Hello everyone!
It's time for a book blog again, and boy, did I pick a lucky one this week!
Some of you may know (or you may not, depending) that I'm a Richelle Mead fan. I can't remember at this point how or when I stumbled across her first three Vampire Academy novels, but I did, and the rest is history as I think I have by now devoured every single one of her books, though not all of them, in my opinion, are at the same level of success.
Like, really, Vampire Academy and Bloodlines are probably some of my favourite books with characters I adore, but the Succubus series isn't one I connected with, and Soundless also fell a bit flat. I wrote some blogs on the before-mentioned, and I'm liking them at the end of this post.
I wasn't as inspired with her stand-alone novel, but then news came out that she was once again working on a book series, and I was thoroughly into it even before the first book got published a week or so ago, but I only learned some details recently.
So without further ado, let's dive right into The Glittering Court!
For some reason, I initially thought this would also be a stand-alone, something I hastily ended up correcting when I realized it would be series, which I think is better for this particular author as she tends to work better when there are more books involved.
I don't blame her - she's done series from the get-go so stand-alones are a little bit trickier.
But luckily, this one is supposed to be a trilogy!
Not that I knew it was going to be three books - for some reason, I thought there would be six, like her standard sort of number, but checking official stuff out again, I realized my mistake. There will only be three books, talking about the three girls we've been introduced to, and they'll all pop in and out of each other's story, or so it's promised.
Let's get into the book itself.
The Glittering Court introduces us to Elizabeth, Lady Whitmore, Countess and peeres of the realm (Osfrid, which I think is based off old Europe), who is in the market for a rich husband because her family is now dirt-poor. She is engaged to be married to her itching cousin Lionel, but she feels trapped and like she's suffocating, despite living a life of luxuries.
This is where Cedric Thorn comes in.
He coms to recruit one of her maids, Ada, for a sort of 'finishing school' - the Glittering Court - which takes young women, transforms them into would-be high society ladies, then ships them to Adoria, another continent (think America), where they're sold to the highest bidder as wives. Elizabeth switches places with Ada, assuming the identity of Adelaide, and goes in her stead, trying to escape her life.
Things go sort of smoothly - I mean, obviously, Adelaide doesn't really need to be taught how to be a lady, and she has to be careful not to reveal herself, so she dumbs herself down. In the process, she makes friends with her roommates, Tamsin and Mira.
And of course, she has to fall in love with Cedric, too.
But the problem is that Cedric is a member of a religious branch highly NOT tolerated in the realm, prosecuted and usually executed, so what he's planning to do is take the money from the commissions the girls will bring so he can buy a stake in a new colony that's being established, one where beliefs won't be hunted.
Adelaide tosses her lot with him, promising to forge a painting so he can sell it for the money, and she starts on it while they journey across the sea to Adoria.
Unfortunately, one of their ships is lost at sea in a storm, and Tamsin was on it, to the shock of her friends - but life pushes on; Adelaide, who scored the first place after exams, is the group's 'diamond' and is expected to get the highest price from her bidders - attracting no one less but the governor's son.
This looks too good to be true, and it turns out that Warren and his mother know who she really is, and they blackmail her into the arrangement, but a scandal occurs: during a frantic struggle to arrange her marriage to a lawyer, denying her attraction for Cedric and saving him from being arrested, Adelaide and Cedric are caught in a compromising situation, which ends with the pair of them on the road to Warren's province where they'll pan for gold. Hopefully, this will mean Cedric can pay off Adelaide's price before her contract forces her back.
They do indeed find gold - and a grand scheme of Warren's which almost lands Cedric at the gallows, but with a whole lot of riding up and down, Adelaide manages to secure backdated papers for the new, religiously free colony, and Tamsin (having survived the storm and later on another apparent death) betrays the truth of Warren's plans as the Icori (think Highlander Scots) arrive to say Warren has been giving another nation free reign over their lands for pillaging and looting.
The book ends with Adelaide and Cedric formally married a second time (as the first time happens in secret), and leaving for the new colony to help shape it, leaving both Tamsin and Mira behind.
Whew.
There was A LOT going on in this book, let me tell you this. On occasion, I actually had to stop and think about just what I'd already read, and what I haven't yet. I think there was actually enough material in this one for two books, not just one, as the plotlines were so distinctly different, but I'll say that I did like Adelaide as a character - though Tamsin probably made me laugh more. Cedric I'm currently unclear about. He doesn't have what Adrian or Dimitri had in the previous series, but he did grow on me towards the end. I guess I was just surprised where the romance was going since I initially couldn't see it.
All in all, I give this a solid start to the series, and I think that the other two books will also be interesting because we don't really know where Mira has been sneaking off to OR what Tamsin went through.
So I'm looking forward to reading about them both!
xx
*image not mine
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