Recommended Reading.

I have a book recommendation to make:

Blackthorns of the Forgotten by Bree T Donovan.

You can read the extended synopsis here, and buy it from Amazon here. Apparently it’s only available in Kindle and NOOK formats in the UK, but I’m reliably informed that Amazon carry the paperback for the US market.

I know this book well because Bree is an old friend from New Jersey and I did the first draft edit for her. It isn’t at all easy to categorise, and that’s what makes it special. Like Wuthering Heights, it follows no tradition and I’m sure it won’t set one. It stands alone; it’s unique; it’s different. It makes you think, but in a gentle, non-academic, non-judgmental sort of way. It isn’t a hard read, just an interesting one.

The publishers categorise it as Paranormal Romance, and I suppose that’s true as far as it goes. But this isn’t like any other romance you will ever have read. There isn’t a note of eroticism anywhere; there’s no bodice ripping and no formula. It isn’t that kind of book. What it does is delve deep into notions of love and sacrifice in different forms and on different levels. Ultimately, it’s about the concept of the soul mate. And the interweaving of the normal and the paranormal is so seamlessly done that you don’t need to suspend disbelief; it happens naturally.

I should also add that it’s set in Ireland, which might be taken as recommendation in itself that anybody looking for higher notions of ‘romance’ than are normally to be found among the pile of shite which forms the body of the Romantic genre would be advised to give Blackthorns a go.

What’s more, Bree is donating all royalties to a worthy but struggling NJ charity. She’s that kind of person.