Thorn Season, the debut novel from British author Kiera Azar, left me with an emptiness that can only be filled with the next book in the series (release date TBC for Australia).
Alissa has been hiding her Wielding abilities her entire life; she’s the only daughter of the ruling Lord of Vereen in Daradon, who also happens to be a Hunter. Her ability to control an invisible force anchored to her body, known as a spectre, allows Alissa the power to create a barrier to protect, a weapon to destroy, or – mostly for her – a wispy thread to pick locks and twirl her dead mother’s lucky coin. The power is widely feared among the people of Daradon, where Wielders have been hunted to near extinction. If discovered, she would be captured and killed by order of King Erik.
When Alissa is summoned to the royal court for Rose Season, six weeks for debutantes to frolic among the elite’s most dazzling and dangerous, she chooses to help her former best friend and current Hunter, Garret, search for a mythical compass over her father’s wish for her to stay home. Risking her life just by staying at the royal palace, Alissa finds herself caught in a web of secrets, lies and hidden agendas so thick, even the thinnest tendril of her spectre would struggle to breach it. Determined to be the sharpest thorn in a sea of roses, Alissa finds herself snagged amid the competing attentions of the brutal King himself and a mysterious Wielding foreign ambassador.
With all the makings of a great YA romantasy, Thorn Season is a thrilling climb toward the inevitable exhilarating drop. A formidable standalone debut, the next two books could surely see the series standing among some of the top reads of the 2020s for young adult fantasy lovers. For readers of Amie Kaufman’s The Other Side of the Sky duology and Heir of Storms by Lauryn Hamilton Murray, Thorn Season brings the indomitable presence of magic, the impenetrable force of royalty, and the softest brush of romance that hints at more to come.
Thorn Season, the debut novel from British author Kiera Azar, left me with an emptiness that can only be filled with the next book in the series (release date TBC for Australia).
