Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Rose in Chains by Julie Soto

107 reviews

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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: Complicated

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I love the idea of this trilogy. I love the characters, even though the FMC is a little bit insufferable and does not have the maturity of age and position she feels she should have. But oof oof.. the trauma in this book is heavy. If you're not about reading characters who can't exist without their trauma or further trauma happening to them and around them, this one is not for you. Dark. 

The storyline is also incredibly character driven, so if you're looking for story lines and plot, first book is very very slow and can almost be tedious on how everything focuses and circles back on the same obfuscation points. I hope as the trilogy comes out, it might expand in POVs. I really liked how the flashbacks were linked not only throughout the story but then also fully fleshed in their own chapter memories. The magic system seems to have a fairly good start but definitely needs to be fully fleshed more, especially when it comes to all of these different elixirs, spells, bonds, and other Magics and creatures. Definitely a top read for summer 2025, but has room for growth to elevated as so much more. 

Rating is rounded up because I loved the world & the characters so much. If I rated only based on pace and plot, this would be rounded down to a 3.5

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dark emotional tense
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
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.

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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. 

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dark emotional funny mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
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. 
_____ 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
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.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Not ashamed to say I came here from The Auction and I’m so glad I did. The changes were necessary and turned this ecstatic piece of HP love into a true entity all on its own. 

Some of the character name changes were a little silly. Veronika Mallow? VM? Really? Plus Briony and Rory same suffix, different spelling. Soto really did her best to keep the same amount of syllables for the same characters which I think was an interesting choice.

But the story itself? The magic system and world divide was imaginative and lush with possibility. I especially love that twist ending. It has the potential for what I had always hoped The Auction would—
an HEA for Garry fans.
For
Cordelia’s
sake, I hope it lasts into the next two books! Can’t wait for the next one in 2026!

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