The Thorn and The Blossom is a lovely book by Theodora Goss, writer of short stories, poems, and essays.
Theodora was born in Hungary and spent her childhood in various European countries before her family moved to the United States. Although she grew up on the classics of English literature, her writing has been influenced by an Eastern European literary tradition in which the boundaries between realism and the fantastic are often ambiguous.
Her publications include the short story collection In the Forest of Forgetting (2006); Interfictions (2007), a short story anthology coedited with Delia Sherman; and Voices from Fairyland (2008), a poetry anthology with critical essays and a selection of her own poems.
She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Locus, Crawford, and Mythopoeic Awards, as well as on the Tiptree Award Honor List, and has won the World Fantasy and Rhysling Awards.
The story in The Thorn and The Blossom, or in actuality, stories, are based on an ancient romance, two Oxford scholars, Evelyn and Brendan, a Cornish fishing village and a modern love story with a twist.
Presented in a box, this book opens from both sides and both parties in the book have their own story to tell and take one side of the book each to tell it.
©Robin Bruce Edwards Esq
©Robin Bruce Edwards Esq
When Evelyn Morgan, poet, 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.
The hint through the book is that these could be the cursed lovers from legend, spoken of in “The Tale of the Green Knight”. They definitely seem cursed as they are forced apart more than once by circumstance. They are, indeed, also intrinsically entwined in each others lives and both have a fascination for the tale itself.
This book is for romance lovers everywhere but, even I loved it and I am not a romance fan by any means.
I was very lucky to be asked to review The Thorn and The Blossom. I say lucky because it is rarely I am charmed by a book but, in this instance I was from the outset. My only criticism is, I do wish it had been longer but, that’s a good thing and I highly recommend this book to everyone.
The Thorn and The Blossom is being released today, 17th January.
By the way, if anyone wants to know, I read Brendan’s story first.
© 2012, 1stAngel. All rights reserved.
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