Originally posted on Just Geeking by.

Content warnings:
This book contains scenes of violence, blood and captivity. Several characters are survivors of abusive and manipulative relationships (one romantic, one parental) and there are several scenes in this book where they are forced to relive their trauma.

The Bone Spindle blew me away with Vedder’s creative magic system based on fairytales and characters that made me want to scream, cheer and shake them whenever they did something that I knew they’d regret later. Very early on in the first book I was hooked, so I went into The Severed Thread with a heart full of anticipation and silent prayers that that drama wouldn’t be too heartbreaking.

In the first book Fi and Shane became partners to get to a treasure, and that was all it was supposed to be; a gig to get treasure. They didn’t expect to be thrown into a life-changing adventure when Fi cut her finger on a spindle and ended up waking a figure from legend, the Prince Briar Rose, from a magical sleep. Now they’re on the run from The Spindle Witch with a plan to get Briar to a hidden city where the last witches in Andar sought refuge.

That is if they can survive that long. The Spindle Witch has sent her minion Red, the sexy witch that Shane can’t help but feel something for and then there’s the witch hunters that have grown in power over the years. Then there’s Fi’s curse, The Butterfly Curse, which her former associate tricked her into gaining. As much as she wants to relax and see whether there’s anything between her and the centuries old Prince she woke up with a kiss, the curse is constantly on her mind.

Once again Vedder has created a high stakes fantasy novel mixed with fairytales in a way that turns the genre on it’s head. There are no damsels in distress here, no tiaras or ballgowns. I love the art for the covers of this series and how the characters not only look grim and determined, but also have smudges of dirt and healing wounds on them because that is the essence of this series. Other than a handful of moments when they get to breathe and briefly clean up, our heroes are then thrown into chaos and whatever nice clothes they’re wearing are completely ruined. I appreciated the fact that in The Severed Thread Vedder made the point of including a description of one of the character’s coats being mended and patched up, rather than overlooking the fact that their clothes magically surviving everything they put them through.

The Severed Thread was a fabulous read with just the right amount of adventure and romance, and what I appreciated was that the relationships moved at a pace that made sense. The relationships in this book are complicated with all involved having been hurt, abused or manipulated in some way in their past. Vedder carefully navigates their thoughts and feelings, balancing them without going too far to the negative or the positive. There is a point in The Severed Thread when Briar has cause to doubt Fi and in other books that would have been the point where there would have been a huge drama scene, a huge falling out. Instead, it was very well written, and it was a relief to see that Vedder chose to go with realism rather than drama.

It’s hard for me to put into words just how good this book is, so I’m just going to leave it there!

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