The Thorn and the Blossom

The Thorn and The Blossom: a Two- Sided Love Story

by : Theodora Goss

Publisher: Quirk Books

Release date: 1/17/12

Number of pages: 82 pages

How I got this book: I burrowed it from the Once and Future Librarian and she received it from the publisher.

My rating: 3.5 stars

This picture doesn't do justice on how different this books binding is, and how beautiful the book cover is but I wanted you to at least see what I meant about the binding.

The summary comes to us from Goodreads:

One enchanting romance. Two lovers keeping secrets. And a uniquely crafted book that binds their stories forever.
When Evelyn Morgan walked into the village bookstore, she didn’t know she would meet the love of her life. When Brendan Thorne handed her a medieval romance, he didn’t know it would change the course of his future. It was almost as if they were the cursed lovers in the old book itself . . .
The Thorn and the Blossom is a remarkable literary artifact: You can open the book in either direction to decide whether you’ll first read Brendan’s, or Evelyn’s account of the mysterious love affair. Choose a side, read it like a regular novel—and when you get to the end, you’ll find yourself at a whole new beginning.

Review :

The Thorn and the Blossom was unique reading experience , for the book itself is an accordion style book that opens with one side being the story of Brendan and the other side the story of Evelyn. To honor that uniqueness, you will only be getting ONE side of the review from me, for the other half of the story (Brendan’s Story) you will have to go to the Once and Future Librarian. I will be sharing Evelyn’s side of the story. Evelyn, an American girl. takes a trip to Clews in order to relax and escape a problem she has had since childhood. What she never thought would happen was that she would find a local boy that was more fated to be with her than she might have even known and is tied to a story that runs deep for both Evelyn and Brendan. Even when Evelyn runs from this budding love , Brendan manages to show up just when she least expects him.

This book left me with the questions, can you really run away from fate and does true love last forever. This book brought together love, fate, loss and the power of a good story. The entire book was written in a way that makes you feel that Evelyn’s love story with Brendan is something of a poem or medieval fable. The style of writing for me was a bit like poetry, in the way it flowed. I found that the story jumped around a bit too much for me with no clear definition of when or where. I believe this book had wonderful potential but fell a little flat with the follow through. I agree with Kary from The Once and Future Librarian, this would make a good “gift book”. I also think it would make a good book to discuss in an English class about styles of writing, medieval stories, and poetry.

"check out the youtube trailer to get a deeper experience of how this book works"

Don't forget to go to The Once and Future Librarian and check out Kary's review on Brendan's half of the love story.

This review is posted at Goodreads, FB, Amazon, and linked to the Once and Future Librarian.