Review: The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead

“THE GLITTERING COURT was entertaining and unexpected.”
~ Under the Covers

Richelle Mead is an auto-buy author for me.  I’ve been a fan of her writing style for so many years, I hardly ever read her blurbs anymore!  The only thing I knew about this book before starting to read it was the fact it was book 1 in a new series.  Well, here’s the mistake with doing something like that.  I thought, based on the name, that this book was about the fae.  I know Ms. Mead always brings wonderful paranormal worlds, so that’s what I expect.  But THE GLITTERING COURT has very little supernatural in it.  If hardly at all.  I know this is sort of a trend now in YA books, but I haven’t read any like this before.

Coming from someone who enjoys reading historical romance, I thought this was a very interesting concept.  It’s as if you were to marry a historical romance with a YA dystopia.  Does that make sense?  Anyway, when I started reading this it immediately caught my interest because it has the society rules, the arranged marriages, the balls.  More importantly, a heroine that I couldn’t help but like from the get go.

Adelaide is a countess who finds herself with a title but very little money and her family wants her to marry a “cousin” for convenience.  The opportunity to escape lands on her lap when someone comes to sign a contract for her servant to go to the Glittering Court, where women of low backgrounds are trained to be wives in the New World in Adoria.  Her servant doesn’t want to go, and Adelaide ends up posing as her and going to Adoria.

This book is very romance focused (which is surprising for a Mead book) as a relationship quickly develops between Adelaide and that man that came to take her servant away, Cedric.  But I think as much as I enjoyed the characters, the chemistry could’ve been better for me.  I liked Cedric as well but I don’t think he ever got to book boyfriend material for me.

After we get to about half way I was really interested in their dynamics but after a point it did get a bit boring for me.  The story lost some steam.  But it did catch my attention again when things started going south in the end.

There is a wonderful set of characters in this book and that’s what kept me interested.  Like I said, no paranormal.  I kept waiting for it but it just didn’t come.  This is just a different world that does parallel to England and the new land of America and these girls traveling with The Glittering Court are now in this New World away from their old lives.  There’s pirates, there’s and a time of western feel a bit to it like living on the frontier.  I read some reviews that didn’t care for the balls and the dresses etc.  I happened to enjoy all that because, well…. it felt like a YA historical! 🙂

THE GLITTERING COURT was entertaining and unexpected.  I don’t know if I can say this is as strong as Ms. Mead’s other books but it’s probably one I’ve enjoyed the most from her latest releases.  I’m not sure if it’s the right read for fans of high fantasy or even YA fantasy, but if you like historical romance you will find something to enjoy about this book.  There is an HEA in this book and finishes the story of Adelaide.  The next books will follow the other two girls we meet in this story and I am hoping they will be a bit more interesting but I’m excited about what’s to come for them.

[about-author author=”Richelle Mead”]

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