Sorcery of Thorns - Margaret Rogerson

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined."

This book has been sitting in my TBR pile for a while now, but I read Rogerson's last book, An Enchantment of Ravens, and while it wasn't bad it did drag a little bit. I was sure her second novel would be just fine, but I've had so many other things I was pumped to read that it ended up on the back burner. It kept calling to me, though, because...well...

It's so pretty!

I mean, look at it. One thing Margaret Rogerson's books definitely have going for them is that their covers are to die for. Something else that this particular book has going for it? That it kicks ass.

Yeah, that's right. I was sleeping on Sorcery of Thorns! I finished the book I had been reading before bed and needed a new one, so I was like meh...I've been waiting long enough on this one, might as well give it a go and see how it is. Y'all...I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish this in three nights (and that's no joke! I'm fucking serious about my bedtime, I have an alarm set and everything). This book rocked. In the words of Pam Beesley, it rocked my ass off.

For starters, there's the dedication: "For all the girls who found themselves in books." 

I have observed to my friends on countless recent occasions that the older I get (or maybe the more librariany I get? I don't know, I just know that's when it all started), the more emotional I seem to become, and this book got me good. Elisabeth is intelligent, assertive, and courageous, basically everything that sweet baby Dewey wanted to be growing up, and while I feel like I've done pretty well by sweet baby Dewey in the grand scheme of things, I grew up being told that women were meant to be meek and submissive, so it is always a privilege when I get to read about a character who is strong, driven, and tough and who fights for what she believes in the way Elisabeth does. I wish that I had more examples like her growing up, and I will never stop being thrilled at all of the examples of strong women that are around in literature and movies today. Give me more tall as hell library workers with swords, please! I'll take them all.

As far as my worry that this book would drag the way Ravens did, I had no need to fear. It doesn't take long for things to get going, and once they do, the pace does not slow. And the characters, you guys. As mentioned, Elisabeth is fierce as fuck, which won me over immediately, but then we also get Nathaniel, who just...I mean...you couldn't ask for a more tragic, reluctantly heroic love interest (possible spoiler, I guess? But come on. You know as soon as he's introduced). And then there's Silas, arguably the best character in the book. (Don't argue with me, though. It's fine if you disagree, we're allowed to have different favorite characters.) The nuance he brings to the table and the way his narrative forces us to question  the black-and-white evil versus good worldview Elisabeth grew up with is a thing of beauty. I fell in love with him immediately, and even with his repeated reminders that however he might seem, he shouldn't be trusted, I couldn't help it. I also adored Elisabeth's roommate, Katrien, and if I had one wish for this book, it would be that she was in it more. But come on, if my one complaint is that the characters were so good that I wanted more of them, well...that's not so bad, is it?

Alright, I've talked a lot about this book without saying anything about the plot. I know that's weird, and honestly, I want to talk plot. So badly. But I'm a little afraid that if I do I'll spoil something without meaning to, and given the number of times I gasped out loud or had to stop and text my husband that my mind had just been blown, I really don't want to do that. So...I'm not going to. I'm just going to say that this book is magical and strongly recommend that if you are a fan of fantasy, strong female characters, and magic, you pick up a copy. You won't regret it!