A unique and beautiful fairy tale of a girl Jewish Latina from Miami sent to her aunt in Prague for the summer to study and focus on college. Instead she finds a neglected cemetery and the ghost of a boy buried there. The story goes from there and is lyrics and powerful.

Extraordinary! This book is really something special. I am at a loss of how to describe how much I loved this. It is about a girl named Ilana who goes to Prague to live with her aunt for the summer. Once there she starts to clean up an old cemetery and befriends a ghost named Benjamin. All is not well though and soon she comes to realize the mysterious Wasserman does not have her best interests at heart. It is written in lyrical verse and flows so smoothly that you will fly through it. I could not get enough. I found the story beautiful and haunting. I did want it to end. This is one of my top books this year and I can't wait to read more by this hugely talented author.

🌟Top 2022 favourite

Thank you, Peacetree, for the advance reading copy.

You have no idea how precious this book is to me starting now!

The book definitely made its way to my top favourite of the year even before it's officially out for the world. I feel really glad and grateful to have read this book at the beginning of the year.

The verse and the choice of words have cast a perfect spell on me. I was rooting for our character the moment I started reading the first verse and I felt so deeply connected to her thoughts ever since.

I could relate to the character so much!

Parents looking forward for you to become someone respectable in the society by becoming someone within the limited spectrum of work/service; you believing yourself to be someone solitary and insecure as you are being shielded from the outside world most of your life; you blossom into someone much more than anyone could ever expect of you when you learn to explore the world outside of your comfort zone; you owning up to your emotions and feelings seeing it's the best way possible even when it hurts you and makes you afraid.

The book is powerful. You will know when you are lost in it. The way it's been written and told; the plot and the characters; each has the right to make you feel it's just the perfect book you have been looking for the entire time.

The story will make you believe. It will make you believe in making things happen which you never thought possible.

I love the concept. I love the presentation. I love the ending.

So worth it.

An enchanting story about a girl in love with her violin and her time in Prague where she will discover a ghost boy and a monster who will threaten to steal her away. This is a story about a biracial Jewish girl who is torn between her dreams of becoming a violinist and fulfilling her parents wish of obtaining a stable job. She is sent to live with her aunt in Prague and there she discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery and a ghost boy named Benjamin who has died over a century ago. Soon she discovers more ghost... and a stranger who approaches her named Rudolph Wassermann who gifts her with a beautiful violin. Rudolf doesn’t have any shadows... and soon Illana discovers that Rudolph and Benjamin are far more connected than she thought and if she wants to rescue the boy she loves she will have to destroy the monster. A gorgeous fairytale told in verse prose!

*Thanks Netgalley and Peachtree, Peachtree Teen for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

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

This was stunning! The storyline was enchanting and captivating. I highly recommend this magical read. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

(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.