Review: Thornlight by Claire Legrand

I have been waiting years for this companion novel to Foxheart. And then, suddenly, it's here. And I got a chance to read it early. I could not resist. I am so glad that I did not. Because Thornlight was every kind of perfect. I loved it beyond words. Giving it five stars, of course. This story was simply way too incredible. Sigh.

As always, the writing was so perfect. I never have any trouble falling in love with Claire's writing. She's amazing and her books have all been so too. Claire also writes the very best characters. And stories. This book was simply way too good. And I enjoyed it very much. I wish it had been even longer; I kept wanting more.

This book is told from three point of views. All amazing and all needed. I never had issues with jumping from one to the other. And I loved reading from all of them. Sigh. I shall try my best to not post spoilers about this precious book. But I will be sharing some details. All good, all awesome. This book was long and so precious and I  loved every moment of it. We get to know twins Thorn and Brier. And Queen Celestyna. There is so much to love about this. Like in Foxheart, there was magic. But not in the same way. Not many people in this place had magic. The witches were gone. There was a big chasm splitting their land in two. With darkness escaping and changing the land. With a monster trying to climb out of this place to kill them all. It was so awesome.

Thorn and Brier were twelve years old. And completely different. Brier was the hero of their town. Best at harvesting lightning to help them. She even has her own unicorn. He was great. Brier was amazing. And Thorn was not. She was the shadow of her sister. She swept trash from the streets. People did not notice her. She was quiet and shy and cried all the time. I loved her to pieces. And she and Brier were the best of friends. They loved each other the most. Their parents were even alive, haha. But away at the chasm.

Celestyna was sixteen years old, older than the twins. And she was the queen of this place. Her parents dead. Only her younger sister with her. She would do anything to keep the monster from breaking free. She would do anything to keep them all safe. And so she does. I loved this girl. But gosh. She was fully complicated. And I loved that even more. Her story was so sad too. And I cried a few times in this book. Mostly because of scenes with Celestyna. She was just amazing. And I loved her little sister. Adorable.

We get to read from all three point of views. And I loved that so very much. We also get another point of view. From Cub. And my gosh. He was amazing. I so loved his chapters. I loved getting to know him and learn about his past. There was so much to know. Sigh. I cannot fully describe this book. Just that I loved it so much. These characters went through so much. All broken at some point. All so strong and brave. I loved how they changed, got better, braver. Each had a journey to take. Reading about this was the best.

There is so much going on in this book. It is full of adventures. Dangers. Monsters. Curses. Witches. All of it beyond incredible. There is some type of special lightning that Brier harvests along with others each day. They use this lightning to try to keep the monster in the chasm from escaping and killing all of them. We learn so much about all of this. So many secrets. So much pain and death. I loved all of it so much. We get to know a bunch of characters, and I couldn't help but love all of them. Ha. They were awesome.

As this was a middle grade, there was no romance. But there were hints of romance to come. Between Thorn and Zaf. And it was the cutest thing. Their friendship was adorable and their almost romance was so cute. They would be perfect together. The friendships in this book were all written so well. Between the twins. Between Thorn and her cute animal Mazby. Between Brier and her unicorn Noro. Noro and Thorn too. They spent a lot of time together in this book. And it was so very awesome. I so adored this unicorn.

We also see Quicksilver again. And Sly Boots. And Ari too. They are not in this book a lot, just enough. A few years older, still fully adorable. It is not fully confirmed that Quicksilver and Sly Boots were a couple, but well. The hints were huge. And I still ship them the most, haha. So a couple it is. I just loved this small glimpse into what happened after Foxheart too. Thornlight is very much a companion novel, yet set in the same world, just a few short years later. Filled with magic and adventures. They're both incredible books.

Thornlight was even more perfect than I thought it would be. Completely incredible and heartbreaking. Such perfectly flawed characters. Such great friendships and relationships. Very well written magic and witches. This book had such a great plot. And I loved every moment of this book. It was simply perfection. Huge thank you to Greenwillow Books for my auto-approval on Edelweiss, so that I could read this book seven months before it comes out. I cannot wait to own all the finished copies. You must read this story.

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