Thorn Season

This is a romantic, political fantasy. Lady Alissa Paine is supposedly of noble birth and a Wholeborn. This means that she does not have a spectre, a force within someone which is controlled by their emotions, and which can give them the power to help or hinder others by means of placing their spectre upon them. People with spectres are called Wielders and, in the narrative’s society, they are disliked and feared by many. They are also hunted by a malevolent group called the Hunters whose sole purpose is to eradicate Wielders. The position of Wielders could be compared to any marginalised group in our society.

Lady Alissa has three suitors, one of whom is potentially dangerous. She also has a secret. She is a Wielder, a fact she must keep hidden at all costs. On their eighteenth season, nobles must spend a period at Court similar to the British debutante season. Lady Alissa discovers that the Hunters are trying to find a compass which would allow them to locate all the Wielders in a Kingdom to kill them. She undertakes a dangerous mission to find the keeper of the compass, which can be likened to Phillip Pullman’s Alethiometer, and to steal it from them without being discovered as a Wielder.

Will she manage it and at what cost?

This book has some strong sections particularly those dealing with family loyalty and grief. The reader is never quite sure whom to trust. Some readers may lose the thread of such a complex plot. More editing could have been beneficial.