Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret  Rogerson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: One rather steamy makeout scene.


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.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I thought it was delightfully fun and heartbreaking as well. The idea of living books was wonderful. Long ago books were chained up in libraries, but not for the same reason they are in this book.

 

In the great libraries in this story, books can be dangerous grimoires that have been created by sorcerers. I loved how sometimes the books would turn into giant, out of control monsters, but I also loved how some could be a bit whimsical as well.

 

“The library possessed a life of its own, had become greater than Cornelius had ever intended. For these were not ordinary books the libraries kept. They were knowledge, given life. Wisdom, given voice. They sang when starlight streamed through the library's windows. They felt pain and suffered heartbreak. Sometimes they were sinister, grotesque- but so was the world outside. And that made the world no less worth fighting for, because wherever there was darkness, there was also so much light.”

 

As far as the plot goes, it wasn't anything new. For me, it was a bit predictable, and came secondary to the characters themselves. That being said, it didn't matter much to me, because I was so entertained by this book, that I had a hard time putting it down. Elisabeth was a plucky, mischievous heroine that I liked immediately. Her relationship with Nathaniel was deliciously love-hate, and I enjoyed the way their relationship evolved in the book. It was a fun romance, without being overdone. As much as I loved these two characters, Silas was most certainly the best character in the book. Who knew I, and everyone else could come to love a demon so much?

I was sad when I got to the end of this book; not just because of certain events that take place, but because such a fun read was coming to an end. And that ending! It made me want more, but I also liked the way it ended.