Diamond Dee Loves to Read

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Between Two Thorns was a very strange book. It had a lot of elements in it: Alternate history with Victorian England and modern day, Fae and Fae world, Murder mystery, abusive and controlling families, arranged marriages, duels, all wrapped up with a big steampunk bow on top.

At the center of the story we have a highly annoying Cathy, short for Catherine. She's a member of one of the most powerful families in the Nether. Basically, she's a strong willed woman who thinks for herself, exactly the opposite of what women in those times were supposed to be like (society hadn't really advanced in the Netger as far as women's rights). She ran away to Mundanus (real world) in Bath and alluded her parents for a year. The problem is she is found and forced to comeback and marry a man named Will, oh and goes back to getting beaten by her father.

All these things normally elicit a sympathetic response from me, but they really didn't. Or, not as much as they should've. Will was a really nice guy. He was trying to help her and she just was a bratty bitch to him. I found hat extremely off putting. She wanted to be treated as an equal, but didn't give anyone nice behavior to even want to be friendly. At least not with Will.

At the center of it we have an elaborate murder mystery and corruption to the highest station. I wasn't really concerned with all that. In fact, I skimmed a lot of those parts because Cathy and Will's narrations were way more interesting. I'm really disappointed in how the book ended because it seemed like it just chopped off the story at a random point. Oh. And I still don't like Amelia and her brother. I'm not sure if I will continue on with this series. I think many of the problems were that this novel was trying to do a lot of things at once, and that is hard to accomplish without confusing and overwhelming the reader (which is how I felt for the first half).

If you like alternate histories and murder mysteries with fantasy mixed in, you may like this book. Bear in mind, it's pretty confusing at times and the main character will grate your nerves. Still though, it was creative , I'll give it that.