I received An Enchantment of Thorns by Helena Rookwood and Elm Vince from the authors for an honest review. Let me say this first, I gave the book 5 stars on Goodreads while my sister gave it three. I will post a link to her review at the bottom.

So what is this story about? It’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling, the cover kind of gives that away and I think that’s why I wanted it. I seen the yellow dress and was just “yesss!” Anyway, Aster, (our Belle) is the towns Greenwitch, not meaning she’s a witch but she works with plants to help in sickness and to keep any Fae that’s lurking in the Folkwood out of her town, Rosehill. Aster isn’t exactly bad ass but she can hold her ground and people depend on her. Every year there is a Tithe, a group of girls who have come of age all have to meet in the Folkwood for the Fae Beast to pick one to take who knows where. No one knows what happens to the girl who is chosen, they only know that they never come back. This has been happening for a century now. Aster has two sisters, one is also in the Tithe with Aster, the Beast almost choses her sister but Aster steps in and doesn’t allow this to happen. Which is how she is chosen at the Tithe for the Beast to take. All Aster has to do is grow the rose garden and then she can go home. Sounds simple right? Not if the enchantress who set the curse doesn’t want you to.

Speaking of an enchantress we find out that Aster is one herself, she is able to enchant plants because plants are her “craft.” A craft is something that a human basically prefects, like painting, music, or baking. It’s weird that the fae can’t do these things but I do like that it’s something different than the whole “Fae can do everything” type thing.

While at the manor with the Beast we meet Foalan, spoiler: this boy had me fooled. I thought he was a good guy but you can never trust the fae, they are tricky folks. Foalan has Aster and maybe Thorne believing he in their friend; he does save her life and teaches Aster about the Faelands. Just pay attention to him, you might feel something different with my warning.

In the end Aster has to realize her true feelings for Thorne and not only that, she has to fight the enchantress who laid his curse. I do wish the scene with her trying to cure her sister wasn’t so rushed and I also think the “fight” scene needed more. You get information but it did also feel a bit quick.

My feelings for the book: I loved it. I dreaded reading this because of the texts I received about it but I’m glad I gave it a chance. Mosswhistle is my favorite out of everyone, I hope to see it in the next book. I didn’t mention Vanna but I hope to see more of her too, I could feel Aster’s jealousy for her but I still liked her character. Beast’s ‘beast’ form reminds me of the Bleaken from Bob’s Burgers, I got a kick out of that. But even in that form I could sense that he knew who she was and I loved it. They didn’t have a strong instant love and that might be why I liked it, she wasn’t focused on romance but on survival. I just liked it and I’ve already been telling friends to check it out and I think you should too.

Cherokee’s Review Link Her review does also contain spoilers.

If you read the book let us know your thoughts. Maybe it was for you or maybe it wasn’t, we still want to know.

Advertisement