The Rose and the Thorn

The Riyria Chronicles, Book 2

By: Michael J. Sullivan

Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds

Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

Two thieves want answers. Riyria is born.

For more than a year, Royce Melborn has tried to forget Gwen DeLancy, the woman who saved him and his partner, Hadrian Blackwater, from certain death. Unable to get her out of his mind, the two thieves return to Medford but receive a very different reception - Gwen refuses to see them. The victim of abuse by a powerful noble, she suspects that Royce will ignore any danger in his desire for revenge. By turning the thieves away, Gwen hopes to once more protect them. What she doesn't realize is what the two are capable of - but she's about to find out.

©2013 Michael J. Sullivan (P)2013 Recorded Books

The Rose and the Thorn

Another great book from the team of Michael J. Sullivan and Tim Gerard Reynolds!
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Another great story!

Michael and Tim.... Wow! This is like lightning in a bottle! This storyline is just as awesome as the last and the series is one of the best I've ever read. Take the time to start from the beginning, and you'll never regret it.

Great story but production was awful

The story was great, the narration was great. The production was awful. Every chapter there was several seconds of silence and then the story would come in at mid sentence. Whomever was in charge of that did an awful job. Still worth listening to, however.

Love the Riyria books.

I love the Riyria books. The characters are flawed, but you want to root f or them. The stories never turn out quite like you think they will. I have not been disappointed by any of the stories.

The story continues to impress.

My fifth read on Riyria (I read the Riyria Revelations first). I love the story and have not been let down. The performance is also top notch. I am currently downloading book 3 and looking forward to the continuation.

Another great addition to the Rierya Chronicles!

Couldn't pause the story! very engaging even if you have read Theft of Swords. Sullivan tore together his universe of scattered characters together very thoroughly and interesting.

professional reading great book

loved it. couldn't listen to it fast enough due to the exciting context. a great series.

Should be first Riyria Chronical

Through all the twists and turns more background for team and their name are revealed.

I'm in love!

What a great find! The stories are witty and entertaining, and the narration is superb.

Not at all predictable

Michael J. Sullivan’s Ryiria Chronicles books were written after but take place before his Ryiria Revelations series. So, in a way, I am reading them out of order by reading the Ryiria Chronicles books first. But I like to start at the beginning of a story when possible. The book we are currently talking about, The Rose and the Thorn is chronologically the second of the Ryiria Chronicles books even though it was written before The Crown Tower.

These books are set in a fantasy world, but they are not at all formula or trope-laden books, and you just never know what is going to happen in them. There is almost no magic or magical races in this book; most of this could have actually happened to real people in the right circumstances.

The short story, The Viscount and the Witch, which I reviewed earlier is incorporated into this book as its second chapter. In it, ex-soldier Hadrian Blackwater and thief-assassin type Royce Melborn acquire a third partner, Viscount Alfred Winslow, a down-on-his-luck nobleman. Their working plan is to have Alfred scout out job opportunities with the nobility for them. You know, valuables that need to be stolen, rivals that need to be eliminated – things like that.

So, they return to the town of Medford, to Medford House where they were sheltered by Gwen Delancey after she had them rescued from their last adventure. But Gwen doesn’t want to see them.

Unbeknownst to Royce and Hadrian, the women of Medford House have been unwittingly involved in strange goings-on involving the King’s castle and his guards. This includes a whole other plotline turning on a plot against the King’s life and family. Also enmeshed in this plot, though not part of it, are young Ruben Hilfred who is about to come of age and become a castle guard, and Medford House’s own Rose, who has been hired supposedly to be entertainment at a birthday party for one of the guards. Rose overhears someone plotting against the King while she is hidden in a closet in a room in one of the towers. Ruben helps her escape from the tower afterward and tries to keep her hidden from the plotters. But things go very wrong for them.

Meanwhile, Royce discovers that one of the high noblemen who is in charge of the city police, or sheriffs, or whatever, has had Gwen badly beaten in an attempt to find out from her where Rose is. To no avail, because Gwen doesn’t know. Royce isn’t pleased, and he plans revenge of his own.
Good narration. This narrator is especially good with growly male characters, but he doesn’t do a bad job with the female characters, which isn’t always true with male narrators.