Rosethorn by Ava Zavora

By: Anonymous on Friday, July 19, 2013

Title:  Rosethorn

Author:  Ava Zavora

Published:   May 1st 2013

Page Count:  320

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Shelf:  Review Copy

Rating:  ★★★★

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Rosethorn is a breathtaking debut novel of love lost and found again that culminates in a stunning end you won't soon forget.

"I know I could be happy with someone else . . . But it was decided a long time ago. It was always going to be you."

From Morocco to Paris, Sera has traveled the world over but she never forgot Rosethorn, the beautiful, abandoned mansion where she and Andrew used to meet for trysts. Until the day Sera found her mother's diary. Sera's obsession with the shocking secrets it contained tore them apart and sent Sera fleeing to New York with a devastated heart.

10 years later, Sera revisits Rosethorn, only to run into Andrew, all grown up and handsomer than ever. Politeness gives way to a heated confrontation over their painful past. Yet unable to resist each other's lure, both surrender to the undying power of first love.

Fate has brought them together once again, but will an old tragedy destroy Sera and Andrew's second chance - forever?

My Review:

This novel is emotionally intense right from the first page. It is the age old story of high school sweethearts coming back together after a time of separation, but with some extremely new and original twists. That said, there were also some unexpected twists and turns in this story that kept you on your toes.

This is a culturally and geographically diverse novel. Each person, place or thing is brought to life individually. Zavora takes the time to develop everything in such a way that you can see and feel it happening, without detracting from the story itself. She uses flashbacks to develop the history behind the story without adding confusion or lags in the story line. The way that she manipulates this technique draws you in and adds a layer of realism to the story that you can’t help but get caught up in.

Zavora gradually develops her characters. She drops little tidbits about them here and there, and never does the proverbial ‘information dump.’ The slow and steady development makes it that much easier to get to know the main characters, both their past and present. In all honesty, by the end of the novel you find yourself intimately knowing the main characters as both youths and adults. You find yourself identifying with the main characters. You feel for them. Minor characters are developed in passing, in the manner befitting a ‘friend of a friend.’ They are not someone you know intimately, as you do the main characters, but rather someone that you know well enough to say hi on passing.

My only issue with this novel were the few minor spelling issues. There weren’t enough, or severe enough, to detract from the story but were just enough to notice.

This was overall a very captivating novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. Zavora took a will they, won’t they relationship and turned it into something realistically phenomenal.

Buy your copy online here today!