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A review by chaos_tempest
Blood Rose Rebellion by Rosalyn Eves
2.0
I received an e-arc from the author/publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Magic is reserved solely for the Luminates, or the aristocrats, through a binding spell controlled by the Circle. Anna is an unlucky Luminate, her gift for magic has never shown, leaving her "barren", until the night of her sister Catherine's society debut. Fueled by jealousy, Anna unknowingly breaks her sister's magic and is forced to leave the city for her grandmother's estate in Hungary. Once there, Anna comes across many people, revolutionaries, that believe the Binding should be broken, freeing magic, and they believe that Anna's new power is the key to doing it.
What can I say about this book? The first thing I noticed, it has a very slow start. I was going to DNF it, which I rarely if ever do, before I hit 15%. And it wasn't until much later, probably over halfway through, that it picked up enough that I became truly absorbed in the story.
Anna is an indecisive character, and because of her upbringing she acts in an annoying fashion towards those she views as having a lesser station than her, mostly by this I mean she acts wrong towards the Romani she comes into contact with. It was almost like she expected them to willingly teach her how to use their form of magic, even if it was against their rules, and then she becomes frustrated when she is expected to follow her new teacher's rules. It's not that she was outrageous or anything, just extremely ungrateful.
I enjoyed the setting quite a bit, it's not often that I get to read a book set in Hungary. Oddly enough, I've never really learned much about Hungary, so it was nice to learn a bit about local folklore and whatnot, now it's just a matter of finding out how accurate the depiction is. On that note, I would like to have seen more of the Romani, their beliefs and practices, that would have been really cool.
Although I did end up enjoying the story, there was not anything outstanding about it, there isn't anything that is going to stick with me for days, or even hours really. The characters didn't really stand out to me, I regularly forgot their names or relationship to Anna. That being said, it did end at an interesting spot, so I will end up checking out the next book with higher hopes.
Magic is reserved solely for the Luminates, or the aristocrats, through a binding spell controlled by the Circle. Anna is an unlucky Luminate, her gift for magic has never shown, leaving her "barren", until the night of her sister Catherine's society debut. Fueled by jealousy, Anna unknowingly breaks her sister's magic and is forced to leave the city for her grandmother's estate in Hungary. Once there, Anna comes across many people, revolutionaries, that believe the Binding should be broken, freeing magic, and they believe that Anna's new power is the key to doing it.
What can I say about this book? The first thing I noticed, it has a very slow start. I was going to DNF it, which I rarely if ever do, before I hit 15%. And it wasn't until much later, probably over halfway through, that it picked up enough that I became truly absorbed in the story.
Anna is an indecisive character, and because of her upbringing she acts in an annoying fashion towards those she views as having a lesser station than her, mostly by this I mean she acts wrong towards the Romani she comes into contact with. It was almost like she expected them to willingly teach her how to use their form of magic, even if it was against their rules, and then she becomes frustrated when she is expected to follow her new teacher's rules. It's not that she was outrageous or anything, just extremely ungrateful.
I enjoyed the setting quite a bit, it's not often that I get to read a book set in Hungary. Oddly enough, I've never really learned much about Hungary, so it was nice to learn a bit about local folklore and whatnot, now it's just a matter of finding out how accurate the depiction is. On that note, I would like to have seen more of the Romani, their beliefs and practices, that would have been really cool.
Although I did end up enjoying the story, there was not anything outstanding about it, there isn't anything that is going to stick with me for days, or even hours really. The characters didn't really stand out to me, I regularly forgot their names or relationship to Anna. That being said, it did end at an interesting spot, so I will end up checking out the next book with higher hopes.