Rose in Chains by Julie Soto Series: The Evermore Trilogy #1
on July 8, 2025
Genres: Dark Fantasy, Fantasy & Magic, Romance
Pages: 464
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
Buy From a Local Indie
Goodreads
This beautiful DELUXE EDITION hardcover featuring gorgeous sprayed edges with stenciled art is only available for a limited first print run and while supplies last. This is a stunning special edition you will want to add to your collection.
YOUR NEXT ROMANTASY OBSESSION!
The war is over, the dark forces have won, and the hero who was supposed to save them is dead.
Captured as her castle is overrun by the enemy, Briony Rosewood knows that the world as she knows it is changed forever. The dark forces of Bomard have won and her people, the Eversuns, face imminent servitude, imprisonment or death. Her brother, fated to be heir twice over and unite the warring kingdoms, is dead.
Stripped of her Mind Magic and her freedom, Briony and the other survivors are quickly auctioned off to the highest bidders in an auction – and as the heir-apparent’s sister, she fetches the highest price.
After a fierce bidding war, she’s sold to none other than Toven a high ranking Bomardsun – and her long-time and ill-fated infatuation. Scion of a family known for their cruel control of Heart Magic, the Hearsts are ruthlessly ambitious, and Briony knows they will use her however they can to further their own interests.
Yet despite the horrors of her new world and the role she must learn to play within it, all is not lost. Help – and hope – may yet arise in the most unlikely of places…
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Why Did I Read?
I really liked Julie’s other contemporary romance Forget Me Not and this dark romance sounding super intriguing. Now — I do feel like I need to address the elephant in the room, the elephant being that a large portion of the book community is trying to boycott Julie and this book. Here are my thoughts regarding that: 1) Sure, this book may have started as a Dramione fanfic but so many books start out as some sort of fanfic. 2) Julie did not market Rose In Chains by mentioning HP at all and neither did her publisher. 3) If I hadn’t been told this started as Dramione fanfic, I actually wouldn’t have known. I don’t think that by supporting Julie you’re in some way supporting that other author. By that regard, we’d have to boycott HBO and Warner and a whole lot of other things. So there, that’s my two cents. I’m mostly blogging into the void so I’m not sure anyone will be significantly impacted by these thoughts but getting that out in the open.
My Thoughts:
We all know romantasy has been super popular lately and I think romantasy fans will also love this! It’s a dark romantasy with darker elements that should prompt you to check the trigger warnings so be aware of that. This was definitely compulsively readable; I kept wanting to keep reading to find out what happens. I really enjoyed the fantasy world that Julie set up and it felt like the magic was unique: you’ve got heart and mind magic and two countries who think their own magic is better. After attempts to blend and educate their youth together, they’re now at war. There is political intrigue and maneuvering and I was pretty engrossed in the plot!
That being said, there are dual timelines and I couldn’t help but feel that it didn’t need to be told with the flashbacks to the past. Yes, it did serve a purpose and fleshed out characters but at times, it really felt like it halted the pace of the story and felt redundant. I’m not sure what I would’ve preferred instead so maybe the dual timeline is the only way to tell the story but it kept the present timeline feeling slow.
Briony is our FMC and sometimes I wanted to shake her because it is so so obvious Toven is in love with you – but I guess that’s not the point of this slow burn enemies to lovers trope. I also wanted to know more about Mallow: I need more backstory to know why she is the villain. I need to know her motivator. What does she want? Why? And maybe I’ll just need to wait until the sequel to find that out.
View Spoiler »In short…
Overall, this was a pretty addictive read with interesting characters and a cool magic system and world I want to know more about!
| Rating Report | |
|---|---|
| Plot |
|
| Characters |
|
| Writing |
|
| Pacing |
 |
| Overall: | |
Leave a Reply