I’ve always found Christina Bauer’s books to be creative and immersive. This series is perfect for lovers of fantasy and retellings.

Bauer narrates her own audio book of this work and does it well. You get a real sense of how she intended her characters to sound.



This actually took me by surprise. I was expecting a low key fairy tale retelling geared towards a YA audience. Instead this was a snarky, modern set story about being forced to fit into a pattern or template that you have no interest in, and rebelling against it. It was sassy and fun, not taking itself too seriously. Frankly I could have done without the romance or the insta-mate think from the love interest but then I knew I would be getting some of that when I started the book. This is a sort of NA spin on stories like Seanan McGuire's Indexing series. If you enjoyed that, give this a try.

🌟 Calling all my fellow Bookish Werewolf enthusiasts! 🌟

Hold onto your magical hats as we dive headfirst into the captivating realm of "Wolves and Roses" by the talented Christina Bauer. This isn't your typical fairy tale – oh no, it's a twisty, turny adventure that'll leave you howling for more. 🐺🌹

Meet Bryar Rose, the descendent of mystical races who's supposed to fit the Sleeping Beauty mold. The catch? She's allergic to birds and her singing could shatter glass. And don't even get me started on the matchmaking aunties or the dreadfully dull Prince Philpot, aka "His Highness of Hedge Funds." 💤💸

But Bryar's not one to wallow. Enter Elle, her partner in crime, and their con-pulling escapades that'll have you in stitches. Yet, fate has other plans, and soon Bryar finds herself in magical therapy and face-to-muzzle with Knox, the dreamiest werewolf around. 🌙🐾

Hold tight as danger and destiny tango in this rollercoaster of a tale. Laughs are guaranteed, and you'll be enchanted by Bauer's seamless narration, which adds that extra sprinkle of magic to this already spellbinding audiobook. Don't miss out on the fun – Bryar's world is waiting for you. 🎧✨

Yours howlingly,

Mysterious Shy 🐾

Overall, this week was fine for his complaints, but I was mostly bore through a good chunk of it



Entertaining to a certain extent, but I don’t think for me

This is an engaging 'fairy tale' story with shifters, wizards, and fae. My rating 4.25.

Bryar Rose is one of the Magicorum and her life template appears to be sleeping beauty. But she hasn’t discovered any type of magic in her being and doesn’t seem to fully meet the template either. She’s stuck in a special school for students like her, who haven’t shown their magical abilities. The teacher is a bully, especially attacking Bryar.

Bryar’s three aunties are pushing her to date and marry Prince Philpot whom she finds greatly lacking. But Bryar loves to study hieroglyphs and historical papyri. She would rather work with her best friend, Elle (as in Cinderella – but don’t call her that), to sneak pictures of papyri while playing Robinhood by stealing items from the rich and returning them to the rightful owners.

Bryar slips out of a party with pompous Philpot to sneak pictures of papyri in the office of Alec LeCharme. She’s caught red-handed by Alec, a wizard, and his buddy, Knox, part werewolf. There is instant pull between Bryar and Knox even though they are both resistant. Both young men realize they want to have Bryar work with them as they are all trying to decipher the papyri which holds the secrets of magical code.

Knox, whose wolf wants to claim Bryar, begins to think there is something very special about her. He is inclined to follow to make sure she is okay. This turns out to be a good instinct although he isn’t in time to save Bryar from being kidnapped. Can Bryar figure out who she is and escape from the evil mummy zombies? Can Knox and friends get through the tangle of thorns to rescue Bryar?

Teenage angst is present but light in this entertaining story. The overall plot and character twists kept me engaged and I wouldn’t mind reading/listening to more in the series. I recommend this to fans of fairy tale retelling with magical creatures.

Audio Notes: The author does a fine job narrating her own book. Not surprisingly, she captures the pacing, the voices, and the energy. I enjoyed the narrated story.

Source: May 2023 NetGalley.

I was awarded this advanced reader copy free of charge in return for posting a review.

I loved the cover art and the narration was excellent . All the characters had their own distinctive voices and maner of speaking.

The moment i read the blurb i was hooked. My most favourite thing in the world is any kind of fairy tale retelling or reworking.

In this we find that Bryar Rose is supposed to be following the life template of Sleeping Beauty but all she really wants is to live the life of a normal human girl.

However, as so often in fairy tales life rarely goes the way you want. This book is full of fun and moments that will make you laugh and cry.

I throughly enjoyed this book and look forward to the next in the series.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange for and honest review.

I enjoyed listening to Wolves and Roses. I loved the fairy tale spinoff. I thought the book was exciting, fun, and had just enough romance. I think the characters were well developed and the story moved along at a great pace. I look forward to reading more by Bauer. This is the second book that I listened to by her and she doesn't disappoint. In both book series I liked the characters, plot and world building.
Bauer narrated the book and did a fantastic job. I highly recommend this book.

The book is a fun concept and the narrator has good inflection for each character. The concepts for the different factions is really cool and original enough. The fairy tale tie in is also interesting, but can be a little confusing at times. Otherwise, very good listen.

Bryar Rose is a descendant of the Magicorum, one of the three magical races (shifters, fairies, witches/wizards). Everyone who is Magicorum follows one of the fairy tale life templates. Bryar Rose's template is the sleeping beauty. She lives with three fairy aunties, and she has a sleeping disease, but in reality, she is nowhere near what she should be. So she is in magical therapy run by the Denari.

Her life growing up was very sheltered, she never went to normal school or take normal classes. Now her aunties are pushing her to get married to her fake boyfriend, who she can't stand, Philpot.

She and her best friend Elle tend to run schemes and cons. Elle is interested in returning the stolen jewels, but Bryar Rose is more interested in the papyrus the guys collect. One time she goes without Elle, she gets busted. There is meets Knox. He is a powerful werewolf and the guy she has been dreaming of.

As her birthday approaches, her life gets turned upside down.

It's a fast-paced story, with a new twist after every corner. It's seriously so good!

got the audiobook on Netgalley, all thoughts are my own

I loved that this was read by the author-- I always enjoy hearing how they read their own characters and worlds, and this one was done well! However, I enjoyed the story itself somewhat less. I was excited for the premise of this book but found myself wishing it was a true fantasy novel set in a distinct world rather than a paranormal romance set in our own with some tweaks. Something about the way it was done and how the characters were written (especially the dialogue) made this book feel very dated. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of paranormal YA novels from the 90's and early 2000's that have a place in my heart and a home on my bookshelf, but I think this would need to be something fresher or more interesting to stand out. I expected more from the characters due to how they were introduced, but the strong heroine was angsty and afraid of all conflict while the strong protector had a super whiny POV. Overall, I think this was a fun read, but it dragged at times and I just couldn't get past how juvenile and outdated the characters and their dialogue felt to really enjoy the story. That said, I think this will be an incredibly enjoyable read for the right audience.

I like the story idea. It’s a fantasy that’s fun to explore, but I don’t love the chosen vocabulary (swearing). If that doesn’t bother you, I’m sure it’s a great story, but I’m not sure because I couldn’t finish it.

Wolves and Roses-Audiobook
3.5 Stars
4 Narration



This book starts out slowly, and at times the story is weighed down by the emotional abuse our main character experienced throughout her life. Some of these scenes made me sad, uncomfortable and angry (for her). Listening to several scenes made me uncomfortable, and I considered stopping reading the book completely. Think cringe-worthy. When a book becomes too cringe, I close the book and move on.



Some of my favorite scenes are when Rose begins her journey of self-discovery. And a close second is the trouble that ensues in Rose's and her BFF's wake. The heartwarming scenes with Knoxand Rose were nice, and I appreciated that they seemed well matched.



Overall, Wolves and Roses is an enjoyable read. I love the fun scenes with Rose's BFF, Elle. She's a hoot! The narration was pretty good, though I found this book difficult to listen to.

This book was fabulous! I came right home and had to tell everyone about it! Can't wait to read the others in the series!

Utterly enchanting! I was intrigued by the concept of this book, and really enjoyed both the story itself and the authors narration in the audiobook. Wolves and Roses is book one in this fairytales with a twist series . I'll definitely be going on to read the rest.

Bryar Rose is a sleeping beauty fairytale template, except she is the complete opposite of who she is supposed to be.

I loved Bryar Rose's sass, wit and strength, as she deals with her tutor and aunts. Her friendship and illegal antics with Elle (her Cinderella Template best friend) was definitely one of the aspects that made this book.

Her blossoming attraction to Knox, is another. When she meets the powerful alpha werewolf shifter, things take some interesting turns and their connection is magnetic.

I thougherly enjoyed the authors narration and the way she brought the story to life. Fairytales are definitely better told and this book was no exception. Enchanting, captivating and a great fantasy world. This story also includes some action packed darker twists and fight scenes (no spoilers)

This YA fairytale vibes story is perfect for fans of books with shifters, magic and paranormal romance.

A clever way to retell a classic tale
One way to know if I enjoyed a book that’s the first of a series is whether I’ll want to read the next one. In the case of Wolves and Roses, I definitely want to read the next one. This is not a typical Sleeping Beauty retelling, so it’s refreshing to see a new take on how to retell a classic story, especially when that take includes deep irony in the idea of “templates.” Without revealing any spoilers, Christina Bauer handled the idea of a “sleeping beauty” very cleverly in the book, with a sort of narrative double intendre that could have flopped but instead worked.
The relationship between Bryar Rose and her best friend was just as enjoyable — if not more — than the Bryar’s growing relationship with Knox, and the snarky, sarcastic attitude of Bryar and her best friend hit all the right notes. Prince Philpot is a bit overly flat, but I suppose that’s somewhat the point in the story, and the evil that we discover did feel a bit hokey, but it was also fun in its own way. I wouldn’t say the book blew me away, but I definitely enjoyed it enough to continue reading the saga and recommend it to others, and the audio version’s narrators did a great job of representing the characters.
This review is based on reading a complimentary advance reader copy of this book from NetGalley.

I enjoyed it but it did start off a but slow. As the story went on it got a lot more interesting and I was invested in knowing what was happening next. By the end I really wanted to listen to the next one!

The narration was well done and I enjoyed it.

Ever After High is brought to light with murder intrigue and a dastardly plot! Five minutes into chapter one of Wolves And Roses by Christina Bauer book 1 Fairy Tales of the Magicorum series I was singing (S)He Had It Comming-Cell Block Tango, It's A Hard Knock Life-Annie, and the part of Revolting Children that has been trending on TicTok. Needless to say I couldn't put down and was a great read!
#NetGalley #NetGalleyReader

What a surprise! The premise of this book might seem a little childish with the Happily Ever After/fairytales elements but I really enjoyed this YA romantasy.

The world building is clear and the characters are likable. I felt like the magic system was easy to understand and I enjoyed the characters development as the story went on. Would I say this is the best fantasy I've read this year? Maybe not but it was a good fantasy series to pick up and read with low stacks. It was not too complicated and it had fated mates trope as well as the chosen one tropes so it had elements that I already knew I loved. I am not always a fan of YA but this one was really enjoyable. I can see myself listening to the rest of the audiobooks.

I would recommend this to anyone looking to a low stacks YA fantasy with a cool magical system. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this story.

2.5 Stars 🌟

I'm grateful for NetGalley giving me the opportunity to listen to this audio ARC. I'm always a bit hesitant to listen to an author narrating her own book - my experience has been both really good and REALLY bad. In this case, it was neither. It wasn't great, but it wasn't too bad.

I thought that this was another "new to me" author but after finishing this book I went and looked back and realized that I had read one other book by Ms. Bauer and unfortunately it was a DNF for me.

I DID finish this one, but I will admit that it was a bit of a challenge. This book felt like it didn't know what it wanted to be. It straddled the line between YA and Adult but it did it in a way that left the reader (that would be me) feeling very uncomfortable with the ages of the young women in the Magicorum and the situations they found themselves in.

Also, the writing was very inconsistent. One minute the FMC Briar Rose (who was only 17 years old at the beginning of the book) sounded like a teenager from the 90's - it felt..."forced" and definitely not natural. Then, in the next breath, she was sounding way too mature for her age. It made it really hard to stay invested and it kept pulling me out of the story.

So, I will not be continuing on with this series.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen and review this ARC. The opinions above are mine and mine alone.

Oh my goodness this book was paranormal fun in a super sassy package all tied nearly in a gimme-more kidna bow!!! Add in the fantastic audio performance by the author and 5 stars ain't enough!! Christina Bauer is quickly becoming an autobuy author for me!