No one said anything about an attack vine.

Rose Thorn should never be left unsupervised around plants. Potted things tend to die around her as if on principle. But when her great-aunt calls and asks Rose to watch her garden nursery for a few days, Rose can hardly say no. After all, Aunt Lily is the closest thing Rose has to a grandmother—and the only family she has left—so Rose doesn’t mind driving out to her tiny mountain town to look after the place.

Aunt Lily never mentioned anything about an inspection, however.

Rose is taken aback when an agent from an organization she’s never heard of arrives and panics to find Aunt Lily missing. As it turns out, Aunt Lily hasn’t been entirely straight with Rose. She’s not visiting a sick friend—she’s in danger and on the run. She keeps a hidden greenhouse on the property in which she grows highly regulated magical plants. And she’s an elf…as was Rose’s grandfather.

Though stunned to witness magic at work and shocked that no one ever divulged the family secret, Rose refuses to abandon the nursery until her great-aunt is safely home. But as she and the agent, now awkward housemates, try to keep up their cover story and find the missing grower, they realize that whatever led to Aunt Lily’s disappearance might not be the only magical crime in progress.

And while Rose has no green thumb, another talent of hers may be budding…

This book was provided for free by BBNYA and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

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Today is my spot on the blog tour for the 2023 BBNYA second-place winner A Rose Among Thorns by Ash Fitzsimmons.

BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner. If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

When her great-aunt asks her to look after her nursery for a few days, Rose Thorn doesn’t hesitate to help her. Aunt Lily is her only living relative and as an artist, she can easily take her work with her. While she has no luck with plants, Rose is sure she can handle a few days – until an inspector turns up.

The arrival of an inspector from an organisation she has never heard of is just the start of the bad news. Aunt Lily isn’t away visiting an ill friend; she’s missing, and her absence has triggered a series of events. It turns out that everything Rose thought she knew about Aunt Lily and her family is a lie. There’s a whole other world that she didn’t know existed, and Rose is a part of it. Her grandfather and Aunt Lily are elves – so is Rose.

Turning up for a quarterly inspection, Yven ti’Ansha from the Division of Plants and Potions is shocked to find the owner absent and her uninformed great-niece instead. When Rose repeats a code phrase to him, he realises that Lily is in trouble and starts procedures to secure the nursery, which includes removing Rose from the property. Unfortunately for him, Rose’s stubbornness and further complications prevent him from doing just that. 

With both of them refusing to budge on the matter, Rose and Yven set up a grudging partnership to keep the nursery running in Lily’s absence and protect Lily from repercussions. As they work side by side, they uncover clues suggesting that there is more going on than Lily’s disappearance.

I read A Rose Among Thorns by Ash Fitzsimmons as part of the 2023 BBNYA contest and thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was drawn in by the idea of an urban fantasy novel focusing on plants and potions, with a plant nursery as the primary location. Plants and potions are often an overlooked part of magic-based universes. In A Rose Among Thorns, Fitzsimmons brings the reader’s attention to the source of the ingredients and the plot involving them is cleverly devised.

The characters were a highlight for me, especially the relationship between Rose and Yven. While the characters grew closer in an intimate environment, I appreciated that Fitzsimmons did not rush to push her main characters together. Their relationship felt realistic, based on time and multiple experiences.

The secondary characters were well-developed and entertaining, and A Rose Among Thorns contains one of the most unique creature companions I’ve come across. I’m not going to lie; this book is worth reading just for that!

A Rose Among Thorns is a creative urban fantasy novel with a mystery plot that will intrigue readers. I’m looking forward to continuing the story with book two, Roulette.

Thanks for reading my book review for A Rose Among Thorns by Ash Fitzsimmons! This book is available

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