The story follows Violet, a sharp, cynical Seer who’s clawed her way up from a street urchin to a powerful role at court. She’s not always likeable, but that’s what makes her such an interesting protagonist.

The romance between Violet and Prince Cyrus is the heart of the story, the tension and banter are fun, though their relationship escalates a little too quickly for my taste. I really enjoyed the supporting cast, especially Princess Camila, whose carefree nature brings some much-needed levity, and Dante, the mysterious friend of the prince..

While the magical world and the political drama are promising, I did wish for more depth in both areas. The Fairywood and its magic had a lot of potential but felt underdeveloped, and the political intrigue didn’t feel as connected to the character-driven storylines as I’d hoped.

That said, Violet Made of Thorns is a fun, fast-paced read. It’s a bit light on worldbuilding, but it makes up for it with strong characters and an engaging romance. I was very disappointed to find out that this book isn’t getting a sequel.

I so wanted to love this book. Violet, the main character, was such a breath of fresh air and I adored her grumpy, blunt persona and her blisteringly hot/cold relationship with love interest Cyrus. However, the worldbuilding really fell flat for me. There was so much that wasn't fleshed out and you were very much dropped in the middle. The relationship, though steamy and a faithful version of enemies to lovers, wasn't fully believable. The 'enemies' part of the romance was almost overdone and made it hard to see how they could ever get to the 'lovers' stage of the relationship. The book definitely had positives - I couldn't put it down and enjoyed the reading experience overall - but sadly couldn't get over a few of the sticky parts of the book (underdeveloped world building, confusing plot and the back and forth relationship!)

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this e-arc to review.

I would like to note that I rated this book 4.5 stars on storygraph, not 4 stars.

I really liked this book, it moved swiftly had a story that held my attention and characters that I wanted to get to know. The cliffhanger had me on the edge of my seat!

I finally got around to reading this - it had been begging me to read it for a long time.
And reading it now is actually bittersweet - bitter: WHY have I kept myself from this gorgeous story for so long ... sweet: Knowing that this is kept as a standalone and not a series is making me love this book even more - because it makes the ending actually perfect in my eyes (without the looming second book syndrom).
A lot more retelling in the story than anticipated, but I loved it and flew through it. Hightly recommend you check this out if you haven´t already.

First of all thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was very easy to read and a good take on one of my favourite fairytales. Violet and Cyrus had quite an interesting relationship throughout the book, but I wouldn't necessarily call it enemies to lovers.

Violet could often be quite petty and a bit childish, but then Cyrus was also quite fickle. Quite enjoyed the court politics featured in this book. All in all, would recommend.

An enchanting spin on classic fairytale with suprisingly dark twists. The enemies to lovers was dynamic and a thrilling relationship to read. All in all, this was was a delight to read and a sure recommendation to others.

This was an easy read which I happily completed during a flight - it has a lot of the elements that make a strong YA book but, at times, feels like there could be more exploration of the complicated relationship between the male and female leads. The enemies to lovers aspect could have been more fleshed out but perhaps that is something to look forward to in a next instalment which I would happily read!

Violet Made of Thorns is a Beauty & the Beast Retelling with additional magic and many many symbolic roses throughout the story. This is definitely not a direct retelling, and a lot of additional twists and changes are made by Gina Chen throughout the book to make it all that more enthralling.

Our titular character Violet is in fact a bit thorny as she now has a high ranking position at court, lives in the tower, but that wasn’t always the case. Even though she’s become the Seer for her king, she was once a street urchin just fighting for survival every day. Her outlook on life is extremely pragmatic and a little bit cynical, where she makes the choices that are best for her but aren’t always “good”.

One annoyance I had with Violet’s characterisation was that sometimes her behaviour towards the prince was petty and a bit childish. Whilst the story tries to explain this, it’s kind of obvious that at some point he’s going to be the king and she would have to serve him with the same respect she has for the current one. So this doesn’t feel right as surely she’d be reprimanded repeatedly by the current king and other members of court.

This behaviour does lead into the main romance trope of the book though. The story has an “enemies” to lovers kinda romance plot line where they go from insulting and bickering to passionate sex within a few pages. The love/hate relationships continue for the majority of the book and if you’re into this trope you’ll likely enjoy this book.

Prince Cyrus and his sister Princess Camila are well written as royalty with Cyrus having the responsibilities of heir, whilst Camila parties and frolics and has her fun. Camila sometimes acted as a comic relief character, and was very blunt at pointing out things that Violet was too blinded to see on occasion.

There’s also Dante who is a side character, ward to the crown and best friend/advisor to Cyrus. As a character we don’t know much about him but everyone seems to love him, and I enjoyed his meddling with Violet and Cyrus throughout the story. I believe Violet Made of Thorns is the first in a duology so I’m hoping we get to see even more of Dante in book two as well as some insight into his background.

There’s a political plotline between kingdoms which is half-connected to our characters, but sometimes not really all that connected. I wish we did have more political intrigue and saw a bit more of the repercussions of that overall in the story (although I completely realise this isn’t what the book promises!).

There’s the Fairywood and Auveny is slowly taking more and more land from it. I wish we’d seen more of the magic, fairies and the Fairywood as a whole tbh. Whilst magic is a big part of the story, I wish we’d seen just a bit more magic and wonder in the world building.

As a whole I loved reading Violet Made of Thorns and it was a book I raced through during the hot summer days here in the UK.

Positives of Violet Made of Thorns
Interesting take on a Beauty & the Beast Retelling
Interesting Seer magic and fairytales
Negatives of Violet Made of Thorns
Wish it had a bit more depth into the worldbuilding and politics

This book was a fun and vibrant YA. "Violet Made of Thorns" captivates with its dark undertones and quirky, morally grey protagonist. The tale unfolds in a mesmerizing world with really unique magic where witches aren't revered or feared, they are somewhere in between. Violet, our spirited heroine, finds herself embroiled in a relationship too close for comfort with the frenemies-to-lovers cursed prince in the story.. With its blend of darkness, quirkiness, and imaginative magic, this book casts a spell that lingers long after the final page. A must-read for fantasy lovers seeking an enchanting escape.

Violet Made of Thorns is a fantasy debut with a thorny side. I was intrigued by the synopsis and enjoy reading about witches, especially morally grey witches. But what makes this story different, is that Violet is a seer, and she sometimes changes the prophecies and turns them into lies. When Violet lies about one of the prophecies, she unlocks a curse. This is where the story becomes interesting.

It took me some time to get into the story and I often wondered when the one thing would happen that would grab my attention, but the author had a plan. Once that 'thing' happened, I couldn't stop reading. There is banter and magic as well as fairytale elements. The love/hate relationship was interesting and the first person POV was refreshing.

Readers who are new to fantasy and who feel intimidated by extreme worldbuilding should give this book a try. It would be a great introduction to the genre.

I enjoyed this one so much, it was utterly bingeable, unexpectedly funny, and I had plenty of fun discussions with my buddy read partner. Most importantly, I didn't ever have that (unfortunately increasingly common) feeling of slight disappointment that tends to accompany reading new releases these days. (The hype power of social media is a beast a half!)

My reading experience here definitely benefitted from having my expectations tempered. 'Violet Made of Thorns' was all over my social media before its release and sounded AMAZING, but a few lukewarm reviews made me go into this with less emotional pre-investment. As you can tell from the last paragraph, this resulted in a Great Time™.

'Violet Made of Thorns' is very atmospheric, heightened by some lovely prose (many a highlight!), and perfect to read in autumn/spooky season. With strange visions, unsettling prophecies and witchiness afoot, the nods to fairy tale elements only elevated the darkly magical and dangerously beautiful (or beautifully dangerous?) vibes. Atmosphere: check...however the setting could have been boosted by the map depicting Auveny' neighbouring countries, rather than just the capital city.

The titular Violet is very engaging (as a main character ought to be!), Cyrus was...fine (lol), and some of the side characters stood out as well. Dante (Cyrus and Violet's mutual friend) and Camilla (Cyrus' sister) were particularly striking - Camilla needs more development yet still won me over almost immediately. There is also another who would be a spoiler to name... (Annoyingly, at the time of writing this review, I've actually forgotten who this is, because past me apparently thought that the spoiler warning applied to me too and didn't bother writing down this mystery character's name in my notes...) I hope to see them in Book 2!!

We know right off the bat that this is going to have an enemies-to-lovers plotline, yet I was both surprised and not by the trajectory of the romance. I had a theory that I was really hoping for...but the series isn't over yet! (I am furious at my past self for not writing down this theory in my notes, because by now I've forgotten.) I will say that I did get confused by how Cyrus and another character seemed to be falling and then that thread was just suddenly dropped. (Teenage hormones?)

The plot was full of surprises and I loved that while my veteran YA Fantasy experience could predict general points, they didn't unfold the way I expected. I was also impressed with how seamlessly the messages about imperialism and propaganda (that are unfortunately still all too relevant today) were woven into this fantasy world. That said, the story did annoyingly leave some apparently key things unexplained, like the significance of fairies and fayflowers. There also seemed to be this throwaway but essential thing about fairies and hope? I'm hoping these get expanded on in Book 2.

My immediate thought after closing the book was that I NEED Book 2. NOW. What an absolute rollercoaster of a finale...so much was happening that I kept turning the page thinking, 'Surely now it'll be the end/epilogue?'. I loved the fairytale-esque closer - very in keeping with the 'spin' propaganda theme - and I'm really looking forward to the sequel!

Thank you to Netgalley, who provided an arc of Violet Made of Thorns. I felt neutral towards this story, mainly because how I wanted to see the 2 main characters interact and wished they were actual enemies rather than 2 people who hate each other but are still on the same coin.

A love story, a wonderful wordlbuilding and amazing characters make this book so incredible to read!!!

I went into Violet Made of Thorns expecting a fun fantasy enemies-to-lovers romp with a snarky main character and some fairy tale magic twisted into exciting directions. Unfortunately, I was left disappointed!

Violet Made of Thorns felt largely unfocused and chaotic, it took me quite a while to get into it and then I felt like the book wasn’t really going where I expected! With the setup of various prophecies, a bride, dooming war and a dying magical forest, I was waiting for some kind of quest or travel element! Instead, all the action barely leaves the palace. The plot developments felt fairly passive for most of the book and then the last 10% just went wild but none of the developments felt particularly earned!

Overall, I felt like the world building was lacking depth and with all the fairy tale tropes and political workings, nothing was explored in depth in favour of packing in as many ideas as possible. In many ways, this felt like a prequel and I found the ending to be utterly unsatisfying. Most of the questions about different magics, political intrigues and the future of the kingdom remain just as nebulous as they did at the start of the book. As a reader, this makes me feel like I haven’t gained much from joining these characters on their adventure because few things feel like they have changed in meaningful ways, or at least we don’t get to stick around long enough to see those changes in action!

However, I do love Violet. She’s cold and snarky and I appreciate that she didn’t change much throughout the book! So often these kinds of “unlikeable” female main characters end up being “softened by love” or something of the sort and I love that Violet gets to be her delightfully insufferable self all the way through the end.

The enemies-to-lovers romance was enjoyable and was the aspect of the book that felt the most earned and explored to me as a reader. Cyrus and Violet have a history, are at odds in their views on life and political goals and overall have very good reasons to not like each other...but just as many to be a terribly good match.
If you like enemies to lovers stories where they both hate that they don’t hate each other, this is the book for you.

loved the black cat dynamic in this story and how Violet put herself and her status above romance. so much more realistic than putting love above everything else and living for her girlboss era! and also the world building? *chef‘s kiss*

Great fairytale story. Good characters, fast paced and lots of twists and turns. Would definitely read book two.

It took me a while to read this, but not necessarily because it's not enjoyable! I loved the cunning characters, but I should have expected the fairytales that are woven into the storyline. I'm not a huge retelling fan, I honestly mostly stay away from fairytales, but this was okay.

The buildup was.. really slow, I do wish that would have sped up a bit faster, but I still really liked the story and the ending! I am quite excited to read the next book!

Oh my goodness, I am absolutely smitten with the premise of this story! It's like a breath of fresh air that has reminded me just how much I've been missing out on YA fantasy. The plot is an absolute blast, and I can't get enough of the main character, Violet. She's just so darn lovable! While the world building could have been a bit stronger, and there were a few plot holes that I couldn't help but notice, they weren't anything too serious that detracted from the overall enjoyment of the book. I will say, though, that this book could have easily been condensed into a standalone. But hey, that's just my two cents! All in all, the romance in this book is just too cute for words, and it was the perfect read to help me out of my reading slump.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this YA fantasy and eagerly await more in the series. While Violet Made of Thorns has a lot of popular motifs and themes, it managed to feel original and hold its own place in the genre.

This book was archived over a year ago so I do not believe my future review after I finish this book will be helpful. I am still looking forward to reading this novel and will support the author's future works.