⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5
Thank you NetGalley and Bolina for this adventurous audiobook.

Maude is a young woman who loves storytelling. When she was younger, she used to spin an amazing story for her best friend Odette, fairytales with beautiful princes, foul creatures, and a lot of princesses to save. Maude also comes from a family of witches and Odette is always intrigued by her friend's power. Four years ago, coming into puberty, Maude loses her gift of practicing magic, Odette breaks their friendship and starts to ignore her.
But when Odette disappears for two weeks, Maude doesn´t care about the fact that they haven´t spoken for four years, she is blinded by the need to save her best friend like in one of her stories.

This book was a rollercoaster of emotion for me.
For one, I loved the writing. It was truly stunning and the voice actress did an AMAZING job in bringing to life this story.
The magic system was really interesting and the plot engaging.

But I had one big problem with this book. I hated the protagonist. Maude was childish and obsessed with Odette. She didn´t understand what was going on when for the reader it was pretty clear, and this just helps to make her more dumb to my eyes.
She tried to justify herself and her love for Odette, but by half of the book, I was so tired of her waining.
Eventually, she started annoying me greatly.
Rufus was the real star of this book for me.
All the supporting characters were. Even Odette is better than Maude, even if, at the beginning of the book she is the ´bad friend´ who abandoned her.


Anyway, this is a great book for lovers of witchy topics.
I would have loved to see more of a wild side to our young protagonist, but I just she hat to arrive there slowly, VERY SLOWLY.

Maude and her best friend Odette had always spent time in the woodlands, weaving tales and creating small spells out of mettle - the flow of energy in all living beings. Odette is not a witch, but eager to learn about magic and secrets. However when Maude lost her magic at puberty, Odette cast her aside without a thought. Maude is heartbroken. The use of magic is highly monitored now and only 100 select spells are even legal. But when Odette disappears, Maude feels something of their childhood and her Mother’s past calling to her, and follows an enchanted paper moth to Sicklehurst, a forbidden area said to be an abandoned power plant … but Maude begins to remember that it is much more than that.

Set in Wales, this is an enchanting tale of self discovery and friendship. I loved the beautiful world building and backstory, I particularly enjoy the magical realism aspect of this, including the wood wide web and botanical theories. Odette is an angry, selfish character and at times you want to shake Maude and tell her to get over this infatuation, but my favourite character is sweet Rufus. I really enjoyed this book and the magic systems and political aspect and will definitely be looking forward to reading the next in the series.

The narrator was excellent. Each character was easy to identify due to the character voicing and they did a great job of keeping me engaged and immersed in this adventure of a tale.

WHAT. A. BOOK! The vibes were just *chef's kiss*, very fairytale-esque, a pure delight for the brain. I loved how it dealt into certain themes and not just on the surface like many YA books tend to do. The characters were amazing, I loved everything about this book!

In a world where magic is commercialised and reduced to glamour patches and drinks found in every supermarket, Maude is a daughter of witches, in a more traditional sense of the word. Raised by her protective grandmother, she reminiscences her wild mother, taken for her resistance to the new rule and restrictions on witches. As a child, Maude would spend her days weaving impossible stories for her best friend Odette and sharing her magical talent. Then, she lost her abilities and, with that, her friend’s attention. Now, Odette disappears, and Maude embarks on a journey to rescue her.

This book is an enjoyable YA fantasy position. Full of imaginative storytelling, it reads like a fairytale. The characters seem full of life and personality, and the world created by the author is breathtaking. The plot starts like any young adult novel, gradually becoming unique and fantastical. It’s full of action, magic and imagination. It becomes improbable at some point, so I recommend it to younger fans of fantasy and fairytales.

A Hunger of Thorns had an intriguing premise, and it's a story particularly well suited to being enjoyed as an audiobook, since the protagonist Maude's gift is storytelling.

Maude spent her childhood running wild with her friend Odette, inventing stories of girls fighting monsters and falling in love with princes. But when teenage Maude lost her magic, she also lost her best friend Odette.
In Maude's world, magic is heavily regulated and used for superficial things such as beauty glamours.
When Odette, who has alwas desired dangerous, forbidden magic, goes missing, everyone believes her to be dead. Everyone except Maude, who is convinced that she will be able to find Maude inside of Sicklehurst, an abandoned powerplant built on an ancient magical site. But Sicklehurst has been abandoned for a reason - it is guarded by powerful spells and no-one seems to remember its existence, or what dangers have been locked away behind the enchanted walls surrounding the plant....

I got completely immersed in this tale, which had a fairly dark feel to it. Pace was steady, but quite slow at the beginning, but I enjoyed the worldbuilding and magic system - the potential of pure, powerful magic opposed to the mundane and commercialised uses of magic that were approved. It's a powerful and feminist tale of magic, where the protagonists have to save themselves. As for characters, I particularly liked Maude's friend Rufus, as well as Nan and Halmony.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bolinda Audio for giving me early access to this audiobook. I thoroughly enjoyed both the story and the narration and can recommend it for anyone who enjoys a story about witchcraft, corruption and toxic friendships.

It took me a little while to get into this one, but boy once you’re in the thick of it does it hit.

Maude was a fantastic protagonist, so far from perfect and oftentimes making me cringe slightly with how relatable she was. I loved her. She made this story so much stronger, and I’m really glad girls like her exist in books like this.

The setting of Sicklehurst was electric, and you can really tell the author put a lot of heart and soul into creating this fantastical realm. The descriptions were lush, and the interwoven elements of Faerie, folklore, storytelling and witchcraft was expertly done. The plot kept building and building until the end, and the climax did the story and the girls within justice. No spoilers, but I am really glad certain aspects within the book ended how they did.

The audiobook narration by Katy Sobey was incredible, and she really made the reading experience so much better. The different accents used for quite a large cast of characters was impressive, and the emotion she put into Maude’s more emotional scenes elevated it so much more.

Thank you so much to Bolinda Audio & NetGalley for providing me with an Audio ARC. All opinions are my own.

Really beautifully descriptive book with an amazingly unique plot, however, the audiobook was perhaps read a little slow. The reader had a very expressive voice, but it was a little 'young' sounding for me and, although this made sense for the plot and characters, it made it a little less enjoyable to listen to. In essence, the novel was excellent, but although I did enjoy the audiobook it was not quite as engaging as it could have been.

Huge thanks to the author and publisher for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review. A Hunger of Thorns was an unfortunately difficult one for me. I loved the premise, the narration is stunning, it’s just the plot is so confusing and hard to follow,. I found it tried to explain so much, I was missing the actual plot and action.

I listened to the audiobook of A Hunger of Thorns and was immediately captivated by the story. This is a sapphic Young Adult fantasy that has forbidden magic, witches, mystery and a touch of romance.

The narration is done wonderfully and I enjoyed the world-building. Maude is a daughter of witches and has a particular gift for storytelling, spinning magical tales for her and her friend Odette. Until Odette goes missing and Maude takes on the responsibility of rescuing her. Magic became a myth as it no longer exists, but there's one place that still has a touch of magic - Sicklehurst. Sicklehurst has an air of mystery to it, memories are lost and forgotten and time ceases to exist.

This is one of those books that you want to reread, it has all the fantasy elements and more. The characters are so well written and the descriptions are vivid. Once you start reading, it's like stepping into another world. I would love to have a physical copy of this book as there were a few lines that stood out to me that I would like to annotate.

I highly recommend adding this book to your TBR and listening to the audiobook. If you haven't listened to audiobooks before, this is the perfect one to ease you into this format.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this gifted audiobook in exchange for an honest review

I listened to this book through audiobook and can appreciate the correct pronunciations of the welsh names used. The story is nice, it’s just very slow paced. Overall an enjoyable read. It's a win for me when it involves anything about witches. The characters are awesome and the world building is too. Just some of the story got stagnant and confusion in some places.

I don’t usually listen to audiobooks but I knew I had to listen to this book. It was easy to immerse myself in this world. This book created what felt like a darker alice in wonderland type tale, it felt almost like a dangerous fever dream with the highest stakes and secrets.

I really liked Maude even if at times she did seem lonely and desperate to please people, but I think that made her seem more genuine and kind. Odette was awful but redeemed herself, rufus was loveable and loyal to a fault, but it’s ginger & winnie stole the book for me really - ginger was abrupt but fearful and sincere at times with a loyalty you didnt expect and winnie was fearless, brash and endearing because of her direct and wild nature.

I really thoroughly enjoyed this world, the family secrets layered under years of a secret world built by the power of imagination and darkness. I look forward to reading/listening to more of this authors work!

This book was so good! It was intriguing and really drawed me in. I'll be reading more of this authors work.

This was a creative young adult book, focusing on magic, relationships and self discovery. I enjoyed the way it was written and the plot focusing on the past and present.

🌿 REVIEW 🌿

Title: A Hunger of Thorns
Author: Lili Wilkinson
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

**Thankyou to the publisher for sending me an advanced copy of the audiobook in exchange for an honest review**

I was drawn in by the beautiful cover, I admit. Being an audiobook was even better.

The narrator did a wonderful job of bringing the story to life, and I commend her highly for it.

In terms of the book itself, I did feel sadly disappointed. The story didn't feel very original, and I didn't really like any of the characters.

That said, the sapphic element was a wonderful surprise, and the book was easy to breeze through. The best way to describe it would be Alice in Wonderland meets House of Hollow.

Overall, I wasn't a fan of this book, but am super grateful for the ARC all the same and hope this book finds its audience.

I listened to this audio book through NetGalley Shelf. I really liked the blurb and have read/listened to list of young adult books. However I struggled with this one. I did not rate the narrators voice The main character Maude is supposed to be about 17 however the narrators voice made her sound an awful lot younger and she came across as a whiny spoilt brat. Also the pronunciation of Mam and Nan became very difficult to differentiate. The story was so long winded and flipped between now and then which made it very confusing. The idea for the book was a great one I just don’t think it translated very well at all

A Hunger of Thorns had a very strong magical fairytale feel, which would have been amazing, though it just ended up falling a bit flat for me. The imagery when describing all of the herbs and plants was amazing. I actually learned a few little things, but that's about as good as it got. The worldbuilding and descriptiveness that was necessary for the backbone of the story was washy and hard to follow and unfortunately, I didn't like the characters very much at all. The pacing was quite slow too, I actually DNF'd the physical copy because of it and even listening to the audio didn't help very much - though it did help me finish the book, so that was a positive.

The narrator did a fantastic job though and because of that, the rating is higher than I would normally put a book that I wasn't a great fan of. Thank you so much to Bolinda Audio and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. While the physical copies are available now, the audio for A Hunger of Thorns releases January 1st, 2024.

I loved this book and the atmosphere that the narrator creates in the audiobook. One of the best witch books I have ever had the pleasure of laying my hands on. It has a very interesting world building with the introduction of magic in a comtemporany setting with big corporations and capitalism. And great -even if somwhat anoying with Maude's obssesion- building of the characters. It was great to watch them grow with the story.

I loved the set up for this book. I found the world building really interesting. Witches are 'out' in society but there are strict curbs and limits on what magic they are allowed to learn. Then zoom in on the MC and her attempts to unravel the probably toxic friendship she shared with another girl, who would have liked her magic for herself. All of that really gripped me and I initially enjoyed the way the MC goes looking for her friend, unravelling blocks put on her mind. However, I personally found the story sagged at the midway point and when certain other characters were introduced they significantly lessened my interest and reminded me that I was reading YA fantasy when so little of that genre hists for me anymore. Some of that is on me - I am just not the target audience. But some of it was odd plot turns chosen by the author. Overall, this is a unique take on the genre with threads of fairy tale woven in. If that sounds like your bag, give it a go.

The world building was good and I liked the plot. I listened to this as an audio book and the narration was soft and clear, considering the darker elements of the books it was very relaxing to listen to. The characters however just didn’t do anything for me, none of them, I didn’t like or relate to any. This made it difficult to really get into.

Fantasy fairy tale for older teenagers and up. An audio book to relish, characters to like and loath, lots of quick witted and snarky humour. This is a fairy tale that draws somewhat on the real world of now. A tale of growing up and experiences that frame our nows, of love and obsession and of consequences, of magic, rebellion and freedom. Thank you to Lily Wilkinson for taking the Biology I have spent my working life teaching, and expressing it in a way that I would never have imagined; your skill as an author was a joy to experience in the words I listened to. Thank you to Bolinda Audio and NetGalley for the audio ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.