Title: Midnight Jewel (The Glittering Court #2)
Author: Richelle Mead
Publication Date: June 27, 2017
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 416
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Review for book 1
In MIDNIGHT JEWEL, Richelle Mead goes beyond the glitz and glamour of the Glittering Court, delving into the dark, political underbelly of Cape Triumph through the eyes of one girl who dares to fight for her freedom.
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.
Way back in my review for The Glittering Court I said I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to read Midnight Jewel. Well I did it. I almost DNFed this book, but as I was part of the blog tour I felt like I had to at least complete this book. There were so many reviews saying that this book was so much better than the first, but I beg to differ.
I so desperately wanted to like this book as I have loved all of Richelle Mead’s books prior to this series. I think the things that got me the most had to be the timeline of how the series was written. Both the first and second book (and I’m guessing the third book will as well) take place over the same amount of time. I thought this would be an interesting concept, but it makes everything so unbearably predictable. And even though this book was told from a different point of view about 40% of the book is the same events which makes things rather redundant and honestly boring. It felt like the author vomited up the story from the first book and added some more stuff.
Due to the book having a lot of redundant scenes made it way too long. The book itself doesn’t seem that big, but the audiobook that I listened to was over 14 hours! That’s ridiculously excessive in my opinion. Especially when most of these scenes are the same thing as the first book. By chapter 4 they still have not even left for the new world. That’s a lot of unnecessary words.
I was also hoping that the romance would maybe redeem this book a little, but I was sadly mistaken. In the beginning I felt like the romance could be very promising yet it almost made me more upset. For the sake of spoilers I won’t say too much, but just because the characters have everything going against them does not make it okay for them to be together because of on little loop hole at near the end of the book.
I know this sounds awful, but I really wish this second book had been a continuation of the series and not a different point of view of the same events. It does sound like an interesting concept, but it definitely was not for me.
That being said, I will not be finishing this series at all. I will read Richelle’s other new books, but I just can’t with this series.
