I love you; I loathe youJackson Thorn was my best friend and worst enemy, but that didn’t stop me from wanting him.From first words to high school halls, our childhood years braided a bond that wove in a direction neither of us could predict or outgrow.Forbidden became a word we ignored.It wasn’t that we didn’t care.It was that we cared too much. We had it all planned out.We thought we could make …
We had it all planned out.
We thought we could make it.
We thought we’d been careful.
But all we managed to do was prolong the inevitable.
Our destruction.
Hearts and Thorns is a standalone full length new adult novel from bestselling author, Ella Fields.
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In true Ella Fields fashion she has ripped my heart out and blown it into a million pieces and then somehow pieced it back together again. She manages to suck her readers into her stories you wish were real places and characters you love with all your heart and want to be friends with every single time. Hearts and Thorns is no different. Jackson and Willa’s story will have you laughing, swooning, screaming, crying, cursing Ella and wanting to throw your kindle. This is a best friends to lovers/ stepbrother read, but it goes way beyond your typical stepbrother romance. I loved these two, but I wanted to reach into my kindle and knock them out too. Some of their choices just killed me and didnt know how Ella was going to fix everything! Some of the plot twists I didn’t see coming. Another fantastic read Ella Fields!!
Loved! This book was not (well to me anyway) not as gut wrenching as some of Ella’s other books…. but it still packed a punch. Literally I felt like I was punched in the stomach! This story of step siblings falling in love is one that I can see people having a hard time getting behind, especially since they actually grew up together. And at some point Jackson turns into this total jerk face that I just wanted Willa to slap him! And at times I wanted to shake Willa so that hopefully she would actually smack him…. he totally deserved it on more than one occasion. There were a few heart breaking moments, and they made me tear up a bit. This story was a great telling of their struggles. Definitely a book I would recommend to anyone who doesn’t have an issue with the step siblings aspect.
I had a plan. My plan on NYE was to read for a SHORT bit – watch the ball drop East Coast time – and get to bed early. Did that happen? NO! You know why?!?! THIS BOOK!!!!!!!! OMG E Fields did it again…she drew me in, made me fall deeper in love with these characters, and then BOOM…my heart exploded. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t eat – I ATE A FUCKING BOWL OF ICE CREAM FOR DINNER BECAUSE I COULDN’T STOP READING!!! AND I didn’t go to sleep until I was done! Did I miss the NYE countdown? Yep. Did I care? Nope. Did I finish a bottle of wine? Maybe.
I was so completely captivated by Jackson & Willa – my heart was torn to shreds; I high-lighted every other paragraph because this author’s words are just prose and magic. And with each page I found myself invested more. Wanting more. Hating more. Loving more. I honestly made several notes saying “I hate him now.” “He’s an asshole.” “I love Willa.” “Willa get a backbone!” GAH….I was infuriated with them. This is what E Fields does…she drags you to the end of your sanity with characters, and then BOOM….the clouds part, and she does her magical thing. All becomes clear. Everything stops. All the words you wanted to hear are there. All of a sudden, I didn’t hate Jackson anymore – I was in fact WEEPING for him. And then crying. And then ugly-crying. WTF was happening??! My heart was beautifully broken for this tormented man and this broken young woman. These words. They healed. They saved them. My heart was whole again and throughout all of this…as much as my heart was beat up…I still wanted more. More of them. More of this world. Because they are SO raw and real. Jackson and Willa are the epitome of forbidden and soul-crushing love, and I will read them again and again to experience it all over again. Bravo E Fields!!! Well done once again!!!
Why oh why must we have our hearts broken and ripped out? (I think this is where we would get the sly grin from the author!)
Hearts and Thorns is her newest book in the Magnolia Cove series and it is her best work (in my humble opinion) yet. The emotional ride we are taken on during this story is no joke, to the highest of highs and the very lowest of lows. To the point of wanting to throw my reading device and then hurt these characters because they need the extra help, but not really because Ella Fields knows what she is doing when she delivers a very angsty and hearty – heartache, heartbreak, and heartfelt story about her very flawed characters. Willa and Jackson are not perfect, they are real and they love and hurt just like we do, which makes this story so real while reading. Be ready for this emotional must read! Ella Fields is the master of heartache and heartbreak.
5 Stars!
Jackson and Willa grew up in the small town of Magnolia Cove. They shared the same surname in the Thorn household, and were very close. Ever since their parents married they were inseparable. They shared an unbreakable bond that strengthened through the years. They were more than step siblings, they were best friends. As they get older their relationship begins to shift as they have conflicting feelings. Then one kiss breaks all the rules, and changes everything. They thought over time maybe their feelings would fade, but what was between them couldn’t be ignored.
Trying to navigate high school, be together, and keep their family in tact, destruction soon finds Jackson and Willa as everything they hold dear blows up in their faces. Secrets and lies are exposed, and their world explodes as everything unfolds around them. All their best laid plans are broken, and the future is unsure. Soon time and distance take them in different directions, and they are left feeling ruined, heartbroken, and lost. When they cross paths again will they realize time didn’t change the effect they had on one another? Can their hearts open up again to love?
Hearts and Thorns by Ella Fields is the third standalone novel in the Magnolia Cove series, and can be read on its own. It’s a new adult, forbidden, stepbrother romance full of emotion, angst, and heartbreak. It has an enemies to lovers vibe through some of the story, and will rip your heart out and then put it back together again. This was such a beautiful, love story. I loved this couple and adore this series!
Ella Fields just keeps writing these amazing books that tear us apart and slowly paste us together again! This duo perspective, step brother forbidden romance definitely captivated my heart right from the start. A connection between Willa and Jackson grew through the years, a connection that couldn’t be denied but at what cost? The ups and downs, the intense steamy scenes, the incredible chemistry has made HEARTS AND THORNS one of my favourite reads of 2019!! Grab your copy today!!!
Willa and Jackson. Those two stole my heart from the very beginning, then ripped it to shreds, but slowly mended all those broken little pieces.
I loved every single moment of this story. It starts when both Willa and Jackson are just six years old and part one progresses through their lives together until they are 18 and everything completely changes for them. Part two flash-forwards five years into the future and Willa and Jackson haven’t seen each other during that time period, until they are both unexpectedly back into each other’s lives. Their story and their relationship is complicated, messy, full of love and pain and heartbreak.
This book completely destroyed me. I wasn’t expecting to get so emotional over the story or so attached to these characters, but you can’t help it. You just fall in love with them and you want to root for them. Love is so much stronger than any bond and Willa and Jackson have proved just that. You’ll never forget your first love, especially when it is a love that completely consumes every single fiber of your being.
Ella Fields has quickly become one of my favorite authors and I can’t wait to read more from her in the future! Hearts and Thorns is a MUST READ and a great way to start the new year.
Ella sure knows how to torture you slowly. The angst, the heartache, I had heart palpitations. I didn’t think I would make it out at one point. I was completely sucked in by this book.
Jackson and Willa are step siblings (no blood relation) that have been brought up together. They have always been each other’s best friend and I loved the little bits we got of them as youngsters growing up together. As they grew up and into their late teens intense protective feelings grew between them. When they first acted on their attraction, although it felt right to them, they knew it was wrong and slowly they starting spending time apart to not cause any bother. But with attraction already rooted in them, the agony and slow burn of their love affair began.
Willia – I liked her strong determination when she was fighting for them and my heart broke when her world came crashing down. To be outcast by those she thought were her family was tragic. When the truth of Jackson’s absence was revealed I had tears for her and with the little time jump, I was happy to see her succeeding in her dreams.
Jackson – his love for Willa was real and as the story progressed you could feel the love/hate coming from him but I hated the way he acted toward her after not seeing her for so long and wanted to bash his head of a wall. He did redeem himself though.
Fields put us as the reader through so much anguish and torture with this couple, some won’t find this an easy read, at one point I wasn’t sure if they would even get a HEA. However, this story will eat you right up with the rollercoaster of emotions playing on your heart and any forbidden book lover will devour!
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*An ARC received for an honest review*
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Overall Ratings;u2063
First Sex Scene – 30%
POV – Duel
Hero –
Heroine –
Story –
Angst –
Steam –
Chemistry –
I completely devoured this book and then licked my fingers when I was done!
It was that delicious! That breathtaking! Emotionally heartwrenching; Ella Fields basically shreds my heart over and over throughout this book and I just come back for more and more. Why you ask? Because I thrive on the books that bring forth a huge range of emotions. THAT IS EXACTLY what I’ve come to depend on this author for too! I can always count on her to give my heart what it desires in books. She has quickly become a 1-click author for me!
What an amazing way to kick off 2020! With such a great book, one that I know I’ll reread! One I’ve already ordered a paperback copy of this one to accompany the others in this series that I love so much!
Hearts and Thorns is book #3 in Magnolia Cove series. It’s a series of standalones, each featuring a different couple and each story spectacular in their own special way. I highly recommend you read them all but they do NOT have to be read in order for you to read this one!
Jackson & Willa aren’t just step-siblings…they are the best of friends. Always there for each other and always making new memories. Their love for each other supersedes all other relationships these two have with anyone else. As they grow up together; they only grow closer and that begins to complicate things for them as growing teens. Feelings run wild and lines are crossed. People will get hurt, there are secrets and betrayals that are almost impossible to come back from.
The love I feel for these two characters is intense and all I want to do is wrap them up in my arms.
I voluntarily reviewed an complimentary copy of this book.
3.75’s
This was definitely a ride. But not one of those “GET ME OUT OF HERE NOW” kind of ride. Nope.
It was more of a “Oh, This ain’t so bad, we’re just cruising…Okay that bump was pretty big…SH*T! That dip was too deep but now it’s smooth again I think I likeeeee FUDGE THIS! I’m jumping off”
BUT I didn’t jump off. I stayed. Kept going even when I was nervous about how this would end.
There were some really steamy moments, some heartbreaking moments and some heartwarming moments.
The writing was spectacular, and I couldn’t stop reading, once I started I couldn’t stop thinking of these characters and when a song came on the radio it some how reminded me of this book.
TOUGH point coming:
I felt there were some misunderstandings that could’ve been prevented.[“To Me”] It felt like creating some drama for the sake of drama because we already [HAD] more than enough drama to keep this very interesting. And don’t get me wrong. I know we need some drama to keep this interesting. I loved the angst that we had here. But there were some actions that were extra.
I swear Ella Fields is capable of taking all my emotions and picking them apart one by one until I’m left crying on the floor wondering if I’ll ever recover. I look forward to each new book of Ella’s like a kid looking for her birthday to come early.
Jackson and Willa start out so sweet, but as time goes by the dark clouds start to creep in at the edges of the pages. Hearts and Thorns took my heart, and never let it find a comfortable place to land. Can they fix it, will they fix it? How many different ways can they strive to hurt each other before they realize only honesty will do?
Angsty, raw, angry, and flippin HOT!!!
Ella Fields is a goddess. I can’t say enough about her books.
She is a genius when it comes to teenage drama and angst.
“He’d been the one to make the first move. The one to propel us into this dark space where we were left to find the sun on our own.”
I was hanging on every word. From the very beginning, I could feel every bit of chemistry, love and lust between Willa and Jackson. Forbidden, sweet and innocent until it wasn’t. It was the craziest kind of torture. As much as I enjoyed all the early days of their relationship, if you’ve read the two previous books in this series, then you have the sense of dread and terror lurking over your shoulder as you read. And it hurt. Only the kind of hurt that Ella can inflict onto her readers. My heart strings were barely tethered together and it was feeling so fragile. I felt like you could really see the growth of Willa’s character the most throughout this story. There were many complicated relationships that really added so many layers to Willa and Jackson’s story. I was immersed from the Prologue and didn’t stop reading until I was done.
I think I can finally start breathing again now that I’ve finished Hearts and Thorns. The angst, the heartache, the heartbreak – it was almost too much to handle at times. Seriously, for probably the last half of this book, I felt like I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe until I got to the end. I couldn’t decide who I was more upset with at times – Willa or Jackson. They both said and did things out of the anger and hurt. Things were ugly and hard at times. But no matter how hard they tried to fight it or fight each other, the forces pulling them together whenever they were close were just too strong to ignore. Their love story is one that for some, never should have happened. To many people, it seemed so wrong; but to them, it was oh so right.
This book was everything!! It took me on one crazy emotional rollercoaster ride, and it was the best last book to read to end the year! Wonderful!! Best book by this author to do date! I just love how she out does herself with each book!
Ella Fields just may be the queen of teenage angst. I’m far too old to be reading about teenagers in love and all the drama that comes along with it, but I’m doing exactly that with Hearts and Thorns and enjoying every insufferable and lovable moment that it gives me.
Those first pages built a sweet, first love that seemed impossible. That intense attraction, that need to be with that person at any cost, all those crazy emotions, that was Willa and Jackson. I remember those feelings. Love is definitely blind. I also had some strong hate going on for Jackson. He frustrated me. His actions were selfish. I should have appreciated his effort, but he was hurting Willa and I just didn’t like it. I was right there with her experiencing all those tortured feelings and those momma instincts were strong. Willa wasn’t innocent in all of this either. No one ever is. Her reactions were instant and dramatic, but what teenager’s wouldn’t be? That’s exactly what they run on. And I guess that’s the point – to bring out those emotions and their love story certainly did.
This sort of sounds like a rant, but it’s truly not. Willa’s and Jackson’s love story is slightly brutal, but it’s their story and journey. It made you feel and sometimes not in the best way. You have to go through the bad to get to the good and that’s life. We don’t always make the right decisions or the best choices even as adults. Ella Fields captures all of that perfectly.
And I guess that’s why I’m reading a love that could be forbidden because Ella Fields is just so good at pulling you in and keeping you entirely invested in the outcome. And for that reason, I’ll continue to read her stories and recommend that you do the same.
Once again Ella Fields takes no prisoners as she delivers a heartbreaking journey for Jackson and Willa! This second chance / step siblings romance ripped my heart to shreds. No one writes teenage / YA angst like this one.
Not many authors can keep me up past my bedtime but this story still had be frantically turning the pages way past 4am cussing at every page! I think I must have experienced every emotion under the sun and then some. Several times I think my heart just stopped beating all together…
This is my first read of 2020 and what a start to the New Year! It’s definitely kicked my reading off to a level that is going to be hard to beat!!
I know I keep saying that the last book was the best from Ella Fields, but as I continue to read her beautiful words I continue to change my mind and say that the current book is the best!
I don’t know but I honestly thought Quinn and Daisy were my all time favorite but now, my perspective has changed and I’m sorry Quinn and Daisy but the crowns have been given to Jackson and Willa.
This story annihilated me, it slayed me completely.
This author has been one of my top favorites since I read her first novel Silk Frayed and since then I haven’t been able to stop reading her books. I have read each and every one of them and I’ve loved every single book from her. All her books have angst that will leave you utterly devastated and heartbroken before she repairs and mends your broken heart again.
Jackson and Willa are forever in my heart because their story was a difficult one. Not only was it forbidden but it was misunderstood at one point and they had to go through so many hurdles and obstacles to finally get to where they needed to be.
I was devastated, I was heartbroken up until the very end, my heart repaired itself and was left utterly happy.
Hearts and Thorns #1 of 2019!!
Forbidden romance to the max, angsty at it’s core, Hearts and Thorns is everything I want to read in a romance book, but it also left me with so many emotions!
First of all, I have to say this: OMG did I hate Jackson Thorn! He is a selfish, idiotic, careless jerk who is horrible to everyone around him, Willa included. There were a few moments where he showed an ounce of caring and passion for someone other than himself, but even those moments really didn’t change how much I loathed Jackson.
While I struggled to find anything to like about Jackson, I absolutely adored the sweet, open hearted, fragile Willa. Her life is so chaotic and messy but she still hasn’t given up on her dreams and trying to improve herself. Willa and Jackson’s love/hate battle is so heartbreakingly tragic that I really didn’t know how I wanted this story to end.
By the time I finished this story I realized that everything I thought I felt about these characters was completely changed. This is why I love reading an Ella Field’s book. She knows how to create characters that you hate to love but still want to root for their HEA.
I feel like I have ended the year with one of the most heartbreaking, soul crushing stories… yes, I’m talking about Ella Fields’ “Hearts and Thorns.” I don’t know why I keep doing this to myself. Ella Fields is an author that fills your heart and mind with all the words. They are beautiful and gorgeous words. But they end up crushing me and causing me tears. So. Many. Tears. Like stop, don’t read past 10% before you get a box of tissues, wine, and chocolate. You’re going to need it!
I feel like telling you about any of the story would be a severe disservice to your heart. Jackson and Willa’s story isn’t a walk in the park. Oh no, is forbidden and messy… some people might believe this story to be taboo. I really am still left reeling, three days later and I still don’t even know what I want to say in the review or how to really express my feelings/thoughts. Ella Fields is brutal on the heart, B-R-U-T-A-L! The only reason I removed a star is the OW/OM. My heart and stomach literally flipped and hurt like I was being cheated on. I was way too invested and that turned me sour a bit!
I received an ARC of this book with the hope that I would leave an Unbiased Opinion. I was not required to leave a review, positive or otherwise, and my opinions are just that… my opinions.
Jackson Thorn was once her everything, the man Willa was going to spend her forever with… but their relationship is forbidden and their family didn’t want them together. But they fought hard to hold onto what they had, often sneaking off to be together. But then something changed between them and Jackson walked away, leaving her to turn in an direction she never thought she would. A direction that changes their lives in ways they never imagined…
Hearts and Thorns is one of those stories that will break your heart to the point that you will wonder if you will be able to recover, the angst and torment is high for this couple. Nothing is more heartbreaking than young love gone wrong, and this couple’s goes wrong, so totally wrong. Following them through their break-up, then onto college and after, and seeing how much their heartbreak effected them was emotional torture…the feels are intense with this one. I adored these characters and the story they had to tell, they broke my heart, but somewhere along the way they managed to piece it back together too, and bring it a little joy too. If you like angsty heart-torturing stories then I have no doubt you will love what you find between the pages here, it’s words are certain to leave a mark!
I requested an advanced copy of this title from the publisher, and I am voluntarily leaving my honest opinion.