The Glittering Court, Book 3

I Picked Up This Book Because: Finish the trilogy.

The Characters:

Tamsin Wright:
Jacob “Jago” Robinson:
Mira, Adelaide, Orla, Half a dozen other characters whose names I can’t remember

The Story:

The conclusion of a whirlwind of a tale of three young ladies chosen to give up their common lives and trained to become wives of wealthy gentlemen in a new land. Tamsin, the third in the trilogy, goes through enough to have lived 6 lives. Starting with her keeping a huge secret from the girls in the court and a shipwreck and taking her through an unbelievable series of events.

This is an excellent story of adventure in a strange land and wraps up with a happy ending.

The Random Thoughts:



The Score Card:



4 Stars

This reader's personal opinion, ©2019, all rights reserved, not to be quoted, clipped or used in any way by goodreads, Google Play, amazon.com or other commercial booksellers* 

Outright boring.  Surprisingly disappointing.  Surprising because I usually like this author and because the disappointment wasn't with some of my usual YA objections.  

This just was not a paranormal series.  Maybe if I hadn't been expecting a YA paranormal ...?  Maybe if had just been billed as alternate history?

Pretty much take a 1970s historical romance about colonizing the Americas with an uneven heroine (sort of mail order bride-ish) mostly self-involved ... oh heck, it was so utterly boring and trope-y I'm not even going to waste more time on reviewing it.  Prejudice and racism -- well yeah but even that was so utterly typical (male assholes wanting women in their place and assholes, mostly male, degrading a side character of color and all the women brought over to be brides treated like pieces of meat -- and even that was bland).

100% failed to live up to the hype and even the drama about whether or not was racist.

Drama? What drama, everything was so bland and forced and didn't flow.  Even the sudden about face towards end chapters with our shallow heroine now becoming super pioneer hardworking wife-y was just boring and a weird twist on the character that already was uneven.

Doesn't sound like rest of series is exactly "series" although follows some of the characters. I am certainly not interested enough to try the next book.

*©2019.  All rights reserved except permission is granted to author or publisher (except Penumbra Publishing) to reprint/quote in whole or in part. I may also have cross-posted on Libib, LibraryThing, and other sites including retailers like kobo and Barnes and Noble. Posting on any site does not grant that site permission to share with any third parties or indicate release of copyright.  

Ratings scale used in absence of a booklikes suggested rating scale:

★★★★★ = All Time Favorite 
★★★★½ = Extraordinary Book. Really Loved It.
★★★★☆ = Loved It.
★★★½☆ = Really Liked.
★★★☆☆ = Liked.
★★½☆☆ = Liked parts; parts only okay. Would read more by author.
★★☆☆☆ = Average.   Okay. 
★½☆☆☆ = Disliked or meh? but kept reading in hopes would improve.
★☆☆☆☆ = Loathed It. Possibly DNF and a torturous read.
½☆☆☆☆ = So vile was a DNF or should have been. Cannot imagine anyone liking.  (Might also be just an "uploaded" word spew or collection that should not be dignified by calling itself a "published book." If author is going batshit crazy in the blogosphere over reviews -- I now know why they are getting bad reviews.  Or maybe author should take remedial classes for language written in until basic concepts like using sentences sink in. Is author even old enough to sign a publishing contract or do they need a legal guardian to sign for them?)

Not getting a paranormal, fantasy or urban fantasy vibe so not sure why this book was marketed that way and as another The Selection -- other than possibly that the author normally writes in those genres.  More of a mail order brides headed to the 13 colonies vibe; hardly the bachelor tv show style stuff as the selection since multiple potential husbands bid for them versus vie to be selected by only one bride.  

Yes, I get that the new world is called "Adoria" rather than Americas, the colonies, the new world, etc. and England is called "Osfrid" (with the technology and feel of pre-Civil-War or pre-Restoration with the start of cavaliers and puritans).

But that's just name changes and a few liberties with historical stuff, not any real worldbuilding yet.  And not reading as YA, either, other than that the main character wasn't of age yet so had a guardian who could force her into an arranged marriage (causing her to flee Osfrid to take her chances with "The Glittering Court" aka brides for sale to the colonists willing to cough up the fees).

"The reality is that most girls in your situation . . . well, endure. There’s nothing else you can do. There’s nowhere else you can go"

 

Just starting this for booklikes YA book club.  I've liked other books by this author but reviews from friends are so mixed it should be interesting.