Ultimately, I enjoyed this novel and will continue with the series and I'm very grateful for NetGalley to allow me to read this early.

I have never read a retelling of Les Misérables and it's extremely refreshing to have more variety in the retellings. I have not finished Les Misérables, I'll admit, but I have wanted to read it and I know the basis of the story. This story didn't grab me throughout. My favorite aspects were the different guilds and Madame Cordray. One aspect that bothered me throughout and is why I gave it three stars, Ettie should have been taught more to defend herself. Instead of just having Nina run around like a chicken with her head cut off. I understand that's probably more on the part of Les Misérables and that is my weakness there as an audience with this novel. There were a lot of things as readers we were kept in the dark about, as well as most of the characters. I really enjoyed the characters.

This book was absolutely incredible. I couldn’t read it fast enough. I was amazed that this was the authors debut novel. The characters are so diverse and interesting. They were fleshed out really well and I loved learning more about each of them. The entire book is packed with action and if full to the brim of heart. It was truly a pleasure to watch Nina grow from a frightened girl into a bold, fearless woman with a heart of gold. The characters in this story are so relatable and wonderfully flawed. The story flows seamlessly and the world building is phenomenal. It was so easy to get lost in this book and be able to vividly picture the events that were being described. The originality of the story is what piqued my interest initially and I was not disappointed. I loved learning about the guilds and am highly anticipating what will happen in the following books. I don’t have a single criticism about this book, it was captivating from beginning to end. I would rate this book higher than 5* if it were possible.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

"I wear this city like skin wrapped around my bones. I know each street by the feel of the stone beneath my feet. It speaks to me; it shows me the way."

Okay, I really like this one.

Court of Miracles is set in an alternative post-revolutionary France, and told in three stages-- in 1823, 1829, and 1832. It is a heist-y Les Misrables retelling.... and a good one at that.

Eponine Thénardier, or Nina, loses a sister and gains a new life in the Thieves' Guild all in one night. But she can't forget about her beloved sister who was taken from her. She can't just move on as if nothing happened. When Ettie enters her life, a small girl who fills the spot her sister left empty, Nina swears not to let the same thing happen to her new sister. This proves harder than she ever imagined.

Nina is good at her job. She's got the cunning and skill of Kaz Brekker, and the stealth and compassion of Inej Ghafa. I don't necessarily agree with the comparisons to Six of Crows because, I mean, come on. We're all tired of that (though I will say that many SOC comparisons have certainly been far less accurate). But, though there are lots of thieving hijinks and mischief, I don't feel like The Court of Miracles is trying to be Six of Crows. It has its own world and style: the gritty, city-underbelly crime juxtaposed with the glamor of French Court.

Speaking of Court, I loved the worldbuilding of the Guilds. When Nina swears her life to the Thieves' Guild, she enters the Court of Miracles, a world of crime and all manner of strange and gifted people who bend the real world to their will-- all under the noses of Those-Who-Walk-By-Day. There are Assassins, Ghosts, Smugglers, Thieves, Dreamers and more-- all coexisting within the Court by a structured but wary alliance laid out carefully by the Laws of the Miracle Court.

Nina is pitted not only against the Lord of the Guild of the Flesh, who would take Ettie and break her as he turns her into his empty possession, but the rest of the Guild Lords as well, who are loathe to test their alliance and plunge the Court of Miracles into another devastating Guild war.

But Nina would do anything for both of her sisters.

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

I loved all the Les Mis-ish references and court life and thief life and I just wanted MORE. That's my only complaint*. I want to see the insides of every guild, explore more backstory, explore this world more. But there are two more books so I have my hopes high :)

This is my honest review of The Court of Miracles novel. I was able to be able to read an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher, Random House Childrens, via an ebook through NetGalley.

I saw quite a few IG accounts, from authors and various book instagramers, rave about this book. That being said I decided to request it via Netgalley and was excited when I got approved for it! I immediately started to read it and was sucked in. This book follows Nina, a Cat, of the Guild of Thieves and her endeavor for revenge against the Tiger.

I quite enjoyed the Court of Miracles Guild set up systems, although it did take me a minute to understand each guild has different branches and who the heads of those branches are. There are many characters through the book, and each play their own unique roles in progressing the story. I think Nina was a favorite of mine as well as Orso- the dead lord. I did apricates Etties development as the story progressed as well.
There is somewhat of a possible love triangle within this book between Nina, St. Jude, and Montparnasse. The romance isn’t to heavily touched on which can be good or bad depending on what you like- in this book I would say its sprinkled throughout but nothing heavy happens. I am interested to see where this goes in the future installments (spanning three novels as on Goodreads). I could thoroughly enjoy her pulling a Sarah J Maas and having Nina love Montparnasse only to have him die and her get with the prince. I don’t however, see her much falling for St. Jude long term- maybe Ettie though.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed reading this Novel and cant wait for the next two. I am curious to see what happens with the progression of the story and other situations that were not wrapped up and new situations which have arose. I would recommend this novel for anyone interested in fiction with a twist of revolution.

I just, I’m still reeling from that ending. I can’t even put into words how I feel about what I just read. It was so bloody good! I CAN NOT wait for the next installment of this series!

The plot is so freaking awesome. It was intriguing and so complex. Twists and turns throughout the whole book that left me staring off into space trying to figure out how I missed it.

The story is so exciting and written so well, although the jumps in the timeline could’ve been better explained. I was a little lost a certain points because of that.

The characters were so fun and exciting. The grey boys are my absolute favorite. Nina is kind of a ‘Mary Sue’ in some aspects but that doesn’t really take away from how awesome she is.

The world building is lacking in the most frustrating of ways because I want to know every single detail about this amazing and complex world the author has built but we only get snippets here and there.

I’m not going to lie, at first I was not so thrilled about the writing. There is a lot of telling over showing and that is my biggest pet peeve. I want to be shown the details not told about them. But literally everything thing else completely made up for that.

With that said, I give The Court of Miracles 4 stars.

*I received an ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.*
Described as Les Misérables meets Six of Crows, this first installment in the A Court of Miracles series is sure to be a hit. I’ll admit at first it was a little slow going, but it soon took off like a rocket and didn’t let up until the end. I am in love with this book and I know I’ll be reading this one many times.
The Court of Miracles is a Les Mis retelling that follows Eponine (Nina) Thénardier who goes by the moniker Black Cat, and is a very skilled cat burglar for the Thieves Guild. The Thieves Guild is one of the nine guilds that make up The Court of Miracles. When Nina’s sister is taken by the Tiger, it sets off a series of events that will shock and amaze you.
One of the main laws of The Court of Miracles is to not attack members from other guilds. Nina will do whatever it takes to take down the Tiger and free her sister. Even if it means creating a war between the guilds.
This is truly an amazing book that is extremely well written. The ending of this one made me glad there is more to come. I cannot wait to see what happens to Nina next.
This book will be available for sale in June 2020.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Court of Miracles follows Nina, a young girl thrust into the underworld of France in search of protection after her sister is sold to an underboss. It takes place over the span of many years and incorporates many facets of the underworld and the guilds it includes as Nina attempts to free her sister. However, Nina finds a bigger foe than she could ever imagine in The Tiger, the Lord of the Guild of Flesh who purchased Nina's sister from their father. Will Nina with the help of many of the Guilds be able to free her sister from the Tiger's claws, or will she spark an all out Guild war and bring only more death and destruction to France?

Where to even begin with this book! It is by far one of my top reads of the year, if not the top read. Nina is such a great character who seems inspired by many literary heroes/heroines of the past. She is trained as a nimble thief, earning herself the name of the Black Cat(she even reminds me a bit of the Marvel villain in the way she is able to get in and out of places) . She is super witty in that she plays everything at least 3 steps ahead of any foe, predicting their reactions in a Sherlock manner. She is fiercely protective of those she sees as family and willing to put herself at risk to ensure their safety. Like a cat, she is also quick on her feet, even if a plan goes awry she is able to manipulate any situation to her own benefit, and while she does receive aid from many of the guilds, it is the guilds that receive the better end of the bargain. She is truly a great heroine that you can't help but fall in love with as she navigates the streets of France.

The guilds add such a great texture to this story. You really get a sense that they aren't just gangs set under a new guise but a whole new government with which the night is ruled. They are divided and ran by very competent and well thought out Lords and presented in such a way I found myself hungry for a "Which Court Guild would you belong to?" quiz. The villain is equally as well written, you find yourself hating him and fearing him but as the story progresses you find an understanding of him and what he has become. He never becomes someone I felt sorry for, but I feel like all his actions were justified and it was fresh to have someone who wasn't just doing everything to avenge a dead love.

The story is so fresh and well paced that I couldn't put it down and hunger for more in this world. I am eagerly awaiting the second installment and will be purchasing a physical copy when this is released. I highly recommend this to anyone, even fantasy readers regardless of no magic being present. The prose and characters weave enough magic of their own, they've completely put me under their spell. Brava, Kester Grant. I can't wait to see what happens in the future.

The Court of Miracles is described as Les Mis meets Six of Crows and it’s pretty accurate. I also picked up on quite a few Hunchback of Notre Dame references as well. This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

This is very much a quasi-alternative universe take on Les Miserables. Unfortunately, if you read that story, there’s not a lot you’re not going to see coming. Your cast, is the familiar names of the classic story with some twists. Because of the tasks at hand and their overall dynamic you do get SOC gang vibes from them. There are some really entertaining characters that don’t take a lot of focus but add a nice effect with their presence.
The underlying story of the guilds and trials that Nina (our main heroine) deals with is such a fantastic element. It really sings in this and I wish this could have been explored without the use of such a well known story as its lead. It didn’t need to rely so heavily on the plot of Les Mis. There is so much opportunity for this to be a brilliant story all on its own. The last third does get a little muddy with so much going on. I’d have liked the focus to vie more towards the corruption of the Guild’s/Courts then with Ettie and other events but that might be just me. I loved the settings and how each guild has its own feel. Beautiful writing, fantastic pacing and there are some stellar quotes in this.
Overall I really enjoyed this title. My only complaint is that I do wish it was not so heavily reliant of other narratives when it has such a strong potential to stand on its own.

*E-Arc kindly provided by Knopf Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5 stars
Wow! This is Kester Grant’s debut novel and I was tickled to have been approved for an advanced copy by Knopf Publishing, through NetGalley. I rarely give 5-star reviews, but she is so deserving of every single one. The sheer depth in her characters, the way she made Paris feel alive and breathing on the pages, and her story’s weaving of history and reality to an otherworldly court of wretched royalty put her as one of my top 5 authors to watch/read. I felt as though I was reading a fantastical history book that bends fantasy into truth. The entire story is so rich and well thought out, detailed and quick-moving, with time jumps that add intrigue and an undercurrent of danger and mystery. Nina is the obvious star of the book, but she is such a moving, beautiful work of art when it comes to plot and character development. I am amazed that Grant was able to keep everyone vivid and separate while interweaving the entire cast into a seamless story. I will be anxiously waiting for book 2!! Please say there will be a book 2!! I looked on KesterGrant.com and there will be 2 more books in the series as well as another series she is starting!!

I HIGHLY recommend this book to older YA and every other book lover on the planet!

Paris 1828 after the French Revolution the city is divided. The Court of Miracles is made up on 9 underworld criminal guilds. Nina Little cat is a talented cat burglar and hopes to one day save her sister from the Tiger who is the lord of Guild of flesh. She puts a plan in motion that is very ambitious that will set the guilds in war amongst themselves.

I enjoyed the descriptions and imaginary created in this book. Well written and a great Les Mis retelling. Nina is a strong character and in this story her love is her family Do yourself a favor and pick this book up you will enjoy it.

The Court of Miracles is about a young girl named Nina. After her greedy father sells her older sister to one of the leaders of the nine criminal guilds, Nina is forced to join one of those very guilds in order to survive and to save her sister. Within the nine guilds, there is turmoil and Nina seems to be the only one willing to do something to stop it. With the royals looking to rid France the burden of its poor and the Court of Miracles allowing great injustice, Nina struggles to find a way to save the ones she loves while simultaneously putting their lives and her own on the line.

I really liked this book. I wouldn't compare it to Six of Crows but it was still pretty good. I couldn't get into it at first, but the story picks up fairly quickly. It was also hard to keep track of how much time passed overall, just that the story happens over the span of several years. Nina is a cunning and brave character and is willing to do the unthinkable for her sisters. She understands the price of a sacrifice which makes her a bit of a bad a**. There are a lot of supporting characters that ended up playing a major role in the plot, but you never get to know them well enough to be emotionally moved by anything that happens to them. There was so much potential for several of them but not enough attention was paid to their development. I'm hopeful that if this turns into a series, we'll get to see more of them as well as tie off the loose ends.

Thank you Dear publisher for the chance to review this book in exchange for an honest review. I wish I had a better review to give you.
I should have known that this book would not be a happy book when I saw the Les Mis comparisons. Overall this book was kind of depressing for me. Maybe because of the stress our country is going through at the moment I just had a hard time read this book. Everyone really was miserable. Poor Nina, very few people have her back. Her father tried to sell her in the sex trade, her sister protects her by selling herself. Nina escapes to people who will protect her. Except they really don't. The remainder of the book focused on Nina as she hatches a plan to save her friend from the Tigar. Nina's skills are all about stealing...very little of which she actually uses to execute this plan. Overall I felt bad for Nina but I can't really say I liked her. She was just ok for me. Some of the people I did like we hardly get to know. Like the shadow assassin. I felt like I could like him but he also very rarely helped Nina or even talked to her for that matter.
This review was really hard for me to write and I probably would have given up on the book altogether but I felt compelled to give my honest review. This book was just not my cup of tea.
BTW the ending left me with SOOOO many questions. There is nothing worse for me than to struggle through a book only to end up with a crappy ending. #irrationalyangry LOL

I am going to keep this short because I’ve not really anything to say about this book. From the first pages, it already didn’t get my attention. I can’t say why exactly, maybe because of the way it’s written? Or because of the plot line?
I knew pretty early on it wouldn’t be a book I’d really remember in a month.
I’m sure some will like this book, but it just wasn’t for me. I maybe just need to give up on YA books altogether.

I really enjoyed The Court of Miracles. Hearing that it was Six of Crows mixed with Les Miserables made me want to read it instantly. Set in revolutionary France, The Court of Miracles takes the classic characters from Les Miserables and turns them on their heads. Nina (Éponine) is the protagonist and is apart of the Thieves Guild, one of nine guilds that makes up the Court of Miracles. When her adoptive sister catches the eye of the ruthless Lord of Flesh, Nina must do all she can to save her sister. Action packed and filled with a diverse and interesting cast of characters, I eagerly await the sequel.

I loved this tale of the dark side of Paris during Les Miserables. Paris at night is a place you don't ever want to go--thanks to the guilds of thieves, assassins, etc., who roam the streets stealing to survive. There are some gaps between sections and some "what?" moments, but I enjoyed the ride of this historical fiction with a familiar setting.

I can see this book being very popular, however, the book just wasn't for me. I really enjoyed the idea behind it, so I decided to give it a go (even though it was compared to Six of Crows, which I didn't enjoy that much). It doesn't feel fair to post pros and cons for a book that wasn't the book for me, so I'll just leave it at it wasn't the book, it was me.

Book Review: The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant
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France. Criminal guild. Revolution. And one young woman daring enough to go head to head with a monster.
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I enjoyed this book so much more than I thought I would!
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When I first read the synopsis I thought it said this was a retelling of Les Mis. But that is not what it said. Lol. It was saying there are similarities. Our main character is Nina, a poor girl who is mourning her missing sister. She gets pulled into joining a guild in The Court of Miracles to protect herself. Can she find her sister? Can she protect her loved ones? Will she get revenge for the wrongs done and the rules broken?
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Nina was everything I could have wanted in a main character, she was smart, she was cunning , but she still had a heart of gold and good values. I loved the idea of the Court of Miracles. I loved the Master of Knives (fav side character). And I loved all the heist parts to this story.
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4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and would highly recommend! Thanks very much to @netgalley for the digital arc! I loved reading this one, be sure to check it out on June 2, 2020.

Great book. The premise is very cool and I loved the characters. Les Miserable meets Six of Crows is the perfect way to describe it for sure. The plot seemed a touch frantic at times but all in all I really enjoyed this book. I look forward to the next one. Thanks for NetGalley and Knopf Children’s for granting access to this book. I will post this review tomorrow to my Bookstagram and companion Facebook page @thatreadingrealtor.

as stories go, I thought that this one was quite good.  It was action packed, the setting was quite detailed, and I felt for the main character and her journey for justice and to keep her adopted sister safe. And I liked the idea of it taking place in a France where the French Revolution failed and what would society have looked like in France if it did.

I was really excited for this book, especially since it was getting all this hype and these special editions. Unfortunately, it fell flat for me.

I was worried from the prologue/short story pre-the-first-chapter that this book was going to be unreadable. The author started with a flowery, descriptive writing style that didn't get the point across at all and ended up being confusing. The opening line of the first chapter of the book was so confusing that I had to read it like 7 times to understand what was trying to be said. Trying to start a book with a philosophical line was not really the best route when the sentence wasn't even clear. I think the sentence was missing a couple of words. This is kind of sad tbh, because the first sentence of a book is supposed to draw you in and make you want to keep reading. Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent. Luckily, the writing style evened out after a couple of chapters and ended up being very readable (bless up).

Another quick thing to talk about before I get into plot and characters: the names. GoodNESS! I swear that each character had about 3 different names that were used interchangeably, sometimes even within the SAME paragraph. That just added to the confusion of things. I was able to catch on fairly quickly, but there were still times that I was like "wait, who is that??" I also know that some other people I've talked to that have read this book were very confused by the different names for every character. For me, it definitely slowed things down. For a book with a ton of characters that we need to keep track of constantly, it was not the best choice to give them all a bunch of different names and then use those names interchangeably. The best example I can give is that Nina/Black Cat/Eponine's birth father (because she has a birth father and a guild father and she refers to them both as father at different points) is called Thenardier by most people, but he's also the guild master for the thieves, but he is also referred to as father. It's a lot, and that is just one example out of the like 10 or so characters that we are supposed to be keeping tabs on throughout the story.

Okay, so the plot. There are like 6 sub-plots going on at all times. There is the "main plot" with Nina and her story first being protected by her sister Azelma and then her protecting her (not sure if they are actually related at all) sister Ettie/Cosette. That is the most basic explanation of her plot/character story. The other parts about her becoming a part of the Thieves Guild and going on heists are all interconnected to that main plot point. Another secondary plot involves the Dauphin/Prince/whatever his name is (I cannot remember for the life of me what his name is. He is mostly referred to as the prince anyway) and the dark things that the royal family are involved in doing to the members of the court of miracles and the guilds (they have a name for this group of people but that was just another name for me to try to remember and I gave up). There is another plot involving St Juste and the boys (don't ask me their names, I can't tell ya. Also I had to double check his name bc the whole time I was reading it as St. Jude RIP me lol). Anyway St. Juste and the boys are our revolutionary boys, building up a group to overthrow the government. Another sub-plot is Montparnasse and Corday (?) and the Assassin Guild I think is what they were called. That part was kind of confusing because I thought they were the death guild, but then Nina had to go find the Death Lord guy Orso. Idk. He has his own plot that ropes together with Montparnasse one, kind of...Anyway another sub-plot people are getting sick and dying but there is also a famine. Second to last sub-plot that I remember is the storyline with Kaplan/The Tiger and the flesh guild. And finally, we have the sub-plot with Javert (who is a female in this story and I will have a chat about that in a minute) and Jean Valjean. Okay, so that's a LOT. It wasn't terrible that there were so many subplots because they were mostly all interconnected with the main plot at some point.

The issue is that there needed to be a bit more time with the different plots. There could have been so much done with these different plot points, which could have been given more depth if we weren't stuck inside Nina's head. There are at least three time jumps and some are pretty significant. I, as the reader, was in a constant state of confusion about what the time frame was, how old are these characters. I couldn't even tell you. There are some random dates at the start of some chapters but that means nothing to me. I think that way too much was trying to be shoved into this book. This was kind of a retelling of sorts of Les Mis, which is anywhere between like 950 and 1400 pages depending on your edition, but pared down and shoved into less than 500 pages. The problem with this is that we do get basically the whole story of Les Mis plus this new rendition of Eponine's story in 464 page, which is definitely not enough time. I found out later that this is supposed be to book 1 in a trilogy. What?! Why did the author shove all these plot points into this one book if there is supposed to be more to the series?? We could have gotten so much more development in the plot and development of the characters.

Speaking of the characters, they were all so one dimensional. Nina's personality is made up of trying to find her older sister and trying to protect her younger sister, with a smidge of nonconsentual kissing and snark. Idk anything really about Azelma. Ettie is extremely childlike at all times, which is why I ended up so very confused about her age. I thought she was maybe like 9 at most, but I think she's actually supposed to be like 12 or so?? Not sure. I have no idea. The prince has no personality other than being romantically interested in Nina bc she broke into palace when they were younger, stole a jewel from him, and kissed him without his consent. Cute. I liked Femi, but he was barely in the story. There was Nina's father (birth) and Nina's father (guild) and they were both just there. The Tiger is the obligatory villain who is just all around awful. He could have been a better villain if he weren't such a mustache-twirl villain. Oops almost forgot about Nina's other TWO love interests. There is Montparnasse, who seems to be a favorite among my friends who have read it, but he was just an assassin guy with like 5 lines who shows up like 4 times by materializing out of the shadows like Raven from Teen Titans. Her last love interest and maybe the most richly crafted character, is St Juste. He has the most personality of anyone on the pages as he is able to show sadness and cockiness and a thirst for justice and anger. I actually would have loved to see his POV of things.

Actually, real quick, let's talk about Nina's love interests. She has the 3 different boys, the prince, Montparnasse, and St Juste. All of whom she thinks are attractive and interesting, but that's as far as it goes on her end. She doesn't show a distinct favor towards any of them though I believe we are to assume she likes Montparnasse the most? It's kind of another Hunger Games-esque situation. I assume that we may get more of the romantic development in later books since this is supposed to be a trilogy. But, as of right now, I couldn't care any less about any of these romantic entanglements. Though it could also be said I didn't really feel anything for Nina (oops) she was pretty cardboard cutout YA protag.

Speaking of not explained relationships, this part needs its own paragraph. It's time to talk about Javert and Valjean. At first I was thinking it was super cool to have Javert be female. A powerful, high-ranking officer as a female in this time period? Dope. The fact that all her drive and success in her job stems from trying to get back at Valjean for... something he did? Not dope.

One more thing before I wrap this review up. This book is supposed to be a trilogy according to Goodreads... and it ended with all plot points basically wrapped up. This could have been a standalone. It also ends very, very abruptly. I finished the last sentence and went to turn to the next page expecting another chapter, but there was no more?? What a weird place to end the book. Without giving too much away or spoiling anything, the ending didn't create or promote the stakes for the next book. As I said before, the plot was pretty much all wrapped up.

This book ended up being disappointing for me. I wanted so much more than we got from it. I didn't even get into it but there was also some issues with the rules of the story. I also could not tell if there was supposed to be magic in this world?? Things were not well explained about the different guilds and all that. I think this book would have been more successful if it were split into two books. It would leave the reader with a desire to know what happens next. It would also leave the author with the room to add more depth to the characters and more details and explanations of the world. I think it could have made this narrative more successful.

I really wish I could have given this book more than 2 stars, but I can't. I would not be opposed to reading more from this author in the future, but I don't think I will continue with this series.