Early Review – Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Length: 368 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: July 26, 2022
ASIN: B09KGMS6K2
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Violet is a prophet and a liar, influencing the royal court with her cleverly phrased—and not always true—divinations. Honesty is for suckers, like the oh-so-not charming Prince Cyrus, who plans to strip Violet of her official role once he’s crowned at the end of the summer—unless Violet does something about it.
But when the king asks her to falsely prophesy Cyrus’s love story for an upcoming ball, Violet awakens a dreaded curse, one that will end in either damnation or salvation for the kingdom—all depending on the prince’s choice of future bride. Violet faces her own choice: Seize an opportunity to gain control of her own destiny, no matter the cost, or give in to the ill-fated attraction that’s growing between her and Cyrus.
Violet’s wits may protect her in the cutthroat court, but they can’t change her fate. And as the boundary between hatred and love grows ever thinner with the prince, Violet must untangle a wicked web of deceit in order to save herself and the kingdom—or doom them all.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Violet Made of Thorns duology. I got an eGalley of this book through NetGalley to review.
Thoughts: I ended up enjoying this a lot more as the story continued. The beginning was a bit shaky but I was drawn into this fantasy world of morally gray characters pretty quickly. The story centers around Violet, a seer who lies more than she sees, and Cyrus, the prince she grew up with but that she has been manipulating for the king for ages. When a dreaded prophecy from the previous seer looks like it is coming to fruition, it will be up to Violet and Cyrus to try to steer the course of the kingdom away from disaster.
This is well done. The world-building is a bit thin but I did love the push and pull between the fairies and the Fates. None of the characters in here are all that likable. Violet twists things to suit her own survival and ambitions but she isn’t completely heartless. Cyrus is similar. I did find it frustrating that if they had just trusted each other a little bit more, a lot of the challenges they faced would have been easily resolved. I enjoyed some of the side characters better; Cyrus’s sister was especially entertaining.
This has heavy themes of curses, fairy tales, and magic. It seems to pull from a number of fairy tales; I felt like there were echoes of “Sleeping Beauty” and “Beauty and the Beast throughout. The romance here is fascinating but more bitter than sweet; very love/hate. The writing was decent, it seemed a bit immature at times but was easy enough to read. It’s not beautifully written and the description isn’t great, but the plot was decent and the pace was fast enough to keep me engaged. I like where the story ended and would like to see where it goes in the next volume.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this quite a bit. The characters are complex and intriguing, the fantasy world has some interesting elements, and I liked the heavy dark fairy tale tone to this. I was engaged in the story and am eager to see what happens in the second book. While this isn’t the most beautifully written book, it packs a good story and is easy to read. I would recommend it to those who enjoy intrigue-based fantasy romance with heavy fairy tale themes.
