Thistlemarsh Review: I Wanted to Love This. I Just…Didn’t.

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I honestly don’t know how I feel about Thistlemarsh. And in that same vein, I don’t know how to explain this without sounding a little dramatic, but…

This book should have devoured me. I wanted Thistlemarsh to feel like standing in a house that remembers everything.

A fae touched manor. Grief sitting heavy within the plaster of the walls. A girl trying to hold her life together with barely anything left. And here comes this sharp-tongued faerie who absolutely can not be trusted.

I thought…

I thought this was going to be the kind of story that settles into you.

The kind of story that lingers. The kind that makes you think, “Wow, that was such a good read.”

And for a moment, it almost did.

But instead of pulling me under, it kept me just at the surface.

Close enough to see it.

Just not close enough to feel it the way I hoped.

Title: Thistlemarsh

Author: Moorea Corrigan

Publisher: Berkley

Format: eARC

Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Adult, Romantasy

Release Date: April 21, 2026

Pages: 432

Star Rating: 3 stars

Spice Rating: 0 chili peppers

A Story Built on Grief, Pressure, and Something Waiting Beneath it

We’re in 1919, and everything already feels a little broken.

Mouse Dunne isn’t starting from a place of hope. She’s carrying grief that hasn’t softened, the kind that sits with you and doesn’t ask permission. Her cousin Bertie is gone, dying in the war. Her brother, Roger, came back, but he’s no longer whole. And there’s this quiet sense that everything in her life is one step away from slipping through her hands.

So when Thistlemarsh Hall becomes hers, it doesn’t feel quite like a gift.

It feels like something she has to cling to.

Fix the house in a month or lose it to the distant relative that she loathes. Ultimately, losing the one thing that could give her and Roger any kind of stability.

And the house itself…

It doesn’t feel empty. It feels like it’s watching. Like it remembers something Mouse doesn’t.

And when Thornwood appears: sharp, careless, just a little too amused by everything. You can feel the shift. The story opens up into something that should feel dangerous. Unpredictable even. A little bit intoxicating.

This is the kind of setup that usually pulls me all the way in.

The Parts That Almost Pulled Me in

I liked Mouse immediately. She’s snarky and spunky, and has this real quality that doesn’t feel forced. She’s strong without overcompensating. She keeps going because she has to. There’s something about that kind of quiet determination that always works for me.

And Thornwood…

There’s something there.

I saw the arc.

That edge. That slow softening that feels like it’s being dragged out of him against his will. The kind of character who should shift the emotional gravity of the story just by being there.

I could see where this was going. I could see how it should feel. And I think that is why I stayed as long as I did, even though it crossed my mind several times that I should call it. That I should give up and DNF it.

Reading This Felt Like Waiting for something to click

This is where I started to slip. Because I wasn’t fully in it. But I couldn’t quite let it go either.

I was stuck in the middle of it all.

Still reading, still turning pages. Not because I was pulled in, but because I kept thinking this has to click eventually. Like I was waiting for the moment where everything would settle into place and I’d finally feel it. If I’m being honest, intrigue was winning out.

But it just didn’t work.

Not in the way I needed it to.

The descriptions are doing too much of the heavy lifting. There’s a softness to the writing that lets you see the story’s pieces clearly. Small moments, flashes of imagery. But the world-building never fully layers.

It gives you moments instead of a continuous sense of place.

So instead of feeling immersed, I felt like I was hovering just outside of it.

Close enough to see it.

Not close enough to feel grounded in it.

And the longer I sat in that space, the more I realized I wasn’t moving deeper into the story…

I was hoping it would meet me there.

A World I could see…but never fully step into

I kept thinking about how this kind of story needs to feel fully realized.

And this one never quite gets there.

The worldbuilding gives you enough to understand the setting, but not enough to fully live in it. It felt constructed instead of immersive.

And for a story that leans so heavily on atmosphere, that lack of depth stands out.

The prose moves similarly.

Yes, it’s descriptive, bordering on lush, but without enough narrative weight behind it. So instead of deepening the story, the descriptions carry the whole thing.

And you can feel that within the story.

Where the writing is doing the work, the plot and emotional development should be doing.

It creates this imbalance where everything looks beautiful…

But doesn’t always build into something that holds.

When the story lingers in the wrong places and rushes the ones that matter

In addition to the issues I had with the prose, there’s a push and pull in this story that never quite settles.

Some moments drag on longer than they need to, particularly in the middle. Sitting in description without actually deepening the emotion. It lingers, but not always with purpose.

And then the moment that should carry weight: grief, tension, connection, move too quickly to settle. Emotional beats don’t have time to land.

Transitions feel abrupt.

So instead of building momentum, the story keeps resetting itself.

And I kept feeling that disconnect.

Like I should be more invested than I actually was.

A Romance that never fully becomes part of the story

This is the part I keep coming back to.

Because it is right there.

Mouse and Thornwood have the kind of dynamic that should carry the story. That push and pull that makes their dynamic magical. That tension that slowly turns into something softer, something harder to ignore.

But the romance feels like it exists in isolated moments instead of being woven through the story, almost as an afterthought.

So when it’s supposed to matter…

It doesn’t feel earned.

It feels remembered. Like one or two separate pieces formed to make a relationship

There are moments. Two kisses. A moment that almost becomes something more before it stops.

For something marketed as a romance, those moments don’t build on each other.

They don’t change the emotional trajectory of the story. They felt like an afterthought.

I wanted that connection more than the book ever fully gave it to me. I wanted it from the beginning when Thornwood introduced himself. Not as if it were a means to an end.

The Point where I realized it wasn’t going to meet me there

Then came the moment I paused.

Not because something big happened.

But because I realized I was still waiting.

Waiting for the story to deepen. Waiting for the emotion to catch up to the potential.

The intrigue carries the story more than the plot itself, and once that curiosity starts to fade, there isn’t enough emotional or narrative weight to replace it.

There were moments when I thought…I could stop here. I should stop here.

I could let this go. And the only reason I didn’t?

I had already given it too much time not to see how it ended. To see whether the lack of consistency was worth it because of the end. Honestly? By the time I decided to say enough was enough, I was three chapters from the end. You too would agree that’s too late.

I think I stayed because I believed in what it could become.

Not necessarily in what it already was. I saw the potential. And not the fact that it was ultimately just rather meh.

An ending that almost brings it together…and then let it go

Near the end, something sharp finally breaks through.

And I started to feel it.

Just for a second.

That spark. That shift. That sense that maybe it was all going to come together in a way that stayed with me.

And I leaned in again.

But it doesn’t hold onto that feeling. It softens before it can fully land.

And I was right back where I started. Watching from the sidelines instead of being pulled into it.

Who Is Thistlemarsh For?

This is for you if you love:

• historical fantasy that leans into atmosphere and tone over plot.
• fae stories that feel playful, sharp, and rooted in trickery.
• books where the experience is more about vibe than structure

And Who Is It Not For?

This won’t work the same way if you:

• read for emotional immersion first
• need a romance that feels intentionally built and fully developed
• want a story with tight pacing and narrative momentum
• get frustrated when something feels almost there but never quite lands

I wanted something I could feel

I think what’s sitting with me the most is how much I wanted this to work.

And the pieces are there.

The atmosphere. The characters. The idea of the story.

But they never fully come together in a way that deepens or sustains.

And I can see the version of this book that would have completely undone me.

I just never quite reached it. And that’s the part that sticks after I’ve finished Thistlemarsh.

Not the story itself… just how badly I wanted it to meet me there.

Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley, and Moorea Corrigan for providing me with an eARC to read and review.

This Is Where I Tell You to Shop Indie

If this review made your chest tighten even a little, or piqued your curiosity, please consider getting Thistlemarsh from an independent bookstore.

You should read it and determine whether it was worth your time.

Order it from your local shop.
Request it at your library.
Or use Bookshop.org, where you can choose a bookstore to support at no extra cost to you. If you prefer, you can always shop on Amazon, but try to make it your last choice.

Stories like this deserve to live in places that care about stories.

And indie bookstores? They’re the ones hand-selling historical fantasy to the reader who whispers, “I want something to sink into.”

If you decide to pick this one up, I hope it finds you at the right moment. And if you do read it, come back and tell me what it did to you.

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