Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.15 AVERAGE
3.15 AVERAGE
DNF - at roughly 50%.
Not sure if I didn't like this because it was my first audiobook or if it was really just that boring. I wasn't getting anything from the book. The plot was severely lacking and I didn't like the characters.
Not sure if I didn't like this because it was my first audiobook or if it was really just that boring. I wasn't getting anything from the book. The plot was severely lacking and I didn't like the characters.
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Anita, me enamoraste con la trilogía Susurros, ese retelling oscuro y apasionante de Alicia en el País de las Maravillas (quizá también porque ese libro me encanta desde que soy pequeña). Roseblood ha sido una pequeña decepción, quizá por mis ansias y las grandes expectativas y todo el tiempo que he esperado para leerlo.
Siendo un retelling de El fantasma de la ópera he encontrado muchas similitudes con este clásico y me ha gustado como ha cambiado ciertos elementos y les ha dado un giro. Lo mejor para mí ha sido el tono gótico de la novela y esa ambientación mágica entre bastidores (e infinidad de pasadizos secretos) de un teatro medio en ruinas. Se me ha hecho una lectura lenta, donde en muchas ocasiones perdía el hilo o incluso el interés de seguir leyendo y me ha costado avanzar bastante sobre todo a la mitad de la novela. Los personajes tampoco han terminado de conectar conmigo quizá salvo Thorn, personaje que me encantó. El final también me habría gustado de otra forma, para que le diera un giro diferente, pero no ha terminado de disgustarme aunque me he quedado con curiosidad sobre ciertos elementos. Ha sido un libro que ha pasado sin pena ni gloria pero cuya ambientación me ha enamorado.
Siendo un retelling de El fantasma de la ópera he encontrado muchas similitudes con este clásico y me ha gustado como ha cambiado ciertos elementos y les ha dado un giro. Lo mejor para mí ha sido el tono gótico de la novela y esa ambientación mágica entre bastidores (e infinidad de pasadizos secretos) de un teatro medio en ruinas. Se me ha hecho una lectura lenta, donde en muchas ocasiones perdía el hilo o incluso el interés de seguir leyendo y me ha costado avanzar bastante sobre todo a la mitad de la novela. Los personajes tampoco han terminado de conectar conmigo quizá salvo Thorn, personaje que me encantó. El final también me habría gustado de otra forma, para que le diera un giro diferente, pero no ha terminado de disgustarme aunque me he quedado con curiosidad sobre ciertos elementos. Ha sido un libro que ha pasado sin pena ni gloria pero cuya ambientación me ha enamorado.
Anita, me enamoraste con la trilogía Susurros, ese retelling oscuro y apasionante de Alicia en el País de las Maravillas (quizá también porque ese libro me encanta desde que soy pequeña). Roseblood ha sido una pequeña decepción, quizá por mis ansias y las grandes expectativas y todo el tiempo que he esperado para leerlo.
Siendo un retelling de El fantasma de la ópera he encontrado muchas similitudes con este clásico y me ha gustado como ha cambiado ciertos elementos y les ha dado un giro. Lo mejor para mí ha sido el tono gótico de la novela y esa ambientación mágica entre bastidores (e infinidad de pasadizos secretos) de un teatro medio en ruinas. Se me ha hecho una lectura lenta, donde en muchas ocasiones perdía el hilo o incluso el interés de seguir leyendo y me ha costado avanzar bastante sobre todo a la mitad de la novela. Los personajes tampoco han terminado de conectar conmigo quizá salvo Thorn, personaje que me encantó. El final también me habría gustado de otra forma, para que le diera un giro diferente, pero no ha terminado de disgustarme aunque me he quedado con curiosidad sobre ciertos elementos. Ha sido un libro que ha pasado sin pena ni gloria pero cuya ambientación me ha enamorado.
Siendo un retelling de El fantasma de la ópera he encontrado muchas similitudes con este clásico y me ha gustado como ha cambiado ciertos elementos y les ha dado un giro. Lo mejor para mí ha sido el tono gótico de la novela y esa ambientación mágica entre bastidores (e infinidad de pasadizos secretos) de un teatro medio en ruinas. Se me ha hecho una lectura lenta, donde en muchas ocasiones perdía el hilo o incluso el interés de seguir leyendo y me ha costado avanzar bastante sobre todo a la mitad de la novela. Los personajes tampoco han terminado de conectar conmigo quizá salvo Thorn, personaje que me encantó. El final también me habría gustado de otra forma, para que le diera un giro diferente, pero no ha terminado de disgustarme aunque me he quedado con curiosidad sobre ciertos elementos. Ha sido un libro que ha pasado sin pena ni gloria pero cuya ambientación me ha enamorado.
Lyrically haunting and romantic. Roseblood is beautiful, soul touching and deeply romantic. I found myself stepping into Rune' s character feeling her pain, anxiety and fear, as well as her longing and love. A wonderful reimagining of the Phantom. It left me hungry for more.
Tried to fit too much in this book too quickly. The whole plot felt rushed. I love A.G. Howards writing its captivating and draws you in immediately. Its a quick snd entertaining read. I found rune lacking development through out the novel. If this book had multiple books or even was a longer book there would have been more tkme to become attach to these characters. I found myself apathetic to her friends and to her relationships with them. I just wish it didnt feel so rushed reading it. Long story short, This book is a fast read which will keep your attention. I went in with high expectations from reading Howards other novels.
RoseBlood by A.G. Howard had me from the moment I read the summary. I LOVE The Phantom of the Opera story and I enjoyed how Howard put a twist on the original story.
Rune is seventeen and after doing something she isn’t proud of, she is on her way to Roseblood, a conservatory in France, to help her with her problem. See, Rune is an amazing singer but ever since her father passed away, she has had a difficult time controlling herself and the impulse to sing certain music. Roseblood isn’t just a conservatory though, it is an opera house that has ties to The Phantom of the Opera and that means something to Rune.
I liked Rune. She clearly doesn’t want to be headed to Roseblood but her mom hasn’t really given her a choice. Immediately Rune sees there is something different about Roseblood and in her exploration, she befriends Thorn, a masked man who helps her with her musical issues. Rune is drawn to Thorn but she knows there is something going on with him and he definitely has a secret.
Thorn is an interesting character. He absolutely struggles with the commitment he made because of the feelings he has for Rune. I actually really liked how his story was developed and revealed. I can’t say a lot about it because I don’t want to give anything away but Thorn’s background helped to reveal a bit about Rune and her heritage. As Thorn comes to realize what is important to him and what he wants his future to be, he also realizes what he needs to do.
The group of friends that Rune makes when she gets to Roseblood are an interesting mix. I’m still not sure how I really feel about them, mostly Sunny. The problem I had with her is that she really didn’t have any boundaries and did whatever she wanted. Nevertheless, they all helped to move the story forward.
There is a bit of a paranormal twist to this story that I wasn’t really expecting and I didn’t mind it. I thought it added something to the story that otherwise may have been a bit flat. This story has a slower pace and there were times that I felt like I had to push through. I am happy I did because in the end, I did enjoy the story that Howard told.
Overall I thought this was an interesting read. There were some things I liked and other things that I wasn’t completely sure about but in the end this was a story that kept me turning the pages to see what would happen next for the characters. If you have an interest in retellings, enjoy a bit of romance, and appreciate a bit of deception and mystery within your books, consider checking this one out.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy.
Rune is seventeen and after doing something she isn’t proud of, she is on her way to Roseblood, a conservatory in France, to help her with her problem. See, Rune is an amazing singer but ever since her father passed away, she has had a difficult time controlling herself and the impulse to sing certain music. Roseblood isn’t just a conservatory though, it is an opera house that has ties to The Phantom of the Opera and that means something to Rune.
I liked Rune. She clearly doesn’t want to be headed to Roseblood but her mom hasn’t really given her a choice. Immediately Rune sees there is something different about Roseblood and in her exploration, she befriends Thorn, a masked man who helps her with her musical issues. Rune is drawn to Thorn but she knows there is something going on with him and he definitely has a secret.
Thorn is an interesting character. He absolutely struggles with the commitment he made because of the feelings he has for Rune. I actually really liked how his story was developed and revealed. I can’t say a lot about it because I don’t want to give anything away but Thorn’s background helped to reveal a bit about Rune and her heritage. As Thorn comes to realize what is important to him and what he wants his future to be, he also realizes what he needs to do.
The group of friends that Rune makes when she gets to Roseblood are an interesting mix. I’m still not sure how I really feel about them, mostly Sunny. The problem I had with her is that she really didn’t have any boundaries and did whatever she wanted. Nevertheless, they all helped to move the story forward.
There is a bit of a paranormal twist to this story that I wasn’t really expecting and I didn’t mind it. I thought it added something to the story that otherwise may have been a bit flat. This story has a slower pace and there were times that I felt like I had to push through. I am happy I did because in the end, I did enjoy the story that Howard told.
Overall I thought this was an interesting read. There were some things I liked and other things that I wasn’t completely sure about but in the end this was a story that kept me turning the pages to see what would happen next for the characters. If you have an interest in retellings, enjoy a bit of romance, and appreciate a bit of deception and mystery within your books, consider checking this one out.
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy.
It hurts my heart to do this :(
DNFed at about 50%
I was soooo excited about this book! I’ve grown up loving the music of this opera and have seen the movie several times (still wishing the play would be reproduced so I can see it with my own eyes). So I was super curious when I read the premises, but also a little worried. How is one off my favorite childhood stories translated in a book? This book came in my February Booklybird box.
But unfortunately I just couldn’t finish this. The writing style was too detailed and things just took forever, the pacing was off, things got revealed in the wrong order and the plot was strange, I just hated the supernatural that was mixed with it. I couldn’t fight through it right now but I think that I will pick it up in a few months and try again!
I absolutely love the cover(and that’s about the only thing I like about this book), it’s gorgeous! I love the reference to the original story and to this one. The girl looks exactly like I pictured Rune. It’s so mysterious and beautiful. And also the first few pages have gorgeous designs. I love the thorns on every chapter and I really liked that the fond was in red (Howard’s books all have another color text). It’s so original and it fits this book perfectly!
The beginning was a little.. overwhelming. I felt like Howard was trying to tell Runes whole childhood in 10 pages AND tried to tell what they did that morning AND also where they were going and why. The story kept switching to different time periods and memories and I just wanted to know what this school was. My other problem was that it was soooo slow and dragging. It took forever for Rune to arrive at the school and for the story to become interesting. What I did really like was that this book had me already tearing up on page 20.
The story took quite a while to become interesting. The beginning is quite ordinary and I kept mixing up story’s like the series ‘Fallen’ with this one. It was really like any other YA story; one mysterious guy, one or two rivals, one best friend, mix that with a spooky surrounding and Rune being the chosen one everyone has been looking for, for years and having a talent like no other. AND TADAA an ordinary YA story.. Sigh, I’m so bored and I wanted so much more from a Phantom of the Opera retelling!
I didn’t like that the whole plot was about bullying Rune and letting her believe she was crazy. That had nothing to do with The Phantom of the Opera and it actually was done really poor and boring. I felt sorry for Rune, and I actually really liked her, and I hated to read about what Thorne was going to do to her next. I found Rune easy to connect with from the beginning(maybe because all her childhood memory’s got forced on me). I didn’t really know what to think about her ‘talent’ though.. I just felt bad for her most of the time because I felt that it was forced on her and she couldn’t help herself. I didn’t find the aspects about aura’s and the supernatural things fitting in this concept. The Phantom of the Opera is dark and spooky but everything about that story is still realistic and could have happened and for me that was the power of that story! So I was a bit surprised to find supernatural beings in this book. I didn’t find it suiting in this concept and wasn’t expecting fantasy aspects in this book. This supernatural stuff was stayed super vague and weird. I don’t like that and I kept thinking JUST TELL ME ALREADY!! AHHH But man that was weird these creatures that sucked live out of people. And voices that make you confess your darkest sins. It was all just a bit weird and incoherent. When the cat picked locks Howard completely lost me. With his nails??? What?? HOW??
I wasn’t a fan off the literal reference to the phantom of the opera. And I mean that Rune read about the academy in a book about the Phantom of the Opera. I would have rather just have the phantom twist be a surprise for the reader and Rune and then pick up clues as the story line continued. Now it was just so predictable and literally. For her to find the mirrors scary and the guy with the cape. I didn’t like that Erik, the actual phantom played a part in this story. And I hated how my original memory of him got destroyed. It was more like a sequel and a follow up on the Phantom of the Opera then an retelling.
Howard is a very descriptive writer. And that could be wonderful (and I understand if some people really enjoyed reading this), but I would rather have things left to my imagination than page after page full off descriptions. There is a chapter in this book where like five teachers walk in and there are literally four pages written about how they look and what Rune’s impression off them is. I’m not going to remember who is who if you bomb me with that many information! It started to get annoying after a while because I think without those this book wouldn’t even been 300 pages, (and I would have much rather had that because this made it so slow and unpleasant to read). But where the descriptions where really handy was with the music and when Rune got taken over. It was so vivid and alive, I felt like I could hear every note and every word though there never was one note written down in this book. My compliments to Howard for this. However the downside was that I couldn’t always follow what was happening, a lot of times it was super unclear. I get that Rune also don’t get what’s happening, but I’m a reader so I need to know! I also was really annoyed with the word; ‘feeling’. Rune always had this “feeling”. What do you mean? Is this good or bad, what are you feeling????
I was just really switching between liking it and not. There where chapters that where just so good, vivid and emotional, that I couldn’t stop reading. They mostly where memories or flashbacks. One of them was the story about how Thorne ended up with Erik. That story just broke my heart! This was so emotionally and tear-jerking. And that’s mainly why I didn’t rate this book 1 star. So I don’t get that if Howard can write a flashback like THAT, that the writing style of the whole other book needed to be soo… terrible.
Thorne was also awful and super flat. I didn’t know much about him besides that he liked to bully Rune, did everything Erik said and had a terrible youth. Maybe later in the book his personality shows a bit more,I really hope if I’m going to give this another shot because it was really something I missed. The first 180 pages he just creeps around and bully’s Rune. That made me REALLY dislike him, his chapters are sooooo slow and boring. In the Phantom of the Opera, the phantom is creepy but he is also mysterious and enigmatic. That was a thing that I really missed with Throne, he was just this stalker that I knew nothing about, and that really made me dislike him. And after reading 200 pages of a book I need to know what someone’s deal is, especially when there are so many useless pages about him.
So I felt like a book where I disliked one of the main characters, I found the writing style awful and the plot terrible, wasn’t worth it to keep reading. I just couldn’t handle one more page!
DNFed at about 50%
I was soooo excited about this book! I’ve grown up loving the music of this opera and have seen the movie several times (still wishing the play would be reproduced so I can see it with my own eyes). So I was super curious when I read the premises, but also a little worried. How is one off my favorite childhood stories translated in a book? This book came in my February Booklybird box.
But unfortunately I just couldn’t finish this. The writing style was too detailed and things just took forever, the pacing was off, things got revealed in the wrong order and the plot was strange, I just hated the supernatural that was mixed with it. I couldn’t fight through it right now but I think that I will pick it up in a few months and try again!
I absolutely love the cover
The beginning was a little.. overwhelming. I felt like Howard was trying to tell Runes whole childhood in 10 pages AND tried to tell what they did that morning AND also where they were going and why. The story kept switching to different time periods and memories and I just wanted to know what this school was. My other problem was that it was soooo slow and dragging. It took forever for Rune to arrive at the school and for the story to become interesting. What I did really like was that this book had me already tearing up on page 20.
The story took quite a while to become interesting. The beginning is quite ordinary and I kept mixing up story’s like the series ‘Fallen’ with this one. It was really like any other YA story; one mysterious guy, one or two rivals, one best friend, mix that with a spooky surrounding and Rune being the chosen one everyone has been looking for, for years and having a talent like no other. AND TADAA an ordinary YA story.. Sigh, I’m so bored and I wanted so much more from a Phantom of the Opera retelling!
I didn’t like that the whole plot was about bullying Rune and letting her believe she was crazy. That had nothing to do with The Phantom of the Opera and it actually was done really poor and boring. I felt sorry for Rune, and I actually really liked her, and I hated to read about what Thorne was going to do to her next. I found Rune easy to connect with from the beginning
I wasn’t a fan off the literal reference to the phantom of the opera. And I mean that Rune read about the academy in a book about the Phantom of the Opera. I would have rather just have the phantom twist be a surprise for the reader and Rune and then pick up clues as the story line continued. Now it was just so predictable and literally. For her to find the mirrors scary and the guy with the cape. I didn’t like that Erik, the actual phantom played a part in this story. And I hated how my original memory of him got destroyed. It was more like a sequel and a follow up on the Phantom of the Opera then an retelling.
Howard is a very descriptive writer. And that could be wonderful (and I understand if some people really enjoyed reading this), but I would rather have things left to my imagination than page after page full off descriptions. There is a chapter in this book where like five teachers walk in and there are literally four pages written about how they look and what Rune’s impression off them is. I’m not going to remember who is who if you bomb me with that many information! It started to get annoying after a while because I think without those this book wouldn’t even been 300 pages, (and I would have much rather had that because this made it so slow and unpleasant to read). But where the descriptions where really handy was with the music and when Rune got taken over. It was so vivid and alive, I felt like I could hear every note and every word though there never was one note written down in this book. My compliments to Howard for this. However the downside was that I couldn’t always follow what was happening, a lot of times it was super unclear. I get that Rune also don’t get what’s happening, but I’m a reader so I need to know! I also was really annoyed with the word; ‘feeling’. Rune always had this “feeling”. What do you mean? Is this good or bad, what are you feeling????
I was just really switching between liking it and not. There where chapters that where just so good, vivid and emotional, that I couldn’t stop reading. They mostly where memories or flashbacks. One of them was the story about how Thorne ended up with Erik. That story just broke my heart! This was so emotionally and tear-jerking. And that’s mainly why I didn’t rate this book 1 star. So I don’t get that if Howard can write a flashback like THAT, that the writing style of the whole other book needed to be soo… terrible.
Thorne was also awful and super flat. I didn’t know much about him besides that he liked to bully Rune, did everything Erik said and had a terrible youth. Maybe later in the book his personality shows a bit more,
So I felt like a book where I disliked one of the main characters, I found the writing style awful and the plot terrible, wasn’t worth it to keep reading. I just couldn’t handle one more page!
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
