Sorcery of Thorns

I adored it! It was a wonderful blend of magic, mystery, whimsy, self discovery, humor, friendship, and love. It's rare to find books that pay equal attention to atmosphere and plot, Sorcery of Thorns beautifully develops both. 

A fairytale-style fantasy that hints at more darkness than it delivers, this was a mixed experience for me. For example, rather than the enemies-to-lovers relationship described in the cover synopsis, we have a brooding, secretive love interest in a rather enderingly fluffy take on the gothic tradition, including the narrative absenteeism. The plot and character-building take a backseat to the creation of an atmospheric world (nominally set in 1824), the latter cinematically rendered yet with a magic system that seemed rather random and inconsistent to me.

As for the main character, it felt really nice to have YA heroine who is naive and reasonably ignorant instead of a worldweary know-it-all. Admittedly, she is extraordinarily lucky: everything she needs tends to fall into her lap the moment she requires it, whether information, a magical object, or a job opening. It is one of the reasons that there story often lacks tension and unpredictability, or a clear purpose. Even the villainy read as more theatrical than menacing to me, so when the plot climax occurs it was a side element that stole the show for me, leading into a rather touching scene and then a clever wink of an ending. I enjoyed that!

4,75
what a journey !
so much happened, still I want more of it
the ambiance is so whimsical, some characters untrustworthy and morally-grey,the mfc so badass
(kinda caraval vibe)

THAT ENDING! I NEED TO KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW. ALSO SILAS CARRIED THIS WHOLE BOOK.
Silas was adorable, such a cute demon, I swear. And their inability to love and care, pleaseeee that is absolute rubbish. The guy LOVED Nathanial to pieces and saved the world. So demonic of him.
This is just gonna end up being a Silas appreciation review. What would be so cool is that Silas ruled over the demons if he survived or he was remade into Silas, the one who loves the unworthy humans.

Pleaseeeee, someone just give me a Silas asap

4.5 ⭐️

Oh my, a book about a girl that lives in a library, hangs out with talking books and wields a sword??! Take my money, please!!!

Within 2 pages of the book I knew I was going to love it. We have a lovely and, FINALLY, TALL female protagonist. I am myself a short person, but even I get tired of the dainty-little-girl-that's-somehow-stronger-than-all-the-men trope. It was refreshing to see a tall beautiful young woman in a young adult fantasy!
We have an amazing atmosphere that I can only describe as cosy industrial whimsy. And I highly recommend reading the book in the fall!

I also liked the supporting characters though some of them felt like cliches at times.

The plot was so exciting and things were happening at a nearly perfect pace. I also very much enjoyed the ending.

As far as young adult fantasy (with a bit of romance) goes, this one is top shelf!

3.5* i really enjoyed this but i expected more from the romance and i feel like nothing really happened for 450 pages, im hoping the second one will give a lot more

Full of YA tropes. Yet somehow the author makes this book both engaging and refreshing.

Heroic girl with a love of books is suddenly thrust into a new world of magic, mystery and political intrigue. Oh and did we mention her new companion is tall dark and handsome, rich, powerful, and the town's most eligible bachelor?

Will she be able to solve the mystery, save the girl AND capture the heart of Mr sexy?

Dit boek was minder fantasy dan dat ik had verwacht, maar dat is zeker niet erg.
Het was echt een mega goed verhaal! En ik snap dat het zo'n hoge rating heeft.
Wel een beetje jammer dat er in de laatste paar hoofdstukken voor mij een hele hoop kwartjes vielen. Het heeft er overigens niet voor gezorgd dat dit boek een lagere rating heeft gekregen.
Ook de schrijfstijl vond ik erg fijn. Echt gewoon een mega goed boek!

4,5 stars! I didn't want this to end, truly! It is a bit predictable tho, but in the most charming way!

4,5 stars! I didn't want this to end, truly! It is a bit predictable tho, but in the most charming way!

This is the YA Fantasy about libraries and the love for books. The book follows the story of Margaret, a librarian apprentice who was raised between the books and is wrongly accused of freeing the most dangerous grimoire of the library.
This event changes Margaret's life and puts her traveling with the sorcerer Nathaneal to the capital, where she will be judged for the sabotage.

What I liked:
- Silas and Nathaniel. Both characters were complex, well developed and very fun to read.

What I think it could have been done better:
- I've felt the worldbuilding didn't explain important parts of the story, leaving a lot of questions unanswered.

Recommended for young readers.

there was nothing i didn't love about this book, so let me try and sum up my favorite things to try and get you to read it too:

the main character, elisabeth, sticks to her guns. while she meets people along her journey that affect how she sees the world, her stubborn nature stays true throughout the story; she wants to save everyone, and most importantly, the books

bro the IDEA of BOOKS being so POWERFUL just TICKLED ME PINK. i wanted more chapters about the libraries and grimoires and how librarians worked because i was just so enamored by the whole concept. it's been a long time since i've wanted to actually live in a YA fantasy setting, but i think i could really love being a librarian in one of these libraries

i don't know how. but margaret rogerson manages to make characters you get attached to, and relationships that you understand better than you understand yourself – and then she punches you in the face and you thank her for it. my sweet demon baby, silas, ur da best

Wat een charmante en LEUKE rit! Ik heb echt genoten van dit avontuur en vooral de setting. De humor en de grappen waren de kers op de taart.

Hoewel een deel van mij wou dat we meer details hadden gekregen over de wereld, bepaalde plotelementen en personages, slaagde de auteur er wonderwel in om een goeie balans te vinden tussen genoeg informatie geven en de stroom van het verhaal gaande houden.

De plot en de ontknoping waren misschien een beetje te doorzichtig en het hoofdpersonage misschien een beetje te naïef en traag, maar dit heeft me nooit echt gestoord. Dit was gewoon plezierig van begin tot eind.

4.5 Rounded to 5

So anytime there is a book-within-a-book or library theme I'm ALL IN. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect with this one but I really loved it. It has been sitting on my shelf for a while and if it wasn't for it being a buddy read it would probably still be there

YESSSSS this book is simply incredible! It has all the things you would want in a book: female badass lead, library setting, tons of books, cute character moments, witty banter, it has it all! Giant recommend!

Upon reread of this book my original thoughts still hold true. I absolutely love this book.

This book was perfection. It had everything I could have wanted in a book and then some. This is definitely one of my all time favorite books and I could see myself rereading it in the future. This is a book about books but the books in this book are Grimoires and they are living creatures that are capable of being good or bad. 

Elisabeth literally grew up in the library and she has this love and need to be near books and protect them and honestly I just loved it. She's very awkward and clumsy but that doesn't stop her from fighting when she needs too even if she isn't 100% sure of what she is doing. 

We then have Nathaniel who is a Sorcerer and the love interest and his demon servant Silas. I have to point out that Nathaniel causally mentions in the story that he is Bi and I absolutely loved how it was handled. He is also humorous despite always being in these crazy situations because of Elizabeth. I also have to point out that I have never loved a villain(s) so much in my life. I think Nathaniel is a morally grey character but Silas is a demon who we are warned not to care for all throughout the book and I absolutely loved both of them and rooted for both of them. 

I absolutely loved the romance. It's slow burn and while it is a major part of the story I don't think it overtook the story at all. Honestly I just loved everything about this book and wish it wasn't a standalone.

Started strong but finished weak. I really struggled to finished the last 30% of the book. Everything was so predictable and clichéd toward the end. I really enjoyed the beginning of this book with the world it built, and all those grimoires in it (reminding me of the “monster books” from Hogwarts). But the ending was so dragged on that I had to give it 2 ⭐️ (I was ready to give it at least a 4 at about 50% of the book.) Even the romance felt weak at the end. The chemistry between Elizabeth and Nathaniel were so cute at the beginning. Then out of nowhere they suddenly proclaimed Love for each other, which felt really rushed and forced

Note to self: stop picking up books because they've been compared with [b:Howl's Moving Castle 6294 Howl's Moving Castle (Howl's Moving Castle, #1) Diana Wynne Jones https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407450489l/6294.SY75.jpg 2001], one of my favourite books of all time. I picked it up for this reason, but I think the comparison probably wouldn't do this book justice (HMC was just so much better in every aspect imo) so I'll try to leave it out of my review as much as possible.Honestly, I find it a bit difficult to review this book because I'm clearly not the target demographic nor is this a genre that I gravitate towards nowadays, so while I got annoyed at some parts of the book - should I have expected it going in anyway?Elisabeth Scrivener is a young apprentice at a Great Library, where they keep not only regular books but also grimoires, books that have some kind of soul and which are a cornerstone of magic in the world. One day, she is accidentally implicated in a disaster that strikes the Great Library and suspicion falls upon her as the perpetrator of the crime. A sorceror, Magister Nathaniel Thorn, along with his enigmatic butler Silas, is assigned to escort Elisabeth as a suspect to the Magisterium to stand trial. Shit happens, chaos ensue, a plot is discovered, and so on.Let me start on the weaker points of the book which just didn't work for me - whether it's a function of my preferences leaning elsewhere, or the genre as a whole just not being my thing, I'm not sure.Firstly, I was not enamoured by the protagonist Elisabeth Scrivener. I never rooted for her throughout the whole. She kinda seemed to me like your regular bookish clueless female protagonist who is almost wilfully blind to her own emotions and/or talents. The male lead and love interest, Nathaniel Thorn, is slightly better and that's mostly because his egoistic sense of humour was very clearly lifted off Howl from Howl's Moving Castle, whom I adored.Secondly, their romance was imo very clunky and unconvincing. In Chapter 3, we have a scene where Elisabeth pretends to stumble onto Thorn and they're suddenly very physically close - just so that she can touch his hair and find out for her friend whether he really had pointy ears and cloven hooves like the rumours said. Ummmm. Ok. Also, somewhere along the lines, amidst the urgency of stopping the main villain of the book, they somehow ““planned”” to go for a Royal Ball in order to confront said villain and we also have ye olde scene of Elisabeth revealing her ball gown and Nathaniel being all speechless heart-eyed stammering love interest. Why Nathaniel only sees her ball gown for the first time at the ball when they live in the same place and came together to the ball is a question I would rather not spend too much time thinking about.Thirdly, it was imo fairly obvious who the main villain was from almost the very beginning. At no point did I ever feel anything more than complete indifference to this person, because their motives were unconvincing and their behaviour and actions were just - eh. When the villain's actual master plan was revealed, I questioned, “Why?” When the book answered why, I was just like - eh. None of their motivations are ever set up properly in the book, so the villain always reads like a character going through the villanous motions because they have to be a villain so that the protagonists have a reason to get closer while planning to take him down and kissy kissy. Details under spoiler: So Ashcroft wanted to raise the Archon because he apparently wants to command him so that he can rid the world of poverty and hunger and whatever. Are you serious? That's the weakest shit I've ever heard. It's like when it became uncool for a villain to just be mindlessly power-hungry ("I want to take over the world and everyone will bow to me!"), the reaction is to make the villain mindlessly altruistic ("I'm going to kill everyone around me so that I can harness this power and make the world a better place!") Geez. Furthermore, it's also obvious that this reason for Ashcroft's mad plan was just shoehorned in for... lulz? Because at no point before he reveals this do we ever get the sense that he's concerned about the state of the world. Where is the set-up??Finally, that ending, and I'll try to detail my problems with it without spoiling. Chronologically, the final resolution could be divided into two parts. We spent way too much time on the first part which imo was far less interesting than the second part, which was almost a fade to black. I felt cheated!! Details under spoiler: I really didn't care about all that chasing after Ashcroft, I nearly skimmed through the whole bit. What really made me sit up was when Elisabeth freed Silas and he turned into some kind of post-demon monster, launched himself at Archon, and - what? They disappeared into the Otherworld and we never even get to see these two mighty demons battle? ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW? I don't give a shit about Thorn's green whip or Elisabeth's powers (does she even have any besides conversing with books?).BUT. I will say that this book has some redeeming factors. It's like everything that happened in the foreground - the protagonists, the main plot, etc. - was largely what annoyed me, but then everything that was going on in the background - the magic system, the world of grimoires and sorcery, and most especially the demons - was really what interested me. The most fascinating thing to me in this whole book is summarised in one word: Silas. His moral grayness was surprising to me, being surrounded by all the inanity around him. He was at once devoted and competent servant, hungry and selfishly immortal demon, and potential apocalypse all rolled into one. I couldn't pinpoint whether he was going to turn out to be a force for good or evil, and as such he was by far the most interesting character in the book, hands down.To wrap up: I would not recommend fans of HMC to go into this book thinking that it will live up to the comparison - the parallels are there but imo HMC is by far the stronger book in every respect. If you're going into this book simply for the plot and you're very much into YA, you'd probably have a good time, and would probably love the main couple. If you have no idea what HMC is and don't like YA at all, why are you even considering picking up this book??

I will say that the biggest reason I picked this book up was because I loved Margaret Rogerson's first novel [b:An Enchantment of Ravens 30969741 An Enchantment of Ravens Margaret Rogerson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1486244049l/30969741.SY75.jpg 51586838]. I was absolutely enthralled with that book, so I was hoping that Sorcery of Thorns would leave me with the same feeling afterwards. It did and it didn't.It took a long time for me to finally settle into Sorcery of Thorns. The first few chapters I wasn't totally in love with, but once Nathaniel came into the story, I was much much more interested. Not that Elizabeth was UNinteresting...she just didn't have a whole lot to work off of. Together, along with Silas, the characters actually work. The gist of the story reminded me a lot of the Great Library in the Abhorsen trilogy. A library where evil things can dwell and attack the librarians. The magic in Sorcery of Thorns is set up very differently, but the general feel of the libraries seemed the same to me. Either way, I really enjoyed the setting of this book, and how it was used over the course of the story.Nathaniel and Elizabeth's romance is very PG-13, in a really cute way. Nothing happens other than kisses, but that's perfectly alright. They were cute together, and I really liked watching them finally figure out that they CARED about each other. Totally adorable.I recommend Sorcery of Thorns as long as you don't go into it thinking its going to be a deep Adult book. It's 100% what it is – a YA book about magic libraries. Still, a fun story!

Audio read by: Emily Ellet

4.5 stars

This book is a great adventure! It reminded me of some good old high fantasy books.

This is a world where all the magic can be stored in the books. Here books are like some kind of living things. We follow the path of an apprentice librarian - Elisabeth, whose primary goal is to protect the books from the Sorcerers. All her life the library taught her that Sorcerers are evil and they use demons-salves to conjure magic. One night, she woke up and one of the books was transformed into the monster. This monster kills the director of the library and then wants to kill the people of nearest village. of opening the book, because she already had a bad past. And she is sent to Sorcerers to be judged! From that part an on her adventure beggins!

As I said this is a book of fantasy and adventure. Of good and evil and all the gray areas. She realizes that sometimes evil is not evil and good is not good. And obviously she descovers that she is more that she though!

A great book! I honestly recomend it to people who like high fantasy :)

I really enjoyed this one. I loved the characters, and I loved the libraries. A book about books is a great thing. I'm just sad that it's a standalone. I would love to read more about these characters.

Non-Spoiler Review:

One of the best YA fantasy standalone I've read in a very long time. It's an entertaining read with fun characters and an interesting world.

The main three characters in this book are complex and whilst they are strong and powerful, they don't suffer the same fate as other YA characters in being almost invincible - they are certainly not. Their dynamic is fun and fresh, and friendships do feature quite heavily in the story.

The romance is not one of the main focuses on the narrative, and rightly so, as the potential romance isn't really the main character's biggest problem - so I enjoyed the fact they all kept a level head about it. But the romance itself was sweet and fun, and felt like a nice addition that wasn't
shoehorned in.

The villain and the ‘evil plot' in this were interesting, but I would have preferred for Rogerson to go into greater detail surrounding this. You knew enough to understand what was going on, but personally I would have loved to know more about the ‘evil plan' and conspiracy featured in the story.

The pacing of this was a little strange at time, particularly in the first half of the novel, but it wasn't so bad it made the read enjoyable.

A fairly solid YA fantasy I would recommend to those who enjoy fantasy and are not expecting a high-fantasy read.

Spoiler Review:

A breath of fresh air in the YA fantasy landscape right now when it feels like it's exclusively made up of long high-fantasy series. This has interesting world building and a plot that doesn't feel compromised because it's only in one book - it feels complete.

Elisabeth was a YA female character I loved. She has a genuine character arc as she learnt from the world - which is a luxury not all female YA protagonist get to experience. She's smart, courageous and curious but she also has her flaws and her own inner conflicts.

Nathaniel whilst he read sometimes like a typical YA male love interest, it was clear he had his own personality and demons (literally). I really enjoyed how Rogerson didn't sweep his obvious mental health problems under the rug, but fully explored them and didn't allow the reader to see a male character with mental health struggles as weak. Similarly, Silas also seemed like a typical YA sidekick but was complex as well and was fun to read.

My biggest criticism of this book is probably the lack of finer details for Ashcroft and his plan. I would have loved to have known more about him and how he came up with the plan, why he was so obsessed with it beyond the ‘family' excuse. He's not the most complex villain I've ever read, but regardless he was a good one.

I enjoyed reading this and will be picking up ‘An Enchantment of Ravens' at some point (even though I know it's different from this one).

Read my full review here: https://moonlitbooks.home.blog/2020/03/31/sorceryofthorns/

The world-building is quite impressive but the pacing really ruined it for me. I spent the last hundred-plus pages wondering why it wasn't over already.

Amazing book. I loved every part of it.