Violet Made of Thorns

Book: Violet Made of Thorns

Author: Gina Chen

Rating: 3/5

This book was… interesting.

I didn’t absolutely hate it, but I just felt like there was something missing. I believe this is the author’s debut novel, and it’s been mentioned on her socials that she originally planned it to be part of a duology. I think that it definitely should have. This story needed more time to explore itself, especially in the romance department. It’s supposed to be enemies to lovers, which means you need time for them to actually be enemies and then actually be lovers. Maybe it was my fault for listening to other people call it enemies to lovers, but it also seems like it was supposed to be written that way? *See spoiler #1 for extra context.

There were also like stakes but also no stakes to what was happening. This is something that I think would have been a lot better if it wasn’t a standalone novel. Basically the entire book is building up to this dark “witch” who they have no way of fighting against like at all, it’s a huge concern. It basically amounts to nothing. See spoiler #2 for extra context. Every problem that the characters are supposed to be facing in this entire book are solved quickly and easily, with very minimal after effects. The only thing that does have a really bad after effect is (see spoiler #3 for extra context) and I just didn’t feel like I got the whole story. 

My rant is getting a little long so I’ll rush through the last bit. 

Characters- I liked Dante, felt like I understood most of his motivations. Cyrus confused the hell out of me. Violet was just as bad, and I even knew what was going on in her head the whole time. Camilla was great and wonderful comedic relief. Nadiya was okay. Raya was okay. The king felt both threatening and not, got weird vibes. 

I liked the storyline, the synopsis on Goodreads made it sound super interesting, but I feel like it wasn’t fleshed out enough and should have been at least a duology, if not a trilogy. We needed more time for it to turn from enemies to lovers, more time to understand the religion, more time to figure out what the fuck is the fairywood?? Never got any info for that. We needed more time to understand the magic system, and more time to understand the characters. 

So, overall, I think this was an okay read. I know that I just spent a lot of time complaining, but it was by far not the worst book I’ve ever read and deserves at least three stars. If the book had more length or more books, I would likely be giving this book more stars because it would have been a bit different. 

To end this out, I am going to list things I liked about this book:

• Camilla was great

• Camilla was hilarious 

• I think Camilla was my favorite 

• Violet talking to the voice communicating with her was funny

• Dante had some very funny moments

• The gossip girl, I think her name was Ziza, was funny to me 

• The fairies were cute

• I loved the imagery 

• Violet’s robes sounded beautiful

• I liked the idea of every royal court having a Seer

• The fairywood was intriguing 

SPOILERS LOCATED HERE

Spoiler #1:  They really just spend the whole book as enemies, and then would randomly start making out and getting each other off, and then literal seconds after they finish cough scene in the study Violet will just yell at him or he will yell at her and now they’re arguing again. I also never truly believed that Violet was into Cyrus? She would begrudgingly admit that he is an attractive person, but she never thought any like positive thoughts about him basically ever. That’s fine at the beginning of an enemies to lovers, but she never really seemed to end up loving him. Literally, and I have a bone to pick with this ending, she is actively moving out of the castle grounds (I think? It made it seem like her tower was part of the castle yet she always had to go through the castle gates to get inside? But then other times it was mentioned there’s basically a bridge halfway down her staircase that leads directly to inside the castle?) and Cyrus just shows up at her door like “Hi, I’m a vampire/werewolf now! I need to drink your magical blood like once a week to stay human, sooooo you actually can’t leave! Teehee.” What makes it worse is that she agrees so quickly??? But also isn’t interested in him still??? I don’t get it, like at all.

Spoiler #2: Then of course she shows up… and doesn’t try to attack anyone? She’s somehow been in Violet’s mind all summer, we never really learn how, she’s doing all sorts of magic that we have no idea how it happened because it’s never explained but we’re supposed to be afraid of her. She just comes into the wedding like “Ah, there’s two Rayas, which one of us is the real one?” She then pops up in Violet’s room right after Violet breaks down and stabs Cyrus (still confused) and is ready for world domination. Violet very quickly kills her (which also doesn’t make sense after the monologue that she gave where she basically says she’s immortal, Sighted are suuuuuper special and like one step away from the fates/gods, after a long time they will eventually join the fates in heaven or wherever they are, so how the hell did Violet just kill her, and with what magic because we still and forever don’t know what that magic is) and then feeds Cyrus blood and bam the threat is just… gone. These beasts are also built up, and then nothing ever really happens that hurts the main characters because they immediately find a cure as soon as it affects Cyrus.

Spoiler #3: the king dying, but also just solves the problem of Cyrus needing to ascend to try and prevent horrible war- which also the deities in this book are called The Fates, but normally the fates have like a ~plan~ for people that can barely be changed so I’m still a little confused about that