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I’m excited to join TBR and Beyond Tours’ Violet Made of Thorns Tour! Please check out the full schedule to visit my fabulous fellow hosts.
Goodreads Synopsis:
A darkly enchanting fantasy debut about a morally gray witch, a cursed prince, and a prophecy that ignites their fate-twisted destinies—perfect for fans of The Cruel Prince and Serpent & Dove.
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.
If that isn’t enough to send you running to grab your copy…
15 Reactions While Reading VIOLET MADE OF THORNS:
Keeping this to a non-spoilery 15 was HARD.
- Already obsessed with Violet.
- Oh, oh, there are bad symbols? This feels like a trap.
- Palace intrigue? Shady Sh*t?
- Getting some real Malice vibes here – and that’s not a complaint.
- The vibes of this book are immaculate.
- I trust 0 people in this book.
- This how we met story will never stop making me feel all the things.
- Ooooo sharpen those teeth, Violet.
- Anyone else starting to wonder about this curse? Feels bad.
- Do I hate Cyrus? Do I also, very much, not hate him?
- What’s a fairytale without layers of villains?
- 🫠
- I have A CONCERN.
- OMG how are they going to wrap everything up so close to the end?!
- It’s a duology?! THANK GOODNESS.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ My Violet Made of Thorns Review:
Between the comps and how much I saw this book talked about online – the bar was VERY high. Gina Chen saw that bar and went, lol I can jump WAY over it.
Violet Made of Thorns stars one of my new favorite morally grey and messy characters. Violet, a seer whose relationship with honestly is complicated at best, is plotting to keep her place at court. Her tumultuous history with Prince Cyrus and will-they-or-won’t-they tension is pitch perfect. I don’t want to go too far into the twists and turns, but the palace intrigue and backstabbing did not disappoint.
The characters made this stand out among many wonderful YA/NA fantasies. Beyond morally grey, the cynicism and lack of belief in happy endings meant that each character got to be complicated as more than a plot device. I cannot wait to read the next book!
Thanks to TBR and Beyond Tours & Random House/Delacorte Press for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Order Your Copy of Violet Made of THorns:
Bookshop.org | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Indigo | IndieBound
Meet Author Gina Chen:
Gina Chen tells stories about fantastic worlds featuring heroines, antiheroines, and the kind of cleverness that brings trouble in its wake. A self-taught artist with a degree in computer science, she generates creative nonsense in all forms of media and always has a project stewing. Violet Made of Thorns is her debut fantasy novel.
For more info, visit actualgina.com and follow @actualgina on Twitter and Instagram.