A Sweet Disorder

A Sweet Disorder
By Jacqueline Kolosov
Hyperion, 2009. 418 pgs. Young Adult

Miranda’s perfect life comes crashing down when her father dies abroad in Ireland. With the estate in debt and her father’s stipulation that upon his death, Miranda becomes the ward of others, Miranda leaves her home and joins the household of the austere Earl and Countess of Turbury. Here Miranda studies the Bible and other pious texts instead of the romance novels she favors and the Countess looks down on Miranda’s elaborate embroidering. To add further insult to injury, Miranda’s intended, Henry Raleigh, can no longer honor the arrangement between them. When Queen Elizabeth invites Miranda to court to be one of her Maidens, Miranda jumps at the chance to escape her new life. But court politics, even among the Maidens, makes Miranda wary and shows that she cannot trust anyone, especially as she realizes that perhaps she can engineer her own escape from the Countess. A pleasant enough read, and a predictable one, this book is not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

MN