Hey y’all… Happy Friday!🎄

This my fourth(?) year participating in Blogmas which is basically a countdown of my personal favorite reads of the year! I’m following the promts of one of my favorite blogger buddies: Sophie @Beware of the Reader who is a fab blogger and bookstagrammer so go check out her blog!

If you want to join the fun, here are the different daily topics. You can of course post only once or twice or as many time as you’d like! Use the hashtag #Blogmas2021 AND comment/leave your url on my daily post that you have posted tooif you want me to give your posts some love. That way I shouldn’t miss them!

Ok, so work with me here…this next book is NOT TECHNICALLY a debut book! BUT it’s the second book released by author Margaret Rogerson and my very first read from her sooooo….I’m counting it as a “DEBUT”…for me (and cheating a bit)!😁

My choice for Best “Debut”  Novel goes to:

From the New York Times bestselling author of An Enchantment of Ravens comes an “enthralling adventure” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) about an apprentice at a magical library who must battle a powerful sorcerer to save her kingdom.

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire, and Elisabeth is implicated in the crime. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

 

 

Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sorcery of Thorns is my first read by author, Margaret Rogerson yet it lands squarely on my BEST OF 2021 list!

Elisabeth is a young woman training to become a warden and guard of magical books (grimories). She was orphaned at The Great Library where these books are stored, most of which are highly dangerous. Elisabeth was taught that magic and anyone who used it, was evil but when a grimorie escapes the library, she must turn to one of the most notorious sorcerers for help: Nathaniel Thorn.

The story opens up with a bang and the action is practically non stop. The spectacular cover first caught my eye, followed quickly by the blurb. Growing up in a library? Wicked sorcerer? Witches and demons? Opposites attract? YES, PLEASE!

I adored all of the characters but especially Elisabeth…she was quirky and smart, brave and loyal. Her life was headed in a singular direction but when she was pushed off that path, she found the courage to adapt, find love and I admired that.

Nathaniel was dark and mysterious but I quickly became enamored with him. First, he’s bisexual but that did nothing to detract from his anti-heroric nature. In fact, his openness was very attractive! But truly, I loved the relationship he had with his “servant,” Silas.

The world building was fantastic! Yes, it was a gloomy and dark kind of setting (reminded me of a movie set in London in the early 1900’s tho I believe it’s set in the 1800’s) but the goth-like details set my imagination on fire and it was so hard to put the book down and do normal things like sleep!

I’m looking forward to reading more from this author. Told from Elisabeth’s POV with a happy ending. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book.

View all my reviews

So, can we count this one as a debut? 😉😆 Have a Merry Blogmas y’all!💜