Sorcery Of Thorns By Margaret Rogerson – ARC Review

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I kept hearing such great things about this book and when I heard that the main character is a librarian and there are talking books I knew I just had to read it! Also the cover is gorgeous! Although I did end up enjoying it but sadly I didn’t love it.

Rating: 3/5

Synopsis from Goodreads:

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

I have mixed feelings about this book. While I did enjoy the story and I loved seeing the libraries and the grimoires and that there were books so powerful that they could be dangerous, I didn’t fall in love with any aspect of the book enough for me to love this book.

Elisabeth has grown up in the library, surrounded by books and raised with certain teachings and beliefs. She has never really been outside the walls of the library enough to see what it is truly like. So she believes everything that she has been taught, this made her a little naïve but she is smart so she does learn quickly. Her beliefs are challenged as the story progresses and she doesn’t know what to believe any more and this leads her to discovering herself more outside of being a foundling. Despite all this I didn’t find her character to be very memorable so I couldn’t really feel invested in her story.

Nathanial is a handsome, socially awkward sorcerer who tries to act indifferent towards Elisabeth but ends up caring deeply for her. He regularly insults her and tells her that he won’t help her and is generally quite broody. Although he does help her in the end I just felt their romance was a little unnecessary and I fell they would be better as friends. I especially don’t understand Elisabeth’s attraction to him especially as he is so rude to her and regularly calls her an “absolute terror” despite his tragic backstory. I also felt that he also didn’t have much role further than showing Elisabeth that not all sorcerers are evil and being her love interest. I would have loved to see more of his character development.

I did however enjoy the sarcastic and sassy banter between Elisabeth and Nathanial and how they bounced off each other when they were working together.

My favourite character was Silas, he was so intriguing and mysterious and I just wanted to know more about him. We don’t learn very much about him or what he thinks past what we learn from Elisabeth and Nathanial and honestly, I just want more Silas! I would love to see his point of view and what he was thinking throughout everything that happened in the book. I want to know his motivation and reasoning for doing what he did and all we know is what he tells them, but is that the truth?

Overall I did enjoy aspects of the book but I felt the story was pretty predictable and I because I didn’t love the characters I ended up not loving the story.