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Sorcery of Thorns (Sorcery of Thorns, #1)

Margaret Rogerson

Start date: January 1, 2021

Finish date: January 31, 2021

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What Members Thought

Apr 05, 2020 Emma rated it did not like it

Shelves: dissapointing, beautiful-covers, read-in-2020, books-i-own, tbr-physical, unpopular-opinions, overated, tbr-2020, no-thanks

"Knowledge always has the power to be dangerous. It is a more powerful weapon than any sword or spell."

Writing this review has been, admittedly, quite difficult. I had very high expectations for this book, so I'm disappointed that it didn't live up to that. If there's one thing I hate, it's two starring a book that I previously thought I'd give at least four stars. On top of that, I've heard mostly positive reviews, and I know lots of people absolutely adore this story. I mean, it's a book a "Knowledge always has the power to be dangerous. It is a more powerful weapon than any sword or spell."

Writing this review has been, admittedly, quite difficult. I had very high expectations for this book, so I'm disappointed that it didn't live up to that. If there's one thing I hate, it's two starring a book that I previously thought I'd give at least four stars. On top of that, I've heard mostly positive reviews, and I know lots of people absolutely adore this story. I mean, it's a book about books, set in a world with magical libraries and featuring a slow burn, enemies to lovers romance. I said this in my pre-review, but who reads that and isn't instantly like, "Sign me up!" I was extremely excited to read this story, but ultimately, it's just not for me.

My biggest criticism is, without a doubt, our main character. I know the characters, predominantly Silas, were the driving force of this novel for most people, but I just couldn't connect with the MC in the slightest. I loved the fact that she was tall - I mean, I'm 5'7, so I grew up hearing the "Do you place basketball" question 700x a day. I've never read a book where the main female character was explicitly tall, so I really enjoyed that aspect of it. Unfortunately, though, that's pretty much it. I didn't't connect with her character in the slightest, most due to how naive she was. I understand the intentions behind making teenage characters realistic, I truly do, but this was just bad. Every decision she made was impulsive, gullible, and done without any thinking. Similarly, Nathaniel read as much older than her, so their whole relationship dynamic was thrown off. I felt like I was reading about an eleven year old and a twenty year old, because that's how I felt about the characters. I LOVED Nathaniel, which makes my dislike of this book even more heartbreaking. I just didn't find their relationship super convincing which definitely threw off the feel of the book quite a bit.

I just want to take a quick break to discuss a positive I think is too good to ignore. The rep was super excellent - both of the characters have PTSD. These aren't things I see just *casually* entered into many YA books, so I really loved that aspect!!

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to save the story for me. The pacing was super inconsistent, which is is perhaps one of the reasons I felt removed from the story. However, one of the biggest reasons is a pet peeve I have with many, many YA books, and it's that the consequences never felt real. Here's the thing: I want books where bad things do happen. I want books where the stakes feel high, because then I'm into the story. It just *never* felt that way for me
which I believe is a big explanation as to why I never quite got into this.

And, we haven't even gotten to the villains yet!! All the antagonists were just evil for the sake of being evil, with no explanation as to why. If any of the villains were at least halfway developed, maybe this would've worked better to me, but they all just felt so obvious? They were all super predictable while also feeling so surface-level.

All in all, this just isn't the story for me. I so wished I could've connected with it more, but there were too many things holding me back from ever enjoying this story. Many people have loved it, and I'm sure many still will. It just isn't a story for me at all. ...more

83 likes · Like · see review

Jun 28, 2019 Ashley rated it it was amazing

Star Rating: —> 5 Stars

RE-READ TIME! (in prep for Mysteries of Thorn Manor 🥰)

That vvvvv from my first little review, but of ALL TIME, FOREVER, ALWAYS ! MYSTERIES OF THORN MANOR, HERE I COME!!!! ♥️♥️♥️
______________

I loved this so incredibly much that words cannot possibly begin to express it . I have so much to say with no will to say it right now because I just want to remain.... here. In this moment. When I just finished, I dare say, my favorite novel so far of 2019.

💜💚💜

74 likes · Like · see review

Dec 14, 2019 Zitong Ren rated it really liked it

Shelves: contains-romance, fantasy, 2019, lgbtqi, young-adult

I’ve had my fair share of both disappointments and successes with YA fantasy, though recently, I have had a lot more books that I have had problems with, but hey, I actually ended really liking this book for the most part and consider it a success.

My favourite part by far was this idea of Grimoires and how they all have souls and as a total book nerd, I found it to be awesome. Looking back on things, I have since realised that lots of YA fantasy have the most imaginative and wonderful idea, yet I’ve had my fair share of both disappointments and successes with YA fantasy, though recently, I have had a lot more books that I have had problems with, but hey, I actually ended really liking this book for the most part and consider it a success.

My favourite part by far was this idea of Grimoires and how they all have souls and as a total book nerd, I found it to be awesome. Looking back on things, I have since realised that lots of YA fantasy have the most imaginative and wonderful idea, yet often, the execution can sometimes fall short, which, is my main problem with this book.

It started off really well in such a magical place, yet as the book progressed, the plot began to feel more and more generic which is why this book was not a five star for me. In fact, if the idea was not so great, it probably would have been a three star, which means its good, but not great.

I did like the characters for the most part and thought that they were interesting people and that it was well realised. They are parts where the interactions between certain characters are so sweet and lovely while other times you just want to smack a particular individual for being so incredibly stubborn.

The world building is alright, though it does come off as a bit empty as we don’t learn much about what is beyond the countries borders and also for the fact that the only city we learn of is the capital which is Brassbridge. To be fair, considering that it is YA, I’m actually glad it gave the reader a bit of history of the world which can be lacking in other books.

Something that I would like to mention was how good was having a diverse character in here? It’s set in a world that is starting its Industrial Revolution but they seem to be ok with LGBTQIA plus peoples even though it was very different compared to our world at the time. Hooray for more diverse books because I love them!

A much shorter review then normal, but this is certainly a book that is very well written and highly suitable for YA readers. 7.5/10 ...more

58 likes · Like · see review

Jun 16, 2019 Andi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: recommend-to-anyone

Okay.

Breathe.

Yes. This book was precious, cute, and goodness, amazing.

Totally YA, but good YA that the book lover in me smiled. You have a girl who is tall and fair; a guy who is like known for being a magician (bad!) and comes from a line of necromancers (another bad!); he has a demon who he gets his power from (cool), that is totally awesome and has white hair and wears gorgeous tailored suits.

I liked this book because the romance was a slow burn. I liked it because the girl did not spend the ...more

34 likes · Like · see review

Jul 02, 2019 Melissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: own, 2019-releases, ya, fantasy

This book is bloody amazing. Some of my favorite characters are in this book that's for sure. Once I began reading I was sucked into Elisabeth's world just so easily because the writing and world building is truly amazing. ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Jul 17, 2019 Izzie rated it really liked it

Shelves: arcs, standalones, epic-fantasy, young-adult

This was a truly enjoyable YA fantasy. I didn't even mind the romance!

Full review to come. ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Jan 27, 2020 Georgina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-stars, kindle

02.02.20
It's been a few days now and I still don't even know where to start. Honestly, I think this may be one of the best books I have read in a while. WOW! It has everything you could ever need - adventure, a colourful world, well developed characters, romance, tension, hilarious commentary... the list goes on. Also, the writing style is outstanding, in my very humble opinion, it flowed effortlessly and managed that perfect balance of clever yet easy to keep up with. You don't find yourself re ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Feb 04, 2023 Laura rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: january-2023-tbr

Why did it take me so long to read this book?!?!?!??!!? It was so good!

Full RTC!

4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 08, 2019 Hennie rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult

I am still torn between 4 and 4.5 stars.

At first this book did not appeal to me. Let me make it clear, I did like the whole world and the story of it. However, I found it slightly boring at the beginning. (Yes I know that we need to get to know the characters and why what happened) When we first got to meet Elisabeth, I did not care about her at all, I found her friend, Katrien, more exciting and wanted to know about her more. She was more daring and wilful than Elisabeth, she was too scared to I am still torn between 4 and 4.5 stars.

At first this book did not appeal to me. Let me make it clear, I did like the whole world and the story of it. However, I found it slightly boring at the beginning. (Yes I know that we need to get to know the characters and why what happened) When we first got to meet Elisabeth, I did not care about her at all, I found her friend, Katrien, more exciting and wanted to know about her more. She was more daring and wilful than Elisabeth, she was too scared to do something. She was constantly worried how the Director would not like her anymore and she wouldn't be able to fulfil her dream. Also, she appeared to have the wrong informations about few things. Or perhaps the right ones, depends on what kind of book she read, FOR THAT AGE. However, as the story progressed Elisabeth slowly started to change and gain more courage.

Next we met Nathaniel, the mysterious and scary sorcerer. Nathaniel was a pretty average character to me. Without his sorcery he would only be a pretty face with prestigious name.

Following up, we have Nathaniel's demon, Silas. From the beginning I was immediately drawn to him and wanted to know more about his character. I was happy to realise that he was a key character in the book and we will get to see him a lot. For me, personally, Silas was the most interesting character in the whole book. I liked how he delivered his lined and was portrayed.

Lastly, we have our villain, Ashcroft. As many book villains, he grew up believing in something horrible that was fed to him by his ancestors. And of course, it was completely wrong. Ashcroft as a character was rather clever and sly but predictable!

The things I liked the most in this book was the scenery and the description of it. I could really dive into it and feel like I'm there with them as well. However, the demons could've been described more than just "yellow eyes, horns" and stuff like that.

As a final point I have one more thing to say... WHAT WAS THAT ENDING HONESTLY. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 22, 2019 Jelke rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019-reads, 5-stars

i want more of this world, now.

2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 12, 2020 Bruna rated it liked it

✯ [3.75/5] ✯

I loved the characters from this book, they were all perfect like 5 stars for the characters. But I had a big problem with the ending, I tought It was a little bit rushed. And I had a problem conecting to the world, in my conception I wasn't explained in a satisfatory way.

BUT, the characters, lots of scenes and the relations between them! IT WAS SO GOOD. I loved the ideia of using libraries and books (every author has a book with a character that loves reading, we can't deny that) an ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Aug 01, 2019 the_queen_of_books24 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: to-re-read, books-with-pretty-covers, owned, characters-i-love, love-love-love, so-beautiful, audiobooks, scribd, read-in-2019

I’m not crying, you’re crying. Oh wait.

This book was incredible. It would have got 5 stars for sheer enjoyment, ingenuity of premise, characters and plot, but I felt disappointed by the villain - it was plainly obvious to me who it was quite early on, and the fact that it wasn’t a red herring, as I’d initially thought based on the fact that they guessed who it was rather fast, made it all the more so. But apart from that, I LOVED this book. I will rave about it forever!!

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 18, 2019 Stephanie Clabby rated it it was amazing

This was a solid 4-4.5 stars for me... until the last sentence. It gave me goosebumps. And when I think about it, Silas is one of my most favorite characters ever written and I am really hoping there is more.

1 like · Like · see review