The timeline does feel a bit jerky and uneven at first, and it takes a while for a consistent pace to build, given there are several skips forward in time. And given the increasingly turbulent times we’re living in, it’s fascinating to look back and examine a period like the French Revolution and imagine what if it failed, and the underground fight that would have endured in an alternate universe where that occurred. I was excited at the prospect of The Court of Miracles on multiple levels: for one, a reimagining of Les Miserables in itself just sounds so much fun. I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

And it also forces Nina to make a terrible choice–protect Ettie and set off a brutal war between the guilds, or forever lose her sister to the Tiger. When Ettie attracts the eye of the Tiger–the ruthless lord of the Guild of Flesh–Nina is caught in a desperate race to keep the younger girl safe. Her vow takes her from the city’s dark underbelly to the glittering court of Louis XVII. Nina’s life is midnight robberies, avoiding her father’s fists, and watching over her naïve adopted sister, Cosette (Ettie). In the violent urban jungle of an alternate 1828 Paris, the French Revolution has failed and the city is divided between merciless royalty and nine underworld criminal guilds, known as the Court of Miracles. Eponine (Nina) Thénardier is a talented cat burglar and member of the Thieves Guild.

Les Misérables meets Six of Crows in this page-turning adventure as a young thief finds herself going head to head with leaders of Paris’s criminal underground in the wake of the French Revolution.

The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant