Seven Deadly Thorns by Amber Hamilton – dark and immersive fantasy

Seven Deadly Thorns is a fast-paced, dark and immersive fantasy with richly layered world, morally complex characters, an intriguing mystery, and enough twists to keep you hooked until the final page.

Synopis

The Cruel Prince meets Powerless in this dark academia romantasy that will tattoo itself onto your heart.

In the cursed Kingdom of Aragoa, the punishment for magic is death.

Even the students at Vandenberghe Academy aren’t spared. When Viola Sinclair’s deadly shadow magic is discovered, the queen gives her assassin a new assignment and a new cursed tattoo: seven-thorned rose on his arm for the seven days he has to hunt Viola down and kill her. If he doesn’t, he will be the one to die.

The assassin is Roze Roquelart–entitled prince, arrogant fellow student, and the one person Viola hates more than anyone. Roze should revel in the chance to end her life, but he desperately needs something from Viola and her magic. And he’s willing to spare her life–and fake their engagement–to get it.

Forced to work together, Viola and Roze must contend with deadly threats, dangerous secrets, and an impossible attraction. Will they give in to their deepest desires, even if it means destroying Aragoa–and risking both their lives?

HER WORST ENEMY. HIS ONLY CHANCE.

Be swept away by the sizzling, irresistible enemies-to-lovers romantasy with magic more destructive than your darkest nightmares.

Review

The synopsis pitches this as The Cruel Prince meets Powerless. I have not read Powerless, but the Cruel Prince vibes are loud and proud here, mixed with Snow White and Sleeping Beauty energy, all wrapped in a dark academic setting of Seven Deadly Thorns.

Viola Sinclair is the brilliant academic prefect at Vandenberghe Academy. She is disciplined, cold, and relentlessly perfect on the outside. Underneath that flawless rule-following exterior, she hides a secret that would put her straight on the gallows. Viola is a meiga, and her magic is darkness. In the cursed Kingdom of Aragoa, magic is a death sentence.

When the Queen discovers Viola’s secret, she sends her best assassin to hunt her. Enter The Huntsman, also a Prince, Roze Roquelart. They despise each other, and Roze has killed for the Queen before, but instead of executing Viola, he makes her an offer she cannot refuse.

Roze has been branded with Seven Deadly Thorns, a cursed tattoo given by the Queen. He has seven days to kill Viola. On the seventh day, when seventh thorn disappears and he failed to kill Viola, he dies. Roze believes that if he and Viola can uncover who murdered the King, they can convince the Queen to remove his thorns. Until then, the plan is simple and dangerous. Fake an engagement, keep Viola alive, and survive long enough to expose the truth.

Viola hates being bound to Roze, but when the choice is cooperation or execution, her options are limited. On top of that, she is drawn to the mystery of the King’s death and to a strange book she was given, one that holds secrets capable of unraveling everything she thought she knew. Watching Roze and Viola navigate deadly threats, buried truths, and an attraction neither wants to admit was genuinely compelling.

I loved the concept. The pacing is just right, not rushed and not dragging, yet constantly moving. There are layers of secrets, twists, and political tension woven into a complex world with morally gray characters. It keeps the story engaging right until the end.

The writing is immersive and sharp, filled with revelations that land at the right moments. Seven Deadly Thorns is divided into seven parts, reflecting the seven deadly thorns and the seven-day deadline Roze faces. That structure adds urgency and tension throughout. Each section opens with a fairytale-style passage that subtly hints at what is coming, which I absolutely loved. The world and the characters are dark, flawed, and deeply layered.

The Kingdom of Aragoa itself is fascinating. A deadly mist sent by a dark meiga from an enemy kingdom surrounds the land, while the palace and everything within its walls are protected by light magic. Yet the kingdom is dying. The Queen has slaughtered the meiga, branding them traitors and declaring all magic evil. Survivors hide in caves, food is scarce, and the court teeters on the brink after the King’s recent murder.

For the first hundred pages, I kept wondering why the Queen would destroy the very people whose magic protects the kingdom. Would magic not be the key to defeating the mist? It was clear she was hiding something, and those answers slowly emerged once Roze and Viola began faking their engagement.

Queen Maria is not just cruel. She is monstrous. She turned her own son into an assassin, controlled her daughters like puppets, and ruled through fear and blood. She was pure evil, and yet her backstory added disturbing depth. I could understand how she became what she is, but her greed and bloodlust knew no limits. What intrigued me most was her obsession with killing Viola, which clearly went far beyond Viola simply being a meiga.

While the reasoning behind her hatred of meiga was explained, some questions still lingered. Why did the Queen keep the bodies of dead meiga? How exactly did she use them? How did she control her daughters so completely? And how did the King fail to see what she had become, especially when she had gone rogue twenty years earlier, when the mist first appeared?

Roze is not normal, and that is obvious from the prologue. He was created through magic, and discovering why the Queen molded him into her personal weapon was unsettling. His childhood was brutal, and I despised the way she treated him. His relationship with the King, however, felt genuine, and his determination to uncover the truth behind the murder grounded his character.

Roze wears the mask of the cruel prince flawlessly, but his actions reveal his loyalty to his sisters and friends. I loved how Viola awakened his longing for love, something he had never known. She broke through his defenses and made him willing to protect her at all costs, even if it meant dying for her.

Viola has lived her entire life ruled by fear and anxiety, keeping her darkness tightly leashed. Like Roze, she presents a confident and fearless front to the world. Only her best friend knows her secret. Still, Viola carries wounds and secrets she has never shared, and once the Queen marks her for death, everything she buried comes clawing back to the surface.

Her partnership with Roze begins reluctantly, but as they investigate the murder together, she sees his humanity. He becomes the one person she trusts with her life. I loved how she slowly reveals her darkest truths to him and how Roze accepts her completely, because he is just as dark, broken and complex as she is.

One line that stuck with me was when Roze admits that the darkness within him was drawn to the darkness within her. That sentiment fits perfectly with the revelations in the final section and with how fiercely Roze stands by Viola when everything is laid bare.

The twists are relentless. Some were predictable, others genuinely shocking. The mystery of both murder and diary kept me guessing, and even when I thought I had it figured out, the truth surprised me. The ending, however, is complicated. While the Queen is defeated, it does not feel entirely satisfying due to the open ending. There is an epilogue, but it is too brief and leaves too many questions unanswered. After all that mystery and action, it slightly dulled the fun of the story. I sure would like a sequel, because this world of Seven Deadly Thorns doesn’t feel done yet.

Overall, Seven Deadly Thorns is a fast-paced, dark and immersive fantasy with richly layered world, morally complex characters, an intriguing mystery, and enough twists to keep you hooked until the final page. If you enjoy cruel princes, deadly queens, forbidden magic, and romance born from shared darkness, this one is worth your time.

Book Links

Goodreads | Amazon.in | Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

What’s your favorite  dark academia fantasy?

Just in case you missed,,,

• Seven Deadly Thorns by Amber Hamilton – dark and immersive fantasy
• Romantasy vs Fantasy Book with Romance – A Reader Perspective
• Storybook Ending by Moira Macdonald – cozy and slow burn contemporary

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