Walking into reading Crown of Coral and Peral I had the expectations of it being exactly like every other YA book just slightly a Actaul rating: 3.5!
Walking into reading Crown of Coral and Peral I had the expectations of it being exactly like every other YA book just slightly altered names, locations, and plots. And though I wasn't blown away with the originality and there were a few tropes present, I was quite pleased with the overall outcome of the story.
Crown of Coral and Peral begins in the village of Varenia, a community built on the water where it's residents travel by boats or swim to their desired destination. Varenians values beauty above anything else, and because of that Nor knows that she will never be chosen to be the next princess of Ilara since her childhood accident that left her with an unsightly scar on her cheek but when Nor is sent in her sister, Zadie’s, place after an accident leaving her severely injured and unable to travel, Nor devises a plan that requires her to spy on her future husband in order to help the rest of the Varenians who are teetering on the edge of collapse due over-fishing and abuse from Illara’s leaders causing them to go hungry and slowly shrink deeper into poverty.
It’s apparent that of all the aspects of Crown of Coral and Peral that the plot is the least original. This is far from the first time that our chosen princess decides to take matters into her own hands and spy on the neighboring kingdom with the hope of divulging its secrets and saving her people. But I found that other aspects of the book, such as the writing, made up for the lack of innovation regarding the plot.
Mara Rutherford did an excellent job describing the various locations inside of Varenia and Ilara and I was pleasantly surprised by her writing in a debut novel. I absolutely loved Varenia’s design, I have never read a book where one of the main locations is literally built on the water. This was one of the unique aspects that helped sell the overall book for me. I also loved the descriptions of the disconsolate New and its opposite, Old Castle.
Character-wise, I was generally impressed with Nor’s behavior. She wasn't completely senseless and irritating to read, which is how I find most lead characters in a YA fantasy. She had a great relationship with her sister Zadie, and her relationship with her parents bettered formed one of the main conflicts in the story helping the plot become better developed. But Nor was completely smitten with prince Talin who was pretty basic for a YA love-interest but despite that, I still generally found him an enjoyable character to read. For Ceren, he was unsettling. He is supposed to be viewed as the ‘villainous’ character in the book and he does exemplify that desired trait well but I also found him to more dimensional than any other character in the story.
Overall Crown of Coral and Peral was an impressive debut. Though the plot wasn't original, the locations and the characters helped make the story more unique compared to its predecessors in this genre. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel Kingdom of Sea and Stone! ...more
“Our mother the City is trying to destroy you, you must not let her. Do you hear me? You must survive.”
Soon as I read the synopsis for A Court of
“Our mother the City is trying to destroy you, you must not let her. Do you hear me? You must survive.”
Soon as I read the synopsis for A Court of Miracles, I added it to my most-anticipated shelf. Especially when it was described as “For fans of the gritty criminal underworlds of Six Of Crows, The Lies Of Locke Lamora, fierce alternate histories like The Gilded Wolves, And I Darken…” Like this is literally my dream book, words could not describe how excited I was. A Court of Miracles was also described as a retelling of Les Misérables and though I have never seen Les Misérables (yes, I know I’m still uncultured. This is one the list too) I was sure I could still enjoy the story - and I did, or at least the second half of it.
A Court of Miracles follows Éponine (Nina) Thénardier. Nina Is our Algerian-French protagonist who will do anything to save her older sister, Azelma after she was taken by the Lord of Flesh, also known as the Tiger. As the years pass with little success in saving Azelma, Nina has a new sister to protect - Cosette (Ettie) is Nina’s adoptive sister who caught the Tiger’s eye in their father’s tavern and there is nothing Nina will not do to ensure Ettie stays out of his grasps.
I genuinely enjoyed Nina’s character throughout the story, she was confident, fierce, clever and an excellent thief (despite the lack of insight on how she became so skillful in thievery). She was a real treat to read. That being said, I struggled to follow her age throughout the book because there were so few descriptions of her appearance (and everyone’s for that matter) besides the ever so classic YA heroine who is ugly and just a “bag of bones”. Also, the concept of “nobody must know that you’re a girl” was abandoned quite quickly and seemed quite unnecessary though I understand it's the reasoning behind it being there in the first place.
For those who need it, from what I gathered Nina is 9 years-old during part one, 15 during parts two and three, and 18 during part four.
As I said, ACoM was one of my most anticipated releases of 2020 so I couldn’t help but be very disappointed when the first 50-60% fell very flat for me. Kester Grant didn’t waste any time introducing us into the gritty underground criminal world but the hidden world was so complex and detailed that it got hard to follow, fast.
I loved the idea of a criminal hierarchy, but roles and titles were dropped as off-handed comments like the reader was expected to already know this vast array of characters. There were multiple guilds (nine to be exact), all having their own Lords (also known as Fathers), Ladies (also known as Mothers), and Masters. Throughout the story, Nina interacts with multiple of them directly so even thinking for a second that you’re going to remember them all is unrealistic. Even the more prevalent leaders in the book have multiple different names that you have to remember to follow the story and understand who is being referred to (for example Orso was also related to as The Dead Lord, Great Bear, and Old Bear - the last two I don’t know why). And let us not forget all the other titles inside each guild like the Cats, Dogs, Fleshers, Wretched, Horses (who we get 0 information on), Ghosts, Rats, Poisoners, and probably more that I cannot think of at the moment.
And let me mention that five of the guilds had either minimal parts in the story or were only mentioned at the most. Are you overwhelmed yet? Because I certainly am.
I wished that there were fewer titles and divisions in each guild so it was easier to appreciate the brilliance and complexity of the Miracle Courts instead of dreading every time a new title was dropped and having everything become a chore to remember. I can’t help but see this as a huge missed opportunity to blow the readers away with a completely new approach to an underground crime world.
So the criminal hierarchy was a little hard to swallow but that wasn’t the only thing the affected the flow of the story, the time jumps squashed many needed developmental aspects of the story. The first squandered aspect was Femi. It was implied that he was Azelma's lover but we didn’t have any information on his connection to the guilds so when he told Nina to steal Talisman of Charlemagne it seemed random and irrelevant and didn’t pack a punch it so easily could’ve. To us, Nina trusted Femi blindly but if we had a little more insight into their relationship, Nina’s actions would’ve seemed more logical to the reader. Femi wasn't the only character who lacked background, right at the beginning of part two we are introduced to Ettie, with no information on her besides she is Nina’s father's ward. Ettie had such a major role in the story, it seemed silly to have a sentence worth of information on her. The next thing the time jumps ruined was any chance of Nina having any chemistry with her many possible love interest (see below). They appeared and we just had to believe that they have been bonding and interacting throughout the story, nonetheless, it made it pretty hard to root for any of them.
As I mentioned, I had an issue with the romance as well. I know a lot of other readers have mentioned this but I can’t get over the fact that Nina had not one but THREE romantic leads in a book that is slightly over 400 pages. Nina had absolutely no chemistry with any of them and all “affection” the boys had towards Nina was told to us, not shown. It would be one thing if the romance helped push the plot but I truly believe the story could’ve had no romance and achieve the same plot points. That being said, I appreciate Nina not getting distracted by her many love interests, she had an agenda and they were not going to get in the way of it - which is a lot better than some other YA heroines. Nina’s three love-interests were: #1 was the dauphin of France who Nina stole the Talisman of Charlemagne from and then kissed to buy her time while she escaped (Nina was only nine-years-old when she did this). Nina didn’t see the dauphin again until a few years later but apparently, that minute interaction was enough to make the dauphin instantly attracted to Nina. And the reason for his attraction? Nina was a friend to him. #2 was St. Juste, a revolutionary who will do anything to take down the monarchy. St. Juste was definitely more viable than the dauphin but still lacked chemistry. Honestly, I saw St. Juste and Grantaire as a more realistic couple than St. Juste and Nina - their banter when they were first introduced alone had more chemistry than any interaction with St. Juste had with Nina. #3 was Montparnasse, Master of Knives from the Guild of Assassins. Still more viable than the dauphin, I still don’t see anything that indicated that Montparnasse was interested in Nina. He read, to me, more like a supportive friend.
I also noticed an inaccuracy that was bothersome. Nina said that she saw a Fabergé Egg in the French treasury. The problem with that is ACoM took place in 1828 and the first egg wasn’t created until 1885. That’s a 57 YEAR difference. Mentioning a Fabergé Egg didn’t add anything to the story or the plot, it was just an unnecessary inaccuracy.
The other thing that bothered me is incredibly minor and only grates on my soul because I watch more baking shows than I should and am an avid hater of fondant but If I ever see you ruin the light and airy beautifully soft crunch of a macaron shell with a slab of overly-thick and sickeningly sweet fondant we are going to have some words. Fondant is nasty, it hurt my heart.
I genuinely have no idea how the next two books are going to play out. A Court of Miracles had a solid ending and I really don't see a need for a sequel. If there had to be another book in the ACoM world, I see a companion novel, perhaps taking place a few years after the ending with Nina now being the Lady of the Thieves Guild and a new cast of characters, being more logical.
Overall, A Court of Miracles was an impressive debut. Despite not being a fan of some of the stylistic choices made by Kester Grant and the 50% being info-dumping-Esque, the concept of the story was spectacular and had great flow from the remaining half of the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy!
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For fans of the gritty criminal underworlds of Six Of Crows, The Lies Of Locke Lamora, fierce alternate histories like The Gilded Wolves, And I Darken...
Historical Fiction + Six of Crows vibes is literally my dream book. Also I'm in love with the German cover, it's a B E A U T Y...more
Tiger Queen by Annie Sulivan is inspired by Frank Stockton’s short story, “The Lady, or the Tiger?” My first experience with the story was in English Tiger Queen by Annie Sulivan is inspired by Frank Stockton’s short story, “The Lady, or the Tiger?” My first experience with the story was in English 11 where my enthusiastic teacher was trying his hardest to get the class discussion on the ending started. I, who rather enjoyed analyzing the story and making an assumption on the final outcome offered my opinion that the tiger came out of the door, not the lady.
After giving my original thoughts my teacher began his response to my analysis of the short story when a rather quiet kid sitting in the corner of the class stood up out of his desk and yelled something along the lines of ‘how could you possibly think it was the tiger!?’ I sat there for a second slightly shocked that I just got yelled at in front of the whole class, who are now all reinvigorated by the excitement, by a peer; this gave my peer - who is still standing - the needed time to go on a long, passionate lecture about how horribly wrong I was with optimal evidence.
I considered his thoughts then proceed to reiterate my evidence behind my opinion, when he yelled, even louder and more passionately, ‘WHERE IS YOUR EVIDENCE’ - now I’m getting irritated because I don’t like being yelled at (who does, really?) and I respond ‘THE SAME AS YOURS - WE LITERALLY READ THE SAME STORY’ which, with the help of my teacher who loved seeing his student talk about literature but didn’t want a noise complaint, killed the flame igniting my fellow classmates passion for the argument.
‘WHERE IS YOUR EVIDENCE’ became a joke that my friends often said to me when I expressed my opinion. I never really had a complete conversation with this peer again but the following year I had Ap government and politics with him where I discovered literature is not the only thing he is opinionated and passionate about.
Now when I saw Tiger Queen was a retelling of Frank Stockton’s work I instantly became excited because I really do enjoy the story but I was hoping that this experience would be better than my first - but, I had my doubts. I’ll be honest, I was expecting Tiger Queen to air along the lines of a stereotypical ya so my expectations were pretty low when I began. And y’all what a mistake that was because this was amazing.
So what does Tiger Queen entail?
Tiger Queen follows Kateri on her quest to fulfill her mother’s wish, and become a queen that advocates for the people who are struggling to survive through a drought that has ravaged the kingdom of Achra for years, trapping the citizens within the sandstone walls of the city and causing the monarchy to impose water rations and laws defining how many children each many can have. Kateri has been training her whole life for the monthly battles against her prospect suitors for the year leading up to her seventeenth birthday in which if she is successful in all battles, Kateri will become the queen of Achra. But, if she fails, Kateri will become a dutiful wife to the suitor she lost to. Kateri has won 11 out of the 12 battles and she is so close to becoming queen she could brush the crown with her fingertips - but then Kateri’s hope of becoming queen is snatched away when she is told that her final battle will be against the person who has been teaching her everything she knows about fighting - and the one person she has never beat - Rodric. Kateri knows that she won’t learn the skills she needs to defeat Rodric on her own so she makes the decision to go against everything she has stood for and request help from the Desert Boys.
To begin, Kateri had an impressive character arc given the page count. At the beginning of Tiger Queen I was not a fan, I found Kateri to be very aggressive and not very smart. I didn’t understand how she was apprehensive then shocked that Rodric was her final suitor when her father warned her beforehand? She also claimed she was fighting for her people when her action didn’t mirror that. But as the story continued Kateri realized her ignorance and selfishness and learned from her misconceptions to better herself. The biggest moment that showed her gained maturity was when she“discovered that Cion was in a “relationship” and her response to it.
“I’d been stupid for mistaking kindness for affection, but I guess when you’re not used to either, it’s easy to mistake the two”
In the end, Kateri wanted Cion to be happy despite that not necessarily meaning he would be with her. Which is the opposite of what happened in the original “The Lady or the Tiger?” in my personal opinion. Other events throughout the story like Kateri removing her cuff, Kateri trusting the Desert Boys, finding out the truth of her father, and the epilogue also helped show her growth.
But from other reviews, I read that Tiger Queen was described as a feminist story which I think leads to the biggest disappointment. Tiger Queen is far from what I would describe as ‘feminism’ in ya book. Kateri is the only prominent female character and her relationship with the other females in the book is what I would describe as wary and tense. So definitely not feministic. But without this knowledge prior to reading, I believe the book was much more enjoyable.
I also loved how much the Desert boys reminded me of the Lost Boys from Peter Pan. There’s no way Annie Sullivan wasn’t inspired by the Lost Boys but I always enjoy found-families and camaraderie in a book.
"We Desert Boys have a saying about tears... we say that crying is good, natural. It's returning the water you've taken from the earth"
But that being said, I did have a few gripes with Tiger Queen.
First, I believe that the characters were poorly described. Yes, I had an image in my head of what all the characters looked like but I had no idea if it was accurate. I know that Cion had longer hair and dimples; Rodric was muscular; Kateri wore a cuff to cover her scar on her neck and was also muscular, and I got the impression that they all had a darker skin tone due to living in the desert, but I felt that we need more descriptions of all the characters. I also felt like Dimic didn’t act his age; he was described to look 8 or 9 but he talked and acted as more of an 11 or 12-year-old and I found having to remind myself of Dimic’s age.
I also feel as though Tiger Queen lacked depth. Each “reveals” individual delivery seemed misplaced and rushed. For example, when Cion told Kateri the truth about her mother’s death, it was thrown in conversation rather suddenly and it felt like an odd, forced connection between the two characters. The only reveal that surprised me was Cion saying he thought of Latia as a sister because Annie Sullivan really had me sold that she was going to take the story in a completely different route than most ya books and have the protagonist not be involved in a romantic relationship - which would’ve been a nice change.
I also wish there was more ruthlessness in the story; we are told how deadly the tigers are but not shown, perhaps before Dimic entered the area there was another prisoner who would’ve met his untimely end to the tigers in the area to show us how dangerous the tigers actually are. We only see the tigers in action towards the end of Tiger Queen in a way that was rather lackluster for their first impression in Frank Stockton’s work.
Overall, I am pleasantly surprised by Tiger Queen. Though I wish we had better descriptions of the characters, and more depth and ruthlessness, I found the characters personalities enjoyable to read and the plot enticing and very well-paced. I would recommend Tiger Queen to anyone who wants to read a fast standalone or who enjoyed Frank Stockton’s original work “The Lady or the Tiger?”...more
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