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akacya 's review for:
Never the Roses
by Jennifer K. Lambert
2025 reads: 198/300
i received a complimentary audio copy from the publisher as part of their influencer program. this did not affect my rating.
exhausted from fighting endless wars, the dread sorceress oneira decides to retire. when she’s (mostly) alone at last, she quickly grows bored. this drives her to make a trip to the most extensive library in existence…which also happens to be the home of her most powerful rival, the sorcerer stearanos. she accidentally initiates a forbidden correspondence when she steals a book from him, and she soon learns that he is tasked with waging war on the queen she once served. all signs are telling her to stay away from him, but she can’t deny the growing attraction between them.
i would like to start this review by saying that, for some reason, i went into this thinking it was a beauty and the beast retelling. i have no idea what gave me this idea, but i could see a few similarities between this book and that story, though that definitely could have just been due to confirmation bias. either way, i agree with the ACTUAL comps, the witch’s heart and circe, much more, though this book was far more romantic than either of those (it is a romantasy, after all). i really enjoyed how we followed a retired, but bored, sorceress who wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted. her relationship with stearanos was very interesting since they had such a strong rivalry. we got both viewpoints, reflected in the audiobook as having two narrators (yay!), and i really enjoyed getting to know both of them this way. i would recommend this audiobook to romantasy readers.
i received a complimentary audio copy from the publisher as part of their influencer program. this did not affect my rating.
exhausted from fighting endless wars, the dread sorceress oneira decides to retire. when she’s (mostly) alone at last, she quickly grows bored. this drives her to make a trip to the most extensive library in existence…which also happens to be the home of her most powerful rival, the sorcerer stearanos. she accidentally initiates a forbidden correspondence when she steals a book from him, and she soon learns that he is tasked with waging war on the queen she once served. all signs are telling her to stay away from him, but she can’t deny the growing attraction between them.
i would like to start this review by saying that, for some reason, i went into this thinking it was a beauty and the beast retelling. i have no idea what gave me this idea, but i could see a few similarities between this book and that story, though that definitely could have just been due to confirmation bias. either way, i agree with the ACTUAL comps, the witch’s heart and circe, much more, though this book was far more romantic than either of those (it is a romantasy, after all). i really enjoyed how we followed a retired, but bored, sorceress who wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted. her relationship with stearanos was very interesting since they had such a strong rivalry. we got both viewpoints, reflected in the audiobook as having two narrators (yay!), and i really enjoyed getting to know both of them this way. i would recommend this audiobook to romantasy readers.