I spent the past couple of days in Reno with a few friends with the intent of gambling myself stupid and swimming around all day. Instead, I spent a majority of it reading the rest of this book while my friends indulged themselves in everything imaginable. Instead of swimming in the pool (it was windy, anyway), I was lounging nearby reading while they splashed around and shrieked. And honestly - no regrets. As much of a fuddy-duddy as it makes me sound, Thorn was intriguing enough to keep my face buried in its pages. 
 The writing was beautiful and even though I'm not typically a fan of present-tense writing, I barely noticed any of it. This book was perfect. I had no prior knowledge of the fairytale that this was based off of, but I found that even without knowing what the original entailed, this book worked perfectly on its own. The magical elements in this book was riveting and the author did an excellent job of making the whole thing flow smoothly and even be believable. Alyrra faced so much hurt and dealt with so many wrong things being done to her - that I was surprised at how unbelievably strong she is. I know I would not have been able to deal with even half of the shit that she went through and still come out with my chin up. 
 You know what I loved quite specifically about this book? The fact that the author didn't try to sugar coat things. She didn't bother hiding the ugly and instead allowed the reader to see the truth the way Alyrra saw it through her eyes. I definitely didn't expect to love this book as much as I did and I'm so, so, so glad that I picked it up and read it. The story lingers even after you've long finished; I knew I couldn't stop thinking about it and here I am, two days later - still caught up in the story. 
 Amazing book!