The Book of Thorns is a magical realism story about the secret language of flowers and the power to bloom where you are planted.

Cornelia is an independent young woman who has a special ability to communicate with flowers. When she can longer handle the abuse from her uncle, she flees England and ends up recruited by Napoleon's army as a naturalist. Forced to keep her ability hidden from the army, Cornelia will learn how to keep her budding powers under control while her heart begins to open up to possibilities she could never have dreamed.

In Brussels, Lijsbeth works as a maid and has a special talent for flower arranging. When she is loaned out to an aristocratic family who wish to employ her for her floral arrangements, Lijsbeth begins to notice that her connection to flowers is deeper than she thought, just as a love interest begins to take notice of her.

Cornelia and Lijsbeth's lives will cross a flowery path with thorns from the past pricking and prodding each sister to the truth of who they are. They will both need to fully embrace their connection to flowers in order to escape a heartbreaking fate.

This was a nice story about the power of love to root, grow, and blossom within the hearts of those willing to embrace who they are. Cornelia and Lijsbeth's special relationship to flowers mirrored their own journey of becoming, by following their hearts. I liked the dual perspective of the story and how each woman's life became intertwined like climbing vines by the end of the story. The magic was charming and its juxtaposition with the Napoleonic war backdrop created tension, drama, and a dark beauty that permeated the story. Hester Fox's writing about love and its thorny and spellbinding power added just the right amount of enchantment to the story.

There have been many books written about the Victorian language of flowers, but this book explored how and where those ideas may have began, such as in the hearts of those utterly bewitched by the power of emotion to bloom into something that words cannot always express.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed are my own.

This one took me awhile to get into unlike her other book The Orphan of Cemetery Hill, but I did like it , and I still have 2 more of her booms to read , .

I would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I have read and enjoyed all the other books written by this author, but unfortunately this one fell a little flat for me. I had a harder time getting into it. With that being said, I look forward to see what she comes up with next.

I think I went into this book with the wrong expectations. I expected more of a focus on the magic, and the two sisters. Instead, I found most of the first two thirds of the book taken up by romance plots that I found thin and under-characterized, and very little else. I did enjoy the dynamic of the sisters, but it took up a much smaller portion of the book than I would have thought.

I wouldn’t exactly call this book a straight forward romance, as there is too much hardship and pain for it to fit the conventions of the genre. I would mostly class it with women’s war fiction.

Overall, if you’re looking for historical romance (high on atmosphere and angst, low on deep characterization or plot) this might be for you, but it wasn’t for me.

eArc provided by harlequin publishing and NETGALLEY in exchange for my honest review

"The Book of Thorns" by Hester Fox is a historical fiction novel that weaves together the stories of two sisters separated at birth but joined by mysterious abilities. The narrative unfolds against the backdrop of Napoleon's battlefield.

Cornelia, leaving her cruel uncle's home, joins Napoleon's army as a traveling naturalist. Her unique ability to heal any wound and bring soldiers back from the brink of death attracts praise but also exposes her to those who seek to exploit her powers.

On the other side, Lijsbeth lives in indentured servitude, finding solace in flower arranging. Her life takes a turn when she falls in love with a young English soldier. As the clash between the English and French armies occurs at Waterloo, Lijsbeth faces the choice of fleeing the battlefield or risking everything by staying.

The two sisters, separated by circumstances, finally cross paths on opposite sides of the war. Together, they must unravel the mystery of their mother's death while navigating the chaos of the war that surrounds them.

"Combining history, the occult, human greed, and a touch of feminism, this is a fine addition to the gothic genre," as noted by ALA's Booklist in its review of Hester Fox's previous work, "The Last Heir to Blackwood Library."

I really enjoy Hester Fox and her storytelling. This one started off a little slow for me, but by the end, I was very invested.

The talented and prolific Fox returns with another tale of passion, sorcery and thwarted love. Sisters Lijsbeth and Cornelia were separated at birth, but both sisters have uncanny abilities. Cornelia nurses, French soldiers injured in the Napoleonic wars, bringing them back from the brink of death. Lijsbeth, is an indentured servant who has fallen in love with an English soldier. It’s during this conflict, that the two sisters finally meet again, and must find a way out of the dangerous situation they’re in all while trying to solve the mystery of their mother death. Fox never disappoints, her readers will be very pleased with this latest book