Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for a copy of this book.

I found the premise of this book extremely interesting. Wielders are born with magic, while Wholeborns are not. In this book, the Wielders live in fear of being hunted by the Wholeborns. Our main female character has been trained to hide her magic since she can remember, in hopes she can remain safe from the Hunters. After deciding to go to the palace for her eighteenth season, she catches the eye of the king, putting herself at risk of being discovered.

I thought the writing in this book was good, though you can tell this is a new author. However, I do think that this story, and author have a lot of potential! While I do feel like there was some unnecessary filler, and the book could have been shorter, I loved the twist and the ending. I have to say that I was a bit confused about Garret's character. It seemed like if he had been left out of the story, it wouldn't have detracted from the plot at all. I'm curious to see if he has a bigger role to play in book 2.

Overall, i enjoyed this read and would recommend! I rated it 3.75 stars.

4🌟🌟🌟🌟

I just wanted to keep reading this and I really think its going to be this fall's new hit YA read for all the bookish girlies. There was so much great political intrigue in this book, and whenever you think you knew someone's intentions, you really didn't at all! Twists and turns and drama around every corner, from cover to cover!

Only not giving a 5 star because it feels like a formula that is very well worn and done often nowadays. It still had very unique elements but at the core it is a tried and true story. I liked that the story felt dangerous without being too dark, and the romance was "who is she going to choose?", between Garret, Keil, and Erik, but I did feel the true option was obvious from the start.

The ending was so wonderful and intriguing and I cannot wait for book 2!

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC and allowing me to read early for an honest review.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO ADD THIS TO THEIR TBR!!! GO.. NOW!

what to expect:
- unique magic system called specter
- courtly intrigue
- bit of mystery
- multiple possible love interests? 👀
- slight female rage
- hunters after magical beings

Alissa has grown up, hiding that she is a wielder, from all of court with her dad being a lord over their province. Her dad had a secret affair with a wielder ending with a magical daughter, he had to hide from the hunters with a fabricated story. The book takes place during, Alissa’s, 18th season where she decides to join court and seduce king Eric in order to find a missing compass that the hunters are after that helps them discover magical beings in hiding. In the mist of this, she is kidnapped by a group of wielders, which opens a new door to questions and betrayals. There are multiple hidden agendas revealed amongst many characters through out the book that will give you whiplash. The characters were so complex, very well written and i wish i had more of Keil!

The magical system in this book had me in awe. I am obsessed with the way Kiera Azar wrote the magic in this book. It was romantic, beautiful, and every time characters threw out their specter to each other literally had me melting on the floor with a certain two characters. 👀👀 i just wish i had SO much more of a certain man cause i was swooning!!!! I better get that in the next book!!!!

Thank you netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this book. It sucked me in, and I can't wait to read the second one. I devoured it in only a day or so, reading fast, and I couldn't put it down. I think the back and forth between Keil and Alissa's banter was fun, and the ever growing tension between Alissa and the king had me on the edge of my seat. I liked Alissa's duty to herself, but also willing to view the world in reality, and where she can best help. Will definitely recommend.

2.5 stars. This book is full of potential, but fell a little flat for me. It's an interesting premise. I want to see Wielders gain power. I want to see Alissa succeed. I want to see her team up with Keil. But at 36% in, it doesn't feel like the story is progressing and the characters seem mostly two dimensional. Sadly, I feel I have to DNF at this point. I really like the idea, and think it could work with a little help.

Gratitude to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the eARC.

ARC review
Publication date 2 Sep 25

3,5 stars

"Thorn Season" by Kiera Azar is the first book in the series and also the author's debut novel.

I received an e-ARC from HarperCollins Children's Books (via Netgalley).
Opinions from this review are completely my own.

In the Kingdom of Daradon, the Wielders have a magic power called the Spectre that manifests like a shimmering thread.
The Wielders are Hunted because they can kill with this power.

Alissa is the heiress from a Hunter family, but also a secret Wielder.
She is summoned at court and becomes caught between two dangerous men: Erik, the King, and Keil, the foreign ambassador.

I wanted to like this book more, but in the first half I could not get interested in the story.
It also took me longer than usually to finish it and I think it was longer than needed.

I like Alissa because she is not an innocent and clueless young girl. She is morally gray, witty and strong.
She is aware that Erik doesn't have good intentions and has her own plans.

Even if Alissa has 3 male love interests, the romance is not a big part of the story (and there is no spice), but there is chemistry and tension .
Still, it is clear that only one of them has the potential of being her partner.

Overall this was an interesting YA fantasy read, but I was not convinced to continue the serie.

Alissa is a noble and a Wielder. Possessing this ability makes her an outlaw but she has hidden this ability for 18 years.
When she’s forced to enter the court for the season, she turns the eye of the King who is looking for a bride. However she’s more drawn to the Wielder from a neighboring country who has come to hers with his own intentions.
I really liked Alissa. Some of her reasonings made little sense to me but I thought it was odd when she declares all these deductions about people and their affairs when I didn’t remember reading her putting these things together before they confronted the person.
There’s the beginnings of a lovely romance and just enough of a cliffhanger to make me want book 2

Thanks to Netgalley for this arc.

If you liked The Cruel Prince, I think you’ll enjoy this one. I loved that it leaned heavily into political intrigue which kept me hooked in parts. Unfortunately, some sections dragged, and I found myself putting the book down. I was also confused more than once because several plot reveals weren’t explained clearly, which took away from my overall enjoyment. There are a lot of twists in this story, but not all of them land smoothly.

For me, the biggest letdown was the romance. Out of the three potential love interests, I didn’t find myself rooting for any of them—well… maybe the king toward the end. The relationships lacked depth and felt surface level, making it hard to connect.

On the bright side, I really enjoyed Alyssa as a main character; she’s strong, brave, and clever. Overall, it was an enjoyable read and I think a lot of people will like it. A solid debut!

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ARC.

4.5
"To cleave a person's heart was the greatest crime against nature."

And thats exactly how I felt after finishing this book.
I love love loved this book. The story. The characters. The plot twists and turns. The ending and epilogue!!!

There was many layers to this story. Lots of different sub plot story lines that kept me guessing where the book was going. When I thought I had things figured out I realized I was wrong.

I cannot wait to see where the next book takes us. Please please please let it be all Keil!

This is my honest review in exchange for a free copy of this book.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc.
First off WOW! this book had me on my feet! The pacing was great and actually felt like a movie in my head. The world building was great, it was following the usual world building you read in any fantasy romance setting but was enjoyable. The dark atmosphere and tension i felt literally felt real and you could imagine yourself there.

The FMC Alissa is a great character, very loving character that fights back like her life depended on it. Even though the male characters were possible love options, i just feel as though it was too much but Kiera does it well balanced enough that it was good. The "side:" male characters were just filler to me imo.

Plot wise it took a while for me to get into but don't let that get to your heads, this story gets better and by the ending your wanting so much more. Not a predictable ending but very much excited for the next book.

Alissa is struggling in her world between keeping herself safe by pretending to be Wholeborn and doing what she believes is right. Spending her entire life hiding her specter, growing up in constant fear of being found out and killed for it has shaped her beliefs. When Alissa is summoned to court to participate in the Rose Season to swear her loyalty to the king, she meets another Wielder who grew up free. So many tragic events lead to Alissa finally acting, but getting past her fear is just the start. Now Alissa has to find a way to thrive in the land she calls home. This story was a bit slow in the beginning, but anytime Alissa and Keil were together made it all worth it. Plus those last couple hundred pages I couldn’t read fast enough once Alissa decided how she wanted to move forward. I will definitely be reading book 2!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐ – Thorn Season

Alissa Paine has the kind of life people at court envy…money, family name, the promise of a perfect debut. What no one knows is she’s a Wielder, and that’s exactly what her Hunter family has spent generations hunting down. One slip, one wrong move, and she’s done for.

The book drops you into a world of gowns, politics, and sharp-edged magic. The magic itself is interesting—pretty to look at, but deadly if you’re on the wrong side of it. Alissa’s caught between trying to survive court life and figuring out who she can actually trust, which is harder than it sounds when everyone has their own game. There’s romance in the mix, but it’s tangled up with all the secrets and danger.

I’ll be honest, there were a few points where the pace slowed down and I had to push through, but the tension always picked back up. By the last few chapters, I was fully invested in how it would all shake out. It’s a solid start to the series, and I’m curious to see where it goes next.

Thorn Season is a book that feels very much of our time. Lady Alissa Paine seeks to hide her powers as a Wielder in a land where Wielders are persecuted - while participating in the rose season intended to find a wife for the cruel Prince Erik.

I was trying to put a finger on why I liked this book so much, and I really appreciated that the women in this book are given the complexities and morally grey characterisation that is so often given to men in fantasy novels. For better or worse, most of the men are exactly what they seem - it's the female characters who provided hidden depths and nuances, whether Alissa's romantic rival Perla, best friend Carmen or enemy Briar.

The book also had interesting things to say about the idea of privilege, of solidarity and what we owe our community when others are being oppressed. I think it is a great read for YA audiences examining their role in the world and will be a great book for fans of the Rose Bargain and the Crimson Moth. Thanks to Harper Collins for the early copy.

This kind of story is the sort of book that makes me both love and hate NetGalley; I need the sequel NOW, yet the first hasn't even been published yet.


Thank you NetGalley and Storytide for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was so exciting from start to finish. I was invested by the first chapter and would have read the entire book in one sitting if I hadn’t had to go to work. I am so impressed that this is a YA debut. The overall story reminded me a bit of Heartless Hunter (The Crimson Moth) since the FMC has to hide her power and is in constant danger and risk of discovery. There is some romance and tension in the story, but it definitely wasn’t the focus of the plot, which I really appreciated. There are multiple layers of secrets and schemes going on. I enjoyed the espionage and the attention to detail. There are things that the FMC notices that didn’t quite pan out the way I was thinking, so I didn’t feel like I already knew what was going to happen next. The FMC is fairly flawed and selfish, but there is some slow character growth and it felt more true to reality than if she had a sudden change of heart. I’m already hoping that one of the special edition book boxes picks this up because I am dying for a SE copy of this.

Thank you to Netgalley, Kiera Azar, and Harper Collins for the ARC of this book. It was an absolute pleasure to read.

I think Azar's passion (and romance) really shines through this book; she took great care in her characters and offers a fresh off the press gossip sheet. But I could not get myself to care in the slightest when each paragraph was ending with some kind of slapping realization or rose-themed epiphany. Once, I rolled my eyes so hard I saw stars.

And yet, I feel like I was falling for another one of the classic blunders of current publishing: lets make a book so damn beautiful (and it <i>is</i> beautiful to look at, with sprayed edges and embossed covers, and special editions galore) at the determinant of editing writing. Zingers are not enough-- and my goodness there were so many damn zingers. It almost relies on you to have read hundreds of regency romances (which I have) to understand the stakes, whilst also under explaining anything that makes it special.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC of Thorn Season in exchange for my honesty opinion and rating!

I loved this read and honestly I think that this is an amazing YA release, let alone an impressive debut release. As a highly analytical reader some points were a tad predictable for me but there were still a lot of twists and turns that I did not expect at all. Plot twists that made me confused, mad, thrilled, etc. but all in positive ways in terms of progressing the plot and keeping the reader intrigued. The implication of “Wielder” and “Wholeborn” and the way that the social economy are in this book truly give a darker aspect of this book. Especially in the sense that a good amount can be compared to many types of discrimination and socioeconomic spaces both in history and in current times, all without bringing the un-comfortability of fully bringing in certain political aspects.
I will say there were a lot of times where the FMC did irritate me a lot with her actions closer to the mid/end of the book whereas a reader it felt like her jumps to certain conclusions did not fully make sense, nor some of her actions. But understanding the depictions of her mental state at the time I did try to give some leeway in that aspect.
I love the multilayered aspects of the side characters, and I will say that is something that I do think a good amount of YA books do lack in putting a lot of the side characters in certain stereotypical bubbles. However, with this book I feel like all of the characters introduced brought their own true personalities and twists and turns which brought so much more to the plot and the “Omg!!” moments. I love how some of the typical romantasy tropes are apparent in this book but not at all in the typical way that we are used to, instead she makes them her own and she does so in a strong manner.
The world building and descriptions of both the environment and the FMC’s emotions were both very intriguing. The world building was beautiful and lush, especially when explaining how her power physically felt for her in interacting with the world and elements around her. Now as far as her emotions and her actions with said emotions I think that is what truly made the book so much easier to fall into and feel a connection with. Her rage, her sadness, her fear, misplaced emotions from being strung in multiple directions, everything was delved into with so much depth and description that it felt like you could feel all of those things with her both physically and mentally.

The ending chapters really ramp up the action and change the pacing fast but in a great way, I wouldn’t have guessed how it would have ended and the epilogue was so intriguing, I cannot wait for the sequel of this book as I will for sure be continuing this series!!

I am sorry to say I found this book disappointing. First of all the publisher does this book a huge disservice by setting up comparisons to Fourth Wing and ACOTAR, which it is nothing like, and nowhere near in league with. I was excited about magic and romance, which if you came for don’t bother, because you will find no romance and very little magic. I found the term wielder annoying and almost the entire story is written about efforts to keep this magic hidden. This story is more of a mystery where Alissa is searching for something, and the sleuthing is done mostly off page and wrapped up with everything laid out exposing what we did not see which is frustrating. I was bored and had to force myself to get through this. Almost every character is annoying and there is no emotional connection. There is a constant reference to an incident in her past that is not explained until the end and the constant reference to this unknown event was just annoying. I have no interest in reading the sequel of this story and it very much ends on a cliffhanger.

DNF @ 4%

This felt exactly like another book to me. I've read it. It's not original or different or new. It's a cookie cutter "girl with illegal powers is loved by everyone". The loss of the mother figure, the magic system, none of it was new to me

I wish the author the best but it's a nah from me

Thanks so much to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Alissa Paine has been forced to hide her Wielder powers her entire life. But in order to save her father, others life her and herself, she puts it all on the line by joining Court for her eighteenth season in order to search for a magical artifact that can identify those with Wielding powers. But its Thorn Season, and the King makes his intentions to wed her clear early on.

Full of political intrigue, immaculate world building, sharp dialogue and the most romantic yearning between two characters I’ve ever witnessed, this YA Romantasy debut blew me away. The writing is do very sharp. The characters are presented in all their glory, full of flaws and (with few exceptions), so very understandable. The side characters are so fully fleshed out, particularly Tari, Garrett, Carmen and Perla. What really stands out to me is that Alissa never waits for a man to save her. Her chemistry with Keil is quite possibly the best demonstration of yearning that I’ve ever witnessed (with a toucb of “who did this to you?” thrown in just to make me swoon). And that ending?!? I can’t wait for the next entry in this series.

You need to add this to your TBR now. It comes out September 2nd, and trust me, you’ll want a copy.