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A review by ritualreads
Rose in Chains by Julie Soto

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

 
The war is over and the dark forces have won - princess Briony Rosewood and the remaining citizens of Evermore have been captured and auctioned off to the people of Bomard, their rival nation. Her brother is dead, her friends split up, and her childhood crush… purchased her.

The story goes between present day and the past, providing a good foundation of backstory throughout the novel to prepare the reader for what comes next. This provides helpful context, and helps the reader build an emotional bond to characters who are talked about in the present day, but seldom seen. Julie Soto does a great job of building the world, explaining how the magic works, and not overwhelming the reader with all the information at once. Instead, we are introduced to certain topics and explanations only as it becomes relevant, which really helped with the flow of the novel. 

Once I felt up to speed on the inner-workings of magic in this realm, and the tensions between Evermore and Bomard, I had already developed a fairly emotional bond to Briony. I loved that even from the beginning, the story felt both unique and comfortable. While not necessarily groundbreaking, it was creative and inspiring, and kept me intrigued. I always had a list of questions about what would happen next - and it was hard to predict.

There were many nuances as we were introduced to essential characters, but only slowly learned what we needed to know about them. Briony’s curious mind helped keep the reader enthralled about what each person’s role was in the bigger picture of the Bomardi line, and who was loyal to it.

The relationship building was particularly good. We saw it first with how connected she was to her people, and to her brother, Rory. While their childhood could have driven a wedge between the twins, their relationship was stronger due to their hardships - because he saw her value, and made sure she saw it too. 

“When they were very young, he used to say that they were answering the questions together, as a team”

We next saw the relationship grow between Briony and her captor, Toven Hearst. Throughout the book, we see the two as classmates, as enemies, and as captor/captive. The slowest of slow burns - politics mean that facing any feelings would risk the safety of many.

If you’re expecting a nice, magical romance, you’re in the wrong place. To me, the romance was secondary to the rivalry between worlds, the other relationships, and the plot to save Evermore. This is a fantasy through and through, with dark themes of captivity, human trafficking, non-consent, and s*xual humiliation. Definitely read your trigger warnings before jumping into this. That said, I thought they were handled very well and I was tied into every moment, desperate to learn more. 

This was the longest audiobook I’ve listened to, but I was so impressed that I never once felt bored or like the story wasn’t moving. There was always something to unravel and explore. I’m completely hooked and eager for book two. 

I only found out after reading that this was adapted from a fanfiction, but honestly, I never would’ve known if I hadn’t Googled it - it truly didn’t feel like one. If you love fantasy, adventure, and dark, brooding men… you will love Rose in Chains.

“She stared…listening to the echo in her ears of him calling her family”

I really think my only qualm with this book was how heavily it is marketed as a romance - I didn’t think the romance was the primary story, nor do I think it was developed enough to be considered the genre of the book. I would barely categorize this as romantasy… but I really hope book two changes that for me, because I can’t wait to see more of these two. In the end, the adventure and the mystery is really what captivated me, not the love story.

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