Read for the Once Upon a Time Reading Challenge.
Nepenthe is an orphan, raised in the Royal Library of Raine, and she’s become one of their best translators and scribes. One day, a young mage gives her a scroll that has so far defied translation – it’s a book written in an alphabet of thorns, and it calls straight to Nepenthe’s heart. She spends every possible spare moment puzzling out the meaning of this mysterious alphabet.
Tessera is fifteen, and newly crowned Queen of Raine, after the death of her father. She’s unsure of her rule, and desperate to find a way to convince Vevay, her father’s most trusted advisor, that she can in fact be queen. One early morning, she slips away into the forest near the castle, and the forest speaks to her – telling her to beware of thorns.
Nepenthe’s and Tessera’s fates are entwined, and I have to admit, I had no idea until literally the last chapter how things were going to end. It was a fabulous story – so many twists and turns – I’m a little sorry I know the ending now – I had so much fun reading it, I’d like to do it again, with that same sense of mystery intact.