Gates of Thread and Stone by Lori M. Lee
Published August 5th 2014
“In a city of walls and secrets, where only one man is supposed to possess magic, seventeen-year-old Kai struggles to keep hidden her own secret—she can manipulate the threads of time. When Kai was eight, she was found by Reev on the riverbank, and her “brother” has taken care of her ever since. Kai doesn’t know where her ability comes from—or where she came from. All that matters is that she and Reev stay together, and maybe one day move out of the freight container they call home, away from the metal walls of the Labyrinth. Kai’s only friend is Avan, the shopkeeper’s son with the scandalous reputation that both frightens and intrigues her.
Then Reev disappears. When keeping silent and safe means losing him forever, Kai vows to do whatever it takes to find him. She will leave the only home she’s ever known and risk getting caught up in a revolution centuries in the making. But to save Reev, Kai must unravel the threads of her past and face shocking truths about her brother, her friendship with Avan, and her unique power.”
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this book. I’d seen quite a bit about it on Instagram and Twitter but I hadn’t actually seen any reviews. The cover is amazing but I didn’t wan to get my hopes really high because I knew I would likely be let down. So I was surprised when I started reading Gates of Thread and Stone and loved it almost right away.
Kai was a pretty cool character. She can manipulate the threads of time and that such a cool power. One of the things I liked most about Kai was how she didn’t shy away from using her power. A lot of protagonists tend to rebel against their powers and whine about them. But Kai would use her power whenever she felt it would be convenient for her. If her saw a chance to use her power and it would help her out, she would use her power. It was awesome. She wasn’t an extremely strong female character, I think she could have been better, but she could have easily been a lot worse. Towards the end, she did start to get wrapped up in the love interest that was put in her path and that was a little annoying. I did feel like Kai used Avan a little too much. Avan is a really good guy but I don’t think Kai really appreciated him. I never really fell in love with Kai but she was likable.
The plot was a little cliché with Kai’s brother getting taken and how she would do anything to get him back. I’ve read books like that multiple times before. But the world building was fantastic. I loved how the author would slowly give the reader more information through out the first few chapters instead of just dumping a bunch of info all at once.
Towards the later half of the book, I did start to get a little bit bored and I wish the plot had taken a different direction, one with less romance.
Overall, this is a pretty good fantasy I loved the first half so much but after I put it down for a week to read a different book and I came back to Gates of Thread and Stone, my excitement did die down a bit. I loved the world building the most and everything else was pretty good. Not my favorite fantasy of all time but it’s really good. I’ll likely read the sequel within the next couple of weeks. If you’re into fantasy or looking for a quick read, Gates of Thread and Stone is a good book to read.
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