The Book of Thorns: An Enchanting Tale of Two Sisters Connected by Magic Paperback – April 2, 2024

First my thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity for an ARC copy of this beautiful novel 🫶I had not read any Hester Fox novels before this one but I may have to remedy that after reading this.This book is a wonderful blend of historical fiction, ~witchy~, power of female love/friendship/emotion, and greed of man. Told from the perspective of two sisters with the same beautiful and powerful gift.This novel is a beautiful depiction of women, their deep love and ability to be selfless to care for the needs of others. How when they love, they love fully. It also shows how deeply they can hate and hold grudges, what they are willing to do to those who hurt the people they love. Both women have to actively choose to see the good around them throughout the story and focus on the people they love to be able to move forward, and if that isn’t something to practice in your daily life, I don’t know what is.In my opinion, this book is the embodiment of the “Women” meme from Little women. I didn’t anticipate growing to love the characters as deeply as I did, but what can I say but… women!***spoilers***I so strongly found myself screaming at Cornelia at the beginning to kill her Uncle AND Reeves and the way they treated her. I really hoped they would get their comeuppance and found myself ecstatic finding out that they both were taken care of in the end. I’m glad Cornelia was the one who was able to get revenge on her Uncle.I loved following her story and the love she found with Henri and Sophie. I’m so glad she was able to find happiness with Sophie in the end and see the gift that Henri left her in her book.My heart broke for Lijsbeth and the horrors she dealt with for so many years. When she found William I was so happy for her and was worried it was too good to be true. While I don’t think I personally can forgive William for what he did to Cornelia, I’m glad everything worked out for them in the end and Lijsbeth was finally able to have the family she longed for. (What can I say I’m a woman who holds grudges lol)When the sisters finally came to terms with their gift, and fully embraced its beauty and terrible power, I couldn’t have been more happy for them. The gift appearing when the women felt love or anger, to me, is a physical depiction of women’s emotions and their capacity for how deeply they feel.How tremendous, beautiful, is their love; how formidable, fierce, is their anger.

Oh, my heart. Just when I thought Hester Fox couldn’t get any better, she brings us an epic tale of two sisters on opposite sides of the Battle of Waterloo. Cornelia and Lijsbeth’s stories are heart-wrenching yet hopeful as they draw from their tragic pasts and their flower-based magic to solve the mysteries behind their estranged sisterhood.Betrayal, loss, love, redemption, and justice collide in this masterpiece of a novel. If you loved Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, you won’t want to miss The Book of Thorns.PS: I loved the queer rep in this novel!

I love all of Hester Fox's books and can't choose a favorite that she has ever written. This book will teach you the meaning of flowers and how they were made into bouquets to send secret messages to your signifant love all of Hester Fox's books and can't choose a favorite that she has ever written. This book will teach you the meaning of flowers and how they were made into bouquets to send secret messages to your signifant other. There is also "witchcraft" like in all her other books. The Book of Thorns follows Cornelia Shaw fleeing her home that she shares with her uncle in England to Paris where she is searching for her mother. Once in France she finds that she has no money left and is trying to figure out how to make France. She happens upon a French soldier who takes her back to camp to be a naturalist for Napoleon, when they meet up with him in Waterloo. Under strict orders not to leave camp she is guarded by a Lieutenant for the whole journey. Cornelia is also a writer for a French newspaper about the of flowers and their meaning and how to arrange them, Lijsbeth lives in Waterloo, and she is mute. Her one skill she has is flower arraigning. She happens to come across the articles that Cornelia has written under a pen name and soon feels a connection to her. Cornelia shows up in Lijsbeth's dreams and doesn't know why. The story comes together at the end with Cornelia and Lijsbeth finally meet.t other. There is also "witchcraft" like in all her other books. The Book of Thorns follows Cornelia Shaw fleeing her home that she shares with her uncle in England to Paris where she is searching for her mother. Once in France she finds that she has no money left and is trying to figure out how to make France. She happens upon a French soldier who takes her back to camp to be a naturalist for Napoleon, when they meet up with him in Waterloo. Under strict orders not to leave camp she is guarded by a Lieutenant for the whole journey. Cornelia is also a writer for a French newspaper about the of flowers and their meaning and how to arrange them, Lijsbeth lives in Waterloo, and she is mute. Her one skill she has is flower arraigning. She happens to come across the articles that Cornelia has written under a pen name and soon feels a connection to her. Cornelia shows up in Lijsbeth's dreams and doesn't know why. The story comes together at the end with Cornelia and Lijsbeth finally meet.

Warning! Spoilers ahead!This book is not like what the synopsis states. I still stuck through it but it wasn’t something I ended up enjoying enough. It’s my first book by this author and I’m hesitant to pick up others if the synopsis is going to be so off from what the story is actually about.This book tells a story about 2 sisters chance meeting as a war is brewing. One sister finds love and the other falls for two people (male and female). So if you like LGBTQ+ stories you might enjoy this but it was a shock that I wasn’t expecting. I would recommend this story because it really highlights historical events in a new light that I never thought of but didn’t feel like a mystery more like a fiction of two lives in a dangerous time in history.

I have read every book by this author so far and can say that she never disappoints. Her first book is one that I picked up in a library on a summer day without any previous knowledge of and fell in love with immediately. Highly recommend this, and all her other work.