Hello, folks! It’s taken me a bit longer, but I’ve finally finished another Wattys 2023 Shortlist entry. (I blame it on work - geeze, I never realized how busy a small-town reporter would be…) This time, I read “Thread of Gold” by JK MacLaren. It’s the first in the Thread series, which is four books long
First of all, the cover work on this book (and the others in the series) is just beautiful. It grabbed my eye, and I just knew there had to be an intriguing story to go along with it.
“Thread of Gold” follows the perspective of several characters. We have Camille, who’s been taken in by Queen Brigid as a ward, though we later learn this was not out of the goodness of her heart. There’s also Anna, a hidden princess hellbent on taking the kingdom that was stolen from her by Dayweavers back. There’s also Rynn, the charming but outwardly cold king of the Dayweavers, suffering from a mysterious illness that will kill him one day. An illness that no one can know about, except his trusted advisor. His younger sister, Penny, who is desperate to save her brother even though she doesn’t know the extent of his illness. His best friend, the powerless Issac, who is the captain of the guard and struggling with orders and beliefs he finds himself questioning. We also have Tristan and Grayson, who I feel will play bigger roles in upcoming books I haven’t started on yet.
All of this set in a world of magic and political scheming.
JK does a great job of laying
out the groundwork for introducing the world our story takes place in and all its characters while still keeping you intrigued. There are several schemes going on, yet it’s never overwhelming. The laws of magic are explained without info dumps. The characters each shine in their own ways. While A
nna and Rynne are obviously the two main ones, you get just as much dimension in all the characters (#TeamCamille&Issac - there are some scenes with Camille that had me crying; her anguish was so palpable).
I found that I couldn’t stop reading. I wanted to know more. Who’
s behind which plot? What romantic tension will we see next between Rynn and Anna? Who is killing people with nightmare magic? What the hell does Brigid have up her sleeve and why?
In short, I loved it. The only reason I’m not diving into the next book right now is because I promised myself I’d get through more books on the shortlist first. But definitely, go give it a read.
Find "Thread of Gold" here.
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