That’s because the first half of this book is all buildup, with the actual focus of the novel—the main plot goal—coming into play only during part four, at around 45%. The Court Of Miracles includes short folk tales to tell the history of the city – how did they come about? While the nobles lived a truly gilded life in Versailles within the center of Paris, they were surrounded by utter squalor and poverty. Similarly to that, Cosette gets adopted by Thénardiers who is a criminal and a con man and he has a gang of burglars and I’m like ‘hang on this is the same story!

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. Jean-Baptiste Colbert presented King Louis XIV with a proclamation that would establish an office of Lieutenant General of Police, which would enable the office holder to create a police force comparable to modern police forces. She watched the only mother figure she had, her big sister, be sold into human trafficking and then realising what that actually meant and now she’s had to swear off all ties to her family (even though her family wasn’t great but still) to sell herself into the service of a criminal world, which is violent and dangerous. Tomasis leads The Cats (thieves); Orso or the Dead Lord leads the Ghosts (asssassins), of whom Gavroche is a member; the Tiger leads the Flesh guild. Begging was deeply frowned upon by all ranks of society, but especially hated by the uppermost echelon.Due to Louis XIV’s focus on warfare and parties, and not much else, there was little employment available for the rural refugees within the city, so it’s no surprise many slums developed. Nina is an incredible thief, she's not pretty but she has THREE love interests, the dauphin of France is okay with her stealing a crown jewel off of him .

Fearing for Esmeralda's safety, Phoebus and Quasi set out to find the Court of Miracles before Frollo (unaware that this is actually a trick to lead him there). In the book, Eponine and Cosette grow up together with a very abusive criminal man, and then one of them is, for all intents and purposes, sold to a stranger. You’ll find out in Book Two [of The Court Of Miracles] that they have massive underground libraries full of information about everything and everyone. I'm not sure where this story can go from here, but Kester Grant is clearly very imaginative, so I trust they'll figure it out.

nina was a good character, pretty well-rounded, but she seemed to get out of scrapes and conflict a bit too easily for my taste. While the synopsis referenced la Revolution Française being unsuccessful, I still thought that it'd be a Les Misérables retelling from how it was pitched. Vowing to "free" him from her enchantment, he claims to know where the Court of Miracles is and that he intends to attack the next morning with a thousand soldiers.