Violet Made of Thorns by. Gina Chen | ARC Review

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Violet Made of Thorns

Author: Gina Chen

Format: eBook (NetGalley)

Pages: 368

Publication Date: 6/21/22

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Categories: Fantasy, Young Adult, Enemies to Lovers, Romance

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

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Thank you to Delacorte Press for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

A darkly enchanting fantasy debut about a morally gray witch, a cursed prince, and a prophecy that ignites their fate-twisted destinies—perfect for fans of The Cruel Prince and Serpent & Dove.

Violet is a prophet and a liar, influencing the royal court with her cleverly phrased—and not always true—divinations. Honesty is for suckers, like the oh-so-not charming Prince Cyrus, who plans to strip Violet of her official role once he’s crowned at the end of the summer—unless Violet does something about it.

But when the king asks her to falsely prophesy Cyrus’s love story for an upcoming ball, Violet awakens a dreaded curse, one that will end in either damnation or salvation for the kingdom—all depending on the prince’s choice of future bride. Violet faces her own choice: Seize an opportunity to gain control of her own destiny, no matter the cost, or give in to the ill-fated attraction that’s growing between her and Cyrus.

Violet’s wits may protect her in the cutthroat court, but they can’t change her fate. And as the boundary between hatred and love grows ever thinner with the prince, Violet must untangle a wicked web of deceit in order to save herself and the kingdom—or doom them all. 

Content Warning: Self Harm

This was an interesting story! It’s a dark fantasy, with an enemies to lovers trope, infused with different fairy tales – the ones I could pick out right away was Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast.

Violet is a Seer for the Kingdom of Auveny. She was brought into that position when she saved the Prince Cyrus’ life when they were young. Violet grew up under the protection and tutelage of the king and she’s been very appreciative of it to Cyrus’ discontent and irritation. Violet is supposed to be the unrelatable, unlikable character but I like her. She doesn’t fawn over Cyrus, she’s blunt and rude but I understood her motivation to survive in court. She’s an antiheroine. But Violet is a liar, and she’s obedient to a king who is trying grow the Kingdom by overtaking their neighbors, and she helps him if this means she has a position at court. I understood her fears – she doesn’t believe in love because it can hurt her. She’s practical about things, until Cyrus calls her out on it.

I enjoyed a bunch of the characters like Cyrus who is supposed to be Prince Charming, his sister Camilla who is fun, his best friend, Dante is Violet’s closest friend and a scholar among other things – it will be interesting to see what happens with all these characters in the next book. I think the villain did pretty good in playing off of Violet’s insecurities and manipulating her that way.

I love the escalating tension between Violet and Cyrus, it’s off the charts because of their whole enemies to lovers/forbidden love kind of thing going on. Cyrus is a Prince and of course his father wants him to get married soon. Falling for and marrying the Seer he loves and hates is not an option and complicates everything between them. There is a lot of power play going on in the story which I enjoyed as well. The power play between Violet and Cyrus – she wants a part in the kingdom and gets it by being obedient to the King. Cyrus doesn’t believe in his father’s plans of conquering every neighborhood kingdom – he wants to be a fair and just ruler and doesn’t like that Violet has become his dad’s pawn in making things happen. Does Violet let all she’s worked for die because she’s falling for Cyrus or does she continue helping the king to keep her position secure? Does Cyrus let her go so that he can put his kingdom and people first?

There were some small issues I had with the story. World building was a bit confusing, or it needed more world building. There were some moments I was just confused about what was going on, maybe because it was moving from one fairy tale to another? Not sure. And the ending seemed rush – a lot happens with the Witch of Nightmares, Cyrus and Violet but I guess we will find out what happens in the next book. I hope there is more world building and less confusion in book two.

Why you should read it:

• enemies to lovers, escalating tension between Violet and Cyrus
• a dark fantasy fairytale – combines a few fairytales like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty
• Violet is the antiheroine but I liked her morally gray character

Why you might not want to read it:

• needs a bit more world building
• not into antiheroines

My Thoughts:

I enjoyed this dark fairytale fantasy, even though I did get confused at times. The tension between Violet and Cyrus was my favorite part since I love an enemies to lovers romance trope. I enjoyed Violet’s character as an antiheroine and look forward to seeing more growth from her. The other characters like Camilla and Dante help show off Violet with people she actually liked to be around and whenever they were together with Violet, I found their banter really fun. There are still a lot of unanswered questions I have after the story ended so I look forward to reading the next book.

📚 ~ Yolanda