The Ghosts of Rose Hill, has a fast rhythmical flow that sweeps you up in lyrical magical prose catapulting you into the haunting coming of age/love story of a you girl and a cemetery ghost,
Although it may sound strange, it works! It’s beautiful and captivating and her characters are multilayered and compelling.
I loved, loved, loved this story and can honestly say I have never read anything like it.
Filled with tension and family dynamics, Illana visits with her Aunt for the summer in Prague and contemplates her future desires to be a violinist and while her father pressures her to peruse other options. The tone of the story is further developed when Iliana becomes passionate as she cares for a local cemetery and meets the ghost.

I look forward to more books from R.M. Romero and would like to thank Peachtree Press and #NetGalley for the advanced digital copy of this book.

“And the most impressive monsters are always the least impressive men.”

Written entirely in verse, this gorgeous novel captured my full attention as I read.

A wonderful, romantically told story, even when the author addresses the atrocities of war, refugee parents, and the oppressed. This coming of age novel was truly beautiful and one that I definitely recommend.

This book was a beautiful mashup of genres. I read it so quickly and truly loved it; will definintly be strongly considered for the collection. By turns sweet, poetic, intense, and magical.

The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R.M. Romero

Personal Rating: ★★★★★/5 Stars

Book Statistics:
Genre: Poetry, Young Adult Fiction
Year of Publication: 2022
Pages: 452

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who helped with the creation of this beautiful story and most importantly to R.M. Romero for writing this wonderful book.

I loved everything about 'The Ghosts of Rose Hill'. It made me feel so much with such few words. I experienced a different world come to life, filled with magic, love, hate and death and I could never be more happy than I did.

The format of the book helped me devour the book in just a few hours. In these hours I felt everything Ilana did, I loved with Ilana, I felt betrayed and I felt lonely but I also felt seen.

There were many moments were I had to put the book down because I was angry, sad and felt every emotion that leaked from Ilana's mind and became my own.

This was quite a heavy book in terms of subject. It was filled with the loneliness that came when death arrived in our door to take someone we love and it was only filled with sorrow about the loves that stay frozen in time.

But there were positive feelings about the future and about our world, where we will all be one and we will all be the heroes of our own lives and stories.

I can not just recommend this book but I encourage everyone to read it. You will not regret it.

The Ghosts of Rose Hill was an incredibly beautiful and intriguing atmospheric novel. I adore magical realism books and this did not disappoint. I enjoyed the characters, and it was a quick read. I found the writing to be engaging and entertaining; I had an enjoyable time reading this and it held my attention the entire way through that I finished it within the day! I enjoyed every page and thought that the plot/story was very unique. Would recommend to anyone!

I loved the cover and was very intrigued by the blurb... but I should not have read it diagonally. I have trouble with verse texts. This is entirely on me, the rhythm of poetry, in general, stresses me and I just couldn't finish the book, which is a shame because the main character is very likable and the story really interesting. I just think that this format might not be for everyone and I would recommend it to more musical people with a sensibility for modern poetry.

I am in awe of the way that R.M. Romero tells stories, weaving poetry into a story that technically takes place in our world, but certainly doesn’t feel like it. THE GHOSTS OF ROSE HILL has a shorter word count than most novels, but its story felt like it stretched out like a cat in the sun (in a very good way). This book creates a world that sucks you in and nearly drowns you in it, but gives you the time to learn how to swim. There were times where I felt a little less entranced than others, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy being along for the ride.

Romero excels in storytelling, and in creating an entirely new world within one that we already have. This book has no pretenses about being completely made up or without source, instead immeshing itself within culture, tradition, and religion like a second skin. I personally can’t speak for the relations to Latin or Jewish culture, but the heart is there. For me, the story sank the deepest as Ilana referenced Orpheus, another musician doomed to the dark. They are stories of pain as much as triumph, but ones that echo truth and echo strength, in the same way this one does.

Ilana is an interesting protagonist, and the other characters in this story are as well. Though there is certainly an antagonist who is also the villain, it feels wrong to call any of them heroes. In truth, everyone is achingly human, or trying very hard not to be. There are very much run of the mill YA teen worries, but Romero looks to the best of the genre by going deeper. Ilana may only be sixteen, but it’s true she is sometimes more monster than girl, and that her story runs thousands of years before her, and will run thousands of years after.

At the end of the day, my simplest reaction to this book, is that it is definitely worth the read. It crafts remarkable characters you don’t want to look away from, and slides in twists and turn throughout its slow, winding path. Romero has created a world you could sink your teeth into, and frankly I’m excited to see what she writes next.

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me an ARC of this novel!

WOW. I went into this not knowing what to expect. I don’t read a lot of work in prose, and it’s often very hit or miss for me - this was a HIT. It was the perfect way to tell the story of Ilana and the ghosts she cared for. The lyricism blends so well with the entire concept as well as Ilana’s characterization as a musician - the two aspects enhance each other well. It was very reminiscent of old-world fairytales as well as being a modern exploration of the trauma of being displaced from your homeland, the burden of remembering the dead.

Evocative, dark, but still hopeful, this is a great novel to start if you want to read more novels in prose, or more modern fairytales in general. A great start for Peachtree’s new publishing imprint!

Really interesting use of prose! I'm not a huge poetry person but I really enjoyed this! The characters were believable even in the restrictive format and I think the cover is absolutely gorgeous.

The ghost of rose hill
This book was incredibly deep and left me with so many good quotes and moments. This book was written in the style of poetry so I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it but, the style was easy to adapt to and made reading way more fun and such an immersive experience. I love how fleshed out the characters were, and how moving them story was, it was deeply emotional, insightful and touches on horrors of the past in a way that was respectful.
Cons: pacing in the second half of the book, I felt like the major conflict was how to bring down this monster and it was done extremely fast. I feel like there were too many dull moments where we just learned and experienced Prague which was interesting hit those moments could’ve been shorter and the climax of the book a bit longer

"He and I are made of endings.
And that's why
I need to kiss him--
so we can have a beginning too."

!!!!!! I'm so in love. This book is absolutely beautiful and I am feeling...feelings! It's a modern fairytale set in Prague and it's written entirely in verse prose. At first, I thought the prose might be too distracting, but it ended up working wonderfully (it helps that the writing is gorgeous). It's like one long beautiful poem.

Ilana is a fantastic character. She's selfish, headstrong, and also a romantic at heart. It's fun reading how she takes agency of her own life. I also love the way music is described in this book. All in all, it really makes me want to visit Prague again!

Usually I’m not the biggest fan of novels in verse but this was such a good read. Really beautifully written it made me want to read it all over again. The author’s imagery was amazing I didn’t want it to end. Such an interesting story that was fast paced but gave a good background into all the characters and the story. I would definitely recommend it as a quick but gorgeous story.

A girl is at odds with her parents about her future. She is sent to stay with her aunt in Prague. There she meets a ghost boy, comes face to face with a monster, and finds her voice.
The Ghosts of Rose Hill is a colorful and well written book that entrances you from the start. The lyrical and beautiful writing brings the story to life. It’s almost as if you can see this poetic story unfold. I enjoyed the verse in which this book was written. It is fast paced and full of emotion. I couldn’t put it down. The story was predictable in some ways, but it was so compelling and enjoyable that being predictable doesn’t hinder the story.
This story has so many interesting elements to it. The main character has a realistic and complicated relationship with her family, which many can relate to. She has an internal struggle between who she wants to be and the person whom others want her to become. Her passion, struggle, and empathy can be felt and shared through the story. It also contains this fantastical romance with a ghost boy whose Jewish heritage she relates to. They share passion, art, and history. Added to this fantasy theme is a mysterious folklore character, his black violin, and other ghost children.
This lyrical book is full of emotion, history, hope, and passion. I very much enjoyed this story and would highly recommend it to anyone.

I loved this! This was the first novel in verse I have ever read and I just loved the story. At first I was confused about what was going on, but I really loved the way the main characters relationship developed and how the history of Prague was there as well. I really appreciated the slavic fantasy aspect as I feel that most teen books shy away from that route. This was excellently written and the poetic structure was lovely and moving and heart wrenchingly good. I highlighted several lines so that I can reread them at a later date. I highly recommend this book!

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our list for order this year and will recommend it to students.

I struggled with this book. I liked the idea but it ended up being just kind of forgettable for me. Fairly early in the book when She gets to Prague I knew were the author was going. Another stumbling block for me was I didn’t have the knowledge base about Judaism or Prague so I wasn’t always sure what was going on. In a normal book I think there would have been more background to explain things to the reader but being written in prose there isn’t a chance for that. I think it’s a well written story but it didn’t do much of anything for me.

Absolutely lovely. The characters are incredibly beautiful and rich, the writing is magical in all the right ways and this was everything. It broke my heart in a way it needs to be broken. And I'm so appreciative to read such a powerful story written about a Jewish-Latinx character BY a Jewish-Latinx author. Beautiful job. I'll reread it throughout my life for sure.

This book took my breath away and stole my heart.

Both the writing and story are beautiful. The verse flowed so well while covering such a comprehensive range of topics. Love and romance, the rich but complicated history of Prague, the immigrant experience, being biracial and coming of age, folklore, magical realism — you have it all and I enjoyed every moment.

An immersive and dazzling read that will stay with you for long!

Much like a symphony this book starts out slow and ends with a beautiful, explosive crescendo. I found it to be cleverly written with many lovely and thought provoking passages. While exiled to Prague for the summer, Ilana Lopez is forced to confront both her Jewish past and her own future plans. In an attempt to escape her parent's expectations of who they think she should be, Ilana begins to clean up a Jewish cemetery behind her aunt's home where she meets Benjamin, a boy with startling blue eyes. She also meets the mysterious Wassermann who offers her the opportunity to escape into a fairy tale world of music and magic. However, things aren't what they seem and Ilana must find the strength to fight for her future and the future of those she loves, even if it means giving everything up. While reading this book, I was compelled to look up the different places and events in Prague mentioned - which to me is always a sign of a good book. The Ghosts of Rose Hill thoughtfully mixes history, romance, horror, and ghosts in this beautifully written novel in verse.

Wow. This was such a beautiful book to read. Illana was a very moving character, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her growth throughout the book. I particularly liked the verse and lyrical writing which really transcribed the emotions of the story well. This book left me with a bittersweet but dream-like feeling. I am looking forward to R.M. Romero’s future work.