Reviews - Rose in Chains | The StoryGraph

2.66k reviews for:

Rose in Chains

Julie Soto

4.22 AVERAGE

nicolelovesnails's review against another edition

5.0

emotional medium-paced

worldsbetweenpages's review against another edition

4.0

"Pages and words and information. Her favorite things."

(Post) war crimes
Dark romance
Rival kingdoms
Political intrigue
Captive x capturer
Trigger heavy

What I liked:

I’m usually not the biggest fan of flashbacks into the past, but I loved witnessing the characters during their school days! It added another level of insight and character development, and you could especially see how some students drifted to the dark side.

I also enjoyed how the character dynamics developed. Everyone had their own agenda, abilities, and motivations, but because of the mind magic they had to navigate around talking to each other. So interesting to witness them figure it out.

What I didn’t like:

Outside of the school and the limited bubble the main character has access to, I couldn’t quite grasp the social structures and everyday life of the wider population. Some people have magic and some don’t; how does that influence the social structures? What is technological level and what century is the world comparable to? It was all very vague for me.

Writing style: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Story & Plot: 4/5

Vibes: 4/5

averille's review against another edition

4.5

medium-paced

The names of the countries and characters are kind of absurd and often distractingly so, but I suppose that’s the romantasy trope… otherwise if you liked The Auction, you will enjoy this. It’s different for sure, with some of those key scenes returning and the tension btwn our favorite heroes all there. Unfortunately the slow burn nature of the original means we won’t see the steamy scenes until book 2 or - gasp - 3. What the heck! Gimme all three right now, I’ll buy the trilogy all at once!