I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

I honestly love that we’re getting more and more LBGTQ+ adult fantasy written by BIPOC authors, and when I saw this available on Netgalley, I knew I had to snap it up. It sounded like exactly my sort of thing, from ideas of magic to the trials meant to choose the empire’s next leaders. I love competitions, I love strong female characters, and I love queer stories!

This book ended up taking me a while to get through, but honestly it was no fault of the book itself. It’s honestly an extremely dense and long book, and while it’s done well, it just required way more focus and attention than I had at the moment. I managed to read this in stolen snippets between my million other things to do, but I still enjoyed this a lot nonetheless! It’s definitely a book that needs your time and patience to get to where it’s going, but it’s honestly so worth it for it all, especially that ending!

I loved our main characters a lot, from Sylah to Anoor to Hassa. It took me the longest to warm up to Anoor, because she came from a place of such privilege in many ways and was very naive to it, but it also made her overall character arc so far very satisfying! I adored Hassa the most, and I really hope she plays a much larger role in the later books. She was always present, but we weren’t in her head as much (though this makes sense now knowing the rest of the story). Sylah I also found myself drawn to very quickly, even if she can be quite frustrating as a person and as a character/narrator. She’s reckless and emotional, but it’s written so well that you begin to feel so strongly for her, for all her pain. You understand her every time she reaches for her joba seeds, even as you’re begging her not to take it.

The world was also incredibly deep and vast, and I feel as if we have only touched the tip of the iceberg. The final chapters crack the world wide open for us, and I can’t wait to explore it further in the rest of the trilogy. There was just so much here, and what we knew of it so far felt used to it’s fullest. It’s a world full of stories and pain, and I loved how clearly it was woven into the fabric of the novel. You can feel the pain and rage in the stories that the griots told, either in person to the characters or in the pauses between chapters.

I honestly really enjoyed this, and reflecting on it through this review has really revealed just how much. I can’t wait to grab a finished copy of this, and see where the rest of this series goes later!

I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

I adored The Wolf and the Woodsman and was overjoyed when I was approved for this ARC. Something about Reid’s first novel just really struck me, and I couldn’t wait to read her sophomore novel. While I wasn’t actually familiar with The Juniper Tree going in, I always love retellings of folktales and fairy tales because of the atmosphere it generally brings. I’ve also wanted to dive more into horror/fantasy horror lately, and this seemed like the perfect way to do it.

Juniper & Thorn takes the inherent darkness of many fairy tales to heart, and honestly, I think this is one of the most gruesome, horrifying retellings I’ve ever read. There’s just so many horrific layers to Marlinchen’s world, and every time you think you’ve hit the darkest, deepest part of the story, more comes. For this reason, this is definitely not a book for everyone, but I highly recommend it nonetheless.

Marlinchen’s story is such a haunting one that I know I’ll find myself thinking back to it often. Her journey was a perilous one, even if it’s mainly contained within her father’s house, and it dealt largely with Marlinchen both recognizing the evil around her and learning to live with her trauma that’s born from that evil. Since this journey is largely an internal one, Reid’s lyrical writing felt more important than ever, as it allowed for me to put myself in Marlinchen’s shoes, and feel some measure of the pain she went through during her life. This writing is also what made some of the harder scenes in the book bearable and a bit easier to read.

Overall, I loved this book and I loved seeing Sevas and Marlinchen both find each other and slay their demons together, both figuratively and literally. This book has really solidified Reid as an instant-buy author for me, and I cannot wait to see what she writes next.

I started this book no more than 30 minutes after finishing the first, and then read a whole 40% before forcing myself to sleep (at 4am!) And this book is like 700 pages, so that's no small feat, and only goes to show how into this series I was. I then had to wake up bright and early the next day to try and focus on physics lessons (which, I'll be honest, I don't think I got that concept down well, my gaze kept straying to this book waiting for me on my nightstand). As soon as that class was over, I forced myself through 20% of my homework before giving up and just picking the book up. With only a small break for dinner, I didn't stop, and had this book done a little after midnight that day, a little over 24 hours after I had originally started. This book was just that good.

Armentrout is insanely good at keeping tension up in a romance while still feeding her readers with enough romance, cute interactions, etc. So many romance based books have issues keeping up the tension between two characters, and often rely on some really dumb tactics to force the characters apart so the tension lasts longer (think really dumb miscommunication, forced parting, etc. etc.), but honestly, Armentrout manages to both keep the tension high the entire book without making me get frustrated with it. It just means I'm super drawn in and on the edge of my seat the whole time without ever getting annoyed at the book or characters. It was honestly just the perfect balance.

I also just really love Poppy and Casteel a lot. They're probably my favorites of Armentrout's characters so far, and I can't wait to see the further growth they'll make. I love Poppy's fierce strength, how she stands up for herself, and how she can still be soft when she needs to be, a good friend to those who need it. I love Casteel's need to protect (both Poppy and his kingdom), his humor (even if sometimes it's just a cover), and how while he's broken, he still tries. I also just can't get over how fantastic their dynamic is, and while the joke about Casteel being weird for loving how violent Poppy is gets said a bit too many times, I do genuinely enjoy that Casteel loves all of Poppy, especially her violent side. I just get so happy when I think about them.

I also genuinely am enjoying the plot too, which romance based books aren't always good at balancing alongside a good romance. Armentrout excels here too honestly, and while it isn't always the most in-depth/well-written story, it fuses perfectly with the romance. It was a tad predictable at moments too, but again, the rest of the story was good enough to make this a non-issue for me. I'm really liking where this story seems to be going, and how the gods seem to coming more and more into play as the story goes on (if you know me, you know I love any story with gods). The dynamic between the kingdoms (and within them) also seems to be getting more complex and interesting as the story goes on, with twists that just keep on coming. It's a series that I could read just for the plot alone, and the fact that it's paired with such a fantastic romance only it makes it better.

It's been about a month since I've finished this now, and I still feel no less strongly about this series. I love it with my whole heart, for how strongly it captured me for those two days, and I'm actually dying waiting for the next two. (Also, I've had to physically stop myself from picking up and rereading these books multiple times since I've finished, and it's only been a month!) If you had any doubts about picking this up, I hope this has convinced you to dive in!