Review: Thorn by: Insitar Khanani

Title: Thorn

Author: Intisar Khanani

Published: May 30th, 2012

My Rating 4 out of 5 stars

Goodreads Summary:

Princess Alyrra’s strength lies in silence. Scorned by her family, she avoids the court, spending her time with servants. When her marriage is unexpectedly arranged with the prince of a powerful neighboring kingdom, Alyrra feels trapped. As the court celebrates her match, dark rumors spread about the unexplained deaths of the women of her new family. Alyrra begins her journey with mounting trepidation; betrayed while traveling, she seizes an opportunity to start a life away from court.

Walking away from a prince whom she doesn’t know should have been easy. But from the moment she sets eyes on him, Alyrra realizes that her freedom could cost him his life. Without any magical defense of her own, she is plunged into a lethal game of sorcery and deceit. Now Alyrra must decide whom she can trust and what she’s willing to fight for—before her silence proves fatal.

My Thoughts:

I received this book from the author in exchange for review.

This book was am amazingly engrossing read for me, I didn't know what to expect going into it except, that this book is a retelling of the Grimm's fairytale Goose Girl, I was not familiar with Goose Girl so, I googled it and read the fairytale before I started reading Thorn so, I could get an idea of what I was in for. Thorn pretty much follows everything that I read in the original fairytale but, I was captivated by Thorn's character and the world that she was living in. 

Thorn was one of those main characters that continually surprised me, if I was once a princess and I was turned into a regular servant, I don't think I would handle this transformation with as much acceptance and grace as Thorn did. I was surprised because she wasn't spoiled and she never complained about having to do work and the new life she had been dealt, she was happy about it, she didn't want to be a princess and it gave her a chance to start over and wipe her slate clean and become anyone that she had wanted to be. She became a character that I would want to have as a friend in real life, she was trustworthy, strong, and loyal, some amazing characteristics to have in a friend and person. She also went through so many hardships and tough times that I was definitely rooting for her to take her life back. Her brother was an evil person who abused her and her mother verbally abused her it seemed and didn't think much of her at all. I couldn't imagine having to go through life living with a family such as  hers and it just made me root for a happy ending for her character even more. I only wish that there was more romance with her prince in this book, I was really excited every time that had a scene together, they had a witty banter and it made me smile whenever I got to read about them together, I just wanted to tell the Prince myself who Thorn was so I could keep reading about the two of them together. 

Overall, Thorn is one of those books that contains everything, adventure, romance, justice, and action. Thorn is a book that deals with a lot of serious issues and does it with grace, so many injustices and issues come up in the book that it was sometimes hard to read but, I still really enjoyed it and I had a hard time putting it down, the friends Thorn meets along the way were so much fun and I became so attached to each and every one of the secondary characters, they each had their own personalities and roles to play in Thorn's story, I loved them all. If you enjoy fairytale retellings and Grimm's fairytale's, then you should definitely give this one a try, Thorn is a story that really comes to life right off the pages!

Happy Reading!

Kristin