I typically do not pick up cozy fantasies, but this one was amazing. Very atmospheric and the narrator was great!

This book had the sweetest ending! It was a slow start but about half way in it really picks up. It starts off by with great world development and great characters development, especially. The duel POV allows for this and the reader really gets to know each of them. It’s a world set with sorcerers and sorceresses who are in debt to their perspective kingdoms. They end up connecting under interesting circumstances (which is immediately how the book starts) and they entice each other throughout the entire book. There is a lot of yearning and tension, with a little bit of spice. More romance than anything. Overall, I enjoyed this book and its take on a fantasy world!

Never The Roses:⁣
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Thank you @brambleromance and @macmillan.audio for my gifted copies! ⁣
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Our Oneira is finally free! She’s paid her debts (which is basically like impossible) and she’s off to live a life of peace and quiet .. er, something. She decides to have a little fun with her new life and sneak into her enemy’s library. She leaves riddles and notes and it becomes a little game. It’s a lot of pining/longing and it was brilliant. The snark took the cake as well.⁣
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Audio was wonderful. It is a dual POV which I’m always down to listen to. Shane East is hanging out as Stearanos, and it’s exactly what you could imagine. Chloe Campbell was Oneira and she brought the broken, the federation, the confusion, the slow burn for real. Absolutely loved on audio 10/10 recommend for you audiobookers. ⁣
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Also, why did no one tell me this is Jeffe Kennedy? Forgotten Empires is such a slept on series and one of my favorites!⁣
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Out now!

This was an amazing story from start to finish and was made even better by the narration! A slow-burn both in terms of the romance and the climax of the conflict, the lush writing style made the story very easy to visualize and feel as though I was a part of it. The narrators did a great job of embodying how the characters acted and sounded like and I definitely think that Never the Roses would be a great read no matter if you're listening or reading it.

I loved the characters, especially Oneira and Stearanos of course, since they were the main characters. I felt like Oneira's urge to isolate herself from the world, not out of selfishness but out of guilt for her past actions, is heartbreakingly relatable on some level and throughout the whole story I found myself rooting for her to be able to accept herself for who she is. Stearanos plays a big part in showing Oneira that she is still capable of being loved and that there are still people who like her for who she is and what she can do. I loved the relationship between the two of them and, especially in the beginning, the teasing and pushing and pulling that eventually brings them together. They're cute together, but at the same time it's clear that they deeply care and respect each other too.

The world-building was great, especially when listened to, because the world felt so real and well thought-out. Especially for a debut fantasy novel, it was complex enough to feel realistic without being overly imagined and confusing. While the war that is the backbone for conflict in this story doesn't provide a lot of epic battle scenes, I really liked seeing the "other side" of fantasy battles of the planning and strategy, especially with the twists and turns of loyalties.

I really enjoyed this listen and, especially after the ending, would love to read more books from this world!

Gang… I also didn’t expect this to be a cozy fantasy the way it was marketed as a Romantasy is criminal, but even as a cozy fantasy reader— I couldn’t get into this story…

That beginning was ever so… Irrelevant? When you introduce so many cool things w/ no substance at all… It’s kinda like boiling ice. No one was fed babes.
And then nothing happens for the longest time even after that other than book thievery.
I just don’t understand how she goes from wanting to seclude herself from the world to this…
It’s just yeah, this didn’t work out for me. Esp 80% in and still nothing interesting happened.

Overall, I feel like it could’ve used a bit more refining character / story wise. It just all felt super random, other than the war between kingdoms which did give me The Witcher vibes ‘cause they had strong mages sent to each kingdom. Other than that… Nothing else really grasped at me to continue on. Chloe Campbell & Shane East did amazing narrating this 🫶🏽

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, Tor Bramble, Jennifer K. Lambert, Chloe Campbell (audio narrator), and Shane East (audio narrator) for the opportunity to read and listen to the audiobook of Never the Roses in exchange for an honest review.

Never the Roses takes place in a fantasy world, once war-torn, having found peace, and potentially leading to more war. In this world, Oneira is a retired sorceress with a few personal companions to keep her company. While her age is not explicitly stated, it is certainly established that she is a grown woman who no longer wants to fight wars. Lady is tired. But at what age could retirement be for a mage? Forties? Fifties? However old, she finds herself bored. Why not take up gardening? Perhaps a unique and magical rose garden?

There is one book that will assist in her gardening endeavors, and it lay in the library of rival sorcerer, Stearanos. She magicks her way in and leaves him a children's book about rabbits to read in the meantime, if he even notices. Well, he does, and their written notes for each other are a quippy correspondence between rival sorcerers whose identities are anonymous to each other in the beginning.

Of course some romance ensues, but the issue is that Stearanos is not retired, and actually works for a king currently opposing the queen Oneira once served! If she is called forth to take him on, will they be able to battle each other?

I thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling craft in this novel. It is told from the alternating perspectives of Oneira and Stearanos, with great voice actors playing the role of each in the audiobook. The characters are rich and intriguing, and I love the quippy back-and-forth between them that leads them to realize the intelligence of each other. I also appreciate older characters, as that is something I feel like we don't see as much in novels; while the age isn't explicitly stated, it brings to question: what age would you retire as a war-worn mage?

With a lavish world and fun older dynamic characters, this novel is almost a cozy read, but doesn't quite fall into the cozy category. It has a slow burn romantic aspect, but definitely pays off for the reader. It makes for a great stand-alone for romantasy readers who want something not too light and not too heavy. A great in-between book.

This was such a beautiful and romantic fantasy that ended up being a lot more cozy than I expected. I loved the playful banter between Oneira and Stearanos, especially in the letters left for one another before they met. If you’re looking for a book that will punch you in the gut at the end, you need to pick this one up. I really hope that we get more to this story and [spoiler] can save [spoiler] and have a happier ending. That being said, the ending was still perfect and really worked well.

The audiobook on this one was so good, bringing to life both Oenira and Stearanos from their different POVs in a very fun way.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Thank you to @brambleromance for the ARC and @macmillan.audio for the ALC! All thoughts are my own.

It’s a slow burn in the best way, full of longing, wit, and moments that sneak right into your chest. The romance is tender, the emotional beats hit hard, and the ending is the kind that lingers long after you close the book. If you love mature characters, enemies-to-lovers vibes, and a story that makes you feel as much as it makes you smile; this is it.

I will be thinking about that ending forever!!!

An incredibly sweeping standalone romantasy novel. I love the dedication to building a unique world and a solid magic system. The romance couldn't have stood on its own, but it unfolded beautifully over the course of events. I would file this away as a 4, if 1 is a cozy fantasy and 10 is an epic fantasy novel. There are high stakes and heart racing moments tucked into a that all culminate at the end in a satisfying (if not bittersweet (which I am a glutton for)) crescendo.

Very pleasantly surprised by this one.

I received a copy of this audiobook for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

First off, I really did enjoy this book, but I’ve got to say that I walked in with no expectations and I didn’t remember the blurb I read when I requested it. I love a slow burn and the pacing of the story was divine in that respect. However, after rereading the blurb when I sat down to write this review, the expectation is for this story to be much more epic. There is no battle on page, there is only talks of battle and the planning of such. This is a story that is primarily character driven and I loved it for that. The enemies-to-lovers romance blossoms quite organically from the chemistry that we can feel between the characters. The narrators for the audiobook do a really good job of bringing this to life. The world building is also beautifully executed. While I cannot visualize while reading, the author did a good job of painting a picture with emotion and vibes. I liked the magic system - I got some Strange the Dreamer vibes while reading this. but maybe the choice of narrator had an effect on that too. The ending was bittersweet, it left me feeling sad, but maybe hopeful that this isn’t the end and that there may at least be another book to come.
I recommend this book to anyone looking for a strongly character driven romantasy story.
Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an early copy of the audiobook. The opinions expressed are given freely and are honest and my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillon Audio for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars, really.

Never the Roses by Jennifer K. Lambert and narrated by Chloe Campbell/Shane East was a bit of a cozy read. It gave similar vibes to The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst. SIMILAR-ish in vibes only.

I fell in love with Dread Sorceress Oneira and want to live in her coastal home she crafted. I thoroughly enjoy a man who yearns as much as Stearanos. The two have a great banter.

Never the Roses had moments of oddly timed spice. It is as if the author could not decide if the book should be a spicy romance or a gentle romance.

The ending was unexpected and not the most satisfying thing.

This book was an enigma to me. Firstly, I listened to it as an audiobook. Through no fault of the narrators (I love both of them), I feel this book is better experienced as a physical read. It is the slowest of slow burns and starts out very introspective. The ending was beautifully written and I should have been more invested in it than I was. I just don’t think I could ever come back from the slow start. I had to restart the book after a small break because I was struggling that much with it.

All of that being said, I feel like many fantasy lovers will enjoy this book. I felt the only fair rating was a solid 3 stars right in the middle, so as not to discourage others too much from giving it a chance, despite my personal experience with it.

The male lead is introduced when he wakes up in the nude and scratches his nuts. Kind of a slay.

Unfortunately the cover (terrible) foretold of the story within. They're gonna stop giving me ALCs at this rate. I'm going to walk through the entire synopsis as a dedication to my dislike:

The first 10% is spent lightly detailing how Oneira retired from being a dread sorceress for her kingdom and, wishing to atone for all the death she's dealt, has committed to never kill another living being. She grows her own food and never interacts with other people. During this 10%, 3 mythical creatures find Oneira and become her companions. This will not come to affect any element of the story at any point.

Oneira sneaks into the library of her mortal enemy (nothing personal, they were/are in debt slavery to enemy kingdoms), Stearanos, and steals the book he was reading. It's about cultivating a specific rare variety of rose, and she decides to fuck w him a little bit by upsetting his organization. She ends up sneaking in again to exchange another book, as she's now growing those roses and can't return what she took. They write antagonizing notes back and forth while she steals books and he hasn't yet figured out who she is.

We're past 40% and Oneira has not had a single conversation with a human. Literally nothing has happened. Everything beyond this is firmly in spoilers category.

Her former master, Queen whatever, sends a guy she's completely mentally fucked up to seduce Oneira into returning as her sorceress. He's supposed to be this charming lady-killer so he's just the guy for the job. He shows up on Oneira's doorstep fake injured and, once invited inside, he calls her beautiful and flashes his bare dick at her trenchcoat-style, multiple times. This works on Oneira (lmfao) and they make out but she stops short of fucking him.

A few days pass, dude is still staying w her despite him remaining creepy and annoying as fuck. Suddenly Stearanos shows up wielding fireballs, ready to fight her for her book theft. Then he sees she's like soooo hot and cool and he lets go of that immediately. He was being unnecessarily aggro anyways so whatever. He stays for lunch and gets a tour of her garden.

When they're outside he's like, "You're too good for that idiot. Leave that zero for a hero. Please fuck me. Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please. Before you decide not to at least gimme a kiss so you can see what you're missing." They kiss and it's earth shattering but Oneira's like naw this can't happen between us. Stearanos is all "I'll wait for you forever, there is no one else for me." They literally just met maybe 3 hours ago.

Blah blah blah boring shit happens, their kingdoms are on the verge of war blah blah. Creep goes back to his queen having not accomplished his task, Stearanos asks Oneira to come out of retirement to act as a deterrent to prevent his kingdom from invading. They have sex and they're in love I guess. The deterrent doesn't work and Oneira is forced to kill the king to prevent thousands of lives being lost in needless war and she frees Stearanos from his debts in the process. She then kills herself(ish). He visits her body and seeks to find her in the dream she's lost in, the end.

Honestly, what happened could've been hard-hitting, but it was impossible to give a shit about any of the characters. Throughout, there's an underlying theme of trying to escape the apathy of being a debt slave, primarily by working with your hands to create. I think that theme itself is well done, but not enough to carry an entire book.

Oh, and Stearanos is described as having long, thin braids. His skin color is never described, but he does have scars that are said to be silver. This leads me to believe he is a white man with a head full of long braids and -- sorry I'm gonna hurl. Big dawg's out here looking like this:
image

This book just wasn't for me at this time. I couldn't get into the storyline at the beginning.

As a mood reader, I might be willing to give it another go later down the road.

Narrator was a little slow for me and I'm normally a 1.0 - 1.5 person for books.

Where was the plot? I get this is supposed to be more of a cozy fantasy with minimal action scenes and more focused on the “retirement” and “trickery” but I’m 77% in and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. They’re just now meeting face to face, they’re still walking around each other, they’re not enemies AT ALL, and all they do is garden and sleep. I’m so bored. Not for me sorry.

dnf at 77%

A cozy, magical read with cottagecore vibes, charming animal companions, and a delightful slow-burn romance between two sorcerers from rival kingdoms. Their unlikely friendship begins over books and gardening, growing through witty notes left in a guarded library. With a perfect balance of world-building and character development, this story is both funny and heartwarming. A strong standalone, though the ending leaves room for more.

Genre: Fantasy
Format(s): Audiobook (Macmillan Audio)
Rating: 1.5/5 ⭐🪻
Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Tropes: Rivals to Lovers, Slow Burn/Insta-Love, Forbidden Romance

----Summary----
This is a story about a powerful sorceress, who earns enough money to buy her freedom and retire. She spends her new found retirement living in isolation and trying to limit her use of magic to live a simpler life. She eventually finds her way sneaking into her rivals library and a penpal type letter swapping situation begins between the two. Eventually this rival sorcerer is summoned to assist in a war against the kingdom and queen for which the FMC used to work. The FMC is then eventually pulled back out of her newfound quiet life to be pitted against her rival, for whom she has started to develop a deep connection.

----Thoughts----

|| Disclaimer || First things first, I want to emphasize that a majority of this book is definitely more of an observational cozy fantasy. If you pick this book up hoping for an epic romantasy, you will be disappointed. I haven't read Circe, but this book was also compared to The Serpent and the Wings of Night on Amazon, which I feel is extremely misleading. Serpent and Roses are completely different and I'm not sure in what way they are supposed to be the same.

|| The First 25% || Initially, this book reads like a classic fairytale where we meet the FMC while she collects a crew of animal companions. Soon after the FMC makes her way to her rivals library, then starts a rose garden. Around the 25% mark, the story introduces a sub plot of an impending war, but overall this is mostly a character driven story. Personally, I prefer more plot driven stories when it comes to fantasy books, so I found the pacing to be to slow for me and not engaging enough.

|| Halfway There || Around the 50% mark it takes a very strange and awkward turn with the FMC meeting a stranger and immediately engaging in some uncomfortably written intimate scenes. This is also around the time when the FMC and MMC finally meet in person, which was a huge let down for me. I expected their relationship to develop more through their letter swapping based on the synopsis, but it was only like three letters total.

At this point the slow burn romance then became insta-love, which was jarring. The entire conversation the two have was all the topics I expected them to connect over via their letters prior to meeting in person instead of a single conversation on the first day the meet.

|| The Rest of The Story || More of the same. The FMC and MMC continue their romance and work to resolve the war subplot. The resolution of which, I felt, was sort of anticlimactic. However, given this story wasn't too heavily plot driven in the first place it kind of made sense.

|| Full Story - The Not So Good || Throughout the book, most of content just appeared to be the FMC and MMCs internal musings and deductions. Once they meet, they add the mental game of trying to figure out the other person and what they intend or are going to do next, then eventually how to handle the impending war with their forbidden romance. It felt very tiresome after a while, and I did not enjoy it. The FMC contemplating having a child with a stranger out of boredom (without any input on his part and literally the next morning after meeting him) also did not sit well with me. In fact everything involving that character should have been removed from the story, in my opinion, as it didn't seem to really add anything.

|| Full Story - The Good || I loved the unique aspect of a retired sorceress with dream magic. Finally, an FMC who isn't an 18-20 year old prodigy who just needs a training arc. That was very refreshing in itself. Also the dream magic not just seeing/being in dreams but able to be used for traveling and conjuring solid objects was so neat. The idea of all dreams manifesting into its own world and lifeform that the FMC can access was something I have never seen before. I also found it intriguing how the FMC was portrayed as all powerful, but then so naive in the ways of basic human interaction. I like to think this was intentional, because even though the interactions made me uncomfortable at times, I image that would be how the FMC felt herself. It seems that the youth/experiences many would have had as they grow to help them understand societal norms was taken from the FMC when she was forced into the life of a sorceress. A lot of her character growth seems to come from her getting to experience both love and the simpler world all on her own, which I think the author portrayed very well.

----Final Verdict----
Do NOT read this book looking for a fast paced romantasy. I would recommend this story to someone looking for a new kind of slow, introspective, cozy fantasy with a heavy focus on character growth.

----Thank You!----
Thank you NetGalley, Jennifer K. Lambert, and Macmillan Audio for giving me the opportunity to listen to an ARC of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed, either eloquently or prattling, are my own.

First off a huge thank you to NetGalley, MacMillan Audio and Bramble for the Advanced Listener Copy in exchange for my honest opinions!

I think I need 5-7 business days to process what I just listened to. I will be back soon with a full review...

Alright, I’m back after collecting my thoughts on this.

3 stars – 2 chili peppers

-Romantasy
-Enemies to lovers
-Dream traveler
-She steals his books
-Sorcerers for enemy kingdoms
-Animal sidekicks
-Talk of suicide
-No HEA
-Dual narration

Oneira is tired. Tired of war, tired of killing and honestly tired of living. So when she gets the chance to retire and live in solitude, she jumps at the chance to change her circumstances. The only problem now is that she is bored and unfulfilled. So she does what comes naturally to her, she slips into the dream land and ends up in a library. Not just any library but in the library of Stearanos, the only sorcerer who comes close to being as powerful as she is. In a move that is totally out of character for her, she takes one of his books. A few days later, Oneira goes to return the book and finds a letter in its place. This begins a pen pal situation that eventually leads to the two powerful sorcerers meeting and forming an unlikely friendship.

This ended up being such a disappointment to me. I was so excited about this story for the first 75%, but then, unless there is going to be a second book, it committed the ultimate sin for romance novels (in my opinion). The fact that it ended the way it did, with no happy ending really ruined it for me.

The audiobook was good, I enjoyed the dual narration. Chloe Campbell had a nice lilting voice while Shane East had a wonderfully gruff accent that really added to his character. I listened on 1.25x speed and would be happy to listen to either of them again!

I would recommend this book if you want to read something that does not have a super satisfying ending or a HEA.

Oneira is rid of her blood gesh and is living in solitude and peace. Her place is protected by wards and magic. But that didn’t stop the amnimsls from finding a way to her. One by one she accepted their company and made changes to her home to accommodate them. Then just for fun she thought it to be fun to seek out her enemy to see how her was doing. Stearanos, Was on the opposite side of the war as she was so they never once met. But in his library she found a book on one of rarest roses. She thought it to be funny if she took his book, but replaced it with one of her own. And thus because the quest to bring the roses back to life from a land that she scotched.

Threw it back-and-forth Stearanose an Oneida became close yet never really knowing each other until they met.

As their love grew so did the pending was. And they once again had to be on opposite sides.

Never the Roses is a slow paced character driven fantasy book.

The story follows recently retired Sorceress Oneira as she adjusts to living a more peaceful life after years of being used as a powerful weapon by her queen. Finding herself bored she decided to get a new book, and decides the best place to do so in the library of the royal sorcerer of the enemy kingdom, Stearanos. Stearanos is shocked at the theft of a rare book that he was reading and sets himself to discovering who could possibly enter his home practically unnoticed.

I enjoyed the majority of the story, both narrators do a wonderful job. I also liked the slower and more introspective nature of the story. Unfortunately I disliked the focus placed on the interactions between Oneira and Tristan, I honestly really disliked Tristan. I also did not care for the ending at all, I believe this book is a standalone and honestly for a book being promoted as a romance the ending just didn’t work for me.