Title: Holding Court
Release date: March 1st, 2016
Author: K.C. Held
Entangled
About the book:
Sixteen-year-old Jules Verity knows exactly
what's in store at her new job at castle-turned-dinner-theater Tudor Times.
Some extra cash, wearing a fancy-pants dress, and plenty of time to secretly
drool over the ever-so-tasty--and completely unavailable--Grayson Chandler.
Except that it's not quite what she imagined.
For one, the costume Jules has to wear is
awful. Then there's the dead body she finds that just kind of...well,
disappears. Oh, and there's the small issue of Jules and her episodes of what
her best friend calls "Psychic Tourette's Syndrome"--spontaneous and
uncontrollable outbursts of seemingly absurd prophecies.
The only bright side? This whole dead body
thing seems to have gotten Grayson's attention. Except that the more Jules
investigates, the more she discovers that Grayson's interest might not be as
courtly as she thought. In fact, it's starting to look suspicious...
About the author:
My thoughts:
4.5 “I fell in love with the protagonist” STARS
ARC via NetGalley.
Thank you, Entangled!
K.C. HELD was born and raised in California
with stopovers in Honduras, Mexico, and France. Married to her high school
sweetheart, and mom to two avid bookworms, she holds an MFA in costume design
and is an accomplished seamstress with a background in opera, theater, film,
and television. Although she once spent a summer working in a castle, there
were no dead bodies involved.
ARC via NetGalley.
Thank you, Entangled!
First thing I'll say about this is I started and
finished it in one day. A Friday. I could've gone out with my friends or gone
with my husband to a nice restaurant... or even started partying since it's
Carnaval this weekend, but nope. I chose to stay home and finish this book
because I fell in love with Jules.
When that happens, don’t expect me to step away until
there are no more words to read. Then, I end up feeling both happy and sad. I
guess every bookworm knows the feeling.
And while I was thrilled to get to know Jules, I was sad to have to let
her go.
You should come meet Jules -- a.k.a Juliet Verity a.k.a
Buttercup a.k.a my new BFF. A super awesome sixteen-year-old who comes from a
line of eccentric women with special “gifts.” Her grandmother, for example, can
see people’s auras and find their perfect match. And while her grandmother and
her mother have found ways to turn their gifts into something profitable for
the family, Jules is still going through the “I’m a freak” phase. It sure doesn’t help that her gift isn’t
making being a teenager any easy. According to Jules’ very funny best
friend, the poor girl suffers from "Psychic Tourette's Syndrome".
What’s that? Out of nowhere, Jules will yell some absurd prophecy that makes no
sense at the time, but later turns out to be helpful. Sounds pretty cool,
except when you’re trying to keep people from thinking you’re batshit crazy.
But you know where being batshit crazy is cool and
profitable? At the castle-turned-dinner-theater Tudor Times where everyone
dresses up and pretends to be someone else. Jules is hired to play the part of
Mad Maid of Kent (a psychic num), which means she’s practically getting paid to
be herself. Pretty good, huh? What makes
it even better is that she’ll get to spend time with her longtime crush and now
coworker, Grayson Chandler.
It’d be the perfect job if it weren’t for the dead
body she found. The same body that disappeared minutes later, leaving everyone
wondering if Jules really saw it or if this was just another part of her
psychic gift. Only way to find out? Teaming up with Grayson and searching for
the dead girl and her murderer. That’s when the adventure began.
While the whole
Tudor vibe and the mystery about the missing body made the story unique and
interesting, Jules was the most special element in this as far as I was
concerned. You can call her a special snowflake, if you want… I honestly don’t
care, because I connected with her from the start.
Jules was funny, like make-me-laugh-out-loud-a-lot
funny. Her logic was spot on and her sense of humor was refreshing:
“That brings up an
interesting point, Miss Verity. You’re the only one who’s seen Sarah Buckley dead.”
“Uh, no. I’m pretty
sure whoever killed her and moved her body saw her, too.”
Like, dude, she was hilarious.
Jules stood firmly against slut shaming. Grayson
was in a relationship with Bree, the most perfect girl in town, but every time
Jules talked about her “rival”, she did it in a way that made you respect her
even more:
Bree Blair is so
perfect you can’t even hate her properly.
She (Bree) envelops me in a
rose-scented hug. She doesn’t just look perfect, she smells good, too. I should
hate her. But I can’t.
And don’t expect Jules to get involved with someone
else’s boyfriend, because she’s not up for that kind of crap:
“Cami, I’m serious. I
will never be Bree Blair, and I’m not going to be the kind of girl who goes
after someone else’s boyfriend, either.”
I highlighted another part that proves the point above
(“You’d better go call Bree” – can’t
say more because of spoilers) while reading and added “YES, YES, YES!” as my
notes. Honestly, I’m so tired of people treating cheating like it’s not a big
deal, and I was so, so happy that Jules wasn’t of one them.
I guess what I’m saying is I fell hard for Jules, so I
completely understand the big secret revealed at the end. It makes perfect
sense to me. *shrugs*
The romance wasn’t as big as I normally like it, but with
the search for the missing girl and the mystery involving the possible murder
taking much of everyone’s time, it was understandable that they had to keep the
romance as a subplot. Plus, this is being sold as YA mystery and not YA romance, so...
I’m sure there will be reviews complaining about historical
inconsistencies (not saying there's a problem with the book, but there’s always someone complaining about that), but (again) I
don’t care. I didn’t request this book because of the historical references and
I’m not quoting anything from a fiction with history as a subplot when
discussing important historical facts, so yeah… there’s that.About the tour:
Come check the rest of the tour here.
Giveaway:
Ends March 18th, 2016.
·
One (1) winner will receive Holding Court swag pack containing a
magnetic prophecy kit, signed bookplate, coloring postcard with stacked
coloring pencil, and a bookmark.
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