There were two secrets in Varenx House, and Alizhan was one of them.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Alizhan can\u2019t see faces, but she can read minds. Her mysterious ability leaves her unable to touch or be touched without excruciating pain. Rescued from abandonment and raised by the wealthy and beautiful Iriyat ha-Varensi, Alizhan has grown up in isolation, using her gift to steal secrets from Iriyat\u2019s rivals, the ruling class of Laalvur. But Iriyat keeps secrets of her own.<\/p>\n

When Alizhan discovers that she isn\u2019t the only one of her kind, and that a deadly plot threatens everyone like her, there\u2019s only one person she can trust.<\/p>\n

Ev liked having a secret. None of the other girls in the village had a thief-friend.<\/i><\/p>\n

Evreyet Umarsad\u2014\u201cEv\u201d to her parents and her one friend\u2014longs to be the kind of hero she reads about in books. But the rest of the world feels impossibly far away from her life on a farm outside Laalvur. Ev will never lay eyes on the underground city of Adappyr, the stars of the Nightward Coast, or the venomous medusas that glow in the dark depths of the sea.<\/p>\n

At least on her weekly trip to the market, Ev gets to see her thief\u2014the strange young woman who slips by her cart and playfully steals a handful of thornfruit. When the thief needs help, Ev doesn\u2019t hesitate. Together, they uncover a conspiracy that draws them all over Laalvur and beyond.<\/p>\n

Thornfruit<\/i>\u00a0is the first book in\u00a0The Gardener’s Hand<\/i>\u00a0trilogy.<\/p>\n

Representation Includes<\/h4>\n

\n
• Bisexual female protagonist (Ev)<\/li>\n
• Lesbian protagonist (Alizhan)<\/li>\n
• Sequels include a F\/F\/N-B romance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
  Content Warnings<\/div>

  emotional abuse (of a main character, while she\u2019s a child, by a parental figure\u2014mostly in backstory, but often referred to), manipulation\/gaslighting (aided by magical memory alteration), kidnapping, pregnancy, an attempted coerced abortion, physical violence, mild gore (some minor characters get, uh, dissolved by a sea monster), murder, torture, unethical experiments on children, prejudice (mostly against people with magic, but also there are references to prejudices based on ability, skin color, foreign nationality, religion, sex, sexuality), arson, supporting character dies in a tidal wave, tidal wave causes general destruction <\/div>