Isabella's Reading Corner: Heart of Thorns

Heart of Thorns

Author: Bree Barton

Publication Date: July 31, 2018

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Mia Rose lives in the kingdom of Glas Ddir where Gwyrach, half-human, half-god demons can kill with a touch using their powerful dark magic. Since any woman can be a Gwyrach, they are all considered a threat. King Ronan issues laws restricting the movements of every woman within the kingdom. Trained by her father to be a Hunter, Mia lives by the Hunters’ Creed – ‘heart for a heart, life for a life’ and pledges to find and kill the Gwyrach who murdered her mother. But all is not as it seems in Glas Ddir. Mia soon discovers she herself is one of the creatures she is determined to destroy.

Mia can take care of herself and is willing to protect the ones she loves at any cost. She had a strong bond with her mother, worries constantly about her frail sister and has a complicated relationship with her father. Although tough, she is passionate and dreams of a world where women have the freedom to control their own lives. On her journey Mia meets other strong women who she learns from and looks up to. She begins to develop an understanding of who she really is and what she is capable of. The development of Mia’s relationships with the other characters is intriguing, as some show themselves to be very different from how she initially viewed them. 

The novel is filled with fascinating, well-written characters and gorgeously vivid and detailed settings. The story contains treachery, dangerous situations and many secrets. Heart of Thorns is an exciting fantasy debut and I am looking forward to the next book in the series to see what happens to Mia and read more about this captivating world.

Thank you to Harper Collins Canada for the ARC provided for review.

From the publisher:

Inventive and heart-racing, this fierce feminist teen fantasy from debut author Bree Barton explores a dark kingdom in which only women can possess magic—and every woman is suspected of having it.

Fans of Leigh Bardugo and Laini Taylor won’t want to miss this gorgeously written, bold novel, the first in the Heart of Thorns trilogy.

In the ancient river kingdom, where touch is a battlefield and bodies the instruments of war, Mia Rose has pledged her life to hunting Gwyrach: women who can manipulate flesh, bones, breath, and blood. The same women who killed her mother without a single scratch.

But when Mia's father announces an alliance with the royal family, she is forced to trade in her knives and trousers for a sumptuous silk gown. Determined to forge her own path forward, Mia plots a daring escape, but could never predict the greatest betrayal of all: her own body. Mia possesses the very magic she has sworn to destroy.

Now, as she untangles the secrets of her past, Mia must learn to trust her heart…even if it kills her.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner posts on Heart of Thorns here and here and a post from guest author Bree Barton here.

Isabella's Reading Corner: The Last Time I Lied

The Last Time I Lied

Author: Riley Sager

Publication Date: July 3rd, 2018

Publisher: Dutton

Riley Sager’s debut novel Final Girls chilled me to the bone and The Last Time I Lied certainly did the same! It is about an artist named Emma who is obsessed with finding out what happened to three of her friends who vanished without a trace from the summer camp she was attending when she was only thirteen. When adult Emma is invited back to Camp Nightingale to teach painting, she decides to accept, hoping to find out the truth about what happened to the girls so many years ago. 

The book alternates between the present day and the past when Emma was still a camper. The characters are well defined and developed and the story is super spooky with great atmosphere and imagery. I can easily see how Sager was inspired by Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, one of my all-time favourite films. The Last Time I Lied is a novel to pick up and devour in one sitting. I couldn’t wait to find out what had happened to the missing girls and if Emma would make it to the end unscathed!

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada, Penguin Random House US and Goodreads for the copies provided for review.

From the publisher:

In the latest thriller from the bestselling author of Final Girls, a young woman returns to her childhood summer camp to uncover the truth about a tragedy that happened there fifteen years ago.

Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. But the games ended the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin into the darkness. The last she--or anyone--saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.

Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings--massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. When the paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale, she implores Emma to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor. Seeing an opportunity to find out what really happened to her friends all those years ago, Emma agrees.

Familiar faces, unchanged cabins, and the same dark lake haunt Nightingale, even though the camp is opening its doors for the first time since the disappearances. Emma is even assigned to the same cabin she slept in as a teenager, but soon discovers a security camera--the only one on the property--pointed directly at its door. Then cryptic clues that Vivian left behind about the camp's twisted origins begin surfacing. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing mysterious threats in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale and what really happened to those girls, the more she realizes that closure could come at a deadly price.

You can read my original Isabella's Reading Corner post on The Last Time I Lied here and author Riley Sager's guest post here.