Chanda Hahn

Born an empath, I have the power— and burden— of hearing thoughts and feeling emotions of others. Retreating from the world, my only refuge is an ancient tower, but my haven is shattered when an injured man arrives with a plea to save the kingdom. Liam is the perfect knight, yet one attribute makes me hesitate. He is immune to my powers. His thoughts are a mystery, his heart an enigma. And while I fear the unknown, I cannot resist the desire to unravel his secrets. For I am Aura, one of the adopted daughters of Lady Eville. I have joined Liam in his quest to destroy a magical blight that ushers in darkness and poisonous thorns. The closer I get to the source, the more I sense threads of destiny weaving a deadly cage, and at the end of the journey lies a fate worse than death. Eternal slumber.

Of Thorn and Thread

Roisin Giles

** spoiler alert **
           The fourth book of the series, and I loved the darker themes of this book. Is that strange? This version of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ features Aurora, or Aura, which combined aspects of characters from the Disney version of the story, which is the only other version of the story I have seen personally. Aura as the Princess character, being mostly isolated in their home for most of her life and being the main character, but also as the caster of the famous sleeping curse, without being the villain. 

I liked how Aura’s powers as an empath were portrayed as both a good kind of power and a bad kind of power. As quite an empathetic person, it definitely does drain your emotions constantly trying to understand and help other people with their problems and emotions. However, it is better to want to help people than to feel no emotions, which Aura realised after missing being able to hear Liam’s thoughts and her terrible experience and ordeal with the kidnappers and sex trafficking. I fully sympathised with Aura and her powers, especially after the events of the third book with Meri, which contributed to Aura’s feelings of guilt. 

Overall, Aura’s character development was my favourite thing about this book. This book delved quite deep into mental health issues, and coping strategies. I too, tend to want to hide from my problems, but by the end Aura had mostly (and I actually like that she didn’t fully as it is more realistic) accepted her powers and felt happier. The authors note made me quite emotional too, so I thank her for including that storyline. 

Again, I felt that the love interest was quite obvious and easy, but I did like Liam’s character and their romance, and especially his efforts at the beginning when he tried to not show his affections for Aura. I also would have liked a bit more development about the past events that led to Liam and Aura’s abandonments, for example, who actually is Aura’s father? 

After the epilogue, I cannot wait for the next book and have already preordered it!

Of Thorn and Thread

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