Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Rose in Chains by Julie Soto

62 reviews

heretherebebookdragons's review

5.0

challenging dark emotional tense

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Book Review: This is extremely dark (check your trigger warnings for real), but marvelously crafted. Normally I find a dual timeline story rather annoying, but this was expertly rolled out to keep building layers and adding tension to the narrative, rather than slowing the momentum. I never knew what turn was coming next (not at all normal for me, I always predict the Big Reveals), but it all felt earned and part of a well-realized world and narrative rather than like something that was lobbed in for shock value or in the name of having a Plot Twist. The ending was such that I’m not in agony, but we’re clearly set up for one hell of a sequel.

As for the much-ballyhooed fanfic element, I found it to be barely there at all. The world is different, the magic system is different, the families are different, the bad guys are different, the school is different, the main characters’ personalities and mannerisms are different. The MCs were adversarial to each other in school and he has light hair and a rich family, and that’s literally pretty much it. This is a fully realized world all on its own and of Julie Soto’s own making.

Rating: 5/5
Spice: 2/5 (this is a hard one to rate)

Tropes:
- Enemies to lovers
- Captive FMC
- VERY dark world
- Magical academy
- Dual timeline
- Touch her and die
- Banter
- Mysteries and shifting alliances
- Forced proximity
- Rebellion
- Dragons
- Animal familiars
- Female rage

Audio Review: The narrator, Ella Lynch, was fantastic. Her Man Voice didn’t feel strained, and I really appreciated that she used an ever-so-slightly different voice to indicate when Briony was speaking verses when we were simply along for her POV. (Hilariously, and I suspect this was deliberate, said speaking voice had just a hint of an Oxford accent. iykyk) She did a very good job of portraying various scene directions (when someone’s voice is scratchy or flirty or Briony feels ill or what have you), and of keeping with the heightened emotions of the story without ever getting unnecessarily overwrought. My lowkey favorite moment was when she muffled her voice to portray Toven speaking with a book over his face - a little moment of levity in the midst of a very dark story. I will actively keep an eye out for additional books narrated by her.

Rating: 5/5

This is a review of the audiobook.

Content Warnings

cdoubet's review against another edition

5.0

emotional mysterious tense 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

Content Warnings

reward82's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional 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

Content Warnings

redstringraven's review against another edition

0.25

dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

in the most to-the-point way possible: you're probably not going to give a crap about any of the characters in this book unless you're 1) familiar with harry potter, and/or 2) familiar with the original fanfiction and know which 'published' character corresponds to a harry potter character. as for the plot? the worldbuilding? they're sirs not appearing in this novel.

if you want more thorough notes/complaints, they'll be listed below in bullet points (cw-related bullet points will be last). i'd say "spoiler warning" but like... there's barely anything to spoil, honestly. it's like trying to hide a present with one layer of flimsy tissue paper.

to restate the character issue: i earnestly don't think there's anything enjoyable about these characters unless you know which harry potter characters they're supposed to be and you're familiar enough with harry potter that your fandom-brain fills gaps in their history/personality that this book doesn't (and i've been told these versions are extremely fanon-ized/flanderized, too). little to no time is given to characterize them independent to their HP counterparts. it very much feels like the book expects you to open it with a pre-established attachment you won't have if you don't know this is just HP fanfiction with the serial numbers scraped off.
that being said, the characters don't even really react to what's happening around them in believable or meaningful ways. the main character gets attacked by a fox and, even though she's bleeding, decides it's a bigger priority to be horny on main for the love interest.
tbh by the end of this book i still don't know what it is we're even supposed to like about the love interest (toven). this very much feels like another case of "knowing he's actually draco is doing all of the heavy lifting"; the only way i can understand someone liking him is if they already like draco and also have an "awww, he's just a poor birthday boy 8c" view of him.
there seems to be a sloppy attempt to make up for that last point in the form of (extremely awkwardly) placed flashbacks. the book opens with a startling hook, then suddenly you get a chapter that takes place "8 years earlier". completely throws off the pacing and tension; this will happen several more times.
i'm not familiar with the original fanfic, so i don't know if the magic system in it is supposed to be its own or if it's meant to mirror HP's magic system. it doesn't matter, though, because either way: the magic system in this book is awful, poorly explained, and exhausting to try keeping up with.
after you get past the flashback and the following chapter(s) that focus on The Atrocities, the first half or three-quarters of this book are boring as hell. it's very much "fanfic characters being put in various situations", where at the end of each scene i was left wondering what the point of all that was and what i was even doing there. like... i can't call this book plot-driven, as there barely was one, and i can't call it character-driven, as they barely did anything.
i know i already touched on the fact that i don't think there's anything likeable about these characters as independent characters, but like... the bad guys are just Evil™. oh they're just the worst. they're gross and nasty and cartoonishly bad. i don't even, like, hate them from a villain standpoint, i hate them because they're so fucking annoying.
also, the prose can genuinely be so clunky and awful. there were a few sentences i tried typing out myself, and my brain/fingers were like... actively trying to edit and fix them as i went.

cw-related comments:

look, non-con stuff isn't really my wheelhouse or something i enjoy reading, but i'm gonna try not to harp on it too much from the standpoint of it just existing in the book as a concept.
that being said, the lead up and actual auction itself is just... Bad Things Happen To Women™, oh it's so bad, look at all the horrible bad things, in a very melodramatic way that's hard to listen to/read. part of that could be on me as this, again, isn't my wheelhouse. but i guess what i'm trying to articulate is that the way it was presented felt much more "look at how BAD things are, feel SORRY for them, woe is they, feel bad, feel bad, feel bad" than it did... knowing and expressing the actual weight of what was happening. does that make sense? i hope it makes sense.
it's also wild to me that, not ONCE, does the main character even consider suicide as an escape option. like... i know that's dark--i am: aware. but there isn't even a fleeting thought about throwing herself out a window, nor during the 6(?) days that she's alone in her assigned room does she survey her options if this was an action she was prepared to take. they definitely didn't comb her room for potential tools she could use to hurt herself.
i don't know if it's a staple of this 'genre' or 'niche' or whatever for sexual assault and rape to be framed in a way where the assaulter somehow isn't at fault, but can't say i'm a fan of that. i feel like if you're going to indulge in this sort of thing, you--as the author--can't soften what it is.

anyway, that's all i really care to spend time on writing out i guess. this is already a lot more than i had planned to say and give time to. ...i can't believe this book has a 4 star rating. if it's your trash, fine, i'm happy for you, but like... boy howdy, i don't understand. whatever; i'm glad to be rid of it.

Content Warnings

thelaurajay's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

sirpandacat's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional tense

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

mikasana's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

For a former fanfiction, this isn't too bad.

There were a few things I had trouble understanding in the beginning and those were:
- The worldbuilding including the locations, mention of a school but not really its purpose or intent for all parties involved, and the two... opposing countries.
- The magic system (Heart vs Mind magic and the rules for both? Handcasting? Etc)

It comes off in such a way that it assumes the reader should already be familiar with how all that works which is why it gets so confusing. Early on I had a difficult time trying to piece together the rush of events and picturing exactly how they went down. It was easier to picture later on but everything still remained fuzzy.

I did appreciate the main cast of characters and the turmoil Briony (lol) has to face throughout the novel. The flashbacks did help piece together some of the missing history between characters, though other flashbacks I am really unsure what their purpose was for.

There are also a LOT of characters mentioned in here and most are just mentioned very fleetingly. Maybe a tad bit too many to keep track of if they ever became important later on. Like oh, time to mention and meet Penelope. Oope now she is dead. Poor Penelope. So sad and tragic. Okay, next victim.

There was a bit in the middle (maybe around 60%) where it felt sluggish simply due to the fact nothing was really happening for a while. That's the only time it occurred.

I absolutely loved the way feelings are described through actions from Toven. That is the best way to display intense, repressed romantic tension between characters and I was living for it. Dual POVs is not always necessary if you apply the show vs tell strategy. Chef's kiss, well done. My dude was and has been in love with this girl for what feels like forever.

I did have one major issue with this story outside of the obvious dark nature of it, and that was part where

Toven physically abused Briony in front of Mallow.

. I understand why he did it, but it just hasn't sat right with me. I know, I know, all the horrible things that occurred in this book and this is where I draw the line specifically because

he is the MMC

.

Overall, even with my nitpicks, not bad. Probably the best fanfiction to published work I have read thus far.

CHECK THE TRIGGER WARNINGS.

Content Warnings

jorkreu's review against another edition

3.25

dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Oh. Hmm. I listened to the audio book and had a love/hate relationship with it but I did listen to all 16 hours so that is saying something certainly. I was hoping

virginity wasn’t going to be a huge plot point in this version of the story, I thought maybe the absence of a heartstring bond was going to be a clever way to parallel the idea of something a person would be valued for/could be faked, etc. So that and the heir focus was a little weird to me. Will we get a queen??

But I liked the ending! Interested to see where the story will go from here.

Content Warnings

kathrynjean97's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2025 and I’m thoroughly underwhelmed.

VIBES

🌹 Dark fantasy

🌹 Wartime politics

🌹 Chosen-one prophecy

🌹 Slow burn romance

🌹 Rivals to lovers

🌹 Captor × captive

💬 Single POV

💬 Third-person, past tense

THOUGHTS (spoiler-lite™)

I love dark fantasy, and I love dark romance, but this fell short on both fronts. (This review got really long so FWIW, my last point is my biggest gripe and there’s a TL;DR at the end.)

The writing was easy to read but relied too heavily on telling and not showing. The first few chapters were the most egregious, where dialogue is stilted and obviously only served to segue into massive, page-long expo dumps. The expo dumps continue through the book, but the dialogue improves, and the prose is simple and smooth throughout.

The pacing and structure were off. The plot meandered (there’s so much waiting around for characters to do something) and the flashback chapters were sporadic and jarring.

The magic system is actually a really cool concept—heart magic vs. mind magic—but it felt simultaneously underexplained and overloaded. There are hand gestures (eight core gestures + more, iirc), spell books, meditation rooms, mind palaces, familiars, heart bonds, sacral bonds, some unexplained connection to water, and probably more, and it’s just a lot.

The worldbuilding falls into this a bit, as well. So much information is thrown at us: names, families, titles, political connections, halls, towns, kingdoms, recent histories, distant histories, and backstories for all the protagonists and antagonists. It’s so much to process—and yet, none of it felt important or fleshed out.

The relationship felt underdeveloped. There is no chemistry or tension between these characters other than some mutual, residual insta-lust from their school days. Honestly, Toven was an asshole in school and Briony had no agency. Why are they attracted to each other? Because the author says so.

The protagonists themselves fell flat, too. Briony doesn’t act like the intelligent, take-charge, gifted magic user she’s described to be… she’s passive and honestly a little whiny. Toven is supposed to be snarky and morally grey, but instead he’s emotionally distant and pretty obviously

on the Eversun’s side

. There’s also no character development… but this is a planned trilogy so it might still be coming.

The side characters feel like caricatures. Rory is the Chosen-One who outshines his sister; Didion is the mopey secondary love interest who can't find a girl's clit; Larissa is the misunderstood mean girl who is still bullying people in her late-twenties; Reighven is the crooked-nosed villain creeping on the princess; etc. etc. etc.

The plot twist, which is revealed at the absolute last second, was painfully predictable.

Like, the first line of the whole book gave it away to me, and the foreshadowing throughout is completely unsubtle.

The prophecy—and I am willing to be corrected here—doesn't make sense. Apparently, this is supposed to reference an eclipse. How does 'the sun [shine] at night' during an eclipse? Isn't that just... daytime?

When the sun shines at night, he who will bring an end to war on this land shall be victorious. He shall be an heir, twice over, and a rightful sovereign over the continent.

And finally, my biggest let down…

The ‘dark’ was not dark enough for me. For a story about a lost war, magical slavery, sexual coercion, and a captive princess, I was ready for a challenging and confronting read. This was definitely dark in tone and setting, but the actual plot felt like a shallow imitation of a good dark fantasy or romance. I want exploration of power dynamics. I want violence, coercion, and obsession. I want complex, flawed, polarizing characters and character development. And I want spice, dammit.

I really feel that Briony’s circumstances make the stakes feel too low for this to be successfully ‘dark.’ I know she’s a captive, but she’s treated well, has her own space and relative freedom,

regains (never really loses?) access to her magic, and isn’t exploited magically or sexually by her captors

. I don’t feel connected to or empathetic towards her, which stops me from really investing in the story.

Also, there are a few on-page depictions of sexual coercion of minor characters, but 99% of the sexual content here is just the male characters talking about exploiting their captives. It feels a little… juvenile? Like the author didn’t want to commit to anything genuinely confronting. The language is very explicit in these scenes, too, but that’s not the case at all in Briony and Toven’s time together. And on that… the book is advertised as being ‘spicy’ and I feel that’s misleading. Explicit language and minor characters swinging their dicks around ≠ spice.

TL;DR: The ‘dark’ was underwhelming, the ‘fantasy’ worldbuilding and magic systems were convoluted, and the ‘romance’ was undercooked.

Upon reflection, perhaps Julie Soto’s writing and storytelling is just not for me. If you know you enjoy her writing and/or you’re looking to dip your toes into a ‘dark’ setting, you might enjoy this a lot more than I did. But anyway, there is potential here and I’ll likely continue the series to see where the story goes, I’ll just be setting my expectations for book #2 a lot lower.

0.5 🌶️

→ euphemistic

→ tender

→ just the once ~~(if it even counts)~~

Spicy Chapters:

(32* and) 44.

*No actual spice, just a pretty explicit mind reading scene between MC’s.

2.5 🎙️

→ single narrator

→ I personally found the narrator's voice irritating; she has this warble that makes Briony come across as nervous all the time, which I can't stand, and I strongly dislike her 'male' voices. This is a me problem though, ymmv.

FAVOURITE QUOTES

Well, damn. It speaks volumes to the writing style and romance plot that I have no highlights.

✄------------------------------

PRE-REVIEW

It wasn’t bad but… I just don’t think I cared?

RTC once I figure out why.

✄------------------------------

PRE-RELEASE

Update #1: Not one, but TWO beauuuuutiful covers! July can't get here soon enough.

_____

2025 is THE YEAR for Dramione adaptations!! I would like to pre-emptively apologise to my boyfriend for the person I will become when this book drops.

_____

Content Warnings

clairebartholomew549's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I loveeeeeeed this book. I've enjoyed Julie's other books, but I feel like she really found her voice with this genre. Apparently this is based off a Dramione fic she wrote, which cracks me up but also makes me love this book more. I ignored literally all of my responsibilities to read this book, oops! It was so worth it though.

This is a dark, dark story. Evermore and Bomardi have been at war for years. Briony is the princess of Evermore, and when the Bomardi army swarms her family's castle, her brother is killed (her father was assassinated early in the war and her mother died in childbirth), and she and others are taken into captivity. Evermore is known for its mind magic, while Bomardi is known for its heart magic, which often requires an external source like an animal familiar (the two magics are explained in much more detail in the book of course). The Bomardis come up with a truly horrifying plan to auction off Evermore people with mind magic so that they can use them as external sources of power (they call them heartsprings) and as servants and sex slaves. As the princess of Rosewood, Briony sells for an astonishing amount to her once-crush Toven Hearst. She is absolutely terrified of what is to come, but things are not exactly as they seem.

The beginning of this book is a little slow, but it has a lot of world-building and scene-setting that is incredibly important and interesting. Once the auction takes place, things really start to happen. I appreciated that there was no attempt to sanitize the Bomardis' war crimes, sex slavery, and every kind of horrible interpersonal violence imaginable. Briony is saved from experiencing much of those horrors directly, but she bears witness to her friends, family, and other people from her kingdom enduring violation after violation, and it's really hard to read but also essential to the plot. This book doesn't shy away from the grief and the rage and the disgust and the helplessness Briony feels, but it also highlights her determination and that hope comes from the most unlikely places, so it wasn't as depressing as I feared initially.

Julie also crafts the dynamic between Briony and Toven beautifully, which of course is central to a good fantasy romance. Toven resists the Bombardi's war crimes as much as he can, which I appreciated because it would have been really hard to root for him and Briony if he was unredeemable. Obviously he isn't all good, but he constantly tries to respect Briony and stave off his "friends'" attempts to humiliate her and sexually assault her, and there's an explanation for everything he does that seems off. We also occasionally get chapters from when Briony and Toven were together at school, which provide helpful context and make it seem more realistic that Briony is willing to trust Toven even a little. This book is extremely steamy in such a creative way - Toven is very careful not to initiate physical intimacy with Briony for the most part, but Julie creates tons of opportunities for Briony and Toven to feel the attraction between them and imagine acting on them. The sexual tension is absolutely delicious.

The world is also interesting, and it left me wanting to know more about how the different types of magic works, which is always fun. I am devastated I can't read the sequel until next summer!!!

I'm happy for Briony that Rory is alive, and obviously I don't know where the story is going, but I hope we get to see Briony fully coming into her power as the most powerful Rosewood and the heir twice over (I assume). There's such a great thread about Briony being told to hide the depths of her power all in favor of her brother appearing stronger, and how sexist and patriarchal all of that is, and I really hope the next book draws that out.

Content Warnings

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