OK - going to throw a more mixed review in the ring.

The pacing of this was... Not great. My attention wandered up until the 60% mark, at which point the action started to pick up. The ending was interesting enough to make me want to pick up the next book, though. I really don't know how I feel about the plot or about the characters.

Rose in Chains Thoughts

This was one of my MOST highly anticipated reads of the year so I was THRILLED to get my hands on this eARC and the first traditionally-published Dramione story — huge thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for his honor!!!

I’ll preface by saying I have always been a huge Harry Potter fan since childhood and, naturally, a huge Dramione fan since early adulthood. In preparation for this book coming out, I did read Julie Soto’s fanfic trilogy, including The Auction (from which Rose in Chains is adapted from), and was one of my favorite reads of the year. It may be an unfair comparison because the two stories are designed for slightly different audiences, but unfortunately, Rose in Chains could not live up to the hype when compared to its predecessor. It took the same exact template and pacing as The Auction, changed character names (while keeping their personalities exactly the same, so it was easy to infer who the original characters were), switched Harry Potter-specific magic out for similar substitutes — and yet I feel like it was still so heavily reliant on the original Harry Potter universe. The reason Dramione fanfics work so well is because they lean on the rich world-building and character development from the original HP series, so readers already have an emotional investment before starting. Because Rose in Chains is meant to be a completely new and different world with its own unique magical and political systems, I wish Julie Soto had spent more time *creating* a new magical fantasy world with more developed characters. I personally found myself recalling back to The Auction every chapter because of how much the original story emotionally wrecked me. All that being said, I think that this might be a great new fantasy read for those who have not yet read The Auction (or maybe have less familiarity with the Harry Potter universe) because it may resonate more to a set of fresh eyes. I can appreciate that Julie Soto kept some of the best one-liners — the absolute bangers, as the kids would say — but they didn’t hit as hard reading them the second time around.

Overall, happy to have read this and can’t wait to read the rest of the trilogy because I love Julie Soto’s writing, but fingers crossed to seeing more original fantasy world-building that deviates from The Auction.

JULIE SOTO DESERVES THE WORLD!

I’ll read anything this woman writes, this was excellent!!! So much longing, so much tension, sooo many misunderstandings!!! A few of my favourite things 🖤🖤

Counting down the seconds until book 2!!! (And the first isn’t even out yet lol)

Despite a slow start to Rose in Chains, I really enjoyed this book in the end! I really loved Julie Soto’s writing in this, it was very addicting and I was eating up every word! I also really loved the fmc, Briony! She’s such a strong character and I can’t wait to see where her story goes!

While I did end up loving this book, it definitely helps to understand that this was originally a fan fiction, and to have knowledge of the original source material. The world building was a bit lackluster at times, and it was very hard to keep track of who each character was, even with having a comparison from the original source material to help.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

First, thank you so much to Forever for giving me the opportunity to review this book early.
This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and I am so happy to say it was worth the hype.
I am already looking forward to the next book!
There’s just something about the way Julie Soto writes that I love and can’t seem to put down any book she writes!
This had everything I want in a Romantasy. The unique magic system and action was everything.
Seriously, a phenomenal book!

Thank you so much Forever, Julie, and Netgalley for the eARC to read and review <3 All thoughts are my own!

Rose in Chains was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and it did not disappoint! Full disclosure, I literally screamed out loud when the approval came through... I ate this book up in less than 2 days, I literally couldn't think about reading anything else! Slow burn romantasy books are my absolute favorite.

I am a dark romance reader, and while I am somewhat newer to dark fantasy, the central themes of this story resonated with me so strongly and I felt so much grief for not only for Briony, but all the women who endured literal hell (please check your trigger warnings!). Julie's storytelling completely enveloped me in this world and truly did these heavy topics justice. Also, these heavy topics at hand play a massive role in the current political turmoil and ongoing war between the Eversuns and Bomardis.

I thought that the magic system was incredibly unique and I think a reread is in order to fully appreciate all the intricacies of it! The mind magic of the Eversun and the heart magic of the Bomardi were so cool and the secrets that hide the reason for Briony's magic is eating at me. I can't wait to see more of the magic system and get some answers!

This slow burn between Briony and Toven BURNED! I loved the set up of the story with some chapters set in the past and most in the present to give backstory on their previous interactions at school, balls, etc, and how that plays a role in the current situation they have both found themselves in. Their banter is top tier and Briony isn't afraid to be a little sassy with him at times, which I loved. To be honest, he SO deserved it at times. There are still secrets that are being kept between them that I am dying to learn about!!

Overall, I absolutely loved this book and I will be anxiously awaiting book 2! In the meantime, I am so excited to share my review on my goodreads and booksta to keep the hype for this upcoming release going!!

Goodreads review posted on 5/11
Booksta review post coming on 5/16

4.25⭐️

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the eARC! I was so thrilled to be approved for this title because I loved The Auction and wanted to see how Julie Soto turned it into a trad published book. For everyone that did not read the fic and is interested in picking up this romantasy: THIS IS DARK. So please be aware of that going in.

TLDR; Julie Soto 🧎🏼‍♀️

THIS STORY WAS SO GOOD. I loved reading elements of The Auction throughout, but in the context of the new world that Julie developed. I thought the world-building was very good. There were a few minor things that were lacking (I wanted a bit more backstory about how the two sides viewed each other, where the prejudice began, etc) but I really appreciated the way she created the division between heart magic and mind magic, and developed an entire story around that between the two warring kingdoms. I love that the villain is a woman. I loved the notion of the Line -- even if I needed a freaking map to keep track of who was in what place in line when.

And boy does Julie Soto know how to write a SLOW BURN!!!! Even in a VERY dark fantasy story, I was LOSING IT every time the two main characters so much as lightly touched each other. The push and pull. The scene with the kiss!! And Toven's dang mouth. The things he says! This was by far my favorite part of the story, even though there was so much more going on. I think she developed their relationship in a very real way, and I also felt their character development was solid throughout. I cannot wait to learn more about Toven and his family and what secrets they're hiding.

Julie is just such a good writer that I devoured most of the book. I will say, part of the 4.25 stars is that I felt the book dragged a bit in the middle and I found myself a little bored. It picked up again, but there was a period of time where I wasn't DYING to read, which I so often am with my romantasy books.

Regardless, I thought this was so well executed and I loved seeing some of the best/most impactful elements that Soto created with The Auction incorporated here. Idk how I am going to wait for the next installment!!

3.5 Stars

This book was good but not as great as it could be.

The book deals with some pretty serious and heavy topics, so I thought this book was going to explore how this dynamic affects the relationship between Briony and Toven from enemies into lovers. Unfortunately this fell flat to me. By the end of the book through the flashbacks I sort of understand why Briony has a crush on Toven but I think their established relationship before the events of the novel were not fleshed out enough. Through getting sold and having to deal with so much loss, I expected her and Toven to have a lot more animosity. This just didn’t happen and she was still caring for him even after being sold to him and the glimpses of their relationship in the flashbacks didn’t establish a strong enough bond for me to really believe that despite everything that happened she trusts Toven, Briony’s negative feelings towards him are very mild, so I didn’t get as much of the angst and I thought I was.

I think that if their relationship was not set in the context that it is, her lackluster response to him and how quickly she somewhat trusts and starts pining after Toven again would be more believable. Despite all this I still did like they budding romance and I’m curious to see how it’s going to further develop, especially once Toven gets a chance to actually explain himself and his feelings.

Nevertheless I think I will be interested in reading the second book. Especially because I enjoyed the world building and political plotline. I want to see the Eversun’s get their revenge, especially since there’s so many other characters and threads that haven’t been revealed or explored yet.

This first book is definitely shaping up to be a really slow burn and ultimately I think this book was heavy with the world building and establishing history and relational context between the characters more than moving the actual plot forward. We got so many flashback scenes while the present day scenes were filled with Briony more or less stuck in less than a handful of locations where she was training and researching and being in the dark about the Hearts motives and plans. The plot didn’t really move forward in the present day scenes, and like Briony I feel kike we as the readers still don’t know a lot about any of the action that’s currently happening in the plot. What’s up with her cousin that escaped? Where are the other Eversuns who escaped the auction? What has Orion been up to? What is Toven’s contribution and what does he do when he’s not with Briony? I do think this book is setting up the next novel, but for a first book I don’t think the plot progressed as much as it could have because of all the history it had to establish about the characters and world first.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Julie Soto, I bow at your feet. Good Lord, you write perfect books. Whether a thriller, contemporary romance, or fantasy romance, it doesn't matter what it is. They are an elixir for my book-loving soul, one I will gladly accept until the end of time. Just lock me in your dungeon and read to me.

The angst, OMG the angst, the slow burn (and I mean real slow), the longing. I stayed up late to read, and I do not do that. You won't catch me staying up past my bedtime for many books, but this was worth being tired for. I loved Briony, Toven, the pacing, the banter, the magic, the political intrigue, and the friendships.

How can I go on knowing I have to wait for book two?

Thank you to Forever Publishing for a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

Julie is a force to be reckoned with!
I know this started as a fanfic, so I was expecting to be let down (very few can rework their fanfics) but Julie did it amazingly well!
I was sucked right in, and I desperately NEED more!

The world building and the magic system was well developed, the characters all had depth.
I love that all characters were older too, very rare in a lot of books now Finally characters that we can relate too.
The darkness, the sexyness, the rebelnes, the slow burn, the firendships, the heartachessssss......ugh absolutely perfect.
Loved that Julie never skips the dark parts either, they make the story what it is.
I seriously cannot wait until the next books come out, I NEED to know what happens next!
I want to see the wittiness of Briony and Toven, they are my absolute favorites!

I’m mad at myself for not knowing this was a trilogy, but I devoured this and loved it endlessly????? Consider me a fan of Julie Soto because the way I ate this up???? From the beginning, I was intrigued. This stayed true for the entire way through. Enter Toven. Good lord.

I really liked that there was so much history in this book. The depth was clearly there and underpinned the entire novel. As we slowly learn more about Briony and her magic, and the magic of Toven and his mother, we come to see that everything is, perhaps, not as it seems.

While I’m sad it wasn’t resolved by the end, that was an unrealistic expectation of me, but I’m so excited for the next two books because I NEEED THEM.

4.75⭐️ I AM UNWELL, THIS WAS SO GOOD?!

I’ll preface this review by saying I have not read The Auction fanfic yet, but I still absolutely LOVED this book. I have read other Dramione fanfics so I did notice the Dramione parallels in this, but you do not have to read the fanfic first to fully enjoy this book!

That being said, this was my first Julie Soto read and WOW, I am obsessed!! This checked all the boxes for me in a romantasy! I thoroughly enjoyed her writing and storytelling, the magic system intrigued me, the romance was such a slow simmer of a burn, and the plot development (especially towards the end) made it impossible to put this down!

One of my favorite things about this book was the time jumps. We got more backstory and depth through the flashbacks and I loved seeing how the past pieces of their story fit into the present. For me personally this prevented the story from dragging, so I really loved the pacing of this! And like I said, I feel like it really helped fill out these characters and create some depth to their romance. There was some heavy world building in the beginning, mainly with all the names being dropped, but personally this didn’t bother me too much. I just had to take it a bit slower to keep track of characters names’ and their significance.

Now one thing I was not prepared for was how SLOW of a burn this was going to be, and I AM HERE FOR IT. The tension was so thick and so palpable, it had me anticipating every interaction between our two MCs. I cannot wait to see what’s in store for them in book 2!!

I think the ending of this book pulled a lot of loose ends together nicely and set up book 2 perfectly (even though we’re left with a cliffhanger). But overall, I was so impressed by this romantasy debut and can’t wait to read more from this author! Definitely a must-read for the dark romantasy lovers!!

Lastly, please make sure to check the trigger warnings before reading this one! There are definitely some darker themes and elements that may not be for everybody.

This comes out July 8th so mark your calendars! Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for the ARC!

I am obsessed with this book but also Julie Soto as a whole. I read the original of this and was a huge fan. So when I heard about this one coming out, I was just waiting to request this and kept my fingers crossed for an ARC.

And after reading this, I can say that this did not disappoint; it just amazes me how this one stands up to the original and one could make an argument for it being better than the original.

Once I got this book, I was taking my Kindle with me everywhere just to read it.

I honestly cannot wait to read this again and am planning to very shortly.

I am going to be honest. This particular book by Julie took a moment to get into. I struggled through the first couple of chapters…BUT now…I’m like oh, when is the next book going to be released?!?!!! I need more! The magic system was a little strange as well but then I ended up really enjoying it. I am also enjoying the back and forth timeline, as the story unfolds more and more of the past comes forward and that is such a fun way to experience a read.

📖 ARC REVIEW 📖

Thank you @readforeverpub for an early copy of Rose in Chains by Julie Soto. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. 🤍

Rating: ⭐⭐/5
Release date: July 3rd, 2025

Blurb: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221179254-rose-in-chains?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=uY53rJ5a6c&rank=1

🛑Read on with caution; review may contain spoilers🛑

Rose in Chains was one of my highly anticipated reads for 2025 and somehow disappointed me. Though I love a good slow burn, this was too much of it. Apart from being slow in pacing, the world-building and magic system felt undercooked and all over the place. There were lots of characters introduced that made it all the more difficult to love the story given that they were mostly supporting characters or side characters. I hate to say it but this was boring that I almost got into a slump. Additionally, Toven and Briony’s romance also felt flat and their chemistry failed to convey the depth of their feelings.

This is my second Julie Soto read and I don’t think I’ll be picking up any of her books any time soon. I first read Forget Me Not and it was meh for me as well. I really had high hopes for Rose in Chains but it was a letdown as well.

↠ 4 stars ⭐️

This is one of my most anticipated releases, and I was SO excited to get approved for this ARC!

I’ve never read The Auction, so I went into this basically blind and with minimal expectations, and it personally felt like a truly unique story. I did take me a bit to get into it, but once it grabbed me, I was completely hooked and couldn’t put it down!

The magic system and world-building were really well done. The magic system was simple yet original, and there was no major info-dumping. Everything was smoothly delivered throughout the story via conversations or flashbacks—which I really enjoyed because these also expand the story and help the reader understand the relationships between the characters at different points in time.

I think this might be the slowest of slow burns I’ve ever read in my life and it was delicious and it ABSOLUTELY RUINED ME the entire time. The crumbs of their growing attraction to one another had me glued to the pages, and you could cut their romantic and sexual tension with a knife. I NEED MORE PLEASE. I will say I expected a bit more spice.. but I didn’t realize right away this is meant to be a trilogy so it makes more sense with building up their romance and I am hereeee for it.

I really enjoyed all of the characters and the depth that they had. Briony is such an intelligent, resilient, and fierce FMC. And Toven is such a perfect morally grey MMC and I'm obsessed with him. Honestly, I love the entire Hearst family in general. So damn much. I cannot wait to learn more about what their end goal is.

This was definitely dark, and checking the trigger warnings is a must because Julie does not shy away from the darker moments in this story. You can expect heavy themes such as captivity and imprisonment, human trafficking, sexual abuse, sterilization without consent, etc.

Overall, I really, really enjoyed this one and I am really excited to see how this world and romance progress in the next!

Thank you endlessly to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the eARC!

For context, I decided to read the fanfiction this novel was based on when I saw that I was approved for an ARC. While this background knowledge likely skewed my perspective of the novel, I think that it was a crucial step for me, because it really highlighted how much this novel struggled without the added context of Harry Potter.

For those who don't know, this novel started as a Dramione fanfiction that was an alternate reality version of the seventh book and what came after it. The vast majority of readers went into the fanfiction having the necessary context of the books to understand the relationships between the characters; therefore, in the fanfic, they didn't need to be fleshed out as much. However, here, with "new" characters (which are really just the same Harry Potter characters with different names), the reader doesn't have that same background. Since this is basically a copy of the fanfic, the relationships between the new characters aren't as fleshed out as they should have been.

The "changes" that were made to the fanfic to turn it into the novel (and there were barely any changes at all) were mostly names of people, places, etc. and the magic system. The overall narrative and many of the scenes remained exactly the same. The number of names was confusing and it was difficult to keep track of everyone. The new magic system doesn't make sense to me -- why would there be such a clear disadvantage to using heart magic and not with mind magic? Why wouldn't everyone just use (or try to learn) mind magic then? It doesn't make any sense.

This novel also brings up the increasingly relevant point of "rewriting" fanfiction into novels. Fanfiction is a completely different art form -- it's free and uses characters, places, etc. that have already been written. Harry Potter is not an old IP -- and for this book to relying so much on the framework of the original fanfiction is not a good sign. This, combined with publishers recently using Dramione to promote former fanfiction books, suggests to me that this will be an issue in the near future.

incredible book! one of the best enemies to lovers I’ve ever read and I absolutely LOVED the characters. 100% would recommend this one! Given was the ultimate morally grey hero and the chemistry he had with Briony was off the charts. loved the slow building of their history with the flashbacks of their time in school as well. overall, cannot WAIT for the next book in this series!

this one took me a minute to get into, it’s a bit of a slow start to set up the world and magical systems. even with this being a bit of a slower start, i really enjoyed the world building and julie soto’s writing is some of my favorite. the magic system was interesting and different from what i had seen before. as a yogi, i also loved all the little anecdotes about meditation throughout this read. i will say if you’re going into this book for a heavy romance, be prepared that this is a slowwwwww burn. like third act slow. i was kind of disappointed in the amount of repetitive in the story from the second half into the last fourth of the book, but then i realized that Soto was setting up for more in this series. i can’t wait to see where this one goes.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25

Thank you Forever for the advanced copy!!

🚨Check your trigger warnings with this one, babes. Lots of dark content and Dark Romance!

Having read the fanfic, I can confidently say that Rose In Chains stands on its own two feet as a developed story. While some scenes from the fic are present, Julie wove a beautiful new tale—enough so to keep those familiar with the fic, guessing.

The strength of the story lies in the (dark) romance, and the flashbacks provide layers to current predicaments and relationships. This woman really knows how to incite the most blood pumping tension! Wow.

Not to mention, the villain was VILL. AIN. ING. Mistress Mallow?? Whoooweeee! Love to hate her.

While I found the magic system and world building interesting, it was hard to visualize the setting. Some descriptors gave context, but I didn’t know if this world was a general “fantasy” setting or something more specific. There were references to clocks, makeup (contour) and other seemingly modern items while simultaneously referencing candles, ships and canons…

Overall, I LOVED it, and omg the ending has me desperate for the next installment!