This book was a whirlwind of emotions, plot twists and misunderstood characters, in all the best ways. I loved that this was a standalone novel, one that had a definite and great ending. The world and magic system were also brand new to me, which was really refreshing, and the characters were so well developed that they kept me completely captivated.

I found this book so cozy yet exciting to read.
With all the haunted castle vibes, morally grey characters, curses, dark magic and academia settings. It just absolutely hit all the vibes I seek.
This book punched a hole through my expectations and has me silently pleading for the author to create more spellbinding novels that I can devour.
The balance between good and evil has never been so taut, this book offers us a carefully crafted vision of treacherous royalty, who cause chaos and inspire hatred amongst their kingdoms population.
A story about control and finding acceptance in yourself for things you have done.
Power corrupts those who seek to use it to rule without care. The only thing that can destroy darkness is light itself. Forcing people's hands and decieving them to despise the darkness has been a way of life for 2 decades.
A magical balance has been denied and has wrought death to the kingdoms doors.
In the face of everything you've been raised to be, there is always something that will ground and lift you up. With magic turned bad and a deadline ticking away, the truth threatens to divide the kingdom further.
I loved the whole no touching vibe, the tension between the characters was fragile and slow burny as hell.
I absolutely adored Waffles, he's the animal companion I'd wish for. Such fierce loyalty and emotional support that enabled Viola to cope in the only life she had ever known.
I was a bit puzzled each time I read certain characters names, I had to keep sounding out the pronunciation of the words in a hope it would enable me to read it seamlessly each time. Eventually I just ended up picking something and sticking with it.
This book offers a charming read to those who seek a cozy but mysterious journey.
I ended up doing one of my beloved double-enders to continue devouring the pages. I have currently been awake for 24 hours. Giving me enough time to swallow this book whole, and still able to muster the energy to review it. I don't regret a single moment.
The plot twists were not all that deep, and it read easily without giving me to much to process at once. I do feel the ending was a tad rushed for the time I'd put in to reading it, I feel the characters should have gotten a longer closing, than just that final epic battle scene.
Which admittedly was excellent.
Totally worthy of 4 shiny stars.
Would definitely recommend.

really enjoyed this! it’s lowkey giving dramione fanfic vibes the bookish FMC and bully MMC im loving it ??
the plot and romance was so fun to read
thankyou so much for the ARC of this

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.

Sadly? This book wasn’t for me. I tried to pick it up time and time again and I just couldn’t get into it. It didn’t flow well and felt young even though it probably wasn’t.

Dark, romantic, and laced with danger, Seven Deadly Thorns is a gothic YA romantasy that takes the Snow White legend and twists it into something fresh, swoony, and utterly addictive.

Viola Sinclair has spent her life hiding her shadow magic. When the queen uncovers her secret, she sends her assassin – the Huntsman – to kill her within seven days. But the Huntsman is none other than Roze Roquelart, arrogant prince, fellow student, and Viola’s sworn enemy.

Instead of striking her down, Roze proposes a truce. He needs Viola’s magic to survive, and she needs his skills if they are to uncover the deadly conspiracy that threatens them both. Forced into a fake engagement and trapped in close quarters, the pair must navigate dangerous secrets, sinister forces, and a sizzling enemies-to-lovers tension that refuses to be ignored.

With sharp banter, high-stakes magic, and an irresistible romance, Amber Hamilton delivers a fast-paced, shadowy tale perfect for fans of gothic fantasy and morally complex heroes.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

I’ll admit it took me a few chapters to get into it, but I’m so glad I stuck with it—what a satisfying read! Thank you to the writer, publisher, and NetGalley for letting me read this book.

Viola Sinclair keeps her shadow magic secret, not even confiding in her best friend at school. Roze is the entitled and arrogant boy that she loves to hate and have verbal sparring sessions with. When the Queen asks Roze to assassinate Viola, their relationship begins a whole new chapter.
There are a lot of morally grey characters in this book and whilst I wanted Viola and Roze to prevail, I was unsure how much collateral damage would be caused by them doing so. Fans of dark romantasy will love this book which simmers with tension, forbidden attraction, closely guarded secrets and inner demons. Due to some intimate scenes I would suggest it is for older YA readers. Should there be another book based in this world, I would like to hear more about Belladonna and Cerise as for me, they were interesting secondary characters.

Roze & Viola are great together 😊 and she has a pet Gargoyle called Saint Waffles!

The writing is so good that I was hooked from the first Chapter. There's fake dating, a mystery to be solved and Ghosts. Although the second half of the book lost my interest for a while I did enjoy the story overall.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I must admit, after reading The Ordeals and Arcana Academy, was this a romantasy academy story too many?

The beginning had all the usual suspects....girl hates boy, magical kingdom and a murder to solve. But this Snow White inspired novel was so fast paced it didn't give you time to be bored and the characters were interesting enough for you to become invested in their futures.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, though the ending was so fast paced it felt i needed to read it again to grasp what actually happened.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy of Seven Deadly Thorns, I really appreciate the opportunity to review this book before it's release.

Lately, I’ve been trying to branch out from my usual Romance and Fantasy reads, exploring other genres. The closest I’ve gravitated toward is YA Fantasy, and while reading Seven Deadly Thorns, I found myself reminiscing about my secondary school days more than once.

Although the story is well written, the pacing issues made it difficult for me to stay engaged, and at times, reading felt more like a task than a pleasure. There were also instances where the story seemed to move very quickly which lead to the story being underdeveloped. I wonder if the book has been pushed out too quickly, maybe some more time for editing could have made the story flow in a more natural manner. There is quite a few parts of the story that made me cringe and really felt like the character were children rather than teenagers/almost adults.

On to the good parts of the story:
>Seven Deadly Thorns is a retelling within a retelling, there is so many different princess stories retelling. This was such a unique way to tell a story through parts of Rapunzel, Snow White and
>The magic within the story is not over saturated and therefore fits well within the world
>The characters are likeable although I am unsure about whether I like the names...the main male character is called Roze (spoke Rose) - You can see why I'm unsure.

I am trying my best to give my honest opinion without providing any spoilers, however even though this book is marketed as YA and the writing is very much that, parts of the sexual encounters even though there are not many are rather graphic for a YA novel. I wouldn't be allowing anyone under the age of 16 to be reading this in my opinion.

Even though this book has good parts to it, there are too many flaws in my opinion and therefore this a 3 star read for me and I will most likely not share this book with my friends.

I loved this book. The enemies to lovers I really liked. The story was wonderful. I loved the characters and the dynamics between them. I really enjoyed how the story flowed.

I like the premise of this story and there is certainly an underlying story that I do really enjoy, there was though parts that leaned so hard on the Snow White theme that I didn't like it did put me off.
The chemistry and relationship arc of Roze and Viola is entertaining and probably the best part of the book.
Parts of this plot and the world building do feel as though they need a bit more, background / fleshing out and so I hope and assume there will be more in this series to come.

I received this book as an ARC and provide an honest review

It has a good chance to be a good story with the snow white retelling but ... somewhere in this book the plot just lost me, the romance did not hit as i has hoped it would, so I rated this 3 starts because that was what lacked for me.

I was so accepted to get approved for an arc and completely binged Seven Deadly Thorns. I loved how the author wove together elements from different fairytales but with her own unique twist. Just when I thought I knew where the story was going, something would catch me by surprise.

The enemies to lovers was so well done. I also really liked their characters and how much they drink tea. (I found that part very relatable!)

The way I absolutely devoured this book in less than 24 hours. I could not out this down, I was absolutely obsessed with the storyline, the characters, the enemies to lovers/ fake engagement: forced proximity tropes. It was everything I love and it was magical. What more could you want? The twists that this book revealed to me had me gasping and at the same time I was kicking my feet and giggling. Roze has my heart, he was tortured and the yearning was absolutely gorgeous. This was an absolutely brilliant book and everyone needs to read it.
Thank you so much for the arc! I

2.5
What I liked - the pet gargoyle, the beginning of the book which seemed so promising, the Hermione/Draco vibe, Roze, despite the terrible name. At first I thought I was going to love this book.
Reader, I didn't.
Why not? First, Viola is the actual worst. I don't mind morally gray heroines at all, I don't mind heroines who do bad things. I do mind heroines who do bad things, whine they didn't mean to and learn nothing. She is a terrible person who never takes responsiblility for her actions. Secondly, plot twist one which was revealed in the longest, dullest, most overwritten way and plot twist two which was plain concealment. If you must (and why why why must they) write in first person present then missing out a pretty vital piece of recent history for shock revealment purposes is cheating. We are literally in Viola's dull, self serving head for the whole book. Three, Viola is super special, the cleverest, the most beautiful, the most talented, the only girl allowed into an all male society (that's a nice piece of misogyny in your made up kingdom), the only person capable of doing all this research which is actually just reading. That's the problem with first person present. Some other povs might have helped with all the above and allowed the plot to shine through. Four, it's actually kind of dull. Lots and lots of things happened, only it was too much and lost all impact. In the end I was skimming, just wishing it would end.
Booktok will love it. Romantasy readers will love it. I did not.

I tore through this. Amber Hamilton’s new YA romtasy is her debut novel and is incredibly fast paced. It’s set up with some of my favourite pulpy romance tropes and offers all the romtansy favourites.

It’s structured around a week that makes up the titular seven deadly thorns as our MMC Roze is tasked to assassinate our FMC Viola. With a school setting, fake dating and secrets galore, this incredibly fast paced novel offers a breakneck pace through the best hits of Romantasy tropes. A sort of Snow White and the Huntsman retelling, complete with hearts in boxes and references to The Brothers Grimm.

It’s overall a fun time, but its pacing is so fast paced I didn’t full gauge the ending and I do think I probably missed something’s in all of the action.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury YA for the ARC. My review is reflective of my own opinions.

This was an intriguing read - a mix up of Snow White vibes with the Huntsman, poison and a cute fairytale-esq interlude section every now and then, with dark-academia elements (although the school aspect is more of a setting and we don't learn much about it), and forbidden romance.

Whereas I did like the pairing between Roze and Viola, I did find parts of the novel happened rather aburptly. Without spoiling it, I would have enjoyed seeing the Kole situation play out slightly differently - I think he got the short straw and what happened to him was convient to allow the development between Roze and Viola. But perhaps, I just like angst, and lots of character drama, and other readers will enjoy this neat tie up of conflicts. I think readers in particular will appreciate the twists and slow world development.

I liked the secret societies and political intrigue - hopefully in book two we will see more of the secondary characters, because there were a few I quite enjoyed! Please give me more Waffles - a cute little gargoyle that gave me angry pug vibes!

I think it's important to remember that the characters are young adults, so the enemies to lovers aspect will be more school drama, and angst, although, saying that, Roze is a delicious protaginist who has quite a few touch her and die moments!

As always, my opinions are simply that, and shouldn't dissuade you from giving this book a try, especially if you like slow-burn enemies to lovers and plots that follow neatly from a to b to c. I'm not surprised to see that this book has received high ratings; this very well may be your next five star read!

This gave me real Harry Potter vibes, maybe there’s a lot of dramione fan fiction around at the moment but I did get real elements of Hogwarts etc. too. It was an enjoyable read, but I really wanted more world building to understand the houses and school more. Overall there was some really good atmosphere, and I was invested in the plot but it the world building needed amping up a tad. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc

I loved this book, the plot hooks you instantly and builds the instant connection with both lead characters. Structurally, this book differs from other fantasies and doesn’t have an extended exposition of world building, this is naturally introduced as you read which means that as a reader you are constantly engaging with the world. Whilst the enemies to lovers was clear from the beginning, the added tension of his ‘curse’ separates this book from others in a busy genre. The inspiration from classic fairytales roots this book in nostalgia.

The only thing that lets it down is the ending seems rushed in comparison to the rest of the book. The final version of the queen seems out of place and the epilogue leaves the reader wanting more detail!

Fantastic read, will absolutely be recommending!