court of bitter thorn by kay l moody

i received a copy of court of bitter thorn from the author, through Story Origin, in exchange for an honest review.

Star Rating:

★★★★

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idk how to start this review off. court of bitter thorn was a good book, but it could’ve been better. the first 75% felt like such a drag, but at the same time, it was really interesting. for some reason, a court of bitter thorn was just really hard to read. in saying that, the last 15% was amazing. it was a breeze to get through.

i think if i had an audiobook, a court of bitter thorn would’ve been easy to get through. but i didn’t. unfortunately, i’m not sure why this book was so difficult for me to read. nothing made it hard. maybe i was in a post-bardugo slump? because the writing and the world of bitter thorn was amazing. i couldn’t have asked for a better book.

i had a few issues with the main character at the start of court of bitter thorn, in that she was too generic. she didn’t want to get married, she only loved pants, etc, etc. i dislike characters like these as they’re far too common these days, where it’s no longer cool to want to wear pants. (who doesn’t want to wear a dress? dresses are gorgeous!) practicality, sure i love pants, but realistically, the mc would’ve been raised never even knowing what it felt like to wear them. sorry, sorry. rant over.

i loved almost everything about this book. with a few minor hiccups about the main character, the whole book was flawless. (and i suppose my reading slump ..?) i adored brannick at the end, ngl he was a bit of a wanker at the beginning.

the other characters were also pretty fun. my favourite is tansy. (she’s like tinkerbell, minus the obvious flaws that tinkerbell has). all the various creatures made the book an experience.

so despite my slow reading, and a slump, i 100% recommend court of bitter thorn to anyone who loves ya fantasy. i’m excited to read the next few books in this series!