So i really enjoyed this books. It features of main character Rose who is a witch who is nearing her 25th birthday which means she must get a consort or her spark will be gone forver. I really liked her as a character as she was really focused on her goal and thoguht for what she believed in. She had 4 boys who were non magic who were like her best friends from child hood that she was rekindling a friendship with now that she was home. I liked reading the scenes where they were together as it showed that they had change but also that their friendship hadnt even if circumstances were different. I liked the mystery aspect and how they were all being detectives. What i liked was trying to work it all out alongside them while reading. This book does feature an arrange consorting like an arranged marrage which i didnt mind as at the begining  thought derek who was her to be consort was a nice enough chap and didnt see anything wrong with him. 

This book was very Steamy come the last half and i was not expecting it. It was a bit uncomfortable to read luckily i listened to it on audiobook but it definatley gave more depth to the story and was needed.

The steaminess of this book is off the charts, the story though? I found it lacking. I didn’t really like Rose, she irritated me. I could only imagine her voice as whiny. The way she kept saying “my guys”. She didn’t own them… It was a different take on witches though, and how they got their magic, and it’s the men who are lacking in the magic department for a change. The story did flow well though, and the cliffhanger has me intrigued but I probably won’t follow it up with book 2.

So this book was interesting. I'd never read a reverse-harem story before, and - to be honest - didn't know that that's what I was picking up when I read this ARC. I think I missed the fine print and didn't fully get what type of book this was going to be. I was more than a little surprised.

That being said, here I go.

Our main character, Rose was nice enough. She didn't seem to have much of a stand-out personality. I couldn't get over the name at first. This is a book about witches, and has a character called Rose Hallowell. All I could think of at first was Rose McGowan and the Halliwell sisters of Charmed. That's just a small aside. I really liked the idea of Philomena. That was certainly a creative friendship.

The book was well-written with some nice imagery to tide it over. I particularly liked whenever Rose would describe her 'ribbon', some really beautiful moments were tied together in those instances. I think the world-building was rather lax, and could definitely be improved on. I cared more about those instances than what was happening with Rose and 'her boys'.

I always love a fairytale, so I appreciated the quasi-gothic atmosphere that Chase was trying to create. I do believe the tropes of fairytales were leaned on a lot, but I actually love that. I would say, however, that tropes in general were rather heavily leaned on. Most of the boys didn't have much of a distinct personality, and what they did have seemed rather basic.

The overall issue I would say with this book is that it didn't feel like its emotional level met its content. Rose and the boys are - surprisingly to me - meant to be 24/25. They come off as 16 year olds. This book doesn't have the depth and expansion you would expect of an adult novel. It felt like a juvenile YA novel, but with a spot of sex thrown in. More than a spot. With the sex removed, it would be a YA novel. Even the sex scenes were a little bit... YA (gasp!)

I know it sounds like I'm bagging on the book. I guess I'm just not the target audience. It felt like a plotline I'd read a hundred times, with characters I'd seen a hundred times, but with some sex scenes that really confused its rating. Because I didn't have much of a connection to the characters, the sex scenes didn't even really impress me much (TM Shania Twain). I understand that these types of books aren't really designed for depth, or can even achieve depth and still remain what they're supposed to be. That's fine. I think I'm too old, and have read too much to enjoy this book.

Consort of Secrets isn't really the book for me, but - for what it is - it is a fun and light read that I'm sure will please a lot of people.

I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a breath of fresh air since it was a break from all the other heavier reading I might do. I'd call it one of my guilty pleasures. I really enjoyed it. So much so, that I bought the second book in the series already, and pre-ordered the third; I need to know how this finishes! Granted, it doesn't have the deepest plot line, but sometimes a girl just needs to read about another powerful woman who just has her own personal harem of hot men.
I'm hooked and looking forward to the next two books.

I really enjoyed this book, it was very easy to read and was very character driven, which I love.

After reading this book, I learnt what a 'reverse harem' was - which is always interesting! In this book, the heroine gets to skip the angst of deciding which preternaturally hot man she's going to keep and just keeps all of them. Each man has his own distinct personality and style, so they're not all generic 'sexy love interest' and they have their own ways of interacting with each other and Rose, the heroine.

Rose is a witch in a world where only women from witching families have magical powers, these powers can only be ignited when the woman binds herself with a man who will then essentially fuel her power source. This isn't something I've come across before and I was intrigued with the idea of only the women having power and how the gender dynamics would work. She's intelligent and capable, she needs help from the men in her life in order to save herself rather than taking a backseat and letting them do all the rescuing.


The majority of the story is Rose getting reacquainted with her boys, but with a thread of mystery throughout which felt like it finished in a bit of a rush but was still very enjoyable! I think there's a good chance I'll be reading the rest of this series.

I loved that book very very much!
I am amazed at the writing of the author and I loved the action and the characters.
The first thing that got to me was the title and I immediately decided that I wanted this book ad that I wanted to read it ^^
I am not disappointed and I hope everybody else gets to enjoy it as much as I did.

In my recent foray into the work of Reverse Harem, I haven’t come across many that I haven’t enjoyed. Most do a wonderful job of building up HUGE amounts of angst and romance, that get the reader almost desperate for the promised “love connection” that these books promise. And when I mean love connection, I mean love with 3+ men.

In Chase’s CONSORT OF SECRETS the promise is five men. The main character Rose is a witch, in a world that knows they sort of exist, but does not openly admit their existence. Rose was friends with a group of boys as a child, a young girl on the verge of womanhood. Her father and stepmother on discovery of her friendships tore her away and forbad her from seeing these boys. Now over ten years later she’s back, engaged, but she can’t forget her boys. When she returns home, she discovers they haven’t forgotten her either.

The sexual tensions is almost immediate between Rose and your childhood friends, which is great for me, because I do think that the angst is the best part of this genre. But, paired with this is also a fantastic world that Chase has built. There is a lot of focus on the world building, which you don’t normally get in these very romance driven books. Does the world building kind of make the romances a little hasty… probably. But, if Chase would have put more into the romance, the world would have suffered – and I need to know about this world.

There was also a good mystery built into it – which I’m dying to find out more about. The interaction with the stepmother and fiancé is also pretty intriguing. I did think I had some of it figured out, but Chase did surprise me in the end with how she handled it. My overall take on this book was that I can’t wait to read the second one!

If you are looking for a good adult reverse harem, with a good bit of heat, but not all the focus on romance. This is the one for you. It’s also a good transition into the genre pick.

I have read a few reverse harem stories, but never really sought them out. CONSORT OF SECRETS sounded intriguing so I figured it was worth a shot.

Rose is a witch and it's time to take a consort and gain her magic or lose it forever. The problem is, is that her family and her betrothed are hiding things from her. Not only that, but she is drawn to her childhood friends more than the man she is expected to spend the rest of her life with.

I enjoyed the storyline. There was a lot of mystery involved in finding out what was going on as well as the history of the witches in the the story.

It was interesting watching Rose navigate the different feelings and connections she had with the different men. They are all pretty different, but she definitely connects them all. There is a lot of sexual tension in CONSORT OF SECRETS and the actual sex scenes were well done and not over-the-top. I look forward to learning more about the 4 men we have already met and finally meeting the 5th mysterious man that rode in during the last paragraph.

After finishing CONSORT OF SECRETS I decided I really do enjoy reverse harem and have started seeking others out. I am really interested in seeing what comes after Rose's decisions and I look forward to reading CONSORT OF THORNS.

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

It's not you Consort of Secrets - it's me. I don't know what I expected but I didn't expect this. I don't normally read Reverse Harem (I learned that this is what it's called by another review). While I find the premise interesting, I don't easily fall for this reading. The sex scenes were written good and the author obviously KNOW how to write engaging and nice stories, it was just not a story for me this time.

I'm therefore giving it a 4 star. Based on that I found the sex scenes entertaining and they weren't poorly written.

I received a free copy of this book through Netgalley.

Rose Hallowell needs to get married. In order to procure her full powers as a witch in her matriarchal society, she needs to take a consort by the time she turns 25, which is imminent. Her chosen fiancee is the best she could hope for. She likes him, and he's been approved by her family. When she returns to her childhood home to prepare for her consort ceremony, she is greeted by four of the five non-witching boys she had become close to eleven years ago, before her family found out and forbid her to ever see them again. When Rose begins to suspect that her stepmother and fiancee are plotting against her, the only ones she can trust to help her gain her full powers are "her boys."
Rose is confident and smart, fact-checking her decisions before making them and then standing her ground even when they're unorthodox. Her "boys" are likable, and I appreciated that the male possessiveness so prevalent in romance was nowhere to be found here. The polyamorous relationship was full of love, respect and understanding. The boys stood behind Rose to help her when she needed them, but otherwise were fine letting her have the spotlight.
The story is well-written, fast-paced, and easy to follow. Rose is frustrated when she is mocked for reading novels, but never apologizes for it--something that made me fond of her right away.
I would have liked to have learned more about Rose's imaginary companion Philomena. Why was she a part of Rose's life? Is she a paranormal aspect of this world, or a mental creation of Rose's? Also, I would've liked to have learned more about Rose and the boys' backstories. How did they meet? What did they do when they hung out together? Why do they have such a connection?
This was my very first "reverse harem" romance, but it won't be my last. The easygoing nature of the romance was refreshing and sweet.
I found this to be a pure feminist love story about how love can come in many forms, and how it can be used to raise each other up. I would recommend it to adult fans of Maggie Stiefvater and Harry Potter.

I love this book! a must read cant wait until her next one.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Unique story line with interesting characters.

I voluntarily read an advanced copy.

Very short read. Could be a little better with the plot and stories but overall was a nice read. I would recommend.

Johanna Sawyer's review Mar 29, 2018 · edit
really liked it

Thanks Netgalley for a copy to read and review


Wow, this really wasn't what I expected to read. A witch needs to marry another witchy consort by the age of 25 or lose witchiness forever... well ok. Where do the four young men come in? This book was obscene but more than I bargained for. I assumed she'd take one or maybe two but damn. I've been teachered. Treacherous step mothers be damned... Rose will stop at nothing to be a witch. The power of four consorts must be better than one....right? Cliffhanger ending....more books to come. Four stars of entertainment.

Consort of Secrets is an intriguing and steamy read, and I'd encourage fans of paranormal (witches, specifically) with an open mind about romance (hello, reverse harem) to give this book a shot!

Eva Chase does a nice job building the magical elements of the plot with enough backstory to make me buy into the lore of this specific series, all while including some steam! It's definitely a bit of a slow build (see "building the magical elements of the plot" comment), but it's worth the wait. Though we get mostly Rose's POV, I appreciated that POV occasionally switched to one of the guys'. Other than the reverse harem aspect, I'd actually consider the romance fairly tame. Explicit, yes. But nothing dark or taboo.

This book is in 4-star territory instead of 5 because some pieces of the plot don't quite live up to my expectations. For me, magic-involved stories walk a fine line and you have to really convince me of it's limits and abilities: what exactly can magic do? It's difficult to work magic into a story and not leave me questioning "wait you can do this but not that?" While there was more than enough backstory development to move the story along logically and nothing was explicitly missing, I found myself just wanting a little more at times.

It is book one in a connected series, so yes, there are unresolved elements at the end, but it's honestly a quite satisfactory "pause" in the story. I'm interested in reading on, but not cursing at my Kindle for its lack of the next installment.

Consort of Secrets was my second time reading an Eva Chase novel. I hadn't read the prequel (Rose's Boys), but I'm happily getting that emailed to me now, so I can check it out.

Let's start with what I liked: I liked what Chase started to build with her concept of witches. In Rose's world, witches are women who carry a spark of magic. However, that magic isn't fully under their control (or even fully activated) until they formally "mate" with a consort, a male with a genetic connection to witches.

This genetic quirk is what gets Rose into her current predicament. If she doesn't connect with her consort by the age of 25, that magic spark, her magic potential, will expire, and she'll be little more than an ordinary human. Unfortunately for Rose, who's dangerously near 25, this means she pretty much has to marry the best of the sparing options out there.

I was pretty interested in this take on witches, and I'd like to learn more about it. It seems that there's a governing body as well as strict social guidelines and values that shape the way Rose is raised and educated. Unfortunately for me, there's not a ton of world-building. The plot was more focused on moving through the current action without as much cushion being provided to understand the social and governmental world of the witches.

That being said, I don't think the lack of world-building really affects the reader's ability to understand Consort of Secrets, but I think we'd be able to connect more with Rose's struggles if we knew about the basis behind them.

Another bonus is that Chase is writing in the sub-genre, Reverse Harem. Basically, this means that Rose (and the reader) don't have to choose when faced with a variety of delicious male leads. Rose's "boys" aka her five closest childhood companions haven't seen her in 11 years, but that time apart has not dimmed their affection for her. Chase includes a variety of archetypes- the protective, sensible one (Seth), the intellectual/tech-nerd (Ky), artsy traveler (Jin), bad boy (Damon), and dependable backbone (Gabriel).

There's equal opportunity for readers to crush on whichever boy most fits your type.

Like her other series (The Dragon Shifter's Mates), the story is told through the female lead's point of view with various chapters dipping into the boys' minds. I've always been a fan of the mixed perspective method for telling stories, and I think it's a great tool for a story where so many characters are equally important. The little "sneak peeks" into the boys' minds help us get to know them more on an individual basis and to see their personal connections and feelings for Rose. Without them, I think it would be more difficult to connect with the men without them blending together.

Fair warning, this is not a slow burn romance. Although it takes awhile for the romance to really kick in, once it does, it's off to a quick start. If you're not looking for scenes involving multiple partners, this book is not for you. If you're totally cool with a polyamorous main character, go for it! Considering I've followed the Anita Blake series since its beginning, so, needless to say, I'm not shocked or scared away by polyamory.

I liked that the novel isn't just about the romance. There's an actual plot revolving around Rose's upcoming marriage/consort ritual and the machinations of her decidedly wicked stepmother. I thought that there was enough surprise in the conflict (and villain reveal) to keep me hooked, and Chase leaves a clear opening for continuing with Rose and her boys for at least another book.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Consort of Secrets, and I'll totally check out the next book, so I can learn more about the witch world, Rose, and her lovely men.

I have to admit that it had been positively ages since the last time I read a reverse harem novel.

And, Consort of Secrets is just the kind of book that if you are even a little bit interested in that genre, your interest is sparked right away. In a major way.

First things first, what amazed me more about this book was the fact that the pages were flowing so easily and quickly, that I ended up devouring it in almost one sitting. It was perfectly written, with the story progressing in just the right pace, and, I might add, seemingly effortlessly by the author.

The combination of a well-thought plot and a great talent in writing, provides amazing results.

Rose is a great heroine, one I definitely enjoyed reading about. She even has as her 'imaginary' best friend, a character from her favorite book. And, believe me, there had been countless times in the past when I would fantasize about being best friends with my favorite heroines, too.

Another interesting trivia was that Rose and I had the exact same age in the start of the novel. 3 months to becoming 25 years old.

It was such an awesome coincidence to be able to identify with so many of Rose's attributes, that it just had to be added to my enthusiasm.

As for what makes the book fall into its genre?
This harem was literally goals, consisting from so many different types of men. From the always helpful and charming Ky to the bad boy Damon, and everyone else in between.
Just like our heroine, I found a hard time not to be mesmerized by each and every one of these boys.
The author did an amazing job in describing all of the romantic interests both physically, but most importantly, emotionally and behavior-wise.

All in all, 5 glorious stars for a read that made me feel for the heroine and her harem, made me swoon, and most of all, made me deeply admire and fan-girl over the author's writing.

Rose Hallowell is a witch.

Rose Hallowell is also trapped — in her childhood estate, in an arranged marriage, and in her stepmother’s nefarious plot. She’s also running out of time. By her next birthday, if Rose doesn’t take a consort (read: a husband), she will never activate her magic.

Consort of Secrets, the first book in Eva Chase’s new paranormal romance series, follows Rose’s return to town, her attempts to escape her evil stepmother, and the romance she kindles with her childhood friends.

Friends that grew up hot.

My oh my, will this book make you blush!

Note that this book does contain detailed, steamily-written sex scenes (culminating in a very climactic scene near the end of the book — pun intended), so be mindful that this is not a chaste YA romance.

The evil stepmother plot lurks in the background for most of the book, leaving the majority of the reader’s time to get to know each of Rose’s boyfriends better.

I’ll hand it to Ms. Chase — she’s got something for everyone: your misunderstood ‘bad boy,’ your passionate artist, and a set of twins for good measure. Each chapter explores Rose’s relationship with her ‘boys’ and the romantic feelings she develops for each of them.

I was a little disappointed because this book is light on the ‘supernatural’ aspect of the romance. Since Rose hasn’t taken a consort, she can’t do much in the way of magic. Further, the book doesn’t feature a lot of world-building magic lore. I expected more of a magical, plot-driven coming-of-age a la Beautiful Creatures, but instead, the book leans more heavily (albeit, successfully) on the reverse harem romance.

Consort of Secrets is an excellent addition to the reverse harem romance genre – the male leads are individually varied and equally compelling, leaving the reader with four romance novels for the price of one!

Oftentimes in the romance genre, it’s hard to find a balance between plot and smut. Consort, even though sometimes it toes the line, never ends up crossing it. Chase brings all of the heat and romantic tension without compromising a healthy dollop of plot.

The characters and language read more like a YA book, but I was intrigued by the relationship the main character and her love interests had, and the setting and world the author built. The ending felt a bit abrupt. On the whole it was not bad, but not great.

Ever since Reverse Harem Month, I've been keeping an eye on the subgenre. There's something extra delightfully naughty about not having to choose between your favourite types of heroes. You can have the bad boy, the nice guy, the dark and handsome figure... It may not be common in real life, but romance allows us to explore our fantasies, and having a group to give you the love you desire (physically and emotionally) is actually a rather nice one.

And you know what? This was a rather nice reverse harem story. It was easy to read, and very quick, too. It didn't take long to jump onto the action, and I had my suspicions and hopes set from the very beginning. The Big Bad was somewhat of a stereotype, but I was fine with that. And as much as I love my romance, it was sort of nice to see that Rose had bigger things to worry about, like making amends for the actions of her family and figuring out her own destiny, not just hooking up.

That being said, the steaminess was perfect. There weren't too many sexy scenes in this series starter, but they were delicious, and I have high hopes for the next book!

For the first page or so, I was confused, but I quickly latched on to the idea of Philomena. Rose is so lacking in friends for over a decade that she turns to books for support, and to one book in particular, Philomena's. Over time, Rose came to think of Phil as a real person, an imaginary friend who comes with her everywhere and makes amusing comments that no one else could make, as they'd be overheard. Yes, this is a bit sad and not exactly sane, but I kinda loved it??? It would be so much fun to have my favourite characters come to life and interact with me, even if no one else could see them.

I'm going to be honest and say that I feel like you have to judge reverse harem novels in a different way to other romances, and other paranormal stories. Unless you want an epic, you have to understand that there just isn't enough time for substantial paranormal world-building and character development of multiple main characters. There were quite a few gaps to the world, and so I'm left with a lot of questions. Hopefully, though, this is a series, and some of those questions will get answered later.

The important thing is that it scratches the itch its meant to. If you want fully fleshed out characters and magic systems and whatnot, turn to a fantasy. However, if you want to dream about having a bunch of handsome young men lavishing you with love and attention, then this is a good place to start.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.