I really wanted to enjoy this book but it just wasn’t it for me. Even though the setting was inspired by Venetia and the story is roughly based on Rome and Juliet, I found the story to be very static and staged at some points. The characters fell flat and I wished the romance would have sparked feelings in me...but it didn’t.

It's been a while since The Thorn and the Sinking Stone was added to my shelves, so the details of the blurb were a bit blurry at the start but it became clear very quickly it was based on Romeo and Juliet. Now, I like Shakespeare, but have always been unable to like that insta-romance between two teenagers.

The book has a dystopian setting, but it's good you're reminded about it every now and then, since the world building is so sparse that you would completely forget. Apparently a Final War has raged and the survivors go about as warring gangs. What happened with the rest of the world remains unclear, though they would have enough means of transportation to figure it out. Another consequence of this war, at least that was what was claimed by the dystopian government, was the introduction of the Cursed, people with enhanced abilities. Which you can test for with a blood sample and which, as good old dystopian governments are wont to do with everything they don't fully understand/control, needs to be exterminated. It is a shame, because I for one would have liked to read more about the world and how it came to be.

Instead, the book is filled with the (blooming) romance between the children of two of the warring gangs, who immediately feel, after a kind of Peeta-and-the-bread moment, that the other is so special that they would die for each other. Luckily both are both Cursed with some useful abilities, or they wouldn't have lasted long. It was insta-love, and overall I felt the romance played too big a role in the story.

With a bit more world building and a lot less insta-love, I think I really would have liked the story. Now, unfortunately, it wasn't for me.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!