Midnight Jewel

If you know me at all then you know that Richelle Mead is my favorite author. She is my idol, my inspiration, my spirit animal. Richelle Mead is my Patronus. I fell in love with her Vampire Academy series, and once I read her Bloodlines series I knew we were author/reader soulmates. Every new book of hers I read makes me love her even more. So, it’s no surprise that Midnight Jewel, the second in her Glittering Court stand alone series gets 5 stars. I loved the first book in the series so much I was afraid she couldn’t top it. And then, in some ways, she did. While I loved Adelaide’s love story in the first book, Mira’s is also extremely enjoyable in different ways. If you haven’t heard about The Glittering Jewel series yet I’ll give you a super fast recap. The books take place in a fictional world similar to England/America at the time of the colonization of America. The Glittering Court is a program that trains underprivileged girls in the way of being proper ladies, then ships them off to the New World to wed the men who have settled in the colonies. But the girls Mead writes about don’t exactly play by the rules, and they all have ulterior motives for joining The Glittering Court. Midnight Jewel is Mira’s story. Mira is such a strong and independent character. A refugee, she’s an outsider and shunned no matter where she goes. But that doesn’t stop her. She’s completely kick ass in a time when women are not supposed to be kick ass. She enters into an unlikely alliance working undercover for a spy named Grant. The sparks between them? Get your fan ready! Ms. Mead knows her way around romance! The build up between these two is almost painful, but Mead is the queen of ripping out hearts, crushing them, and piecing them back together. The only negative I can even say about this book is that readers who have NOT read the first book may not have as clear of an understanding of how The Glittering Court works, simply because most of Mira’s story takes place after her “training” and she’s gone across the sea to the new world. If you’ve read the first book this should be no problem. If you haven’t you may be left a little confused. Don’t let that stop you though, because once the new world plot was set I was 100% invested in Mira and her story. Should you read this? Fans of Richelle Mead will rejoice. Readers of historical romance will rejoice. (And did I mention there are pirates???) So basically if you want to give Richelle Mead a chance and Vampires aren’t your thing, give this series a try.

Mira is more of an interesting character simply because she has a higher purpose than Ada did in the first book. Instead of being a runaway rich girl that falls in love with a poor boy, Mira is independent and strong willed. She has a greater cause to her actions and actually gets stuff done. Despite the trials she's put through for being different, she cleverly learns how to work around people to achieve her goals. The romance parts were okay and didn't drag the story down any. However Mira's undercover work did get confusing at times and was a touch hard to follow. There are more characters involved making it difficult to keep up with whose who and why they matter. Not a bad story. I'll read book 3 when it's out. I will mention, the tan girl on the cover of this book looks nothing like the character described in the book nor like the one I had pictured in my head while reading this. I think they should've thought more about their choice of model to represent Mira better. Just saying.

There are too many things I want to say about this book for me to put on this page, but this series has been a tremendous joy for me to read. I love every character that's brought in, every connection that is made between books, and can't wait to read Tamisns shipwrecked story. I have a great idea of who her companion will be and look forward to seeing her side unfold. What amazing imagination, to create an entire world (though nothing new for Richelle Mead) and build three simultaneous story lines in it. Fantastic. Well done. And unlike Grant, I am looking forward to the future of this series.

Of Adelaide, Mira and Tamsin, Mira is the one I most admire. All three are remarkable characters but there's a fire in Mira that speaks to me. Her story is one that captivates to the very last page. Spies, pirates, mysterious masked angels... this book has it all! Richelle Mead certainly has not disappointed. This book has been worth the wait. My only gripes are that the book had to end and now I have to wait for Tamsin's tale. I highly recommend it to any fan of strong female characters, adventure and romance but definitely read Glittering Court first otherwise this book may be confusing.

This novel is better than the first in the series, if only because Mira is a far more likable and interesting character than Adelaide. Grant Elliott is another interesting character - and a far better love interest than Adelaide's love interest in the first novel. Grant is intelligent, sneaky, and full of surprises. Grant and Mira together and are really good - though they don't get as romantic as I would have liked. Honestly, I'm not totally sure what Grant and Mira were supposed to be doing. I know Mira was spying and gathering information, but it didn't stick with me. Either I read too fast, it was too forgettable, or it wasn't explained well. The story moves along okay, but felt stiff at times - maybe because a lot of things I had already read about (or had been hinted about in the last novel.) If this were the first novel in the series, I would actually say the story moved too slowly. The ending was a little too fast-paced, but it worked out well. Overall, the novel is rather forgettable.

Loved this book!! I couldn't put it down! I just finished it two days ago and am reading it again. I really enjoyed hearing the original story from Mirabel's point of view. All those times in Glittering Court when you wonder what she was doing...now you know! I can't wait to read the next one to hear about Tamsin!

I enjoyed this series about the frontier. Decent writer and the story moved along.

I thought this book was better than the first! It was very entertaining and I couldn’t put it down! Can’t wait for the third!

Great product

While there were some good character moments and great world building, the main character seemed a bit flat compared to what I'm used to from Richelle Mead.

Great book, I like how it's about the same story and people but then from one of the other girls. I hope the third book is from tasmim's side of the story.

Excellent