The Thorns Remain


 
 
 Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Contents Prologue Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Epilogue A Fairy Bestiary Acknowledgements Also by JJA Harwood About the Publisher Guide Cover Contents Title page iii iv v 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 i ii 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Copyright
 Magpie Books
 An imprint of
 HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 
 1 London Bridge Street 
 London SE1 9GF
 www.harpercollins.co.uk
 First published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2023
 Copyright © JJA Harwood 2023
 JJA Harwood asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
 A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
 This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
 Source ISBN: 9780008517915
 eBook Edition © February 2023 ISBN: 9780008517939
 Version: 2023-01-18
 
 
 Dedication
 To Rae, Ellie, and Moz for all their love and support, and for never once being afraid to say, ‘Make it gayer, you coward.’
 
 
 Acknowledgements
 As with a lot of my books, The Thorns Remain has been a long time cooking. The themes of grief, unhealthy relationships, and acknowledging who you are are all things that I’ve had to come to terms with myself – both when I was writing this book and when I wasn’t. Luckily for me, that has been made infinitely easier with the help of the following excellent people.
 First, I need to thank Rae, Ellie, and Moz, three people who I am unfathomably lucky to call my friends. Their help and support has meant the world to me, as have all the little book-related memes they’ve made me. I treasure all three of you and I am going to say so in public. Particular thanks must go to Rae, who not only read the early drafts of this book and helped me sound more Scottish, but also came to my house with food during my edits so I wouldn’t have to think about cooking. Thank you.
 My fantastic agent, Chloe Seager, also deserves a massive thank you and a massive cocktail, in whichever order she would like best. It’s been so lovely working with such a talented and dedicated person. Really, the entire team at Madeleine Millburn have been fantastic and I can’t thank them enough.
 Speaking of the entire team being fantastic, it’s time for me to talk about Magpie! I cannot tell you how absolutely thrilled I am that Thorns is launching such a fantastic imprint and I’m so glad you picked it. Of course, a large part of this is due to my wonderful editor, Vicky Leech. Her championing of this book, her thoughtful suggestions, and her real enthusiasm for the story have been so encouraging, and they’ve helped to shape the book into something I’m proud of. Thank you also to Elizabeth Vaziri for indulging all my editorial requests; I really appreciate it. A huge thank you goes