it is massively character driven the author still manages to put together a plot that will keep you hooked to the page. She gives you the revolutionary Paris that fans of Les Miserable will know and love, but adds to it an underground filled with guilds for thieves, beggars, assassins, mercenaries, smugglers, prostitutes, opium eaters and men of letters. I really enjoyed the parts of the book where we got a deeper insight into the guild, and I thought the author balanced the plot and the history of her world beautifully. We get little insights into how the court was started and how the current Lords and Lady’s came to be in power, and at the same time the author manages to foreshadow future events and the amount of times I found myself turning back pages, wondering how I hadn’t seen certain plot points coming is innumerable. Les Mis fans will appreciate the little Easter eggs the author plants with well known characters and plot lines but she puts her own twist on it making it less on the nose than some would think.

“I’m no woman, no girl. I’ve no blood father or home or any of the false cards this life dealt me. I chose who I am; I’m the Black Cat. A daughter of this city. A Child of Tomasis, Lord of the thieves guild. No one can take anything else from me because the Tiger already took it. And I’m going to get it back.”

The characters make the book. It might only be told from Nina’s perspective but through her time with the guilds, revolutionaries and Royalty we get introduced to a whole host of side characters that the author completely brings to life. It is rare for a book to contain so many pivotal characters without loosing any of their essence but, though I do love Nina, my favourites were some of the side characters that we get to interact with through her eyes. Nina was brilliantly written. She oozes a kind of honour and strength that unknowingly attracts people to her. She racks in debt after debt by simply doing the right thing, even if the reasoning behind it isn’t always as faultless. Her only aim in life is to bring her sister safely home and she will do literally anything to achieve that. The other what I would class as ‘main character’ was Ettie. She was lovable and slightly naive and my only chagrin is that we don’t really get to fully appreciate her character growth as so much of it happens off page. The author kind of forgoes world building to give her characters the page time they deserve and trust me… you will fall in love with them all.

” You know we can’t survive this Ettie.’ I say softly. ‘Then we die together.’ She replies shaking out her curls defiantly.’ I’d rather live one glorious night hunting by your side, Nina Thenadier, than a hundred lifetimes without you.”

Relationships play a huge part in this book. Whether they are familial love, friendships, unsure alliances or romantic. The main relationship we get an insight to is that of Nina and Ettie. Nina would do anything to protect sweet and innocent Ettie after she catches the Eye of the Tiger and their sibling style relationship was a pleasure to follow throughout the book. Nina also makes some truly bizarre friends and unlikely alliances throughout the book, some of which had me laughing out loud for their absurdity. Romance wise this book contained very little of it, despite Ettie wanting to set Nina up with any boy who looks at her. There are three boys who the author eludes could be future romantic partners, and I know who my favourite is, but Nina has bigger things on her plate and I liked how the author kept her away from being the simpering girl in love with every boy in her life.

“I’ve never been able to fight your battles. I’ve not been able to lift my hand to protect you. I cannot risk dragging my guild into this war.’ His eyes are burning with emotion. ‘But if he kills you, I’ll take his head from his body and i’ll sit it on a pike in the middle of the Lords’ table in the Miracle Court and none will ever take it down. There it will rot, the worms will eat it to bone, and all who see it will remember you.’ His voice breaks.’ Even if Corday asks my life of me in return, I’ll do it I swear.”

The plot twists in the book made me dizzy, honestly so many times I thought I knew where the story was going and then bam! Plot twist. In most cases the author places hints for those savvy enough to notice them, but they completely took me by surprise. I’ve already mentioned that the plot is fast paced, and because of how much happens it is hard to talk about without giving away any major spoilers. I would say that if I hadn’t already known this book was part one in a series I wouldn’t have guessed it from the ending. And what an ending it was, I was glued to the pages and flew through the last 30% or so. There were some plot points left open but it was a little too neatly tied in a bow for me to get a good idea of where book two will be going. I would love for the second book to be multi perspective, simply because of all the amazing characters we get introduced too and will eagerly be awaiting its arrival

This novel is a re-imagining of Les Misérables if the French Revolution didn’t happen. It stars some of the most iconic characters with their lives portrayed in a different manner. However, there are some similarities with relationships.

I asked myself, would I want to read a book that re-imagines Les Misérables? I did, but I was constantly making comparisons with the characters originally created by Victor Hugo. As I continued to read on, it helped that the characters where often referred to by ‘nicknames’ which in turn made it much easier to avoid those comparisons.

The characters in this novel are lovely and developed nicely, the writing is paced right depicting the events wonderfully. The era and time were depicted beautifully, and I felt the dark undertones of Paris so perfectly that I was swept up in the streets along with Nina and the other characters.

As I read this novel, I had a constant musical monologue of the songs from the stage musical adaptation running through my head. Which delighted me immensely. If you are a huge fan of Les Misérables then this novel is the perfect read. Sing with me, “Do you hear the people sing…”

I attempted to read the original, unabridged version of Les Miserables at the beginning of this year and gave up at 37%. Bizarrely this book starts at that same point - with a young girl carrying a heavy bucket of water back to the inn which is run by her abusive father. I wasn't sure whether I would enjoy this book as I wasn;t aware of the Les Mis link when I requested the title. But it is an enthralling story, well written and fast paced with some excellent charcters. I loved the reimagining of Javert. I highly recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction, fantasy and sometihng to take your mind off of the every day. And the cover is just gorgeous. With thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review a free e-ARC.

An updated Les Misérables with some wonderful sisterhood relationships at its heart... but how do you make a 21st century book less queer than its 19th century source?




Ah, Les Misérables. Decades before Hamilton was making musical revolutionaries cool for middle-class theatregoers, we had the all-singing all-dancing French Revolution June Rebellion of 1932, and quite some time before that we had Victor Hugo's Heckin' Chonker of a meditation on the nature of poverty, love, redemption, and oh my god so many pages about the daily lives of nuns. Now, bursting in to shake up Hugo's rich cast of characters comes debut author Kester Grant, with a book which imagines what the cast of Les Mis (at least, the ones who make it to 1932... sorry Fantine) might be getting up to in an alternate world where the French revolution failed and the "Court of Miracles" - the mythical shadow government said to over Paris' underclasses and which Anglo readers may only recognise from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (hey, also based on a Victor Hugo thing!) - plays a huge role in many people's lives. At the centre of this is Éponine, daughter of Les Misérables' most unpleasant and opportunistic criminal, whose canon position between the two worlds of the narrative makes her perfect for this new imagining.

Alternate history aside, the biggest shift that The Court of Miracles makes is this focus on Éponine (called "Nina" here), and in removing the character of Marius, on whom she wastes most of her adult emotional energy in the original. Instead, the focus is on Nina's relationships with her sisters, and her growing antagonism with Kaplan, "The Tiger", a slaver who has taken over one of the court's Guilds and is now using it to buy women who catch his eye. When Nina's father Thénardier decides to sell his older daughter Azelma, her last act is to buy Nina the protection of the Thieves' guild through her connection to the Court's Messenger, Femi. Passing the test for entry with ease, Nina starts making a name for herself and widening her circle of contacts and influences within the Court's guilds, but she never gives up on rescuing her sister - and, when a botched attempt at doing so leads to her meeting Ettie (i.e. Cosette), she takes the younger girl under her wing as well. Her adventures also take her into the palace, where she meets and captivates the Dauphin; and into the orbit of a group of students led by the exiled Enjolras St Juste.

Aside from the obvious Les Misérables parallels, Grant also points to strong influences from the Jungle Book in the text, particularly when it comes to the history and mythology of the Court. Interspersed within the narrative are tales about the historical conflict between Ysengrim and Reynard - characters who also make an appearance in the book's in-universe swears - and an allegorical story of mice and snakes representing the failed revolution forms a key plot point in Nina's most notably in The Tiger as well as some of the other characters within the Court. It's the interactions between these two elements, and the new dynamics introduced here, that provide a lot of the novelty in The Court of Miracles, and set it apart from being a straightforward alternate universe fic.

Nina herself benefits hugely from this new framing, which gives her a "home turf" that isn't simply avoiding the worst excesses of her criminal father and offering her at least a couple of connections that she can make on an equal footing, which in turn strengthens how her less equal relationships with the students and the nobility play out. Grant takes Éponine's hopeless devotion and transforms it from a tragic flaw, directed at a boy who never does much to deserve it, into the foundation for a morally complex but ultimately relatable hero, who puts all of her cunning and skill at the disposal of sisters who she can be assured would do the same for her. The other major change is Cosette, who is significantly younger than Nina in this version and becomes just as invested in her adoptive sister's safety and wellbeing, as well as getting some of her own fun quirks and moments of glory.

The strength of the bonds between women in The Court of Miracles are highly welcome (like, they can actually talk to each other without dying or dishing out abuse!), but there are relationship tweaks that I liked a whole lot less. Foremost among them is the removal of huge swathes of canonically queer subtext from male characters in the original story, lea. Over the course of the story, Nina has not one, not two, but three boys swooning over her, including the Dauphin (who kind of replaces Marius by being a lonely thoughtful-but-privileged twit who is far too ready to fall in love with girls after five seconds in their presence), Montparnasse (here a master of the Assassin's Guild and actually kinda cool) and (prepare yourself) Enjolras St Juste. Yes, that's the Enjolras who, in Hugo's canon, is specifically said to not be interested in women and to love nothing but the revolution, while his buddy Grantaire cares about nothing but him.

Instead, in The Court of Miracles there's nothing textual to suggest Grantaire's feelings for St Juste go beyond camaraderie, while St Juste himself is all up in the "YA love interest" tropes with Nina. Does he stand too close to her in order to earnestly express his political ambitions while she gets distracted by his closeness? Yes! Does someone walk in on them sneaking around a party so they have to pretend they snuck away to make out? YEP. To not put too fine a point on it, St Juste's arc here very much reads as straightwashing, and I don't think a reversal in later books is going to change how problematic this is. On top of that, there's also the decision to genderbend Inspector Javert and then heavily hint that she and Valjean were formerly lovers and that her obsession with bringing him to justice is her response to being jilted. Given that the Court of Miracles is allegedly invested in showing a more diverse version of Paris, and Nina herself is a woman of colour, the removal of all queer content - and this is a removal, since there is less here than in a novel from 1862 - is a bizarre and disappointing choice.

And this is a particular shame because The Court of Miracles is otherwise a great experience - intense, action-packed, full of difficult choices and moral grey that still leaves the reader with characters to root for, and above all super engaging. That makes it a hard book to sum up for me - I'm sure for plenty of readers, the straightwashing won't really figure in their experience (it's just a few scenes after all! And the sister relationships are so wonderful!) and, for readers without knowledge of the source work, specifically the novel, the lack of queer content isn't going to be more than a not-unexpected annoyance. At the end of the day, though, I did not plough through hundreds of pages of translated classic literature to see het!Enjolras swoon over Éponine and Javert turned into Valjean's jealous female ex. In 2020. To which I can only conclude: what the heck, Court of Miracles?

Thank you to Netgalley, Harper Collins and Kester Grant for my arc of The Court of Miracles in exchange for an honest review. 

Synopsis: described as Les Mis meets Six of Crows. The story of young thief Nina and her quest to right the wrongs of the city of Paris in an alternate world in 1828. The city is divided between mercenaries and nobles and at the centre sits the Court of Miracles a band of guilds who deal in anything from thievery to murder. But when Nina's father sells her sister to the notorious tiger of the house of flesh, she becomes intent on revenge, whatever the cost.

Review: this was one of my most anticipated books for 2020 but unfortunately it fell really flat. First up the genre feels so undefined, the Les Mis references are thrown in, in an odd and disjointed way and I'm unsure why it's listed as 'sci fi and fantasy' when there is no fantasy element, it is more of a retelling of Les Mis in an alternative history. I did like Nina's character but a lot of the book overall felt quite far fetched for example the way she was able to escape many things that someone her size should not have got away with such as serious beatings. I think my main issue was that the plot didn't seem to be driven by anything and there were some historical inaccuracies, it just didn't get exciting or fast paced at any point.