The Thorn Queen

The novel is set in an alternate 1848 England where faeries have seized control of the country. It opens with Prince Emmett de Vere imprisoned in a dungeon in the Otherworld, the faerie realm adjacent to England. Starving and desperate, Emmett picks his cell's lock and attempts to escape, but a guard catches and beats him unconscious. His final thoughts are of Ivy Benton, the woman he loves.

Four months have passed since Ivy's forced marriage to Bram, an ageless faerie king who overthrew his mother, Queen Mor. Ivy's wedding ended in catastrophe: Emmett and her older sister Lydia vanished, and Mor was imprisoned. Bram has moved the court to Bath, where the Royal Crescent town houses have been magically connected into a winter palace. Though he largely ignores Ivy, he visits her bed at night, whispering her name in his sleep, and refuses to acknowledge that Emmett or Lydia exist.

Ivy leads a double life. Among Bram's courtiers she is powerless, witnessing enchanted humans forced to dance until their feet bleed and finding a dead girl on her doorstep after failing to save her from a cruel bargain. Yet she functions as England's ruler, meeting with advisers about governance while Bram dismisses all administrative duties. When Ivy's elderly pen pal Ethel travels to Bath, faerie men kill Ethel through a bargain before Ivy can reach her. Devastated, Ivy assembles a secret rebel group from her allies.

Rhion, Bram's closest adviser, drops suspicious hints about Ivy's lady-in-waiting Olive Lisonbee. When Ivy investigates, she follows Olive into ancient Roman ruins beneath Bath, where she discovers Mor imprisoned in an iron cage. Rhion then reveals himself as an ally, confessing that Bram has become a monster and confirming that Lydia is being held in the Otherworld. He explains that Mor sealed all crossing points between worlds so that only the royal family serves as a conduit: Bram himself is the door. Rhion proposes that Ivy exploit Bram's ability to feed on strong human emotions to intoxicate him into opening a portal.

Alone with Bram, Ivy summons powerful memories, but when her hatred surfaces, he responds even more intensely, murmuring that her hate "tastes so much better" than love (75). Drunk on emotion, Bram opens the door, and Ivy steps through. Rhion slams the portal shut behind her.

Ivy reaches a shimmering castle, where guards drag her into the throne room. On twin thrones sit Lydia, crowned and regal, and a man Ivy believes is Emmett, both wearing wedding bands. The court erupts in laughter when Ivy gasps Emmett's name. Lydia follows her and reveals devastating truths: She has been in the Otherworld for two years, though only months passed in England. The man beside her is not Emmett but Bram; Lydia is Bram's first wife. Bram married Lydia hoping it would break Mor's magical bargains, and when it failed, he returned to England and married Ivy instead.

When Emmett appears, he refuses to believe Ivy is real, insisting she died the night of the wedding and warning she is a selkie, a shapeshifting creature that reverts to its true form in water. Ivy dumps a bucket of water over her head to prove her humanity. Emmett kisses her, then pulls away: He reveals that Bram showed him a severed finger wearing Ivy's ring as proof of her death, a glamour, or magical illusion. Having mourned her for two years, Emmett fears getting close again.

Bram reveals he orchestrated everything. Banners reading "WELCOME, IVY" hang throughout the town. He announces three trials to determine which sister will be his sole queen, holding Ivy's friends Marion Thorne and Faith Fairchild as hostages. In the first trial, the sisters are armed with swords and sent to hunt a creature branded with Bram's seal. Aided by Duddon, a tiny water sprite, Ivy finds the target, a baby unicorn, but refuses to kill it and throws her unused sword into Duddon's spring. Lydia kills the creature instead, later revealing she acted to protect Ivy from committing violence the sentient land would never forgive.

Emmett gives Ivy a lux flower, a glass-encased bloom that glows according to the holder's emotions. At a revel, both are unknowingly dosed with a love potion and kiss before Lydia separates them. Emmett enlists Lady Thalia, a powerful faerie courtier, to help silence witnesses to the kiss. He conceals from Ivy that he has entered a political marriage with Thalia to gain allies and protect Lydia.

The group searches for Ferrinus, a legendary cold-iron knife Bram used to kill his own father, believed to be the only weapon capable of killing a faerie king. After a dangerous quest and a battle with Redcaps, violent small faerie creatures, they learn the knife was thrown into the Isern Caves, a cursed location. Ivy manipulates Bram into making the caves the second trial.

Before the trial, Lydia delivers a box of love letters Emmett wrote to Ivy over two years, believing her dead. They reconcile, but Bram catches Ivy by visiting her room disguised as Emmett through glamour, confirming he now knows about their relationship. In the caves, Ivy finds Ferrinus but is plunged into visions of Emmett's most painful memories, including his marriage to Thalia and his continued visits to her bed. Ivy wins the trial by enduring longer than Lydia but emerges devastated. After confronting Emmett and reflecting on his letters, they reconcile fully.

Bram reveals he first saw Ivy as a six-year-old child and watched her grow up for over a decade, timing his arrival at the English court to her coming-of-age. Ivy is horrified.

Ivy forces Mor to open the door to England, but Mor yanks Ivy back as Emmett steps through. Mor drags Ivy before Bram, and Ivy drives Ferrinus into Bram's heart. The knife fails: Bram heals almost instantly. Ivy is thrown into the dungeons, where she realizes that as Bram's wife, she can open the door herself. She opens a portal and Emmett leaps through, but both are recaptured when he refuses to leave without her.

Bram stages a final spectacle in a coliseum, drugging both sisters and placing them in the arena. He announces the surviving sister wins. Both attempt suicide rather than harm each other. Bram magically amplifies their jealousy and resentment, but both resist. Enraged, Bram levitates Ferrinus and drives it into Lydia's heart.

The Otherworld reacts. The ground splits, trees erupt, and the coliseum crumbles. Bram is pinned to a tree by branches. Ivy realizes why Ferrinus failed earlier: "Cold iron" means not unforged iron but a blade that has never drawn blood. The sword she threw into Duddon's spring, never having been used, is the true weapon. Duddon retrieves it, and Ivy drives it into Bram's chest, killing him.

The Otherworld's vines envelop Lydia's body, and she revives: The sentient land has chosen to bring back its queen. Lydia establishes new laws forbidding the use of humans for sport and locking the door to England, but she cannot return herself, as her resurrection has permanently bound her to the Otherworld.

Ivy returns to England with Emmett. Parliament votes to confirm Ivy as queen, and they are crowned together at Westminster Abbey. In an epilogue set 20 years later, Ivy and Emmett govern together, raising six children. Ivy maintains contact with Lydia and has preserved Bram's and Mor's portraits, honoring the complicated history. The novel closes with Ivy's youngest daughter requesting the same bedtime story Bram once asked Ivy to tell: "Tell me again, the story of the faerie king" (357).