Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Genre: YA, Scifi / Fantasy, 4 Stars, 

People who should read this: People who love a great atmospheric read, romance, epic fantasy, and a unique magic system.

“When terrible things have happened to you, sometimes the promise of something good can be just as frightening.” 

A book about talking books. Gimme Gimme. 

If I love this book for one reason and one reason alone, it’s the talking books. 

But there are a lot of other reasons that I really enjoyed reading Sorcery of Thorns.

Elisabeth is a foundling brought up in one of the great libraries housing grimoires. Because of the way they were constructed, the grimoires can talk, move, and even levitate. But growing up in this environment her whole life, without the love of family, left Elisabeth very naive. Unlike other naive characters that I have read about, Elisabeth didn’t let it stop her. She kept going, kicking butt. I appreciated her character development and at times forgot how naive she was until book club reminded me. And that’s when I realized how strong her will power was while she still stayed true to herself. 

On the flip side of that, you get Nathaniel - the dark sorcerer Elisabeth is supposed to hate. There’s no enemies to friends here and except for the one person in the club that couldn’t agree - you know who you are - the rest of us thought their relationship was spot on. It was believable. A perfect creation in the time given. And in truth, it was the best part of the book. When Elisabeth and Nathaniel were together, their dialogue was on point, to the edge of swoon worthy. If only I can reach this level of awesomeness in all of my writing. 

“She now understood that the world wasn’t kind to young women, especially when they behaved in ways men didn’t like, and spoke truths that men weren’t ready to hear.” 

And yet, with all of this, I was still searching for something in the story. That spark that would have pushed the book over the edge. I struggled in parts - you can probably guess these would be the scenes without Nathaniel - and found the middle to drag on. Everything could be blamed on the very epic fantasy style of writing that was used. The world was set up to the tiniest detail. I know that a lot of readers appreciate being able to live in a world longer, but if the story is sluggish going from scene to scene, you can count me out. I need movement. A story line. Something more interesting than the detailed workings of a library and the lice. For epic fantasy, Sorcery of Thorns moved quickly, but I was bored for part of it.

As you can see, that didn’t stop me from giving the story a whopping 4.5 stars. 

“Books, too, had hearts, though they were not the same as people's, and a book's heart could be broken: she had seen it happen before. Grimoires that refused to open, their voices gone silent, or whose ink faded and bled across the pages like tears.” 

Looking to your left now, you’ll see a great example of Brandon Sanderson’s discussion on magic systems. Does the magic come at a cost - check. Can it be wielded by everyone - check. How is it used - check. Because of the very nature of the magic, the book quickly takes on a dark, Gothic tone, matching perfectly with the lime green light from Nathaniel’s magic. I was already picturing this on screen… oh chills. Rogerson was brilliant in what she created without info dumping her entire world on her readers. And there was enough at stake to not give the reader the sense that everyone was going to be ok in the end. 

With the current trend in darker writing, I really appreciated Sorcery of Thorns. The scenes were visual striking with the perfect balance of actions and description. Rogerson was also very skilled in her comparison. I was almost tasting the very air Elisabeth would walk through. Yet, even with the darkness, I felt a beautiful hope and lightness in the writing that is sticking with me. And let’s not even get into how beautiful the cover of the book is. I need to snatch a copy right now.

Happy Reading

Love Kait

Reading Challenge: 85/100