Cover Image: The Court of Miracles

The Court of Miracles

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Member Reviews

Thank you Netgalley for the E-Arc in exchange of a review.

I started reading this one but didn't hold my interest. I thought the concept was good but I wish I could have connected with the characters and plot more.

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I really enjoyed the storyline in world building in the novel. I also really liked the characters. I thought this was a solid read, and I will definitely be reading more by this author.

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I'm obsessed with Les Miserables and absolutely adored this book. So excited to read the second book because that cliffhanger is absolutely killing me.

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I honestly love retellings, because it’s basically just successful fanfiction. In The Court of Miracles, we see the familiar characters of Les Misérables traverse through a reimagined world.

I absolutely loved the political aspect of the Courts, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was not a retelling. I thought the court system was so fascinating and wished we could have explored the intricacies of each court and how they work together instead of simply following Eponine and Cosette’s story.

While I love Les Mis, I think this story actually suffered trying to follow the storyline. Les Mis is a very long story that is hard to replicate due to the large amount that happens in the story.

In The Court of Miracles, the jumping of years between each part actually made it difficult for me to care about the characters cause. I knew the story would follow Nina and Ettie, but as I already knew the main plot line of Les Mis, I grew bored about halfway through the book and struggled to finish reading it. There was so much potential for me to love this book, but it fell short and the creativity of the world itself was not enough to keep me engaged.

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I was really excited for this les mis retelling and the premise had a lot of promise. Unfortunately I was unable to enjoy it as much as I wanted. The world building was okay and I unfortunately got confused at times. I also was not too keen on the multiple love interests and love triangle quad going on. Just not for me~!

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Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This cover is so beautiful! 😍

I can definitely see why so many people have been raving about this book! This story was an amazing Les-Miserables retelling. I enjoyed the pace, the characters and the astounding world building.

I will admit however, that the time jumps were a bit confusing at times. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves fantasy and is ready to dive into a world full of magic and complexity.

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2.5 Stars

This is billed as Les Miserables meets Six of Crows and I think that is an apt description, although I don’t think it was quite as riveting as the latter. Taking place in an alternate historical Paris where the French Revolution failed, Nina takes spends her time thieving and doing what she can to protect her “sister” Ettie. While there were definitely moments of excitement, overall I did struggle with it holding my attention.

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An intriguing premise. I was expecting a retelling of Les Mis and I kind of got that but also not really. There were a lot of characters and fast pacing, which made it hard to connect or settle in with them. Not for me.

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It was a DNF for me. I wanted to go back. But even after spending time away from this book. It just didn't grab me the way I wanted to. Loved the premise. The execution wasn't for me. It just let me down a little. I still think the book was well written. Just not for me personally.

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The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant was an interesting YA fantasy read. However, as other readers noted, it read a little slower than other similar books. I guess I understand why this book did not take off as much as so many have, since many YA readers need to be quickly engaged. I wonder if it might be better suited for New Adult audiences who tend to accept a slower pace.

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A fantastic adventure novel of Les Mis meets a heist novel - taking the best of both sides of these things and making something new and fantastic.

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DNF
At this time, I'm no longer interested in this title. Thank you for the opportunity to read the book and I apologize for the inconvenience.

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This book was interesting. I really enjoyed the story overall but it could have been better. I would definitely read something from this author in the future though.

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I read this in January 2021 and did not mark it as read or review it for six months, because I did not even know what to say to encapsulate this reading experience.

Court of Miracles is a Les-Miserables retelling following Nina (Eponine), a thief known as the Black Cat at a court in 1850s France. Under the gaze of Tomasis of the Guild of Thieves, she fights to protect first her sister Amelda and later her adopted sister Ettie (Cosette) from Thenardier, her father, and the Tiger, an evil lord.

Overall, I think this book is really pulling out the epic highs and lows of YA fantasy. There’s a lot going on here that I really liked. The vibes perhaps surpass almost anything else; when leaning into atmosphere, Court of Miracles gets it right. At its finer moments, I was reminded of The Gilded Wolves. The bond between Nina and Ettie is sweet and easy to get invested in. I enjoyed the writing of Tomasis, who’s often hard to pin down in a compelling way. Primarily, though, the appeal of this book is in Nina. Nina’s schemes are often really strong and well thought out, and her inner monologue is compelling enough that it’s hard not to root for her. She is genuinely so much fun, the ideal girlboss, and I loved watching her schemes come together.
SPOILER: (view spoiler)

However, some elements left a lot to be desired. The politics of this novel are fairly overcomplicated as compared to what matters and some of them end up being super irrelevant. Here is what I remember from this book which I read a year ago and also my fairly confused notes:
SPOILER: (view spoiler)
…I’m not even going to lie, I was just not invested enough in any of this to really understand it. That’s because the first half of this book is all buildup, with the actual focus of the novel—the main plot goal—coming into play only during part four, at around 45%. While these first three sections are not awful, they completely lack aim, while the fourth and final section has a clear and fulfilling goal. Had this entire book been the same quality as the last fourth, I think I would be genuinely obsessed with this series. I wondered almost whether the last 1-3 parts could be better purposed as an extended flashback, woven in throughout the book. I also wondered if they might be better cut down.

Oh, and The Dauphine and St Juste, aka Enjorlas, both love Nina. And for what? They don’t even know about her girlbossery. I'm not even that much of a love triangle hater, but what is the point of this? It's not interesting and it does nothing for Nina's development.

Let’s discuss the adaptational bent of this novel. I have not actually read Les Mis, first of all, but as a problematic theater kid, I do know the plot. The adaptational take of this novel is a reimagining of Les Mis (A) from Eponine’s perspective and (B) in which Eponine is a girlboss who hates her father and it's also a fantasy world. On a fundamental level, I do think this is a fun take. Other characters also appear, of course; St Juste is sort of a weird combination of Marius and Enjorlas, except it sort of seems like he got the Enjorlas personality and then Marius just got cut which is hilarious. Grantaire is also there. The long and short of it is this is not an exact retelling and you should not read it expecting such.

Adaptationally, however, there is one element of this book that haunts me. And not in a good way. First of all, I want to know who asked for Jean Valjean and Javert genderswap m/f. Who has ever looked at Les Miserables and said you know what I wish? I wish Javert were a woman so that she could kiss Jean Valjean. Who’s asking for them to kiss at all? And if the author is brave and bold enough to raise her hand and admit she, yes, she was asking for them to kiss, why not just leave them as men? I don’t mean this in a why are we putting women in this book way—why are we adding straight people to this book? Weren’t there enough? Didn’t we hit the quota? I don’t know how to explain how little I could take this seriously. I can’t believe I'm expected to take this seriously.

So… overall. Court of Miracles is certainly a book of all time. I will remember it primarily for Nina’s compelling, interesting schemes, and for the sheer secondhand embarrassment I experienced while reading a Jean Valjean/Javert m/f genderswap au. If this sounds like something you’ll find compelling… go for it. If it does not... do not.

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I tried reading this book three times and three times I DNFd it. I just couldn't get into the story. It feels scattered and the characters...I really couldn't be bothered with anyone.

I went into this story expecting almost like an extension of the Hunchback of Notre Dame gypsy underground society but I was let down. It started off good but as it progressed I became less and less interested.

Perhaps later I might give this book a fourth shot but it's been a year almost two since I picked up this book so it's looking less likely.

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The good thing about hype for a book is that it gets you excited... but the bad thing is it also sets high expectations and I think mine were a bit TOO high for THE COURT OF MIRACLES. While I liked moments in this one, it wasn't quite what I was hoping for.

The comps to Les Mis and Six of Crows were pretty spot on, with the character names and setting drawing on Les Mis and the gritty underworld of the city akin to Six of Crows. I liked the combination of the two in relation to those specific elements, but there's a lot that happens in each respectively and there were times where it felt like the author was trying to mimic that in this book. I couldn't tell you just how much time passes in this book (which isn't super long or anything). The plot and world became a bit unwieldy and I lost the characters (and then the rest of the story soon after) as it progressed. I've seen some say this is a re-telling/re-imagining of Les Mis and I think going in expecting its influence but NOT a loyal story is the best way to approach this one.

Also what was up with that romance... something. Not a triangle. I'm not really sure what to call it to be honest. It made Nina out in the vein of "I'm not like other girls" (not aided by her so-called thieving skills) which is a shame because I didn't mind her character all that much.

It was just... not what I was looking for going in and didn't really offer anything for me to latch onto in lieu of expectations missed. I'm not sure if I'll continue this series. I didn't hate this book and I think if I were to go back and read it again, I might enjoy it a bit more knowing what I'm getting into.

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This title a very interesting one, out of my typical reading comfort zone but I found it generally enjoyable.

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I found the premise to be very intriguing because it seemed like a gender-bent retelling of Les Miserables. However, the story seemed to drag. The characters were unlikable. Also, there were many disturbing scenes that made it a hard read. This book just wasn’t for me. Still, I recommend this for historical books set in an Aristocratic France!

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This was a alright book. It has been compared to Six Crows by many but I honestly didn't see it. Some of the premises seemed forced.

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I thought this would kind of have Folk of the Air vibes and I don’t really know why, but it was definitely very different. I can’t say I usually care for politics and this was not an exception. I was kind of bored even though there was clearly a lot of thought put into the worldbuilding; it was just too much for me.

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