Book Review
Title: Heart of Thorns (Heart of Thorns #1)
Author: Bree Barton
Genre: YA/Fantasy/Romance
Rating: *****
Review: I have read Heart of Thorns before and didn’t continue the series because Tears of Frost still had quite a while to be released but I never returned to it. Once I got approved for the Soul of Cinders blog tour, it was the perfect time to re-read this book and read Tears of Frost. From what I can remember we follow Mia Rose who hunts Gwyrach who are women who can manipulate flesh, bones, breath, and blood alongside her father before a lot of political intrigue and romance happen. I can remember loving it so I couldn’t wait to get into this book all over again. We learn that Mia has been promised as the bride of Prince Quin by her father which is something she hates as she has been trained to be a Huntress and wants to marry for love. However, the only alternative is offering up her sister, Angelyne which is something Mia just won’t do so she seems resigned to an unhappy life with Prince Quin. This upsets Mia for more than one reason as she has always wanted to hunt down the Gwyrach that killed her mother and the kingdom of Glad Ddir isn’t safe for girls and women as all are suspected on being Gwyrach and are treated terribly especially by the King. King Ronan takes sick pleasure in torturing Gwyrach and cutting off their hands for display in the Hall of Hands. On the eve of the wedding, Mia’s father presents her with her mother’s journal and the ruby wren necklace which opens it, but when she does all the pages are blank.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, the final preparations are underway for the wedding but we see something happening with Mia as she is beginning to experience headaches and pains that she didn’t before but she also sympathizes with the Gwyrach especially when she sees the hands of children in the Hall of Hands and also admires Princess Karri who believes magic shouldn’t be treated as a threat but studied and used for good but her father disagrees with this. We quickly figure out that Mia herself is a Gwyrach when she enthrals Prince Quin without trying and she even overhears a conversation between the King, Queen and Prince Quin where they think Mia is dangerous and are using her as blackmail to ensure her father’s loyalty. Even as the wedding begins her father asks Mia to forgive him but for what we don’t know yet but throughout all this Mia longs for the life she had before and even longs for her best friend, Domeniq “Dom” du Zol and how easy everything was before. During the wedding ceremony Mia has the feeling that something is terribly wrong and this is proven right when Quin is shot with an arrow and while Mia manages to drag him to safety and remove the arrow he is bleeding out. Mia desperately tries to save his life but in doing so she heals him with her touch which shows both Mia and Quin that she is a Gwyrach which is one of the most devastating things for Mia since she has been raised to see them as monsters and they are to be destroyed. Mia manages to get them out of the palace but the Hunters are on their trail and soon find themselves cornered by two but Dom comes in and kills them and points Mia in the direction of his father’s boat helping them escape, he even lays down a false trail with Princess Karri and the other hunters but Mia and Quin are on their own now.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, the pair start their journey out of the Glass Kingdom but things are going to be difficult for Mia since her mother’s journal is only revealing pieces of the map at a time and Quin proves that he can’t see what is in the book. Not a lot happens in this section as they travel east on the river until they reach a waterfall with flows up instead of down that borders the Twisted Forest, a place girls have been banned from due to its unnatural aura. The pair take refuge in the forest but Mia can’t help but feel that they are being followed and if I remember this book correctly, they are in a way. This section of the novel mainly follows their journey and Mia debating on what magic is and starting to figure out her own as she can relate sensations she feels to specific parts of her magic, for example enthralment feels warm and she can also sense the emotions of others towards her which is interesting and it would make lying to a Gwyrach near impossible. Mia also contemplates on the circumstances surrounding her mother’s death as well as her parent’s marriage and whether things were as happy as they seemed. We also see Mia developing some feelings for Quin although she refuses to acknowledge them because she knows how people view Gwyrachs especially from the Glass Kingdom. I also liked the introduction of more political intrigue surrounding the line of succession and what it means for the kingdom if Quin is missing or dead.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the pair has spent 5 days travelling through the forest and the mountains but their lack of supplies is getting to them. However, it seems they are being watched as a freshly killed rabbit and dry wood is laid out close to their cave that could only have been put there by another person but they obviously don’t intend to harm the pair as the mysterious person is helping keep them alive. The closer they get to the safe haven; the more curious Quin is becoming about their destination and the more curious he becomes about Mia but I was really enjoying my re-read so far. Mia and Quin find a hot spring and are enjoying themselves when Tristan, Quin’s cousin appears and captures them as he wants Quin dead so he can take the throne after Ronan. However, between them Mia and Quin manage to poison them and escape but the arrow wound Quin suffered is infected as there is a shard of the arrowhead still in his chest and Mia has to heal him again but she exhausts herself doing it. She also realises that all their things have been left behind including her mother’s journals but that is the least of their problems when Tristan’s dogs find them. Mia also has the added worry of knowing her sister has married Tristan which puts her in an awkward position as she wants to protect her sister but she needs to keep herself alive too. They run but the dogs are gaining on them, leading to the pair jumping off the edge of a waterfall into a river where a hot air balloon awaits to take them to the refuge. As they fly Mia and Quin have a little heart to heart where we can see true feelings developing between them but this is overshadowed when the refuge comes into view.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Mia meets Lauriel, Dom’s mother and her mother’s best friend and she learns that Lauriel and Dom’s twin sisters have magic although one twins magic has bloomed yet. Lauriel explains some of the culture of the witches and how certain stones can enhance or dampen their magic and she also lets it slip that the reason her mother wasn’t wearing her protective necklace was that she trusted the person that killed her, not just trusted her but loved her and Mia is determined to find this person and find out what really happened and one of the twins points her in the right direction to get the answers she seeks. Before she goes running off, Mia does encounter Dom who arrived days before her and a fellow Hunter, Pilar who shot Quin but she wasn’t aiming for him, she was aiming for Mia. Dom and Pilar take Mia to Zaga to get the information she wants about the witch that killed her mother but there is a huge aura of magic surrounding the place that threatens to overwhelm Mia. Zaga is the one that makes Mia realises that she doesn’t really know anything about the witches or herself but this doesn’t open Mia’s eyes, in fact it only makes her angry especially when she realises that Tristan is still alive and is heading back to her sister. While she wants to leave Dom, Lauriel and Quin convince her that the only way she can truly protect her sister from Tristan is by mastering her magic and learning to control it. After a conversation with Lauriel about her mother, Mia is finally read to know the truth and her mother’s word slowly begin to appear to her and will hopefully reveal the answers that Mia has been seeking since she arrived at the refuge. Mia is also beginning to recognise her feelings for Quin and dislikes it when Pilar becomes friendly with him and in this same scene, she learns her best friend is gay. I like the way LGBT relationships are approached in this novel as it isn’t uncommon for the witches to have relationships with each other and all of them are women and Mia saw this when she first passes through the market.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, after reading her mother’s journal that details the time, she was pregnant with Mia leading up to Mia’s birth and how she found herself married to Mia’s father. Her mother talks about how she tries to save her sisters even when her husband was intent on killing them and how she tried to save the woman she loved but doing something unforgivable. We learn that Zaga was that woman and she had broken the Second Law, not to turn her magic on her own body, and in response her mother tried to kill Zaga but she still doesn’t know who killed her mother. Mia also learns that Pilar is Zaga’s daughter but Mia isn’t getting the answers she wants and she isn’t really learning anything since these questions are overriding everything else in Mia and until they have been answered and she has dealt with the person who killed her mother she won’t be able to devote herself to harnessing and controlling her own magic as it is tied to her emotions and will. When Mia is determined to return for her sister, Quin says he will go with her but Mia knows he is lying about something and when she sees him drinking and dancing with Dom, she thinks it is able the fact he likes boys not girls but this isn’t it. It seems that Quin knows far more about the death of Mia’s mother than he is letting and the truth is finally about to come out and change everything. Quin tells Mia of the night her mother died and how his father suspects that she was a Gwyrach and pressured Mia’s father into doing what he wanted including orchestrating the marriage between Quin and Mia to keep an eye on her as he suspects she was a Gwyrach as well. Mia also remembers the argument she had with her mother that very night and coupled with the knowledge Zaga has given her she concludes that she killed her own mother by accident. This revelation is overshadows as the hot air balloon comes in with a message written in blood telling Mia to come home and it is clear threat to Mia that Ange will be hurt unless she complies and she knows she has to back and rescue her sister but if I remember the ending correctly, this isn’t how it goes but I am excited to experience it all over again.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, Zaga, Pilar, Dom, Quin, and Mia travel back to the Glass Kingdom where Mia and Quin finally admit their feelings to each other but this is going to change when Zaga order Pilar to injury Karri even after Mia had rescued her from Tristan and his men. Zaga then orders Mia to heal Karri even though she knows Mia isn’t in full control of her powers and she accidently ends up killing Karri which lands all of them in the royal dungeons and Quin is grieving for his sister which overshadows everything he and Mia just shared. When we see everything come together Mia is faced with the choice of killing her sister or her sister killing her. However, she realises what her mother’s plan was all along and decides to sacrifice herself in order for her mother’s plan to be fulfilled but the cliff-hanger at the end of this novel is a killer as we believe Mia to be dead in order to bring her mother back and I can’t wait to get into Tears of Frost as soon as I can.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk
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