'Thorn' by Intisar Khanani is a completely charming take on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, The Goose Girl and is cleverly recast as a coming-of-age story. Princess Alyrra, alone and unloved, is betrothed to a stranger from a foreign country. When an evil sorceress steals her identity, how can she carve out a new role for herself? She is gradually pulled further and further into a battle to save both the realm and its Prince. There’s definitely a dark streak to this book, but this blends cleverly with the contrasting romance theme. The characters are sympathetically and cleverly built up over time, and the world of the novel feels realistic (you know, for a world with talking horses). There’s a high proportion of dialogue, but that doesn’t get in the way of an efficiently paced plot.