What will you do – if your parents ask you, either them or the person you love? Whom will you choose? What will you do if you have to make every effort for the only love of your life and they end up cheating on you? What if your partner loses feelings over time? What if after committing to them you became unsure about your feelings? Thoughts like these whenever we start or want to fall in love with someone, no matter how much we push away are inevitable.
We all have there, aren’t we? That constant hassle between our mind and heart. What is wrong and what is not enough in us? The brain defines the insecurities and the heart counters them, the brain provides the logic, and the heart makes us emotional enough to lose that logic. The brain keeps nagging us about what could go wrong and what you should observe but the heart, that damn heart, wants you to take that decision, and live for once. There is no end to this constant fight between these two and reaching a certain decision or peace is as difficult as climbing Mount Everest.
Lee Hunt’s Bed of Roses and Thorns is also searching about some questions but in a different way. Lee is trying to portray the tussle between love and duties, and responsibilities and romance. What does morality mean? What will you choose being stuck in a situation where you can either be moral or loyal? How will you determine what is right and what is not, when it’s about the actions of your loved ones? The author poses such and many more questions and tries to answer them as the story progresses. You will be stuck in awe and amazement; you will wonder if is it some period drama or another kingdom romance between a queen and a knight. You will only decide after reading it, to which category it belongs.
Sir Ezra, the male protagonist, is strong as a diamond, the strongest and wisest knight. People call him “man of steel”, to show how strong, brave, and tough he is. But is he really tough? Rumors are around the corner of the street that he has been expelled, but no one knows the reason behind it, no one knows where he is and what he is up to. The suspense feels surreal, the perfect knight every kingdom ruler dreamt of, why he gets expelled, and not even a person knows about the reason and that too of sudden. This suspense surely builds your curiosity and knack to find out that reason, but it’s not easy to do so, as every page turns a new plot waits for you to reveal itself.
The author did an incredible job in defining the personalities of the characters through what they wear. That’s such an innovative and interesting approach, the detailing and briefing of the characters by detailing their clothes, that’s such a great strategy to keep the reader engaged and not lose their interest throughout the book. The symbol of strength Sir Ezra is called a “man of steel”, and the Queen is called a lion’s mane because of her fluffy and dramatic character, and also portraying her royalty.
The plot is intriguing, simple yet complex like the love and lovers. As the story progresses, readers find Sir Ezra in dilemma, he doesn’t know if Queen feels the same for him, or if he is just a crush of her, the confusion, and actions of both the protagonists, might make you furious and you just want to jump in the book to explain both of them to how to communicate more clearly and how they feel about each other, and what they should do. It can make you crazy that you will be eager to lock both of them in a room and make them understand their feelings for each other, but you won’t be able to, so you have to bear that, and in the end you may feel, what you wanted them to understand, they are finally doing that now, or it can be otherwise, the misunderstanding gap just gets wider, to know you have to read till the last line.
The author, for the sanity of readers, keeps the balance between chaotic scenes and the scenes that would probably make them blush or kick their legs in the air. But there are some serious moments which can make you reflect on your life more than once and leave you thinking about it. The feelings can’t be justified in words, everyone expresses them using different expressions, some find peace in loneliness, and some get tired of it, the author makes sure that you experience it with the passing of each character and plot. The book is a perfect blend, which doesn’t let the readers ride only on one emotion or plot, but it gets changed every time you predict it will remain same. The use of humor in dead serious situations is another remarkable detail by the author to make readers laugh.
Every page you turn will make you feel more like you are standing and having conversations with characters within their world. The journey of years feels like a moment, everything happening in an instant, no one wants to go beyond that and want to live in that forever. The book is treat for readers who always love to be on roller coaster of emotions, thrill, suspense, and multiple plots, and searching for new kingdom stories when they already have a list pending to read, don’t feel attacked, add this one to your to be read and we bet you will finish this one earlier than other ones.
Bed of Rose and Thorns: Available on Amazon
Read: Exploring Humanity Through Fiction: An Interview with Author Lee Hunt
Yachika Yadav is a sociology post graduate student at Banasthali Vidyapith. She loves to capture moments in nature, apart from drawing and writing poetries. Field of research attracts her the most and in future she want to be a part of that. She is a good listener, learner. And tries to always help others.