A review by bzliz
Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Violet is a Seer who maybe tells a few lies here and there at the behest of her king. She grew up at the palace alongside the twin Prince Cyrus and Princess Camilla after she saved the prince’s life as a result of one of her visions. The two grew quite antagonistic of each other, always fighting and never backing down, so if you like some enemies to lovers (but also still kind of enemies) vibes you’ll probably enjoy this. Things take a turn as a prophecy seems to be coming true about the Prince and Violet is tasked with convincing the aristocracy that everything is fine and going according to plan, even though her dreams are being invaded by an evil witch planting ideas of killing the prince in her mind. 

The author avoids some pitfalls of having a character able to see the future not seeing certain events by disallowing Violet from seeing her own future and most of her sight into others requires hand to hand contact. I also appreciate that the protagonists are not necessarily good people constantly having twists and turns and obstacles thrown in their path- these people kind of suck. They scheme and lie and are selfish to their cores. It really seems like a world where no one can trust anyone but they’re going to have to learn how. 

Things are not at all resolved by the end so I assume there will be a sequel and I will be keeping an eye out for it. 

Although I’ve tagged a warning for sexual content, most of that is intense making out and anything beyond that is pretty brief and very much not explicit. 
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