Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - The Thorns Remain

While the book boasts a "sparkling romance," the reality is that it is anything but. However, it does a fantastic job of portraying the Fae of Scottish and Irish folklore, and weaves a tale of exactly why you do not make a deal with them.

The book is wonderfully descriptive without being too verbose. It's a bit slow-paced, sometimes to the point of being frustrating

as the MC has been given a deadline to rescue her friends but she frequently treats this task as low priority.

it's a good read and one that I would recommend, as long as you don't go into it expecting a fairytale romance more akin to a Disney movie.

Content Warnings

purplesapphire's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Something about this took away too much from the story for me. It felt too drawn out, but I know why there needed to be that much extra in there. Then it threw me for a loop or two with what I expected to happen and what actually did, but not in a good way. I almost gave up three quarters of the way through, but the end was very redeeming. I think it would be a good book to be discussed, but I also don't feel as if it was something I loved. Good overall, and worth a read especially for the

depictions of toxic relationships and how most of the book got you stuck in that relationship too. I didn't love the fact that the emotion only went from angry to weeping and there was a bit too much talk of Angus.

Some criticisms but overall a good read and I did tear through it pretty quickly so that means there must be something done pretty right about it.

Content Warnings

robin_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

A fae lord and a mortal girl strike a bargain for her to save her friends.

I liked this a lot. It reminded me a bit of "An Enchanment of Ravens" and "Uprooted".

I ilked that she didn't give in to the Dreamer and that she didn't fall in love with him.

There are one or two things that are left unanswered in my opinion, which I don't like but still it was a nice folklore based book.

The audiobook helped with the Scottish names and the narrator war good too.

Someone said this had spice in it but other than a few mentions of doing more than kissing there was no real mention or a description of it.

Content Warnings

letheaster's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I'm gonna give this book 3.75 stars. Overall I enjoyed it a lot. I loved the setting, Moira Jean was an entertaining protagonist, and much smarter than I.
The beginning of the book for me was a little on the slower side, and I didn't get engaged until about halfway through. Although when I did get hooked, I was HOOKED. The second half the book was very good and I greatly enjoyed it.
I think I was more satisfied with the ending than I expected, I personally would have caved to The Dreamer. I felt like the pacing was the main issue with the book, sometimes it felt too slow, and other times it felt like it sped past things way quicker than it should have. I also wished it had leaned more into the horror of the Fae, but that might be more personal preference.
I did enjoy the book a lot, and I thank Harper Voyager for the e-ARC.

Content Warnings

booksalacarte's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

The Thorn Remains- 2.5⭐️ 1.5🌶️

1919. In a highland village forgotten by the world, harvest season is over and the young who remain after war and flu have ravaged the village will soon head south to make something of themselves.

Moira Jean and her friends head to the forest for a last night of laughter before parting ways. Moira Jean is being left behind. She had plans to leave once – but her lover died in France and with him, her future. The friends light a fire, sing and dance. But with every twirl about the flames, strange new dancers thread between them, music streaming from the trees.

The fae are here.

Suddenly Moira Jean finds herself all alone, her friends spirited away. The iron medal of her lost love, pinned to her dress, protected her from magic.

For the Fae feel forgotten too. Lead by the darkly handsome Lord of the Fae, they are out to make themselves known once more. Moira Jean must enter into a bargain with the Lord to save her friends – and fast, for the longer one spends with the Fae, the less like themselves they are upon return. If Moira Jean cannot save her friends before Beltine, they will be lost forever

✨My Opinion✨

This was an interesting step into a world of Celtic fae mythology. I admit that the setting and time period was hard to nail down at first with only references to “the war” and “the flu” as clues. As someone who isn’t personally familiar with Scotland, everything was so vague. I wish there had been more definitive aspects of the setting and time period in the authors descriptions of clothes and cultural references.

Throughout the first 1/3 of the book was so heavily focused on grief, the bargaining set up, and lore. Quite frankly, I was bored. There wasn’t much going on. By 30% there was no indication if the book was starting to lean toward fantasy romance or just standard fantasy. That’s a long time for me to not understand the tone of the book.

Once the plot settled in and got moving, it was a decent read. But a great drinking game would have been to take a shot every time the main character said her family split up after her father died and she was so alone all the time, because her mom was so busy working.

The LGBTQ rep felt disingenuous and pasted in with no lead up or follow up, which made it feel like it was just to check a box, rather than it being an original plot choice.

The ending was rushed and so one sided that it left glaring questions all over the place and truly had the FMC’s character development backslide. It could have used 50-100 more pages to wrap everything up.

*thank you Magpie, Harper 360 and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Content Warnings

More...