Gina Chen’s debut fantasy is a richly imagined world of seers, curses, and princes that’s rich with fairytale vibes.

Violet, a prickly orphan was rescued from a life as a street urchin when she saved the royal heir, Prince Cyrus, from death. In thanks, the king makes Violet his official seer. But the position comes with a price - the king expects Violet to use her visions to his benefit - twisting the readings she gives the court to further his agenda.

This puts Violet in opposition to the unfairly gorgeous Prince Cyrus who has loftier plans for when he ascends to the throne. Even worse, he’s threatened to replace her as royal seer. And then there’s the curse- Cyrus needs to get married or Bad Things Will Happen.

And then there’s the undeniable attraction between Cyrus and Violet - inconvenient, even dangerous.

This is a lush richly imagined world full of complex characters and magical mysteries. I loved how unapologetically prickly and cranky Violet is. Even tho she’s a seer, she doesn’t have all of the answers and is caught between trying to find a way through the intrigue and hoping her country can avoid war and she can keep her place. Violet’s emotional turmoil is so well depicted that you feel it too.

She’s attracted to Cyrus but you can tell it rankles that he’s the golden boy, popular and sought after. I love a morally grey MC. Violet’s struggles are so well written, you can feel how hard she’s trying to thread an impossible needle - keeping the kong and court happy while not disappointing Cyrus even when those things are diametrically opposed.

The secondary characters are well developed - I wanted to know more about them and hope we get more of their stories in future books.

As a fairytale lover, I loved the callouts to fairytales from fairy-created ball gowns to wickedly enchanted horned beastmen.

You get:

Spies
Betrayals
Enemies to lovers
Curses and enchantments
Fairies and glamours
Serving girl masquerading as royalty
Wicked witch and revenge
Fates and visions
Cinderella
Sleeping Beauty
Beauty and the Beast
Snow White
Magical slipper left behind at a royal masquerade
Roses, thorns, enchanted woods
LGBTQIA+ rep

I was so excited for this book when I first read the blurb - I loved the nods to fairy tales throughout and actually really enjoyed how Violet isn’t the typical sweet, innocent girl who is here to save the day. Instead sh is more about saving herself, damn everyone else; she does what she needs to do to survive, and honestly I wish we had more of that in this.

With that being said while I found the book interesting, I did have some issues with it. I honestly felt like nothing really happened until the second half. We are told, instead of shown, about things happening outside the realm. I understand why it’s this way since the main story is happening within the castle and the city just outside the walls - but I wasn’t sure what the point was at times. It felt like a lot of bickering and flashbacks for a large portion of the first half. We get it - you hate each other and everyone knows it - and we are given a few breadcrumbs to the tale. Finally in the second half I felt like we got more of the plot and a sense of direction in where it’s heading. This book is definitely more character driven, versus plot driven.

If this book sounds interesting I still think it worth a read, so give it a go. I can see this being enjoyed by many. If there is a second book, I’ll pick it up to see what happens, but this isn’t a book I’ll read again.

Violet is is a prophet and a liar, groomed from birth by the king to be the hope of the kingdom after the previous seer died with a bad omen on her lips. The prince, whom Violet saved as a child, securing her place in the palace, is her opposition. He resents his fathers approval of her and her willingness to give false prophecy.

When the prince returns after journeying through the kingdom in search of a bride, he returns alone. His refusal to play to the needs of the king sets and Violets dreams of the dark days to come spark events that require them to work together.

Violet is my favorite thing about this novel. Her brashness and duplicity make for constant entertainment. The way she plays off Prince Cyrus’ earnestness is a dynamic rarely seen in romance. I thoroughly enjoyed their chemistry. Chen is also wonderously adept at creating vivid imagery that transports the reader into a realm of dreams alongside Violet. If you enjoy loosing yourself in fantasy worlds, you’ll enjoy this one.

Thank you to the publisher, Penguin Teen Canada, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Violet is the Royal Seer of the kingdom of Auveny and she uses her ability to see the threads of Fate to divine the future – and also people’s pasts – to make predictions, and occasionally less than truthful or twisted prophecies that allow her to influence the court. But when the King asks her to prophesy Prince Cyrus’ future, a suitable love story that will convince the prince to pick a bride and head off a dreadful prophecy hanging over his head and the well being of the kingdom. Except Violet and Cyrus kind of hate each other and she may have lied in her last foretelling about him finding his true love. Violet accidentally awakens a curse that could mean the end of the kingdom if Cyrus makes the wrong choice, but she faces a choice of her own that could have equally deadly consequences.

Comparing a book to Serpent & Dove and The Cruel Prince (though I haven’t read the latter), certainly sets the expectations quite high for it. Violet Made of Thorns has a very classic fairytale feel to it with all the key elements of one – a prince with a dire prophecy surrounding him, magic, fairies, a cursed magical wood and more, with an enemies to lovers romance to boot – all incidentally some of my favorite things to see in fantasy novels. The world-building was quite good. It didn’t expand too much on the various kingdoms themselves, but provided enough insight into the magic and politics that it made it easy to follow along right from the beginning.

Reading this story from Violet’s perspective was both intriguing and entertaining. She is certainly not the typical YA heroine and it’s clear right from the beginning that she is always looking out for only her best interests which was such a fun change of pace. I loved the enemies to lovers dynamic and the banter between Cyrus and Violet was so well written. It wasn’t the best example of the trope I’ve come across but it was really good, not to mention, it was balanced with the rest of the plot and didn’t take over the story entirely.

The main problem I had with this book was the pacing. It dragged a little initially but that was easy to overlook because the story was engaging enough, but towards the end it sped up way too much, as though trying to cram everything in. This particularly applied to the romance which progressing at an even pace up to that point, but I didn’t like how rushed it became in the final quarter of the book.

Overall, while this doesn’t really compare to Serpent & Dove, it was a pretty interesting read and I enjoyed it. I’m curious to see where the story will go in the sequel, especially after the story that Cyrus and Violet plan to spin to salvage the situation. I’m not sure if this is going to be a duology or longer yet, but this book has done a very good job of setting up the world, characters and plot that could easily extend to more books. I would definitely recommend this book for fans of fantasy novels as well as fairytale retellings!

Must Read for fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Deadly Education and The Cruel Prince. Gina Chen write a fast iPhone paste story with a delectable hero/love interest and a snarky, self-protective heroin that will draw you into her world. I have a young child, so I value my sleep, but I stayed up till 4 AM reading most of this book. It’s fun, gripping, and the characters make a route for them and want to strangle them at the same time. It’s an intoxicating mix of a story that makes you want to read all the way through. Addictive, thought-provoking, and beautiful. The court intrigue is fun without being overly complicated And the ending had twists that I didn’t see coming. There are masquerade balls, a dreamy, yet maddening Prince and a twisty, steamy romance. Looking forward to the sequel.

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley.

4.5 stars

I really liked this one. It had such a good atmosphere to the story, the characters were really good, and I was completely invested in the plot. It was hard to put down once I started reading, and the writing style was easy to follow along with.
Violet always such a great morally grey character. She’s a liar and a Seer, and she is constantly worried about herself over the kingdom. This felt so realistic, and I really liked Violet’s character. Her relationships with the king, Cyrus, Camilla, and Dante were interesting.
Cyrus and Violet had such a great relationship. Their banter was fun, the hate-to-love vibes were really good, and I thought things progressed in a timeline that made sense for the characters and story.
I really liked all the fairytale vibes in this story. There were Cinderella elements, Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty inspired things. I really liked all of this, and it was such an enjoyable fantasy. I’d recommend it to fans of YA fantasy with a side of evil witches, demanding Fates, and some romance.

Many books in the genre of YA fantasy tend to tick a lot of similar boxes. There’s the plucky heroine who discovers she’s a long-lost princess and must reclaim her family’s throne. There’s usually a kingdom under siege by mysterious forces or being ruled over by oppressive magical forces. Probably a brooding or semi-antagonistic love interest, and a seemingly impossible quest. Sometimes, a scrappy underground rebel faction is involved. And there are usually an awful lot of faeries, of either the magical or the extremely attractive variety. (Sometimes even both!)

This is a big part of the reason why Gina Chen’s Violet Made of Thorns feels like such a breath of fresh air in this genre space. Yes, her debut YA fantasy includes some of these—and several other—extremely familiar tropes. There’s a broody, rude potential love interest, a fairytale-like setting, and a kingdom under threat, after all. But Chen’s decision to center her story around an occasionally petty, unusually self-centered, and often straight-up unlikeable heroine ultimately reframes even the most familiar of story beats in unexpected and surprising ways, giving the novel a refreshingly different feel in this admittedly crowded fictional marketplace.

Violet Made of Thorns was interesting from the beginning. The darker tone and self-preserving dishonesty of the main character made Violet distinct from the protagonists in many other young adult novels. Her choices near the end of the book--despite being heavily foreshadowed-- shocked me.

This was amazing and I loved it a lot. It's the first fantasy book I've read all year that I actually enjoyed I would absolutely read another book by the author.

This is a very interesting story, I greatly enjoyed the plot and the lore here.

It was slow for me to get into this book, because of Violet. She’s selfish and cold and remains that way. Even after she understands she’d been manipulated from a young age, she continues to make bad and selfish decisions. I want to say she’s better by the end of the book, but honestly I don’t think that’s true.

I loved Dante and Camilla, and poor Cyrus who is just a fool in love.

This content felt too mature for YA but not quite NA either, so I’m not sure where it belongs.

It seemed like things were just getting started when this book ended!! There is so much left to uncover and we are left off on an unsettling note.

*Thank you so much to Gina Chen and Random House Children’s for giving me a copy of the book for an honest review

⭐️3.5/5 stars. Thank you to NetGalley & Random House Children for providing the ARC for my honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. Is it the best thing I ever read? No. Was I highly entertained? Most definitely. It was so cute and the plot twists at the end had me yelling and screaming at my kindle.

It was giving me Cinderella and Beauty & Beast kind of fairytale but with a morally gray main character who would’ve probably been categorize as one of the villains in the classic fairytale. It is being described as being like the Cruel Prince, and I can see it, but in the way the the female MC is giving Jude energy of annoying others and dealing with the consequences later. And Cyrus had a Cardan kind of hot, aloof boy energy that is secretly using that to mask what he really is up to.

My only complaint was that in the first part of the story, it felt like there were a lot of threads being thrown our way and the story was moving fast. Like I wanted to say, hey, can we slow down a little, I want to know more about it. Eventually the story did do that. It did slow down and finally answered some of my queries. However, any complaints I had was forgotten the moment Violet and Cyrus were in the same scene together. Oh my god, I went so rabid over the littlest things between these two.

Overall, I was highly entertained. It elicited strong emotions from me. And I would probably read a sequel, assuming we get one. I would definitely recommend this to a friend.

This book is effortlessly hilarious, amazing, so beautifully written. If you haven't had the chance to read it, please do, give it a chance because i was pleasantly surprised by it. It has LGBTQ+ representation, lovely characters, tropes all of us love & most of all, a very relatable main character. I think Gina's way of writing is awesome, she has a way to make you laugh & give you an excellent plot twist the next page. It has forced proximity, rivals (not so much but let's say they don't get along) that have to work together, problems to be solved, a very sassy twin sister, magic, witches & a touch of beauty & the beast & cinderella. All in all, i absolutely adored this book & it was an excellent way to end my july wrap-up.

A fairytale with some bite! I really enjoyed this book (though anything with court drama and a morally gray love interest is sure to be a hit with me).

"All I know how to do is dream, read threads, and lie."

Violet Made of Thorns is a fantasy with magic and intrigue intertwined in its pages.

Our main character, Violet, is a Seer. She is someone who can read the threads and predict the future based on what she sees. She is told to tell about the prince's future love for who he ends up with can either make or break the kingdom.

"Felicita's prophecy was clear enough here: the future rests in the prince's heart, his choice, his bride."

With the fate of the kingdom at stake, the king turns to Violet for help, but she ends up releasing a curse. As Violet and the prince grow closer, who will be saved in the end, themselves, or the kingdom?

Thank you to Delacorte Press (Random House Children's) and NetGalley for providing me with an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3.5, sounded up. This had good pacing and dialogue - I liked Cyrus, his sister, Dante, and the seer and found them to be well developed. I wasn’t crazy about some of the plot twists later in the story, but I still enjoyed it. Maybe not Battle of the Books worthy, but I will add it to my collection.

Thanks to Penguin Random House Canada for giving me the chance to read and review this E-ARC. This review will be posted to Goodreads, My Instagram, and Various Shops (Amazon Canada/Barnes & Noble/ Indigo Canada).

Rating: 3.5 (rounded up to 4 stars)

Violet Made of Thorns is a fun fantasy read. The story was easy to follow in this debut novel. The plot, particularly Violet's seer divinations, kept me hooked from start to finish. I also loved the side characters in this book.

The romance had moments of intenseness. I had mixed feelings about the romance. There were moments when I was fully invested in this enemies to lovers romance. However, there were also times when I couldn't feel the connection between Cyrus and Violet.

I felt the characters' backstories, and their history with one another, particularly Violet and Cyrus, could have been developed more in Violet Made of Thorns. I felt this book could have used flashbacks. We heard Violet talk a lot about her history with Cyrus, but I would have liked to see it in flashbacks.

The ending left me excited for the sequel. The fairytale atmosphere was on point in Chen's book.

Overall, it was a fun read, and I will stay tuned for book two.

Enemies to lovers
heavy of sexual content
Fairies and faes and seers and witches

That's all I got.

In all seriousness, Violet is a seer. She tries to manipulate the court and the King to keep herself safe. But the fates want a payback. They wanted the Prince to die, so there could be war and bloodshed. Violet changed that, now all her future roads are dangerous and uncertain, especially when another fate seems to be helping her, without the knowledge of the other gods.

It was cute, and intriguing, and definitely romantic. ( I know, I know, me and romance don't mix well). I liked Violet as a whole, she was determined, a bit dark, and definitely selfish. She's not evil, but there's survival in her bones, and she's riding that.

Was it predictable? yes. Will I read the second book? maybe. There were a lot of questions left unanswered, so I might be swayed to continue with the series.

I read some stellar reviews of this book before I started it and hoped my expectations would be met. Not a problem. They were exceeded.

As a devoted fan of flawed, morally gray characters, this book delighted me from beginning to end. Violet is a seer. But she’s also a cunning liar who’s occasionally selfish and harbors a strong dislike for most people. She’s completely unapologetic about it. Charismatic Cyrus is heir to the throne and has women practically tackling each other to garner his attention. He’s also determined not to let anyone or anything block his ascension. Violet may have saved Cyrus’s life when they were children, but their fur bristles in each other’s company. There’s a fine line between love and hate and as the description states, they have fate-twisted destinies. I adored both of these ambitious characters, and their banter (she addresses him as Princey) is witty and amusing.

This is a fairy tale retelling and wonderfully dark. With a dreaded curse hanging over the kingdom, ominous occurrences are afoot and it’s difficult to know who, or in Violet’s case what visions, to trust. The world-building is well-crafted and immersive. Plot points are unexpected. My predictions of the story’s path were completely thrown out the window more than once, and I’m thrilled when that happens. The ending might have twisted my heart, but it stayed true to the characters and was perfect. Can you tell how anxious I am for the next book?

Characters like this are few and far between and are always a welcome change for me. Readers may love them or hate them, but there’s no doubt they can certainly toss in some devious plot twists. If you’re a fan of characters who exist in the gray, I can’t recommend this series enough.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Finally a fairytale heroine who isn't afraid to take a stab at Prince Charming!

Violet Made of Thorns is a captivating fantasy filled with dark curses, magical prophesies, and the best anti-heroine I've had the chance to "meet". Chen provides us with a prophesy binding a prince and a witch, a magical forest filled with hideous beasts, and beautifully cunning characters. With a storyline that covers it all (fae, political intrigue, witchcraft, dark magic, romance) and still has a plot that will keep your attention and leave you wanting more - I'd be shocked if you don't love this one.

I liked this a lot, as a big fan of morally gray characters and cursed princes, this was a win for me. I enjoyed the main characters a lot. Violet was feisty and really drove the story forward. I'm excited to have my editions on my shelf!