Holding Court by Kristen Held

Holding Court

by Kristen Held

When sixteen year old Jules Verity, who suffers from what her best friend calls "Psychic Tourette's Syndrome" (spontaneous outbursts of seemingly absurd prophecies that she can't control) takes a job at a castle turned dinner theater known as Tudor Times, all she wants is the chance to make some money, wear a fancy gown, and ogle gorgeous-but-taken Grayson Chandler from afar. Instead she's forced to wear the most mortifying costume ever, stumbles over a dead body that promptly disappears, and becomes a suspect in a jewel forgery scam. Determined to prove she's not a total freak who hallucinated a dead girl, Jules goes looking for answers in the secret passageways of Tudor Times. At first she's thrilled when Grayson volunteers to help her on her quest to find a dead body, but his sudden interest in spending time with Jules becomes suspicious when she discovers his girlfriend may be guilty of a lot more than perfect hair and fabulous cleavage. And if she can't unveil the truth in time, wearing an embarrassing costume and her psychic outbursts will be the least of her problems.

Reviewed by readingwithwrin on

3 of 5 stars

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"Why is everyone so eager to assume I'm nuts? Just because I blurt out random bizarre statements and find dead bodies that disappear before anyone else sees them?"


Jules comes from an interesting family, her grandma can read peoples auras, her mom can tell if antique items are real or fake, and Jules has Psychic Tourette's Syndrome as her best friend calls it.
While her mom and grandma’s abilities are useful, Jules hasn’t yet been able to learn the importance of her ability and how exactly the words she spews out have any importance at all. But she is soon to learn how important her ability is and how it could just end up saving lives.

When Jules mom decides to go to Europe so she can appraise items, Jules is left without a summer job and with no car her job options are limited. With the help of her best friend Cami she gets a job at the local castle dinner theater that has recently opened. She is immediately given the job and takes the place of Angelica.
Once her first night shadowing Angelica is over and Jules is going back to the dining hall to meet the other employees she finds a secret passage way, where she finds a dead body…. But once she gets help and is able to tell them what happened the body is gone and isn’t able to be found anywhere.

With only two people believing her Grayson and King Henry VIII, she is left in an awkward position. But when an attempt to gravely injure her happens, they realize things are far more serious than anyone had realized. Once the police have been notified of everything happening at the castle, they suspect Jules of being an accomplice to the woman that is missing. Jules and Grayson decided it’s time to figure out what is going on and where the body has gone.
I thought this story was okay, after first I didn’t really like it so much because of how focused Jules was on Grayson, and how she couldn’t have him/he didn’t like her. Once she started to talk to him though and actually interact with him she stops being so obsessive. Mainly because of having to find a dead body and clearing her name of any suspected wrong doings, but still it was nice to see her growing as a character and not being so over the moon for him the whole story.
I also really enjoyed Jules and her grandma’s relationship, even though she got annoyed with her grandma’s whole aura thing you can tell that she also kind of liked the weirdness and how it was just how grandma was. I also liked how grandma explained to Jules why her ability wasn’t pointless and how it was important and even though it did at times seem pointless and just an annoyance it had ended up saving a person’s life in the past and if she stopped trying to stop it, than she just might be able to make a job out of it.

Overall if you want a quick slightly Tudor time contemporary then I think you just might like this.

Thank you to Netgalley and Entangled Teen for an e-Arc in exchange for my honest review.
See more reviews like this on my blog

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 27 February, 2016: Finished reading
  • 27 February, 2016: Reviewed