It’s been about a year since the events of Dreamer’s Pool, and Blackthorn and Grim are at the king’s court when Lady Geilis arrives, begging for help, as a monster has has come to a tower in her land, and its wails have plunged everyone and everything into a great depression. The tower is surrounded by thorns, and previous attempts to gain access have failed. For reasons that are later made clear, Blackthorn is exactly who Geilis needs to get access to the tower.
What I loved about Dreamer’s Pool is the layers of secrets that were there to be uncovered, and this book is no different. Geilis far more than she initially appears, and the unraveling of the mystery of the monster in the tower is a lovely fairy tale.
But this is Grim’s story, where we learn more about past, before he and Blackthorn met in Lord Mathuin of Laois’ dungeon. The weight he carried on his shoulders is absolutely heart breaking. Blackthorn’s past is also explored a bit more, but the true revelations are all Grim’s.
This is a lovely series – it’s fairly dark in tone, but the journey that Blackthorn and Grim are ultimately on seems full of hope – I’m very interested to see how this trilogy ends.