The Glittering Court - Richelle Mead
Review:
This book was engaging and well-written, but the story was… unexpected? When you read “Glittering Court” and look at that cover and hear that it’s fantasy, you expect, well, something fantastic. Like Magic. The book gives off the idea or expectation of some magical glittering Fae court, but it is nothing like that. And after reading reviews of the book on Goodreads and Amazon, and I am definitely not the only one who felt misled.
The book is set in a different world (hence why it can be called “fantasy”), but really it’s just our world with different names. While the world is vast and Mead does a good job of describing the towns and cities and cultures, I dislike it when authors take already existing cultures in our world and just rename them in theirs. It had me wondering if it was just an alternate history of our world? For instance, the Sirminicans were obviously Spanish/Italian, but with a terrible civil war that is just like Syria’s; there was one that was French, complete with crepes; and Osfro was essentially a combined 200 years of English culture (The time frame is reminiscent of late 1600’s with colonies and sea trade, but also seemed more Regency or even Victorian at times). There’s religious tensions in the story, which is also basically the Catholic church against another religion that’s more pagan, and then a group of essentially Puritans (basically Plymouth colony).
As for the plot, Countess Witmore, the last of a prestigious line whose house is now destitute, wants to escape a very unfavorable marriage to a distant cousin, so she takes the identity of one of her serving girls, Adelaide, and goes to the Glittering Court. The Glittering Court essentially takes lower-class girls, trains them up to be ladies, then ships them across the ocean to the colonies where newly wealthy men can bid on them for brides (the girls do get to choose if they accept the proposals or not). Adelaide (as we know her for 90% of the book) has to downplay her obvious skill at being a lady, and makes friends with a laundry girl, Tamsin, and a Sirminican refugee, Mira. They both have their own secrets (which are never revealed in this book, but more about that later). She is found out by Cedric, the son of the man who runs the Glittering Court, but he has his secrets too, and rather than turning in the runaway countess they decide to work together for their mutual benefit. Of course there’s a lot of sexual tension between the two which is fun but also doesn't get too deep.
However, you basically start with something that’s kinda reminiscent of the Selection series, but then they sail to the colonies and BAM it’s like all of a sudden we’re reading a book about the gold rush and the western frontier. The book completely changes its feel. I also felt like the ending was a little too neatly wrapped, plus a random loophole that suddenly saves the characters' butts (very Deus Ex Machina), but I have a feeling in future books we’ll see some of the other efforts and events that went into the timeline.
The main character was sassy but so naive, but then also not naive and had no morals but then she does? It was very inconsistent. And I don’t understand why she would run away from an arranged marriage to join an institution where you basically agree to have an arranged marriage? I feel like she adjusted too well to being “common”, but maybe that’s also a testament to her strong will and character. I had mixed feelings about it.
The other two main girls, Tamsin and Mira, were more interesting than Adelaide. The idea behind this trilogy is that the author will tell the same series of events from three different points of view. I actually really look forward to the next two books because their stories sound a lot more interesting than Adelaide’s. Tamsin especially has a lot of stuff going on, and Mira is just badass.
Despite all these criticisms, I enjoyed the book. It was engaging and I kept wanting to read it, and that is the only reason I'm giving it 3 stars. I liked the characters. The plot was interesting and unexpected, though definitely just skims the surface. I'm hoping future books will dig in more to the political and religious situations happening. If you’re interested, go ahead and read it. If you aren’t convinced, don’t worry, you aren’t missing much.
Rating:
3 stars
Details:
Genre: Fantasy???? But not... We'll say YA romance.
Violence: Some shooting and sword fighting and people get beat up, but it's not graphic.
Sex: Only after marriage, and not described graphically at all. There is an attempted rape scene but it's so bad that there really is no ramifications from it, story- and character-wise.
Language: Almost none.
Review:
This book was engaging and well-written, but the story was… unexpected? When you read “Glittering Court” and look at that cover and hear that it’s fantasy, you expect, well, something fantastic. Like Magic. The book gives off the idea or expectation of some magical glittering Fae court, but it is nothing like that. And after reading reviews of the book on Goodreads and Amazon, and I am definitely not the only one who felt misled.
The book is set in a different world (hence why it can be called “fantasy”), but really it’s just our world with different names. While the world is vast and Mead does a good job of describing the towns and cities and cultures, I dislike it when authors take already existing cultures in our world and just rename them in theirs. It had me wondering if it was just an alternate history of our world? For instance, the Sirminicans were obviously Spanish/Italian, but with a terrible civil war that is just like Syria’s; there was one that was French, complete with crepes; and Osfro was essentially a combined 200 years of English culture (The time frame is reminiscent of late 1600’s with colonies and sea trade, but also seemed more Regency or even Victorian at times). There’s religious tensions in the story, which is also basically the Catholic church against another religion that’s more pagan, and then a group of essentially Puritans (basically Plymouth colony).
As for the plot, Countess Witmore, the last of a prestigious line whose house is now destitute, wants to escape a very unfavorable marriage to a distant cousin, so she takes the identity of one of her serving girls, Adelaide, and goes to the Glittering Court. The Glittering Court essentially takes lower-class girls, trains them up to be ladies, then ships them across the ocean to the colonies where newly wealthy men can bid on them for brides (the girls do get to choose if they accept the proposals or not). Adelaide (as we know her for 90% of the book) has to downplay her obvious skill at being a lady, and makes friends with a laundry girl, Tamsin, and a Sirminican refugee, Mira. They both have their own secrets (which are never revealed in this book, but more about that later). She is found out by Cedric, the son of the man who runs the Glittering Court, but he has his secrets too, and rather than turning in the runaway countess they decide to work together for their mutual benefit. Of course there’s a lot of sexual tension between the two which is fun but also doesn't get too deep.
However, you basically start with something that’s kinda reminiscent of the Selection series, but then they sail to the colonies and BAM it’s like all of a sudden we’re reading a book about the gold rush and the western frontier. The book completely changes its feel. I also felt like the ending was a little too neatly wrapped, plus a random loophole that suddenly saves the characters' butts (very Deus Ex Machina), but I have a feeling in future books we’ll see some of the other efforts and events that went into the timeline.
The main character was sassy but so naive, but then also not naive and had no morals but then she does? It was very inconsistent. And I don’t understand why she would run away from an arranged marriage to join an institution where you basically agree to have an arranged marriage? I feel like she adjusted too well to being “common”, but maybe that’s also a testament to her strong will and character. I had mixed feelings about it.
The other two main girls, Tamsin and Mira, were more interesting than Adelaide. The idea behind this trilogy is that the author will tell the same series of events from three different points of view. I actually really look forward to the next two books because their stories sound a lot more interesting than Adelaide’s. Tamsin especially has a lot of stuff going on, and Mira is just badass.
Despite all these criticisms, I enjoyed the book. It was engaging and I kept wanting to read it, and that is the only reason I'm giving it 3 stars. I liked the characters. The plot was interesting and unexpected, though definitely just skims the surface. I'm hoping future books will dig in more to the political and religious situations happening. If you’re interested, go ahead and read it. If you aren’t convinced, don’t worry, you aren’t missing much.
Rating:
3 stars
Details:
Genre: Fantasy???? But not... We'll say YA romance.
Violence: Some shooting and sword fighting and people get beat up, but it's not graphic.
Sex: Only after marriage, and not described graphically at all. There is an attempted rape scene but it's so bad that there really is no ramifications from it, story- and character-wise.
Language: Almost none.
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