⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

Buckle up, buttercup, because "Keeper of Scarlet Petals" just might sweep you off your feet and into a whirlwind of blades, banter, and budding romance! Our protagonist, Jasmine, is a sword-swinging, sass-slinging former thief turned reluctant guardian, tasked with protecting the life of a nobly born pain in the butt.

From the get-go, this book tosses you into the deep end of enchantments and sharp-edged confrontations, like attending a ball where everyone's hiding a dagger and a secret or two.

Imagine being Jasmine: you're trying to keep your head down, master the deadly dance of blades, and not get bogged down by pesky things like feelings. But then, BAM! You're assigned to protect Asher, a young noble with a smirk you might just want to smack or kiss (depending on the day), thrusting you into a deliciously tormenting enemies-to-lovers tango.

The magic system? Intriguing! The plot twists? Chef's kiss! Each chapter peels back layers of intrigue that had me glued to the page, whispering, "Just one more chapter before bed," until the sun peeked through my curtains. The romantic scenes sizzle with a spice that’ll make you fan yourself with the nearest hardcover!

I laughed, I gasped, I might've teared up a smidge—only to be left dangling on a cliffhanger that had me shouting, "Where's the sequel, and why isn't it in my hands right this minute?"

While I adored our jaunt through magic and mischief, I found myself wishing for a tad more lore—some juicy details about the history of the Sanctuary and those mysterious Starveins. Yet, for a debut, this tale packs a punch strong enough to knock the staleness right out of the fantasy genre.

So, if you're itching for a story where the swords are sharp, the magic is wild, and the romance brews hotter than a witch's cauldron, then "Keeper of Scarlet Petals" should definitely be on your TBR list. Here’s to hoping the next book arrives faster than Jasmine can unsheathe her sword!

Keeper of secret petals by A.N. Skye
Published by Aethon Books
4/5 stars 🌟

This plot was the perfect with a mix of adventure, found friends and a brilliant slow burn romance!! I was completely hooked and finished it in one sitting, it was a very easy read with very loveable characters, I absolutely loved how strong Jasmine and Asher were and I completely fell in love with Lydia and how unfiltered she was! I cannot wait to read more by A.N. Skye!

I would recommend to anyone trying to get into romantasy!!

Thank you to A.N. Skye, the publisher and NetGalley for this arc!

Unfortunately this book fell flat for me. The world building was lacking and we didn't really get any background to Jasmine's history other than she came from the slums but not even how she got out. I definitely wanted to know more about the sanctuary and the starvein and the xolani as we didn't get much. The romance between Jasmine and Asher was also pretty flat for me, there wasn't enough tension to call it a slow burn. It also felt more like a YA novel with how the characters were acting but they tried to gave some mild spice in it, but even that was borderline fade to black. Overall I was kinda bored reading this, probably should have DNF'd and I will not be reading the next book in the series.

I have been provided with a review copy of Keeper of Scarlet Petals from NetGalley for an impartial review. Oh my gosh this story was just epic. I just couldn’t put this story down and I was just captivated by everything that was taking place. The author truly outdid themselves with this story. This story just had my emotions all over the place and I am so sad to see this book end. I just can’t wait to see what’s next from this author.

Keeper of Scarlet Petals was an AMAZING story! The magic system in this book was easily one of the most unique magic systems I have ever come across, and I am really interested to see more of Jasmine and Asher learning about how this magic works.

The concept of the Keepers, the Xolani, and the Starvein was very compelling, and frankly the explanation of Keepers in Chapter One or Two had me hooked from the start!

As for characters? I am absolutely obsessed with Jasmine and Asher's banter! I really like both Riker and Qien and have high hopes that they are big parts of the Keeper of Scarlet Petals series as a whole, as I love when stories have really compelling mentor figures! Pina and Lydia are extremely fun characters with such distinct personalities that it's hard not to love them.

I loved this book, and look forward to see what happens next in the series!

This Review is/will be posted to Goodreads and Instagram. @dellasbookshelf
This Review may eventually be posted to StoryGraph, X, and InstagramThreads @dellasbookshelf

I absolutely loved that the female main character was the protector of the male main character! The dynamic between Asher and Jasmine is fun and full of flirty banter which I also enjoyed.

I would love to see more of a world building at the beginning to give a better sense of location and vibe, but the unique magic system is something that I haven’t seen before and I was still left excited to see what will happen next!

Lastly, I’m hoping that with Keeper of Scarlet Petals being marketed as a New Adult book it transitions into truly becoming that-if not progressing into more. I felt that while I still enjoyed it, the feel of the story stayed mostly in Young Adult.

This was a very fast-paced, suspenseful, easy read. In this world, magic can be used only by nobles known as Starveins. However, magic can easily overwhelm an individual and cause them to go insane, so casting is very slow. In order to protect Starveins while they are casting, the kingdom pairs them with a "keeper" who, among other things, physically protects them in any ongoing fight. Jasmine and Asher are training in the academy of the Sanctuary as keepers and are rivals-to-lovers who get sucked into fighting against a treasonous group of mages after the group murders Asher's family and Asher is forced to leave keeper academy to learn magic as a Starvein. This book pulls you in from the very beginning.

I wanted to like this book. The concept is good, and the tropes are right up my alley—strong female main characters, forced proximity, hidden identities. But unfortunately the poor writing really took me out of it. The worldbuilding is shaky, and the characters were flat. The relationship was very sudden as well, and it almost didn’t feel deserved. She goes from realizing she likes him to being in bed with him in just a handful of pages, and it felt jarring.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the copy of this book, despite its flaws.

3.5 ⭐ rounded up
1 🌶️

<u>Keeper of the Scarlet Petals</u> by A.N. Skye is a new adult romantasy that takes you on a wild ride. Jasmine is a Keeper, trying to start fresh after growing up in the slums. In her first year at the magical college, Sanctuary, she is assigned to protect a young nobleman who's whole family was slaughtered. Unfortunately, the nobleman she is tasked to protect, Asher, doesn't want her protection. He is cocky and feels like he can do whatever he wants, making her job harder than it needs to be. It takes an assassination attempt on his life for them to realize this won't be a normal assignment and there is a mystery taking place that needs to be solved.

I think the romance is meant to be enemies to lovers, but they aren't enemies at all... at most its reluctant lovers. The romance was sweet, the spice was MEH - not bad, but honestly not very memorable.

The world building was a bit lacking as I wanted to know more about Sanctuary and the history of the Keepers and Starveins, however, the twists and turns of the plot definitely kept me satisfied enough. The romance was entertaining and it felt like a great debut to hook us into a new fantasy world.

<i>The first 20% and the last 20% were great. Everything in between was lackluster at best. </i>

🍳 You'll love this is you really love scrambled eggs... 🙃🙃🙃

🥀 Upper YA (Lower NA w/Mild spice)
🥀 Twists & Turns
🥀 Intriguing magic system
🥀 Forced Proximity
🥀 Bodyguard - she protects him!
🥀 Banter & strong friendships
🥀 Epilogue cliffhanger

I really enjoyed this book, even though I find it hard to get through most YA titles, this one was not the case. It kept my engaged throughout the entirety of the book. I do wish there was a little bit more of world building throughout.

*ARC received from Netgalley - all opinions are my own*

TLDR: Leans a little more YA than NA but enjoyable nonetheless and think most world enjoy despite its flaws. For a debut I felt that the author did a fab job and I'm interested in where the series will go!

Despite its flaws, I absolutely ate this book up within 2 days. I think it was an easy-going book that did a great job of hooking into the plot within a few chapters and kept you there, even through the flat moments.

I enjoyed the dynamic shift with our female lead being the “protector” of our male lead but not falling into the trap of making him defenceless or useless. Both characters were well fleshed out with their own unique strengths and weaknesses and the partnership felt equal between them.
The only thing that doesn’t quite fit is how, when under extreme danger and not connected to Jasmine, Asher doesn’t fall back into his keeper training and just utilise basic self defence? It seems a bit unrealistic that he was nearly always being moved by Jasmine whenever he was, before her, the top keeper in combat

While we don’t get to see loads of the world or explore how the magic system works (as our two MCs aren’t sure either), there is more than enough there to intrigue me and keep me invested in what’s to come! It’s a unique magic system that I haven’t seen before and I’m excited to learn and see more!

Keeper of Scarlet Petals is marketed as NA but reads like it’s mid to late YA with moments that were firmly in NA territory. It slips to YA mostly in how our FMC Jasmine talks to her best friend Lydia and her Starvein Asher. Some of Asher and Jasmine’s moments were bordering a bit too young and almost cringy in the way that it was written, even some of the jokey scenes just seemed like it would appeal to a younger audience. There was enough maturity in the writing to where I still enjoyed reading, I just hope the next book moves a bit further away from YA.
I think this genre slip is also at fault for the “snap romance” we get, it’s a bit unbelievable and very insta-love in the style of YA.

All in all, Keeper of Scarlet Petals was a great read for me and I think A. N. Skye did a fab job for her debut book and I imagine she can only get better from here and I’m excited for what she brings out next!

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I found the overall concept of this book to be interesting and unique, in a world that I had never read before with Keeper's and Starvein's.

This book reads more like a young adult fantasy with some romance but minimal spice, so I do not think anyone would need to be worried about their middle schooler or high schooler reading this book (there is some swearing that occurs but that is also minimal). I feel like this book is mostly fast paced which is good, but there were definitely some areas that I felt went so unbelievably slow and took forever, to the point where I almost lost interest in this book.

I think this would be a good book for a young adult reader with an interest in a magical fantasy setting with strong main characters.

One thing I did not enjoy with this book is the insane amount of characters that were present. There were so many side characters like over 5 that had seemingly important roles in the book, and for me that was too many to try and constantly keep track of. Also, it seems like this book is dual POV but then it was difficult to differentiate which POV I was reading throughout the book.

Overall, strong 3.5 star read for me and if there is going to be more books in this world I look forward to reading them.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a free ARC for an honest review!
-----------WHAT I ENJOYED: ------------

- One of the main things that I really enjoyed about this book was the set up. We have a cool magic-school setting, with people training to either be Keepers (think housekeeper mixed with body guard), or to be one of the Starvein (magic users). It honestly gave me Vampire Academy vibes in how the dynamic works between these two groups, as the keepers are trying to protect the Starvein from magic-weilders turned evil. I really enjoyed seeing how the different groups get treated in terms of respect and experiences; it added another layer to the characters to get to understand their motivations.

- The plot was also super fast-paced and kept you on your toes. It was filled with assassins and magic and secret orders so you never fully knew who to trust. The author did a great job of balancing these stressful scenes with mundane scenes of school life, making you constantly paranoid and on-edge about what was going to go wrong next. I was seriously side-eyeing every character that we met because I simply trusted no-one!

- As well as the plot, our main character Jasmine was pretty interesting to follow! She had a rough background of growing up on the streets, and so the Keeper programme is all she has. So, we see her fight for this position, and her determination to keep going no matter what was thrown at her made her such a badass. Plus it was really nice to see her grow into her position, and develop her skills through trusting others and learning to accept people into her life.

- However, the side characters really stole the show for me!! Lydia and Pina were literally exact opposites, but that is what made them a breath of fresh air. Lydia has legit no fear - she is so bold and unapologetically herself, which was awesome to see. She is hilarious in how she asks no questions, is just ready to fight at all times. Whereas Pina is the calm and collected one; she really balances out Lydia's over-the-top personality and is really the voice of reason in the group. She was a character that really grew on me, and I ended up really liking her by the end of the book!

---------WHAT DIDN'T WORK FOR ME:-----------

- Even though I liked the main characters... I didn't love them. and that was mainly because I felt no connection to them. They fell really flat for me because we didn't know more than the bare minimum about them. We knew what their main motivations were, the base nature of their character...and that was it. I'm a character girlie through and through, so not connecting on a deep level with the characters really impacted my enjoyment of the story.

- I also thought that the romance between Jasmine and Asher, our other main character, was super rushed. We had no sense of how they acted with each other before the relationship other than seeing a few moments that made it clear that they were academic rivals. And then suddenly, there are feelings that felt like they came from nowhere. Usually, a well-paced romance can have me swooning, but when these two got together I was like...Okay then. Which is so sad. I feel like if this had been dual POV, the relationship might have felt a bit more natural? But, honestly, it just missed the mark for me, sadly.

- I know I said I loved the school setting and I stand by that...but that is all we know. We only know what is happening inside of Sanctuary; everything outside of that is just really fuzzy and underdeveloped. We have no idea of the political landscape of this world other than that there is a king, and we have no idea why the Keepers are actually needed to protect the nobles from the Xolani. Is it only the Xolani who they are protecting the Starvein from? It is mentioned that the Whitewater Kingdom isn't doing well, but why? We have all of these tidbits thrown at us, but have no real sense of what is happening in this fantasy world.

- I think this, along with the lack of development for the characters, made the story feel relatively surface level. Yes, it was intense and engaging, but it only landed in a place where it was okay.

---------OVERALL THOUGHTS---------
This was an okay fantasy read. While the plot was engaging and fast-paced, the lack of development, in both the characters and general world-building, made this fall a bit flat for me. However, if you just want a quick, fun and intense read then this is the one for you.

This was such a fun, unique, full of sparring and magic kind of fantasy! I enjoyed how fast paced it was and how it really got to the point of the story. While the romance felt a bit rushed it didn’t really take away anything from the book. The gender reversal in terms of Jasmine guarding Asher which was a fun perspective and their relationship dynamic was perfect. Anxious to see where the second book will take the two!

Thank you to Aethon Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Keeper of Scarlet Petals is a great fantasy romance with just enough world building to keep things interesting but not so much that younger readers would lose interest and get lost in the details.

There are 2-3 fade to black romance scenes with minimal details making it appropriate for most upper YA readers. The love side of the story is very slow burn and sweet; their coming together is organic and heartwarming. There’s lots of witty banter that kept me giggling.

Jasmine grew up in the gutters and Asher had problems of his own, but finding each other and the faith each has in the other pulls them both up to new heights.

There's also quite a bit of action and suspense in this story, with a plot twist or two that keep you guessing up until the very end! For lovers of action-packed fantasy romances, especially those looking for fade to black love scenes.

Thank you to NetGalley and A.N Skye for an ARC copy of this book. It was a privilege to read it.

Keeper of Scarlet Petals follows the story of Jasmine and Asher. Their trials and tribulations of learning how to be who they are as well as falling in love. It took me quite a bit to get into the book itself. There was a lot of "mystery" to how the world works, and I wish there was more world building. I understand the factions that are created in the story, but I want to know more about the world around them. It feels like A.N Skye was trying to present the world building based on what Jasmine (the FMC) knows about the world, but there was a lot lacking to help grow the story and tension.

There is some spice in the book. It is tastefully accomplished, and nothing is graphic. I would say its light PG-13 in spice scenes.

If you are looking for a semi fast burn, this is a good book for you. If you want advanced world building and a stable structure in which the book is based, then you might want to try something else or wait until the second book comes out. (I am assuming there will be a second with how the book ended.)

This was a problematic read: the characters are overidealized cardboard templates, the plot contrived, the writing simplistic, the worldbuilding non-existent, and the clichés heavy. Out of all those issues, I had the most problems with the very basic writing that felt more like a fan fiction than a published work (don't get me started on the anachronistic dialogue).

Story: Jasmine is treated poorly: she comes from the slums of the city and is of a racial heritage that is despised for their wanton magic use in the past. But she has no magic and has found a way out of the slums by using her fighting skills to become a Keeper - a bodyguard of the magic elite. Too bad she is too stupid for every other aspect of the position and failed everything but sword fighting. When she is assigned (before her training is completed) to an annoying young noble, she will have to use all her skills to keep him alive. He is being stalked by a secret organization hell bent on destroying his bloodline.

When the books begins, our heroine is sparring with a smug and handsome young man named Asher. As soon as I read the name, I knew a) this was her love interest and b) the book would lack originality, subtlety, and any kind of depth. 50% into the book I gave up - it was silly, the characters were unrealistic and illogical, the romance was a joke, the main character continually mouthed off to people and was obnoxiously rude (the trope that being rude means being spirited is so overused in YA) and could not body guard a kitten, nonetheless a human being. That anyone trusted her with her poor judgement was a joke.

Of course, she was thrown in with emo boy who seems to be a masochist since she physically and verbally abuses him most of the time. But hey, that's what love is built upon, right? Let's not even get into the ludicrous 'magic' and non existent worldbuilding that did nothing to prop up the cardboard characters.

This was a solid DNF - life is too short and there are far too many better books with which to invest my time. If you want a simple/simplistic romantic YA fantasy that skews somewhat young, here you go. A harmless Summer time waster. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

**Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC**

Honestly, the only thing I can really say about this book is that I am disappointed. It has such promise from the first third - the characters were intriguing, the world seemed interesting to dive into, and the plot seemed really cool too. However, the world building is what really killed the experience for me. I've read the entire book and still am confused about a lot of things with the world (the differences between Starvein and Xolani with what makes Keepers entirely different). There's a lot about the setting itself that wasn't clear either, like how the Sanctuary is set up and the school overall. The ending was also fairly predictable but honestly, that would've been entirely overlooked if it weren't for the lack of world building. 3 stars for the promise of what could've been :')

I couldn’t get into this at all, the ideas are incredible, but I just couldn’t get on with it, I’m not sure if it was the writing style or what, it just wasn’t for me unfortunately

Thank you to Netgalley for the arc!

This is a fast paced romantasy read that had me hooked from the start. I enjoyed this story, the characters were intriguing. There is some spice as well but it doesn't go to far so seemed more ya. There are some twists so that helps keep it going along to. I can see this story progress more and I'm excited for the next one.It was an enjoyable fantasy book!