aritalksbooks's profile picture

aritalksbooks 's review for:

The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith
2.25

I thought I was really going to enjoy this book because a regency era fantasy book with magic & fae sounds right up my alley. Unfortunately, this story felt very uninspired, tired & dull. 

This is the same exact plot (and twists) as at least two popular books. I get it. Sometimes you read something & you think “I want this same exact thing but slightly different”. If that’s you, you’ll probably love this book. I am just so sick of reading the same thing over & over again and there is no improvements on the story at all. 

Even if I did want to read the same thing, this book has several issues. 1) the pacing of the book. the trials seemed to rush by & everything else DRAGGED. 2)all the characters felt flat to me. I did like the individual chapters but did not actually care what happened to any of them. 3) Ivy was so passive as an FMC & I didn’t enjoy her for one second.  4)The romance (or lack thereof). It was so forced & didn’t feel genuine at all. 
I could recite every single thing I didn’t like about this book but it would take too long. 

I did like the setting & the premise of bargaining with the Queen. I think this book had potential but was not executed well & pulled too many ideas from different books instead of allowing its own story to take hold.