2019 book 113

Laura Weymouth's A Treason of Thorns
Weymouth's second novel, after A Light Between Worlds (which I liked a lot), is . . . fine. It's set in some historical version of England where magic is channeled through five Great Houses that keep the country healthy and prosperous. Our teen girl protagonist's father, a Caretaker of a House, was arrested for treason years ago; now she is returning to try to restore the house etc. There is also a teen boy at hand--her father's ward, with whom she grew up. The premise is interesting, I just thought the plot and characters were on the cliched side. I did appreciate the princess character and her relationship with the protagonist, and that a pair of minor characters are explicitly Jewish, but on the whole I felt kind of meh about this book. It's one of those ones that I was like, "hmm should I stop reading? But maybe it will be good?" and I didn't even have the enjoyment of hate-reading it just to write a scathing review. Just waiting for the inevitable conclusion. B.