A review by popthebutterfly
Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen

5.0

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: Violet Made of Thorns

Author: Gina Chen

Book Series: Violet Made of Thorns Book 1

Rating: 5/5

Diversity: Lesbian character, f/f romance alluded to

Recommended For...: young adult readers, fantasy, romance, magic, high fantasy

Publication Date: July 26, 2022

Genre: YA Fantasy Romance

Age Relevance: 17+ (death, sexual content, gore, cursing, abelist language, romance, alcohol consumption, war, violence, blood magic)

Explanation of Above: There is some sexual content in this book, but nothing too graphic and what does take place is a little vague. There is death shown and mentioned in the book and there is some gore involving blood and blood magic. War is also mentioned in this book a lot and there is some violence shown. There is some cursing in this book and there are two instances of abelist language being used (mad). This is a romance heavy book and the trope is enemies to lovers. There is some alcohol consumption mentioned as well.

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Pages: 368

Synopsis: 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.

Review: Overall, I loved this book! It’s tropey and predictable, but it’s very well written and well paced, also sometimes it’s nice to have something that you can predictably understand. The book did well with the tropes and predictability, and even had a bit of an unpredictable ending! The book also mentioned periods and contraceptives, which I thought was very good for young teens. The book definitely has an enemies to lovers trope and a besting each other trope going on. The character development is well done and the world building is good as well.

The only issue I had with the book is that I thought the ending, while good, was a bit confusing especially the epilogue. I’m really confused as to what happened between the last chapter and the epilogue and I hope there’s a sequel in the works cause… I have questions…

Verdict: It’s very well done! I love it!