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didactylos's review
4.0
Started off as a pretty run of the mill adventure/love story but stuck with it and was pleasantly surprised by the twists and turns. Nicely done!
abookishaffair's review
4.0
"The Blood Upon the Rose" is sort of Romeo and Juliet story set against the backdrop of the violence in Ireland in the early 1900s when the Irish Republican Army (Sinn Fein) was actively engaged in fighting for Irish independence. Catherine is a member of the upper class, which does not believe in the independence movement. Sean is actively engaged in Sinn Fein. They should be natural enemies but in a twist of fate, they fall hard for each other even with everything else going on. It is a great, gripping love story set against chaos. I really enjoyed reading this historical fiction!
One of the things I love about reading historical fiction is being taken to a place and time that I've never really known about before. Sure it's nice to visit old favorites in WWII and Tudor England but it's especially nice to learn about someplace entirely new, which I got a chance to in this book. Vicary really uses a lot of great historical detail to create Catherine and Sean's world. You get to feel of chaotic it would be and what it must have been like to live in those times. I personally did not realize how far the Sinn Fein movement went back so it was really interesting to see the movement during the early part of the 1900s. All of the detail really made the characters feel real to me, which is an important part of any book, in my opinion.
I also really like a good, forbidden love story. The story of everything that happened between Catherine and Sean kept me fully engaged and wanting to know if they were going to get to be together. You really are pulling for them through the whole book until the very end.
Overall, this book has so many good things going for it.
One of the things I love about reading historical fiction is being taken to a place and time that I've never really known about before. Sure it's nice to visit old favorites in WWII and Tudor England but it's especially nice to learn about someplace entirely new, which I got a chance to in this book. Vicary really uses a lot of great historical detail to create Catherine and Sean's world. You get to feel of chaotic it would be and what it must have been like to live in those times. I personally did not realize how far the Sinn Fein movement went back so it was really interesting to see the movement during the early part of the 1900s. All of the detail really made the characters feel real to me, which is an important part of any book, in my opinion.
I also really like a good, forbidden love story. The story of everything that happened between Catherine and Sean kept me fully engaged and wanting to know if they were going to get to be together. You really are pulling for them through the whole book until the very end.
Overall, this book has so many good things going for it.
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