Thanks to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, and Margaret Rogerson for providing an e-book for my honest opinion.

My overall thoughts: 4.5/5 Stars!

If you enjoyed Margaret Rogerson's first novel, An Enchantment of Ravens, you will LOVE Sorcery of Thorns. There are magical books, evil (and not-so-evil) demons, sassy sorcerers, and a strong-willed heroine. The feminist themes, slow burn romances, and unlikely friendships will leave you bewitched and wanting more.

A Deep Dive:

- The Plot: Let me repeat, there are. MAGICAL. LIVING. BOOKS. in this story. Readers, you should binge this book based on this alone. Who doesn't want to read about a brave librarian facing off against an evil sorcerer? And who doesn't dream of living in a magical library full of living, breathing books? There's a dash of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", Hogwarts Library vibes (think the restricted section times 100), hints of The Pagemaster, and a unique flare to piece it all together.

- The World Building: For being a standalone novel, I was definitely impressed with how well the world of Austermeer was thought out. There's so much magical knowledge to devour in this story and it left me wanting more. Fantasy lovers will be highly impressed with callouts to the Enochian language, the use of salt & iron, the creation of grimoires & maleficts, and even the summoning of demons.

- The Characters: Every character in this story is amazing in their own way - yes, even all the grimoires! Elisabeth is a fearless, strong-willed bookworm who meets her enemies head on. Nathaniel Thorn is my new favorite sorcerer. He's the perfect combination of salty and sweet and I lived for all his sarcasm. Silas is your favorite grumpy cat and will melt your heart. And Katrien will be the best friend you want in your life.

Final Thoughts: If you love magic and mystery, add Sorcery of Thorns to your June wishlist!

Welcome to Rambling Reviews! This review is thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for allowing me access to this much-awaited title. Ever since its announcement, I’ve wanted it. I still have a bit to go for a physical copy, but for now, here is a review as thanks.

Ever since I read An Enchantment of Ravens, I’ve fallen for Margaret Rogerson’s writing. The lyricism. The ambiance. The flash and bang and the lulling. And now here I am again.

I’m a bookseller. First, I’m a reader. Then, I sell what I read. Also I sell what I’ve never read before, but that’s what I do. I look stuff up and I enjoy it. But when I’ve read something, like Ravens, I make it a point to hand it to people. I make it a point to tell everyone how much I loved this or that title. And boy I’m sure people got so sick of me talking about Ravens!

And now they can get sick of me talking about Thorns. Because I will talk. I will talk all day about this book. This tome. This tale.

It starts off with our beloved main character, Elisabeth. She was an orphan who was left on the footsteps of one of the Great Libraries. So she was raised in the Great Library, surrounded by living books.

Yes. LIVING BOOKS.

These suckers live. They breathe and whisper and plot. They whimper and laugh and screech. To be surrounded by these books! But most of the Librarians treat these books like prisoners. Why?

Because, in this world, magic is evil. Pure and simple. Evil magic.

Then we have what I’ll call your necessary evil. The Sorcerers. They can use these magnificent tomes, eliciting spells and secrets from them. Nathaniel Thorn is one such Sorcerer. And did you know Sorcerers have demons? Yes. They make pacts with demons for their magic. But I’ll get to my favorite character later.

Just you wait.

So we have our players. Nathaniel and Elisabeth. Elisabeth was raised to desire to be a Warden, or a person who protects the Libraries. Sometimes when a grimoire goes rogue, they turn into monsters and usually are slain. Wardens can help with that. The thought of killing a book, even one with a body that’s rampaging the countryside, makes me quail. Cringe.

But things happen and Elisabeth has to do stuff and has to escape a place. She’s now living with Nathaniel. WHAT. Yes. Nathaniel and (here it comes)…

Silas.

White-haired Silas with the yellow eyes. Charming and sarcastic, but always polite. He’s short. He’s a wee fella. But he’s still a demon. A demon who extracted a price for his magic. Nathaniel’s demon.

Silas is like Gadfly from Ravens in that he’s that character where through the whole story you’re wondering if you’re allowed to like him.

Are Silas and Gadfly nice? Are they mean? Evil? Can I like them? Do they die? Do they kill everyone and everything? What if they’re evil? Then I’ll feel bad for liking them.

But I like them.

So we have Silas. He’s like a nursemaid, butler, chef, chauffeur, lady-in-waiting, confidant, babysitter, parental figure, crazy uncle, loving brother, and manic demon all in one powdered package. A buttery-eyed butler. Who sometimes turns into a fluffy white cat.

Can you see why he’s my favorite?

Have you ever seen the show Lucifer? The one with the demons and angels and stuff. Silas reminds me a little of the title character. Sarcastic and mean without seeming mean. Biting while making you think he’s got your best interests at heart. But — Spoilers.

He’s my favorite. Because reasons I can’t say because the book isn’t out until June. Good luck waiting!

Anyway. The setting. The Libraries were my favorite. All of them. From the grimoires in their cases and chains to the Librarians who loved/hated them. I could smell the dust and hear the whispers of the books. I could feel the desks and the bookcases as they crash down. I could smell the ink and that magic scent.

The characters! Elisabeth was amazing! She was strong without trying too hard. She was weak without simper. She fought for what she loved and she grew.

Nathaniel started out the atypical brooding YA guy. I was groaning. But I shouldn’t have. I didn’t trust Margaret Rogerson. I ended up liking him. He was still brooding, but he was realistic. He didn’t brood to mope and complain. He had light in him.

The books. The books were also characters! From the ribbon-needle one who wants faces, to the eyeball one, to the ones who wanted to eat your arm. I loved them all and only wish I could give them loving homes.

And you already know about Silas.

But the bad guy was there, too. I won’t say who it was. I just know I saw it coming. But I’m 37 today. Happy Birthday to me! I’ve read a lot, and I don’t think Margaret Rogerson really intended on it being a secret. Just the drive behind the bad. And the sidekick was awesome. I really liked the sidekick. That sidekick had some PUNCH.

The plot wasn’t really your typical save the world. I mean, it was. But it was so much more. This book, for me, wasn’t entirely plot-centric. It shared the spotlight with the characters. With Elisabeth and Nathaniel and the books and Silas. But the plot helped the characters move along. However, I tried to imagine Generic Characters in the plot and couldn’t. I couldn’t see anyone else moving along this trajectory toward that end.

If I remember right, this is another stand-alone. But how I would love to see Silas and Gadfly together. Just for a chat and some tea, maybe. Though the whole world may be destroyed after. But that’s okay.

When this book comes out, read it. Just buy it and read it. It makes me wish that my birthday were in June, so I could get it for my birthday. But it’s not.

I give this one all the stars. Every star in the sky.

I love Margaret Rogerson's work, and though this is only her second book it definitely fills me with the same feelings as the first. Her world building is so intricate and throughout it feels, at times, more like history than fiction. Elisabeth's journey is one of a girl whose entire world is turned upside down and decides to fight for everyone else anyway. Similar to her first book, Rogerson puts her main characters in dangerous situations, leads them to incorrect conclusions, and then forces them to deal with impossible outcomes. The Thorn family was complicated and full of contradictions and evil shadows, but Nathaniel and Silas' relationship was both terrifying and loving.

So good! Libraries and magic and books that are almost living things and a strong heroine and a little romance. All the things I love!

My first book by this author. It wont be the last! Great for fans of magic and sorcery and a good romance. I enjoyed The fast paced and well developed story line. I jist wished the book was available in kindle format. That is the only one negative thing I have to say here. Otherwise, read this book! It is good

5 glittering stars.

So, I just completed reading Sorcery of Thorns and am so entranced that I felt I needed to write this review immediately.

This book is easily one of my favorite books of all time. Margaret Rogerson’s characterization is phenomenal. I felt strong emotions toward ALL of the characters, no matter how minor they were. Whether those emotions were delight, disgust, adoration—they were powerful.

I had very high expectations for this book. I really enjoyed An Enchantment of Ravens (more for the characters than the story), but THIS…I went into it critically. You see, my safe space is books, libraries, magical fantasies, and especially cats. I was nervous about being disappointed. But I definitely was not. This is a wonderfully enchanting story where books have personalities as captivating as the characters, and otherworldly creatures that you know are supposed to be “evil” but still you find yourself accepting them for what they are (and even feeling for them at some points). One of these otherworldly creatures, in particular, quickly became my favorite character and I adored and adored and adored every scene with him in it.

Now, A LOT happens in Sorcery of Thorns. So much happens, so quickly, one thing right after the other, that I found myself needing several breaks throughout reading it. Which is why is took me several days to read. At times it was overwhelming and I needed to put the book down to just process everything I had just read. I’m actually happy about this, because it made the experience last longer. I so WISH this wasn’t a standalone novel, because I want more. However, it is a beautiful story as it is.

AND THAT ENDING! My heart broke into a billion and a half pieces. But then again…I’ll let you see for yourself.

This book doesn’t just fill you with awe, it is FUNNY. I found myself laughing out loud multiple times and wanting more dialogue so I could keep experiencing the playfulness between all of the characters. It was truly a joy to read this book and I’m sure it will be one of my favorites for all time.

I HIGHLY recommend reading this even if you did not like An Enchantment of Ravens. I can assure you they are night and day. Sorcery of Thorns is at a completely different level of skill and is incredible. Margaret Rogerson is obviously very talented and I will ABSOLUTELY read anything she ever writes. Pick up the book! You won’t be sorry.

This is a flimsy, soulless ripoff of Uprooted by Naomi Novik mixed with a veritable heap of overtired tropes and plot devices.

Elisabeth is an apprentice librarian who was raised in a Great Library helping to preserve and contain dangerous grimoires. Despite the fact that her entire life is devoted to magical objects, she and her fellow librarians hold extremely negative views of sorcerers (those who do magic, who, as far as this book goes, are 100% white men). Naturally, Elisabeth has to go live with a hot young sorcerer to await trial after she's accused of crimes, and everything proceeds as you might expect from there.

Some of the more unforgivable parts of this book:
- On more than THREE occasions, Elisabeth happens to be hiding in or passing by a room when people are having extremely important secret plot-related conversations. How lucky!
- As often as it's convenient, she either passes out or falls asleep. Why have pesky things like exposition or transitions when you can just end a chapter by...fainting?
- Every single villain is just through-and-through evil for the sake of being evil. There's no character development in this book in general, but the evil characters get particularly shafted. Interesting backstory who??
- Thorn (the youngest handsomest available-est sorcerer) is an offensively obvious and one-dimensional copy of the Dragon from Uprooted. Imagine if you printed a glossy high-def photo of your celebrity crush and then used the oldest machine in your office to make a black-and-white photocopy on standard printer paper. That's basically what Rogerson did with the Dragon to make Thorn. It's heinous. And, yeah, it took about five seconds of Googling to determine that she's a Novik fan.

Here's the thing: Novik wrote eight boring, stuffy Napoleonic dragon books and like a billion pages of fanfiction before she managed to write Uprooted. There's all the time in the world for Rogerson to produce something great, and I hope she keeps at it. But ripping off the books you like is not the way to go, especially when the result is less than mediocre even without the lifted bits.

Magical libraries, "evil" sorcerers, books that come alive, demons, and tons of action...all in one book??? Yes, please!
I loved Margaret's first book, An Enchantment of Ravens, so I was really excited to get an early look at Sorcery of Thorns. It did not disappoint. It has the exact amount of excitement with a little romance sprinkled in for good measure. I can't wait to see what Margaret Rogerson has in store for us next!

Rogerson does it again in this book! There's magic, monsters, a daring heroine and a couple sassy characters along for the ride. The writing in 'Sorcery of Thorns' really does bring the magic to life on these pages and I really fell in love with one of the characters. The world was so interesting and not only do you as the reader just fall into it, so does our main character. Fun, mysterious, and magical!

*ARC received from NetGalley in return for an honest review*

Magical books were why I wanted to become a librarian as a child. Lirael by Garth Nix especially haunted me with how beautiful and magical the library was. Rogerson has invoked the same magic making me desire to work in her libraries full of books that are alive. While I enjoyed her first book this one certainly felt like Rogerson had finally found her groove.

There was only one downside to reading this book and that was all due to the fact that I had to read it on my phone instead of my kindle. I would have certainly got into this book faster if I had my larger kindle screen.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a digital copy of this book. I love this author’s writing style. It feels like an old fairy tale but with some modern edge. The characters are fresh and engaging. The setting is beautiful! I love the library aspect.

Starting this book it didn't hit me right and I thought it was just another mediocre book with beautiful cover art. But I still wanted to see where the book went so I forged on, and wow was it worth it! The characters were so real and easy to relate to. The humor in this book was wonderful, it was so well written! And the dialogue was so enjoyable, it was something you could picture so easily. I could easily see this coming as a movie, but the way the book was written was like reading/watching a movie, everything was so vivid and lush, it was wonderful! I loved the main characters, actually all the characters were so well done. Elisabeth was such a neat character and I loved how the libraries were alive with epic stories of such a variety. She was brave and believed in the good of everyone. She was strong yet not callous, I liked how she fought to the right thing, which in this case was saving the world. I loved how she was a child of the library, how books helped her through her quests in a variety of ways. Then there's Nathaniel... from their first encounter he was an amazing character. His sorcery was such a neat factor, and his backstory was heart-wretching, yet his ability to see and even dare to hope of a brighter future was beautiful. And then there's Silas...I don't know how to write about him without having spoilers, but he was such an exceptional character! I think there's something to be said for the author when the characters have such depth and personality. Somehow this book had humor, action, adventure, and a love story, it was so beautifully written that I can't wait to just go and buy the book. Action packed with a love of books sprinkled throughout made this book a must-read. Highly recommend for sure!

I absolutely loved this sophomore work from Margaret Rogerson! After An Enchantment of Ravens, I'd have been willing to give anything she wrote a shot, but this was even better than expected. Elisabeth grew up in one of the great libraries amid books that fly and bite and sing, but with a great mistrust of the sorcerers who created and need these books for spells. When her library's director is murdered and Elisabeth the only one who saw anything happen, she is accused of murder and must align herself with a sorcerer for any hope of survival. Of course, he's also the most eligible bachelor of the realm. This was dreamy and swoony and delightful.

Margaret Rogerson's sophomore novel didn't disappoint. It was just as magically as her debut novel, if not better. I quite fascinated by a magical system with living grimoires as well as the faustian relationships between sorcerers and demons reminded me of a favorite anime (BLACK BUTLER). Elisabeth was very innocent and trusting, which took a while for me to get used to because she's supposed to be a skilled warden (and inherits a special sword) yet she was very unguarded around many suspicious characters.

Though the world-building was engrossing and the characters practically jumped off the page, my only quip is that I didn't believe the romance between Elisabeth and Nathaniel. A similar problem I had with Isobel and Rook from An Enchantment of Ravens. In both cases, it's such a short period of time before the two couples fall head over heels in love with each other. I just felt there wasn't any chemistry between either couple. As a matter of fact, I feel there was more chemistry between Elisabeth and Silas than there was between her and Nathaniel.

However, that didn't negatively impact my overall enjoyment of SORCERY OF THORNS. I can't wait to see what the author decides to write next.

I've been a fan of Rogersons ever since her debut, An Enchantment of Ravens. In Sorcery of Thorns, she still manages to bring magic and intrigue with a dash of romance. This was truly a fantastic read and I can't wait to read more of her work.

There were times, especially at the beginning of the book that I felt Elisabeth was a little bit too innocent and trusting and naive, but she *was* raised in a very sheltered environment, so it's understandable. Other than that, I was completely sucked into this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, the writing style, the little bit of romance, the thought of library "wardens" being needed to fight back the dangerous, magical grimoires that are shelved in the library...all of it.

As with most of the books I enjoy a lot, I can't even really explain why I enjoyed it so much. All the pieces just worked for me, but I can totally see how someone else might not enjoy it nearly as much as I did.

And that ending! I hope there's a follow-up! I haven't read Rogerson's previous book, but I definitely will now.

Sorcery of Thorns is heartfelt and fearless. The character of Elisabeth shines as beacon of hope and change, while the plot is a smooth balance of exploration and action.

As a resident and apprentice in one of the Great Libraries, Elisabeth Scrivener has spent her whole life in the presence of magic. When a dangerous book becomes a more dangerous monster, Elisabeth finds herself accused of sabotage. In order to prove her innocence, Elisabeth must trust a sorcerer and his demon servant -- can the beliefs she was raised with be wrong?

This book was received as an ARC from Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing - Margaret K. McElderry Books in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Wow, what a great find and a great read. I absolutely loved the concept of this book and the fact that a LIBRARY was dependent on the major climax of the story just made me even happier. The execution of the concept was brilliantly done and it made every chapter, page, word, and context all the more exciting. The characters were very unique to the story especially Elisabeth just from the spelling of her name. This book is filled with magic and fantasy that will immediately transport you into their world and you'll feel like you are not only rooting for the characters but actually part of the story. I know for a fact that this book will be very popular not just with our YA readers but with our Adult readers as well.

We will consider adding this title to our YFantasy collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

Margaret Rogerson delivers a thrilling and whimsical sophomore novel for fans of Holly Black, about a heroine who loves books and the books who love her back. This Regency-inspired YA fantasy is set in a world with living grimoires and the librarians (called “wardens”) whose mission is to guard them inside the six Great Libraries. Our heroine Elisabeth was left on the doorstep of a Great Library as a baby and raised by the wardens to believe that the sorcerers who visit the library are evil. To access magic a sorcerer must make a bargain with a demon, thus tying the demon to the sorcerer’s service. When the Great Library is attacked by its most dangerous grimoire, Elisabeth’s attempt to save the library results in her being arrested and shipped off to trial. She finds herself with nowhere else to turn but the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn: our bisexual love interest with a soft heart and a demon named Silas. Thrown into Austermeer high society, Elisabeth navigates both politics and the press as she discovers a centuries old conspiracy tied to the very founding of Austermeer itself. Since Elisabeth never hesitates to question her own assumptions, her naiveté starts a well-crafted character arc rather than impairing the plot. Rogerson’s lyrical writing lends itself to tight pacing and clever worldbuilding, while the sharp dialogue and well-developed relationships give the story a strong emotional payoff. Characters are assumed white.