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A review by syllareads
Rosemary & Iron by Dorian Valentine
2.5
For transparency's sake, let it be known that I have received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This does not impact my rating or review of this book. Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC before the book was released!
Unfortunately, this book was not for me. No one is more upset about this than I am! Magic, gay vampires, time travel, swooning romance - what's not to love about that! Apparently, quite a lot. Let's unpack my messy feelings about Rosemary & Iron, and why, after everything, I do still want to read the sequel, These Bittersweet Vines.
First and foremost, and unfortunately very important for books with such a focus on the romance part of them: I was not drawn in emotionally about the characters and their connection with each other. Celestin and Amias were fine enough specimen as they come but they did not make me feel emotionally invested in their story. Their love story felt both too drawn-out AND unexplored for me to be invested in it, and somehow, most if not all of their emotions felt pasted onto the page and less like genuine feelings the reader was supposed to pick up on. The "mystery" around Amias' nature was also fairly poorly done IMO. I have enjoyed multiple forms of media where the characters' vampiric nature is only a mystery to the characters and not the readers but somehow,Celestin's "surprise", or rather emotional shock at his lover's nature, did not feel genuine in the context of this book and for how long he'd been speculating (or at least idly wondering) about it.
Secondly, the story felt a bit of a mess. The first half of the book (roughly so) resembled a character study (without the characters being, well, actually studied) in its non-existent aim at anything. I quite like slow books, or meandering books with not much plot to them, but somehow, the book never drew me in with just the characters, either. Meanwhile, the second half felt like a strangely rushed mess. The Corruption, Ortherion and his father,,,,so many of these points seem to come almost out of nowhere. The resolution, in the end, seemed very neatly tied off for something so messy to begin with. Overall, some odd storytelling choices!
I do, however, want to read the sequel - partially because I do already OWN it and thus it'd be a waste to not at least TRY it, but mostly because It is from Ortherion's perspective - a character I found possibly the most intriguing out of the cast of characters presented to me in book 1. I'm intrigued to see how the author handles him now that he is in fact a POV character for longer than one flashback that handles his entire person as well as his relationship with Amias quite oddly.
Overall, I'm not sure I'd personally recommend this book - if you want to know whether you should read it (and support an indie author while doing so!), please go read some other reviews. There's quite a number of people who did in fact love this book! I am simply not one of them.
Unfortunately, this book was not for me. No one is more upset about this than I am! Magic, gay vampires, time travel, swooning romance - what's not to love about that! Apparently, quite a lot. Let's unpack my messy feelings about Rosemary & Iron, and why, after everything, I do still want to read the sequel, These Bittersweet Vines.
First and foremost, and unfortunately very important for books with such a focus on the romance part of them: I was not drawn in emotionally about the characters and their connection with each other. Celestin and Amias were fine enough specimen as they come but they did not make me feel emotionally invested in their story. Their love story felt both too drawn-out AND unexplored for me to be invested in it, and somehow, most if not all of their emotions felt pasted onto the page and less like genuine feelings the reader was supposed to pick up on. The "mystery" around Amias' nature was also fairly poorly done IMO. I have enjoyed multiple forms of media where the characters' vampiric nature is only a mystery to the characters and not the readers but somehow,
Secondly, the story felt a bit of a mess. The first half of the book (roughly so) resembled a character study (without the characters being, well, actually studied) in its non-existent aim at anything. I quite like slow books, or meandering books with not much plot to them, but somehow, the book never drew me in with just the characters, either. Meanwhile, the second half felt like a strangely rushed mess. The Corruption, Ortherion and his father,,,,so many of these points seem to come almost out of nowhere. The resolution, in the end, seemed very neatly tied off for something so messy to begin with. Overall, some odd storytelling choices!
I do, however, want to read the sequel - partially because I do already OWN it and thus it'd be a waste to not at least TRY it, but mostly because It is from Ortherion's perspective - a character I found possibly the most intriguing out of the cast of characters presented to me in book 1. I'm intrigued to see how the author handles him now that he is in fact a POV character for longer than one flashback that handles his entire person as well as his relationship with Amias quite oddly.
Overall, I'm not sure I'd personally recommend this book - if you want to know whether you should read it (and support an indie author while doing so!), please go read some other reviews. There's quite a number of people who did in fact love this book! I am simply not one of them.