Violet Made of Thorns: The darkly enchanting New York Times bestselling fantasy debut (Violet Made of Thorns, #1)

by Gina Chen

'Beautifully vicious' Chloe Gong

There's always a price for defying destiny.

Violet is a prophet and a liar, influencing the court as Seer 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 her of her title once he's crowned.

After the king asks her to falsely prophesy Cyrus's love story for an upcoming ball, Violet awakens a dreaded curse about the prince's future bride. Her wits may protect her in the cutthroat court, but they can't protect her against fate - nor the doomed attraction growing between her and the prince . . .

PRAISE FOR VIOLET MADE OF THORNS

'An enchanting dark fantasy' Sabaa Tahir

'Violet has everything: court intrigue, cruel witches, aloof but hot princes, ambitious girls who will do anything to win' Victoria Lee

'An unforgettable voice' Hannah Whitten

'Entrancing from start to finish' Joan He

'A delightful, sparkling tale' June CL Tan

• ISBN10: 1399707140
• ISBN13: 9781399707145
• Publish Date: 26 July 2022
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Hodder & Stoughton
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

Book Summary:

Violet is her kingdom's prophet. She's also the king's puppet and a liar. She's not afraid to bend the truth to make a vision (or lack thereof) sound more appealing. The king loves her for it...the prince...not so much.

Unfortunately, the prince is part of a dark prophecy, and Violet has spent the majority of her life running PR and doing what she can to cover for him. All he has to do is pick a bride and become king. But nope, he's going to be picky, which means the prophecy continues to hang over all the heads - right up until it blows up, of course.

“Sometimes I want to kiss him and sometimes I want to ruin him, but most of the time, I want those actions to be one and the same.”

My Review:

Okay, so I've been looking forward to Violet Made of Thorns for a few months now, and boy, it did not disappoint! I love dark fantasy, twisted prophecies, and magical politics. This book has all of that – and then some.

Violet is a cutthroat prophet living perfectly suited for the courts, and it shows through each and every page. The complicated situation she finds herself in is at least partially of her own making - and partially the fault of larger forces. The end result is a highly entertaining read.

There are a few surprising twists in Violet Made of Thorns, including fairytale retelling vibes. I hadn't expected that! Gina Chen also makes brilliant use of a few tropes, some of which I know the fandom will appreciate. For this reason, along with several others, I think Violet Made of Thorns is absolutely worth the read.

Highlights:
Debut novel
Fantasy
Morally gray witch
Enemies to lovers
Cruel Prince vibes
Prophecy
Retelling

Trigger Warnings:
Self-injury
Body horror

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[Inkslinger]

I was genuinely so excited for this book when I first came across the synopsis prior to its release. Anyone who knows me, also knows I live in the gray and likewise I love morally gray characters. Life is not black and white, people and their problems are never that simple. So, I find the characters that hang out in the middle to be far more interesting and realistic, even in fantastical worlds.  

 

Violet is not morally gray. At best, she's morally egg-shell colored. Frankly, so is Cyrus. To be honest, none of the characters have much personality or charisma at all. I suppose Camilla is the most fleshed out character, but even she feels like a pale 2D concept more than a person.  

 

Until I reached the 80% point of the story, I wasn't even invested in a single scene.. let alone the idea that there was some burgeoning love story here. I understand what happened. The author was trying so hard to make both parties come across as cold toward each other and aloof, that she simply failed to show they resonated anywhere else at all. And that's a shame, because there were brief glimpses toward the end.. of real texture.  

 

Unfortunately, by that time I just wanted it to all be over. Luckily, after simmering on low for most of the novel, once the drama hit.. the ending was tied up in a rush. It did, however.. leave me feeling like I wished I could get the time back I'd spent reading the book.  

 

There are plenty of good ideas here. Interesting approaches to magic and familiar topics are sprinkled throughout. The villain I think could have been quite heavy if given more focus. As this is Chen's debut novel, I'm hopeful she'll grow into those ideas and really spend some time honing her craft. Occasionally she writes really beautiful lines worth quoting.. but none of that holds together without any real feeling of connection between the characters, the story, and the reader.

 

If you still desperately want to give this book a try, you won't hate yourself. It's all right. It just isn't particularly great either.

(I received this title as an ARC. All opinions are mine and freely given.)

[Ailyn Henbane]

This is the sort of story you expect to go predictably. You expect the fairytale version of love, told in a disenchanted way.

That's not what's delivered in the pages of Violet Made of Thorns. It's a fairytale, but the choices made, the hands of fate, the manipulations enacted turn everything you know about fairytales on its head. It only took me so long to finish reading the book because I've been attempting to prioritize ARCs over pleasure reading. When I sat down today to eat breakfast, i picked up the book and I put it down after lunch, when I'd finished reading it.

These characters stay true to themselves, even if that's not always positive. It makes them all more relatable and jump off the page into your imagination. I look forward to what else we'll see set in this universe.