Loved it. I am not usually one for any type of ghost story, but this one was so different it had me spell bound. Highly recommend. Read it, you will not be disappointed.

This book was amazing! This book pulled in and it kept me totally engaged! It grabbed me from the very first page and I had a hard time putting it down.
What a great author, the writing was engaging, the character development superb and the story line held my interest.
I was blown away by this story and the great writing.
Phenomenal!
First time reading a book by this author and I look forward to reading more by Romero. I highly recommend this book!

Peachtree Teen,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review closer to pub date.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and its many unique elements, including a Jewish Latina main character and a creature from Slavic mythology. The writing was heartachingly beautiful in verse, transforming a simple story into an emotionally rich tale of lost souls. I simply consumed the book in one sitting. It highlighted some crucial issues that children of immigrant parents might face. Immigrant parents' struggles to establish a life in a new country may overshadow many of their decisions and viewpoints, creating a divergence between what they perceive as the best path to a successful life versus their children's dreams. The author does an excellent job of portraying these struggles along with the historical context in which Ilana's parents grew up and immigrated.

The darker history of Prague and the treatment of Jewish people were woven seamlessly with the Czech folk tale. The world-building was illustrative, and I felt as if I was strolling the streets of Prague with Ilana and Benjamin. The plot was well fleshed out, featuring a unique mythical villain and adorable ghosts.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a sweet and beautifully written YA fantasy read.

Struggling to convince her immigrant parents to accept her dreams to be a violinist, Ilana is sent to Prague to focus on her studies, only to discover magic, ghosts, and Rudolph Wassermann - a Vodník. What happens when Ilana learns the truth about what Wassermann really is?

Told as a fairy tale in verse, Ilana's story is wholly captivating, creating a fast-paced tale of the ghosts of Prague. I found Romero's writing style to really draw us as the reader in, providing enough detail and context to sympathize with Ilana and her struggles, both with her parents and with Wassermann, while also keeping the story fairly light-hearted.

I cannot speak to the representation of Ilana's identities as the daughter of Cuban & Czech immigrants or as a Jewish Latina, but it is an OV story of a Jewish Latina who tends to Jewish cemeteries. But what I really loved about the representation in this book is the mythology.

Wassermann, the Vodník, is a slavic mythological creature whose story changes slightly based on the country telling the tale. From what I learned, the name Vodník is specific to Czech, Slovak, & Slovenian folklore in which he has a human form, which is different from the other slavic myths. Learning the tale of the Czech Vodník resonated with me because it taught me a piece of culture/mythology from where some of my distant ancestors came from - what is today the Czech Republic. That's what drew me most to this book, the connection to a family I never knew but would like to know more about.

While reading this book, I quickly became acclimated to the flow and structure of the poetry, as poetry is not something I typically read. It was not difficult to get into, so I would encourage others who may not read poetry to try this one as well! However, the story as a whole was a bit slow to begin, it wasn't clear to me what direction the story was going, which is why I'm giving it 4 stars. It picked up after awhile and I really got into it after the halfway point, where I could not put the book down because I needed to know how it would end.

Rep: Jewish Latina MC with parents from Cuba & the Czech Republic, Jewish SCs, Czech SCs

CW: overall very light-hearted, but it does feature unsupportive parents, manipulation, and brief mentions of drowning and illness

Rating system:
5 - absolutely love, little-to-no dislikes that did not impact my reading experience

4 - great book, minor dislikes that did have an impact on my reading experience

3 - good/decent book but for some reason did not hook me or there were some problematic things that just were not addressed or greatly impacted my reading experience

2 - is either a book I did not click with and did not enjoy, problematic aspects are not addressed and severely impacted my reading experience, or I DNF'd but think it has potential for others

1 - is very problematic, I would not recommend the book to anyone

(eARC provided by NetGalley)

In THE GHOSTS OF ROSE HILL, a biracial Jewish girl named Ilana is sent to her father’s former home city of Prague. There, she encounters the ghosts of children whose futures— and pasts— have been stolen from them by multiple kinds of monsters.

I love this book on so many levels: the beautiful, atmospheric verse, the layers of stories lost and found, the palpable grief intertwined with remembrance and hope. But I think the thing I love most is just the sheer Jewishness of it; there were moments throughout the story when I recognized the rhythms of certain phrases, certain prayers, references to stories I’d forgotten I’d been told. Ilana and I are different in certain ways, but there are experiences we share through those differences, not in spite of them. This book portrays the nature of diaspora in a profoundly authentic way.