Midnight Jewel by Richelle Mead

GoodReads Summary:
A refugee of war, Mira was cast out of her home country and thrust into another, where the conditions were inhospitable at best. In a life-altering twist of fate, she is given the chance to escape once more, and she takes it, joining the Glittering Court.
Both a school and a business venture, the Glittering Court is designed to transform impoverished girls into upper-class ladies who appear destined for powerful and wealthy marriages in the New World. There, Mira finds herself subjected to persecution, not only from her fellow Glittering Court jewels, but from her suitors, as well—men she would potentially be expected to give her life to.
By day, she goes through the motions, learning the etiquette and customs that will help to earn her anonymity, even making a couple true friends in the process, the forthright ladies’ maid Adelaide and the ambitious laundress Tamsin. But by night, Mira hatches a different plan entirely—one that, if exposed, could get her hanged in the highest court of Adoria.
MIDNIGHT JEWEL is the extraordinary story of a girl with few options who courageously forges a new path, finding love, passion, lifelong friendships, and maybe even a way to freedom.
Review:
Midnight Jewel was a book I was excited to read because I think Mira is just such an interesting character and I really wanted to learn all her secrets that were kept so mysterious in the first book.
I think Richelle Mead does a really great job of making these books their own. Even though these are three stories all happening at the same time, she does really well to make sure not to repeat every scene of the girls together. She shows a few scenes that the reader is familiar with, but doesn’t go into the same detail she did in the previous book.
I liked Mira. I thought she had really strong morals, even if she did find herself straying from them, she always found her way back. I really enjoyed how her story was wrapped up to give her the happily ever after that she deserved. I wish we had gotten to see her reunite with her brother.
I liked all of the other characters well enough. Tom Shortsleeves was captivating and the twist with him was a really good one. I loved Grant Elliot and that’s all I’m going to say about him.
Overall, I enjoyed this book but I’m most excited about Tamsin’s story. The mystery and suspense involved in the first two books are enough to drive me crazy wondering the details of Tamsin’s adventures. I’m very excited to see the details of the parts we already know and how her story will end.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.

Amanda’s Top Ten Tuesday – Back to School

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each week we talk about our top ten with a different topic provided by Jana. This week’s topic is top ten – back to school/learning freebie. So for this, I’m going to choose my top ten favorite books that take place in or at a school. In no specific order here’s my top ten for this week.

1. Looking for Alaska by John Green – A book that kickstarted my secret desire to go to a boarding school or live in a dorm of some sort (something I never got to do.) Even though this book 1000% broke my heart into a million pieces, I loved the unique experience these characters had living away from their parents, making friends and the adventures.
2. The Seven Realms & The Shattered Realms series by Cinda Williams Chima – Oden’s Ford, the school in these two series was a really interesting one. It trained everyone from all of the realms, warriors, wizards, and healers alike, regardless of the war going on around them. It’s a place of peace and learning in a tumultuous time.
3. The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead – Featuring a school that trains girls how to be upper-class ladies so that they may find husbands and work on developing the new world into a proper society.
4. Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson – Another boarding school adventure. But this one is a murder mystery. Everything about this school intrigued me. They give their students the freedom to study what they want, for no cost at all.
5. The Secret of Spellshadow Manor by Bella Forrest – This was a fantastic series that featured several different schools. Not always good at teaching their students and some of them were pretty twisted, but it made for a really good story.
6. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – Am I even a real bookworm if I don’t have this book/series on this list?
7. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead – Good old St. Vlad’s.
8. Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira – This heartfelt story follows Laurel through her first year of high school where she’s trying to figure out who she is without her sister and what her place in this seemingly foreign world. I love this book very much.
9. Evernight by Claudia Gray – I’m putting this in here for a throwback. An oldie, but goodie. Evernight Academy was such a creative idea, a place for vampires to figure out how to really blend in with the rest of the world. I still think, years after reading this series, which was a great twist on the vampire craze.
10. First Year by Rachel E. Carter – With a choice of working a trade or attempting to earn an apprenticeship as a soldier, mage or knight Ryiah always dreamed of becoming a mage. This series follows her through her incredible journey during her schooling.

Here’s my top ten for this week’s school-related freebie topic. What books do you think I should have included in my list? Let me know your top ten in the comments!

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.

ABC Book Challenge |G|

Hello, Bookworms! This week we will be talking about books with the letter G.

For those of you that are new here – here’s the deal, each week we post about books beginning with a specific letter of the alphabet starting with A and ending once we’ve gone all the way to Z. We’re going to mention one or sometimes a few books that were super memorable with the letter of the week and also books that are still living on our TBR lists. So without further ado.

Read last week’s post here.

This week’s letter is – G

Most Memorable Books 

Amanda

(The) Glittering Court by Richelle Mead – I absolutely loved this book. It actually also is on my TBR list for a reread because the third and final book just came out. Check out my review here.

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow – This was a recent read for me but I’m still thinking about it. It was a powerful story about substance abuse, addiction, and self-harm. You can read my review HERE.

Antonia

(The) Golden Compass by Philip Pullman – One of my all-time favorite series since I was a child. I love everything about it, even if the third book makes me bawl my eyes out.

(The) Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson – I didn’t love this book. So why is it on this list? Because I pushed through to finish the trilogy anyway and ended up LOVING the second and third books. This book always reminds me to give the whole series a shot even if I wasn’t in love with the beginning.

 

Books Still on our TBR List

Amanda

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard – I finished reading Red Queen at the beginning of August. This is on my TBR list for the month as I slowly reread the whole series now that the final book has been released.

Girls Made of Glass and Snow by Melissa Bashardoust – This was a BookOutlet buy for me. The cover is pretty and I really enjoy fairytale retellings.

Antonia

(The) Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith – I’ve been wanting to catch up on her books for awhile and this one sounds particularly interesting. Since I’ve been in long-distance relationships (before we were married, my husband was stationed in Japan for two years while I stayed home in Massachusetts), I’m curious to see how Smith portrays it in her book.

(The) Glass Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg – I recently started the first book, The Paper Magician, on audiobook. I’m barely a half hour into it. Unfortunately, I’m not enjoying the narrator much so I might just switch to kindle for the rest of it. It’s so interesting though that I’m already excited for the second book.

 

 

Amanda’s Top Ten Tuesday – Bookish Worlds

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.Each week we’re given a new prompt for a top ten list of all things bookish. This week’s topic is top ten bookish worlds I’d want to (or wouldn’t want to) live in. I like both of these, so this week I’m going to do five that I would want to live in and five that I wouldn’t want to live in. Here’s my top ten for this week!

Bookish worlds I would like to live in –

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas – Yes I know that they just went through a huge war and a ton of people died, but now all is hopefully well and I’d love to live here. I would love to get to visit all the different seasonal courts and the solar courts. I would also enjoy helping (or trying to) create a better world with the fae and the humans. Plus, who wouldn’t want to live in a world with Rhysand, Cassian and Aziel?

Harry Potter by J.K Rowling – Would I be a twenty something year old bookworm if I hadn’t read Harry Potter and fantasized about getting my letter and attending Hogwarts?

Snow Like Ashes by Sara Raasch – This is a world similar to ACOTAR with the different seasonal territories that I would love to visit. But in this book universe they have magical abilities instead of being Fae. So who wouldn’t want to have magic and be able to visit whatever season you wanted?

Zodiac by Romina Russell – One word: Space. I love outer space and most space themed books are ones that I’ll buy as soon as I know they take place among the stars. This book universe sounds so cool. The different zodiac planets with the different personalities, I just love everything about this series.

Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld – Superheros are yet another autobuy topic. So this book, while it’s set in a regular realistic world, it has kids with super powers. Yes, please?

Bookish worlds I would not want to live in –

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas – While I love these books and I love  the characters and the story, I wouldn’t want to live in this world. A world that’s on the brink of war and treats most of the people horribly. No thank you.

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir – Living in this super oppressive world? No way. I wouldn’t survive in this book universe for very long and if I did, I would be very miserable.

Moon Chosen by P.C. Cast – I love this story and all of the characters in it. But I definitely wouldn’t want to live in this ruined futuristic world.

The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead – This book universe seems how I imagine England in the 1800s. I’ve always said that I would live in that time period, but only if I was a woman of wealth. The same goes for this world except I still don’t think I’d want to live there because well, electricity and running water and the internet and all of the modern day amenities I probably couldn’t live without.

The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima – This book universe is one that I wouldn’t want to live in for one reason that I could use for so many other series that I considered putting here. I wouldn’t want to live in a world that was in the middle of fighting a war. Even though by the end of the series the war is over, there’s always going to be another war in these kinds of worlds even if that story doesn’t get written. Yes, I would love to see this world and meet the characters that I love, but I wouldn’t want to have to constantly worry about the next battle to be fought.

This week’s topic was so fun I considered doing one post with worlds I would want to live in and a different post with worlds I wouldn’t want to live in, but I just did five of each here. What bookish world would you or wouldn’t you want to live in and why?

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.

 

The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead

Summary:
Big and sweeping, spanning from the refined palaces of Osfrid to the gold dust and untamed forests of Adoria, The Glittering Court tells the story of Adelaide, an Osfridian countess who poses as her servant to escape an arranged marriage and start a new life in Adoria, the New World. But to do that, she must join the Glittering Court.
Both a school, and a business venture, the Glittering Court is designed to transform impoverished girls into upper-class ladies who appear destined for powerful and wealthy marriages in the New World. Adelaide naturally excels in her training, and even makes a few friends: the fiery former laundress Tamsin and the beautiful Sirminican refugee Mira. She manages to keep her true identity hidden from all but one: the intriguing Cedric Thorn, son of the wealthy proprietor of the Glittering Court.
When Adelaide discovers that Cedric is hiding a dangerous secret of his own, together they hatch a scheme to make the best of Adelaide’s deception. Complications soon arise-first as they cross the treacherous seas from Osfrid to Adoria, and then when Adelaide catches the attention of a powerful governor.
But no complication will prove quite as daunting as the potent attraction simmering between Adelaide and Cedric. An attraction that, if acted on, would scandalize the Glittering Court and make them both outcasts in wild, vastly uncharted lands…
Review:
Oh my god, I loved this book. I started it late last night before I went to bed and stopped after a few chapters before I could get sucked in and stay up all night reading it. Instead, I spent my whole Sunday off reading The Glittering Court and I don’t regret it in the least. I bought this book recently because Richelle Mead is an auto-buy author for me. I’ve read pretty much everything she’s written and loved it all. So I knew it wouldn’t be any different with this book.
The Glittering Court had an old-time English feel to it. It reminded me a bit of the story of how America was founded. Settlers moved to a New World so they could create a better life for themselves and all that. It even had the dispute over religious views as well. Osfrid’s solution to the differing views of religion was to ship those that believed differently off to the New World. I really liked the fantasy aspect of The Glittering Court. It takes place in completely fictional places, but they sound so realistic and they can be related to my country’s history that it gives the story realness when the country’s mentions don’t exist at all. I liked that about this book, that even though it’s in a fantasy world, it was very easy to visualize and imagine how things take place in these foreign places.
I absolutely adored Adelaide. She’s a countess who is being forced into an arranged marriage because her family’s wealth has run out; a situation I would surely run from myself. So when she finds an out through an offer to one of her servants, she jumps for it. Adelaide is written as a girl who’s very strong-minded and has an opinion about everything. Living in the times that she does, women aren’t supposed to have opinions and if they do, they certainly shouldn’t voice them. She has a tendency to voice her opinion, whether she should or not, though in her defense there are many times where she would like to say many things but refrains from doing so.
While Adelaide is at the Glittering Court she makes friends with the two girls that she arrived with, Tamsin and Mira. Tamsin was the girl that had to prove she was number one. She worked the hardest too. She was the most determined and didn’t let anything or anyone get in her way. I really like Tamsin because of her persistence and determination. She had to overcome a lot in this book and she really proved that she is a great friend and just an all around good person.
Mira is the third roommate. Mira is the mysterious one, the one who everyone singles out because her skin is darker than the other girls. She never lets that stop her though. I like Mira very much because, like Tamsin, she was determined. But unlike Tamsin, Mira was determined to do whatever she wanted. She would sneak out at night to do god knows what. She was always surrounded by mystery, never telling her roommates where she was going or what she was doing. Mira stood up for her friends when the other girls tried to mess with them and they did the same for her. I really like the friendship between these three; it was a nice addition to the romantic majority of the book.
The only thing I didn’t like about The Glittering Court was the lack of details about the girls. I still want to know what Mira was doing out on the town all hours of the night. I want to know what happens next to these two girls that I’ve grown attached to in this book. I just need more from Richelle Mead. I hope there is a sequel to The Glittering Court.
Last I’ll mention Cedric, the unexpected love story. From the start of this book when Cedric ended up in Adelaide’s house trying to convince one of her servants to come with him and join the Glittering Court I knew he was going to play a big part in this story and boy was I right. Between his secret and him being the only one that knows Adelaide’s secret some kind of craziness was bound to happen. I’m not going to spoil any of the details; you’ll have to read the book for those. But I will say that I loved Cedric, he was always there when Adelaide felt like she was going to fall apart and her cover was going to be blown. He proved time and time again that he’s a genuinely good guy and I’m very happy with the way his story turned out. Like I said, I really hope there will be a sequel to this book so I can read more about these characters.
If you liked or read any of Richelle Mead’s other books I definitely suggest you go to your local library or bookstore and pick up this book and fly through its wonderful pages just like I did.

Keep on reading lovelies, Amanda.

*Please be aware that the book cover on this post is a link to purchase this book through Amazon. Feel free to purchase with our affiliate link (just click on the book cover) to support us!