Ratings:
Star Rating: ★★★☆☆
If This Book Was a Movie Rating: PG-13
Review:
Violet Made of Thorns was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022. I was thrilled by the morally-gray-heroine premise, added it immediately after hearing the romance was compared to Jude and Cardan from the Cruel Prince, and Queen Chloe Gong’s personal recommendation never hurt anyone 😌
Unfortunately, today is a day of sad news: this was rather underwhelming. Let’s begin with the premise (it’s the publisher’s premise because ✨school✨, feel free to skip the italicized part if you already know it):
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.
Fantastic. Now the plot.
While the blurb makes it sound like this is entirely a romance novel, I would argue that this book is first a fantasy novel about the curse that is dooming this kingdom. There’s a little romance on the side, but it’s first and foremost a fantasy. The conflict is fine, but nothing special. The worldbuilding was sadly less than ideal, and more than once I found myself lost as to where all these different kingdoms were in this random fantasy world. We did have a map of the capital, but a map of the country would’ve helped out a lot.
characterssss
The characters. Ohhhhhh the characters. *sigh*
Violet Lune was a fine protagonist, but she was so determined to hate Cyrus and do things the absolute hardest way just to spite him that it just got painful. Cyrus was no less guilty, but since we didn't have his POV, it was a tad less infuriating.
Basically, Violet came across like the dumbed-down version of Jude, and Cyrus came across like the more hormonal version of Cardan. Because their romance was compared to my beloved ✨ jurdan ✨ I feel I should mention that Violet's and Cyrus’ enemies-to-lovers slow burn dynamic felt like the author occasionally forgot how far along she was in the slow burn and then just added whatever she felt like instead. Even the kiss felt so bloody random.
This, while amusing, messed up any sort of romantic tension.
anyways, it was an enjoyable, solid three-star read. Not jaw-droppingly good or bad, just fine.
sorry if this review is more tired and less energized than my usual, I’m feeling the stresses of school 😅 much love to all of you!!
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Recommendations That Were As Good As Or Better Than This Book:
Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
The Darkening by Sunya Mara
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