First, I would like to thank HarperCollins for an ARC of "The Court of Miracles", which caught my attention due to the cover image and synopsis. This review will go over my first impressions of reading this book.

I would give this book a ranking of 4/5. I will try not to add any spoilers and so will be vague as possible.

So, The Court of Miracles is set in an alternate universe based around Les Misérables with a multitude a reference to The Jungle Book – which I found myself enjoying. The main character is Eponine, a young thief who wishes to protect her adoptive younger sister; Cosette, from the predilections of The Tiger, a reference to Shere Khan, after her older sister was sold to him years previously. This vow means that she has to contend with the various lords of the underworld court as well as the royal court of Louis XVII.

What I liked about this book are the adaptions of the characters; Eponine is a skilled thief known as the Black Cat, a ferocious and cunning young woman. Her father Thénardier is a well-known, unlikable recruiter for the Thief's Guild, Valjean is a convict turned spy and Javert is a female inspector, both of whom pasts are even more fraught than before. I find myself enjoying these takes on the characters, especially Eponine, who had a rather tragic minor role in the original.

I liked the brutal aspects of the animal kingdom that intertwined with the bloody underworld of a post failed revolution and the consequences of such. The creation of a fascinating guild system, with the backstabbing and jockeying that come with it was a nice touch.

I also enjoyed the decisions that Eponine has to make that are rooted in her morality. Still, it is more personable with the dichotomy between her desire for revenge for her older sister and her need to protect her younger, naive sister. Her actions to fulfill these needs could spark a war between the lords of the guilds, as well as another attempt at revolution against the crown, despite her growing friendship with the young, lonely heir to the throne, whom she stole from years earlier.

Overall I very much enjoyed reading this book; I took my time with it and immersed myself into the well-created world. I would reread this book, and I plan to buy a physical copy of the book to add to my bookshelf.

This was one of my most anticipated reads for this year and I’m so glad to say that I was not disappointed.

This is a retelling of Les Misérables and I’d say it would be best to go into this with at least some knowledge of the story in order to better understand some of these characters and their significance.

Talking about characters, I loved the characters in this. There is a large cast of characters, despite this all of the characters have their own personality and I never once got confused about who was who. Nina is a great protagonist and her relationship with Ettie and the lengths she was willing to go to protect her is what really made this book for me.

The world building was also really well done and I loved learning more about the Court of Miracles and each of the different guilds that make it up.

I will say it was very slow going in the beginning and it took awhile for me to really get into the plot however once I did I fell in love with it. And the ending of this was so good and I can’t wait of the sequel.

Overall, this book did not disappoint and I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Trigger warnings for: abuse, poverty, drug misuse, slavery, prostitution

4.5 Stars

Oh this was gorgeous. I do love a book that is filled with rich world building and the Guilds of the Court of Miracles are just jam packed. We get so much of the history and workings of the Court of miracles, they are spooky and secretive, each is distinctive. I really could have just read a whole book on just the information of the Guilds and been happy. But The Court of Miracles layers a interesting and action packed plot on top of all this lush world building.

I should mention that while this has been burbled as a Les Miserables retelling I have never read nor seen a production of it so I have no knowledge as to how faithful or inventive this has been in it telling. I am only familiar with some character names, so I will not be commenting on how it holds up to Les Mis.

I adored the writing style of this book, old from the perspective of Nina, interwoven with quotes from the jungle book and folk tales from those members of the Court of Miracles, it has a direct and straight forward manages to keep interest effortlessly without info-dumping. It is bolstered by sumptuous descriptions and a fascinatingly interesting court of characters.

The characters have real depth. They are complex and detailed with range of emotion instead of fitting in the neat boxes. They all have their quirks, ambitions and faults which made them so captivating to read about. But Oh the Guilds. The truly are character in there own right. The political system surrounding them is complex yet easy to pick up on and be engrossed in.

The plot is just as dynamic as the characters. With a couple of twists that left me gasping. We have heists, political intrigue, murder plots, revolution etc. However, all this means there are a number of time skips. These are not always that smooth. In the beginning they are quite dramatic and read almost like a perspective change so I did find it a little difficult to get into the plot at the start.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book! I always say there are not enough good heist books. I love a good heist and this book is filled with quite a few. I am looking forward to reading more in the Court of Miracles.

I was absorbed instantly from the first pages of this book. I instantly felt the six of crows vibes that have been advertised by the publishers too. I absolutely love the mystery that opens this book and I can already sense the sisters love and desire to protect one another, the sister Azelma, is definitely fierce and the one to watch. What I felt was a little frustrating was the untranslated french, this isn't a language everyone will understand and may frustrate some readers. Although this is a novel inspired by Les Miserables and set in France, I feel some simple translations would be welcomed and wouldn't detract from the overall story. However, I am super excited to read this book in full when it is finally available and published, I cannot wait to see where the mystery leads and the authors inspired interpretation of Les Miserables.

1828 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙯𝙚𝙣𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙢𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙣 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙪𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣. 𝘼𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢, 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙮𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙧𝙪𝙢𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙙𝙧𝙖𝙡𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙞𝙩𝙮, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙬𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙜𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙨, 𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙨 – 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙚. 𝙏𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙖𝙨 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙈𝙞𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙨.

I was so excited when I was approved to review the e-arc for my most anticipated releases of the year. However, I feel like this Lès Mis retelling was so hyped up in my head that it just didn't hit the mark for me.

Pretty much from start to finish, the story was action packed but almost to the point where there's was so much going on I had to go back and re-read parts due to confusion!

Overall, I feel that "Lès Mis meets Six of Crows" was an accurate description but a lot to live up to! I also couldn't help but begin to draw similarities between Nina and Mia from Jay Kristoff's Nevernight trilogy.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed following Nina and Ettie as they matured and I really liked Kester Grant's writing style so would happily pick up her next book!

The revolution has failed. Paris is a dark and lawless place. To protect themselves the city’s wretched have gathered into guilds of thieves, smugglers, assassins – and worse. Together they form the Miracle Court. When Nina’s sister is stolen by one of their cruellest Lords she joins the Thieves Guild to get her back. And there she learns that even the wretched have rules. She’ll break every one of those rules to get her sister back. Even if it tears the Miracle Court apart.

While I read this, I kept feeling a strong sense of familiarity - it has a strong vibe of 'Six of Crows' by Sarah J Maas and if you liked that series then you will also enjoy Court of MIracles. The characters from Les Miserables in an alternate reality where the French Revolution failed and the monarchy survived. There are Parisian gutters. dark attics, fetid jails., thieves, assassins, palaces and princes in this story and I enjoyed every minute of it.

I love and adore Les Mis so a Court of Miracles being a retelling of that beloved story was a no brainer.  Although how exactly it is a retelling of The Jungle Book I was not entirely sure... But also add into the mix that a gorgeous cover and I knew that I was in for a treat.

I love that Eponine is the main character or Nina as she is called here. She is my favourite in Les Mis and she had a raw deal there so I cannot wait to see her shine. Also there is no Marius (as of yet!) which is a good thing as he was quite pathetic. But as this is a retelling he will probably be back at some point... And because it is a retelling there are some differences which are amazing!

One thing that really bugged me was the moving forward in time. While it was obvious from the way that we had part one and part two. It also felt obvious that we had missed something vital in the story. Or at least in how Nina had developed. And it then could take a couple of pages to reorientate back to the story.  Honestly, it should have made sense but for me it did not quite work. Basically I needed to know every little detail of Nina's life.

But in the parts I did get to read about, it was very detailed and I adored the rich world. There were times when I wanted to give Nina hug as she was ignored by people for the colour of her skin. Although she did use it to her advantage in the most spectacular way.

By the end of Court of Miracles I was part of Nina world. I was invested. I needed to know how she would get the upper hand and succeed. And how this ended was clever! And I am so excited to read the next book and see what will happen in the next adventure.

Fact mixed in with fiction, with a dash of mystic, some royals who need taking down a peg or two and lashing of adventures, the Court of Miracles is one place you want to be. For a price.

I adored this book and immediately pre-ordered it. So, so good and clever and I need a sequel asap.
I loved the ideas, the little snippets of Les Mis (a favourite of mine) and how it was all put together. Merci!

**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

Described as a Les Mis meets The Jungle Book retelling with a Six of Crows vibe, The Court of Miracles immediately caught my interest. The story is set in an alternate post revolution Paris, and follows a young thief (Eponine/Nina) as she does all in her power to save her step-sister (Cosette/Ettie) from both the Royals in charge of the city and the leaders of the criminal underworld of which they are a part of.

Unfortunately I had to put this book down just under halfway through. I lost interest and I feel like the problems I found stemmed from the fact that the author had too many ideas that they were trying to include in the story.

The first 30% or so of the book was pretty much a massive info-dump where the Nina was being paraded around the various Guilds that made up the criminal underworld. This was done in a tell not show manner, with Nina hardly even getting in a word to express her thoughts and feelings regarding it all. There were characters and elements of the Court being introduced left, right and centre and quite often this was a name drop that would be explained later. (Much confusion.) Also most of the supporting characters felt very 2-dimensional - the motivations behind their actions were unexplained and at times they popped up in scenes out of nowhere?

With regards to Nina, I couldn’t really get behind her actions fully either. I mean when it came to her wanting to protect her step-sister, Nina was at fault for putting her in any danger in the first place! And she was doing so as a way to save her actual sister – whom she almost immediately forgot about after choosing to save Ettie. This just felt pointless to me and added to the confusion.

I felt the writing was also a little too flowery at times, though it was easy enough to follow and did well to set the atmosphere. I did really love the concept behind this world the author has created and there were hints of a plot beginning to form at the beginning of Part 3 – I just wasn’t invested enough to see the story through to the end.

DNFed at 46%

This clever, fast-paced novel kept me on my toes and utterly transported me. Well done indeed, and thank you for the ARC!

First in a trilogy and can’t wait for the next
Based onthe Victor Hugo book Les Miserables but to my mind so much better
Utilising the characters from Hugo,s book we are drawn into the under belly of post revolution Paris and taken on an amazing journey as seen through the eyes of our heroine Cat.
Absolutely brilliant

I'm very grateful to have received this eArc in exchange for my honest review.

I was first drawn into the book by the cover presented and then as I realised it was a Les Mis retelling I was even more interested!

The Court of Miracles follows a young thief, Nina, also known in the Court as the Black Cat. Through time she had only one goal but to free her sister, Azelma, who had been sold by their father to the Tiger, a man who everyone fears, but now Nina has found another girl with whom she wants to protect, Ette. Nina will do everything in her power to ensure that the Tiger does not take Ette as he once did her sister, even if that means going through terrifying challenges to appease the Lord's of the Court and assist in an uprising with people she was brought up to hate.

This book is full of enriching and captivating scenes of Nina and her journey to become the best and well-known thief in the Court of Miracles. With elements of the original Les is story such as character names and a drawing revolution combined with the effortless descriptions of the lives in which thieves and the impoverished people must live so they can fully survive.

I really loved Nina's character and her determination to protect Ette at all costs, even if it meant doing the impossible. The suitors in which she meets throughout the book had me curious in whether it would ever take a romantic route, which I am glad it did not.

The only problem I had was that the book tended to have a few time skips so I never knew how many years it would have been between one scene and the last, I kept picturing Nina as the girl I remembered from the start because I never knew how much time had past from beginning to end.

Trigger warnings: contains mature themes including human trafficking, sexual slavery and violence towards women and children.

The Court of Miracles is a fascinating, rich and absorbing retelling of Les Misérables which totally lived up to the hype for me. I’m not going to pretend like I wasn’t drawn in by the cover at first since it’s so pretty but luckily, in this case the contents were just as great. The novel follows Nina over a series of years, we first meet her when she is a young girl who has her sister Azelma torn away from her and she is has no other option than to join the underground criminal guild called The Court of Miracles. Through the court she finds a place to belong and a family, as well as plenty of thrilling missions and even meets Dauphine, the handsome young prince of France. The whole time however, she can’t let go of her sister and forges a daring plan to save her, and her new friend Ettie, once for all…

I loved the setting of 18th century Paris and how Kester Grant makes every scene so rich and atmospheric. From the underground world of the guilds and their activities, to the sense of brewing revolution above, it all felt so well realised. I liked that there was so much detail and thought put into all the guilds and how they all had different specialties- there’s a guild of thieves (which Nina belongs to), a guild of letters, a guild of poisons, a guild of assassins and a guild of smugglers and a guild of death.

As well as the atmospheric nature of the novel, I also loved the fact that most of the characters are people of colour, including the main character Nina. I would have liked if there was some more insight into her background though, as it’s sort of ambiguous. I don’t think it’s any secret that so many classic texts or dramas don’t feature any poc characters so I love when authors do unique retellings of these stories and offer a diverse cast of characters which have depth and development. From reading a few questions on the authors site, it’s clear that this choice was intentional and that Grant also used her own experience as a woman of colour, of British-Mauritian descent to comment upon social inequality, in terms of class, race and religion within the book. Read about this here.

I thought the journey Nina goes on as a character was so great and satisfying as well. I feel like a lot of people will say that her arc is unrealistic and that she’s just too good at what she does and she always manages to get away with these risky tasks but I kind of loved that? I loved that she picked up the ropes easily and manages to pull of daring heists and missions, this is fiction after all and I don’t always look for realism here. I also liked that whilst Nina has romantic interests within the book – each of whom I liked for one reason or another – it wasn’t her main focus and so it wasn’t a central focus at all. I feel like any romantic plot line will happen in the next book maybe, which I’m not opposed to.

I also enjoyed how the novel explores the themes of power, revolution and justice. As in reality, there are individuals or institutions which have more privilege and benefit from the work of others; such as the monarchy in the novel who throw lavish parties and stockpile their food whilst the masses in Paris are on the brink of starvation. As well as the monarchy, there is the Tiger lord, who oppresses and enslaves mercilessly and this element was so important and the exploration of how the vicious cycle of abuse can repeat over and over.

Overall, The Court of Miracles was a really great read for me and addictive enough to finish over a couple of days. Since I haven’t read or watched Les Mis, I don’t know how faithful the novel is to certain plot points and where exactly it deviates but from what I do know, the atmosphere, political themes and overall vibe feels true to the original story. I would definitely recommend this if you’re into retellings, in the fantasy and Y/A genres.

Paris, 1828: The French Revolution has failed, and the division between rich and poor is stronger than ever. The Wretched are divided into nine guilds, known as the Court of Miracles. Nina is a member of the Thieves Guild, her sister Ettie is coveted by the notorious Tiger, leader of the Guild of Fleshers. Nina is determined to protect Ettie at all costs, but those costs could end up with the whole Court at war.

The blurb for this describes it as Les Miserables meets Six of Crows. I haven’t read either of those (although they are now on my list), so I can’t make any comments as to the comparisons and whether fans of one will enjoy the other.

I fell in love with this book from the first few pages. Opening up with an intricate map of Paris, followed by a beautiful description of the nine Guilds, and then laws of the Court of Miracles, was a fantastic way to start the book. I read on Kindle, and found that introduction really alluring, and imagine it would be even more so in a physical copy.

Grant wastes no time in getting the action going. We learn Nina’s story in the first few chapters, although it took a while longer for me to work out where the book was going. The book skips forward in time significantly in a couple of places, which did catch me out the first time, but it was explained quickly. I think it works well and gives the author the opportunity to keep the story moving without having long periods of not much happening.

There is a wonderful cast of characters present, hugely diverse and very well characterised. Nina is a brilliant protagonist, she’s smart, fierce and incredibly strong minded. Montparnasse was another favourite of mine, although he is much more mysterious. Lady Corday, St Juste and Thomasis all deserve a mention too. The Queen made my blood boil, and I desperately wanted to see Thenardier get his comeuppance. Regardless of whether they were good guys or bad guys, the whole cast is richly imagined and this is where a lot of the magic of the book comes from.

I don’t read a lot of YA fantasy, I usually find that it isn’t really my thing, but something about this caught my attention on NetGalley and I’m 100% glad I requested it. It’s one of my favourite NetGalley reads for the year, and I will definitely be looking out for the sequel.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperVoyager for an arc in exchange for an honest review

An absolutely cracking read - shame on me for taking so long to get to it! Subtly influenced by Victor Hugo's Les Miserables and capturing the depth and action of Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows, this is a plot driven corker of a book that goes deep into political machinations, class divides and sisterly love. Phenomenal.

I was really excited for The Court of Miracles, but unfortunately, this book wasn't for me.

The plot was interesting enough, but the novel suffered from too many time jumps (from as much as a few weeks to two years) and was very fast-paced because of it: it was hard to find a moment to breathe into the story, so it was hard to process what was happening. For example, Cosette "Ettie" is introduced after one of those time jumps, and I struggled so much to understand her relationship with Eponine "Nina" because the book didn't really take time to establish it. Moreover, due of the time jumps, some elements were kept from the reader because we didn't know what had happened during those time jumps and they were treated as big plot twists, which honestly fell flat for me. Had this book been slower-paced, I probably would have cared more about what was happening, but it is what it is.

I do think the world-building was a great idea though: I liked how the underworld worked in guilds, that twist on the French Revolution was interesting and the author described Paris fairly well. I overall enjoyed the way this book was retelling Les Misérables: some references made me smile, but it was still very much its own story.

I didn't find the characters believable: the book kept repeating how amazing Nina was all the time (so much so that she learnt to pick up locks before she could walk... really?), but I didn't think that scenes in the book showed it that well. She also kept repeating that she was the Black Cat of the Thieves Guild allllll the time and it annoyed me to no end, I had gotten it alright all the other times, thank you very much. I found the rest of the characters to be rather two-dimensional and I had a hard time remembering them from one another because of that. I also cannot believe that Nina had not one, not two, but three love interests and I didn't care for any of them? Yeah, I'll pass.

Overall, this book just wasn't for me and that's okay. I hope others will enjoy it more than I did though, because the premise was interesting.

This book is described as a mix between Les Miserables and Six of Crows and you haven't been promised too much. You get exactly that while reading a unique story .
It took me some time to get into the story and until the end I had the feeling that something big has to happend. This one is the start of a series and I honestly can't wait to dive back in. For me, a book taking place in Paris is always worth to be read. But a book about how people are treated because of where their stand in society, this is even more a reason to read a book!

This was disappointing as this had so much promise and was just not done to my liking. I did like we got to follow Nina and Ettie and the factor of the sisterly relationship was done well but there were too many other areas that just didn't hit it for me. The writing was fine but it was a bit dull and boring in places and it made me not want to continue with it.

Part of my problem with this book is that it has been lauded as so many things. A retelling of Les Miserables, complete with slightly adjusted character names, a re-imagining of The Jungle Book (please tell me where this was - I completely missed it), as well as being likened to Six of Crows (haven't read it - will do at some point), and Caraval (enjoyed it but found it a bit smug). THAT'S TOO MANY THINGS. WHY CAN'T IT JUST BE A BOOK BY ITSELF??

And the problem then for me is that I spend most of the book trying to hold the plot of all these other books and stories that its been likened to in my head, and comparing them with the story. That takes away from my actual enjoyment of the story, as I can't tell whether it is supposed to deviate or emulate the original tale. I enjoy a fairy tale retelling where just one story is the focus, but this ... didn't work for my brain.

I actually really liked the story - of a criminal underworld (that appears to have unlimited power and unlimited poverty - not quite sure of the balance there) where a young woman is fighting to save her sister(s).

Nina herself was good - she was tough and gritty and perfectly fitted the character that I imagined for a cat burglar. She's fiercely protective of her adopted family and out for vengeance on The Tiger, who took her sister by blood.

HOWEVER, Ettie ... Ettie was beautiful and naive and stupid and vain and twittering and everything that is annoying about an attractive air-headed character.  Ettied is Nina's adopted sister and there was a moment early on when Nina considered giving Ettie up to The Tiger as a prize to get her own sister back. If only she had ... because Ettie added very little to the story except for pointing out when she thought men were attracted to Nina.

And obviously the three main male players in this story have a thing for Nina, even when Ettie is SO beautiful...

I'm also a little saddened by how Javert was re-imagined. First, Javert becomes a woman - fine - but the utter complexity of the character is taken away by this choice as Javert becomes more of a fallen woman, out for revenge again Jean Valjean (24601), rather than someone trapped by their own need to follow the law. (There was even a side reference to Javert's fate in Les Mis that made me snort, and then be even more disappointed when nothing came of it). And I don't mind that the story diverted away from these characters, but it took away all of the powerful agency that's normally contained in them. 

I also didn't understand how Javert, as a woman, held a position of rank and authority in this novel when EVERYONE ELSE followed a more 'historical fantasy' approach to women i.e. whores and street thieves.

So yeah, it was fun, and I liked the story itself but, just like the many things that this book was compared with, there were times when the whole narrative felt like three different books pieced together. And personally I would have preferred three books told well rather than one that felt a little cobbled together.

I'd much rather the comparison wasn't there so I could try and enjoy this book in its own right.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I fell in love with the amazing cover and enjoyed the well written story.
It's gripping, entertaining and with a fascinating cast of characters.
I appreciated the interesting world building and I loved how the author recreates an imaginary Paris where the French Revolution never took place.
I liked the fast pace and I liked what I read but I missed a more cohesive plot as it seems it was a series of tasks like in a tv serial. There's a quest and there's a lot of things happening but it takes a while before connecting them.
The characters are well thought and interesting.
Looking forward to reading the next instalment in this series.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.