First of all this was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and it did not disappoint!! A million stars. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Hachette audio for an advanced audio copy, I was beyond excited when to be getting this. I loved everything about this from the narrator to the story itself. I read the auction and so I was so excited to read this one. I just love Julie Soto’s writing and you just have to read it. I cannot wait for the next book.

5/5⭐️
1/5🌶️

Her brother killed, her castle taken by enemies, Briony Rosewood has been stripped of her magic and taken to be sold in an auction. The winner? Her long-time crush, Toven Hearst, who comes from an enemy family. Initially, it seems as though Toven wants nothing to do with her. Close proximity takes its course, however, and the Hearst family is not all that they may seem…

I absolutely BARRELED through this book. I immediately was all about Briony, desperate to hear that there was going to be some joy back in her life. This book was giving verrrrrry clear Manacle vibes… and while this is marketed as a romantasy I think that I would say it’s more a dystopian fantasy with a sprinkle of romance. It was very YA, so lots of tension and a lot of spicy talk, but not a whole lot of action. DON’T GET ME WRONG… what we got was fabulous and I was eating all the crumbs! I found the plot fascinating and Briony’s journey incredibly enticing. It’s definitely dark, so check your trigger warnings for this one!! I highly recommend.

What I Loved About This Story:
✨Dystopian fantasy romance
✨Enemies to allies… to more?
✨Fun magic system focused on specific types (e.g., Mind, Heart)
✨Rebellion & opposing sides
✨WHAT WAS THE ENDING OMG!!!!

I received an Advanced Listener Copy of this book via the Netgalley, but my review is all my own.

i feel like knowing that it was a harry potter fan fiction took me out of it a lot - which sucks because i love absolutely everything that julie soto touches but this wasn't for me unfourtunately

Thank you Hachette Audio for my gifted Audio copy!

4.5 Stars!

I could NOT put this dark fantasy with Dramione vibes down!

The world has two types of magical people, the Bomard and the Eversuns. Children from both sides attended an academy together until the Bomard waged a war.

Now the dark forces of Bomard have won the war, and Briony Rosewood has been captured in her castle and forced, along with the other Eversun girls, to have their power stripped and forced into an auction where the highest bidder will own them and channel their magic to become more powerful.

Because Briony is a princess of the Eversuns, she is sold at the auction for the highest price to her school Rival, Toven Hearst.

The story flashes back to memories of their time attending the academy together to build the background of their story. The magic system was unique and entertaining. You'll find politics, corruption, and plot twists!

Briony is brilliant, beautiful, and clever, and although she's in this terrible situation, you feel so much hope from her will to continue making the best of her situation and find ways to fight the dark side. Toven comes from a powerful family, and I can't wait to unravel all of their secrets! The biggest one being how he's secretly obsessed with Briony and she has no idea! This is the slowest of slow burns ever, and the tension is soooo good!!

This story was originally written as Dramione fanfic, and I loved the whole vibe!! I was able to preview the audiobook, and they matched the narrator so perfectly with the story! She brought out the personality and cleverness in Briony through her narration, and I did not want the story to end!

This is a dark fantasy that won't be for everyone. Please check the trigger warnings!

Romance Content: 1 Open-door scene, but other references without details

Closed-door modification: Ch. 36

"Rose in Chains" by Julie Soto captivated me from beginning to end; it wouldn't let me put it down, and the entire time, I had to know what was going to happen next. It's on the darker side of Romantasy, in my opinion, which I thoroughly enjoyed. This book takes a look at what happens when the 'big bad' wins the war, not the 'chosen' hero. I feel deeply for each of its characters and the terrible post-war world they suddenly find themselves trying to survive in. I think the pacing is good, it's filled with high-stakes, magic-packed action, and political intrigue, and it had me constantly considering who to trust. I was never bored.

Then there's the delicious tension between our two main characters Briony and Toven. Schoolmate rivals turned opposite sides of the war enemies, and they suddenly find themselves living under the same roof and navigating their new circumstances. This is an adult romance; it is not YA (please read the content warnings), but it's definitely a slow burn. I suspect that the romance and spice will increase with each book. To be honest, with the secret yearning and the amount of sexual tension between Briony and Toven it did not FEEL like a slow burn. I was giggling and kicking my feet throughout the entire book. The romance girly in me was very much fed and satisfied. Some of the tropes or micro-tropes I loved most about this book include: touch her a die vibes, possessive mmc, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, good girl/bad boy.

The audiobook narrator did a great job in my opinion. Even though it was single-person narrated, I did not have trouble distinguishing between characters. Hachette audio, the narrator and the whole production team did a great job.

I cannot wait for the next book! I genuinely enjoyed Rose in Chains and I will recommend it to everyone.

I really have to applaud this narrator because, while I usually listen to audiobooks at 2x speed, if the narrator has an accent, I almost always need to slow it down to 1.5-1.75x for clarity. However, this narrator was so clear and enunciated that I was able to maintain my usual speed without sacrificing any of the story. Not to mention, it was an excellent performance. Kudos!

I’m not sure why I had it in my head that this was a YA book, but boy, was that wrong. Any book that can make me feel and keep me this engaged must be at least 4 stars, but I was surprised at how much of the book felt like a “sex club for dummies” introduction. And so much pining with minimal-no resolution! We are excellently set up for a sequel, but I was left a bit unsatisfied at the end. That said, I’ll definitely check out the sequel when it inevitably comes out.

Thank you to Hachette Audio and Forever for advance copies of this book.

DNF at 16%.

I'm not stupid. I knew this was going to be dark because I knew The Auction was nearly pitch black. However I falsely assumed that it would have to be sanitized slightly to be ready for a traditional publishing deal and nope. Not even close. This thing was so dark that I started cringing at it as I went and then when they mentioned they were going to spay her (yes, they used that word about a woman) that I bounced and I'm not sorry about it.

I've read fanfiction turned original fic before and when it's done well it's seamless. You start to forget who the canon characters were almost instantly because the new ones take the story and run. This was not that. Every time a new character entered with nothing changed but their names to the point where they would enter and speak two lines and I'd mentally assign them their equivalent in the source material.

I do feel a certain way that in all the universe of Dramione fanfictions that were adapted for original publication this summer, both of them are completely saturated in violence against women.

But the one positive of course was Ella Lynch. If anything were to keep me reading this, it would have been her. Her pacing and panic kept my anxiety super high which fits for this story. I hope I get to try something else she narrates soon.

First. Thank you so much NetGalley and Hachette audio for the ARC of this audiobook. I do not know what I was thinking with this book. I had no idea it was a series and now I am here, sitting, waiting for the next book!!
The audio was done well. I was able to tell the characters apart and I just love a British narrator.
I also realized I may have read the fanfic version of this story and I love the way she was able to keep the story similar and make it very much her own. There was a good amount of world building and the flashbacks helped to build the story up.
This is a top tier fantasy romance but it is also dark. Be warned. Read the trigger warnings. By the end of this book, they are both still yearning for each other and have yet to admit they love each other. This is the yearning I want to see.

Talk about a SLOW BURN with both plot and romance. This really sets the scene for books that come next and I cannot wait to devour those too!

The narrator really brought Briony to life.

Thank you to Hachette Audio for this ALC.

I'm a massive fan of The Auction, so I was really excited to see how this book turned out. I was not disappointed, I think If you haven't read the original this could be a very dark story. However, that's not me! I was so excited to get this ALC and it was just as gripping and addictive.
The narration was perfect and really did a great job of being engaging and depicting each character as I thought they'd be.
I just cannot say how much I really enjoyed this, great characters, interesting plot and I think kept a good skeleton of the derivative story - to not alienate the fanfic readers.
I would recommend to anyone who loves a slow burn, dark romantasy.
So excited to get my special edition physical copy next month. 😁

Let’s start by talking about the audiobook, because Ella Lynch did a stellar job with her narration!! I swear sometimes when I closed my eyes I saw Emma Watson and Tom Felton delivering the lines. The cadence and inflections, moments of petulance and wheedling, it was truly perfection. And, of course, to me, the best audiobooks are those that cause you to forget you are reading with your ears and not your eyes. That’s always down to production, post production, and quality control. So, all due acknowledgment to the teams at Hachette Audio (Elise Green) and Curated Audio for their work on this. It was a great audiobook. Some of these stars are definitely yours.

With regard to the novel itself. I really enjoyed this story AND it absolutely read like Dramione fanfic. That’s not a bad thing necessarily, but it can definitely add to or detract from your enjoyment of the book, depending on your POV. For me, I think it detracted because I felt like the novel relied too heavily on the character development (and in some ways world building) from source material. I would have liked to have seen some ways in which these characters were meaningfully differentiated from their inspirations. I found the pacing to be inconsistent, with a strong start and a very sluggish middle, recovering only in the last few chapters. I think this was compounded by the non-linear storytelling. I think so much of that information could have been communicated in a different way that didn’t slow the story’s momentum. While I know this is a trilogy, the slow burn remained a little too ember-level for my personal taste. I felt like the story would have benefited significantly from at least a little more tension building in that arena. Having said all of that, I’m definitely hooked, have to know what happens next, and will be picking up the sequel the second it is released.

Genuine thanks to Hachette Audio, NetGalley, and the author for an audio ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Thank you Hachette Audio for this gifted audio copy! All opinions are my own

I want to note that this review is coming from a reader who did NOT previously read the fanfic The Auction that this is developed from, so this story is a completely new one to me.

I spent a vast majority of this book completely and utterly BORED, unfortunately. At the beginning I struggled because we were dropped into the middle of this war with almost no context for anything, and so many characters were thrown at us in a way that felt overwhelming. I understand fantasy books need time to worldbuild and develop characters, but I feel like we really didn't get that in this book. Everything felt a bit surface level to me. I kept waiting for… more. As someone who absolutely LOVES dual timeline stories, I actually didn't feel like it really worked here either. The chapters from the past made it feel choppy and took me even more out of the story as I struggled to really get into it.

The romance aspect was.. fine for me. I was expecting more based on reviews I had seen. The banter I anticipated was a let down, personally. I'm not sure if this is related to how underdeveloped the characters felt to me, though. I didn't particularly care about either MC or feel their chemistry/connection. The enemies to.. reluctant partners (?) felt more telling rather than showing.

Again I just felt so... bored through this book. It's never a good sign when you keep checking the time left in the audiobook because you just want to be done reading a book. I wouldn't say I DISliked this book, it was just underwhelming in most aspects for me. I was just intrigued by the world enough to want to finish this story, hoping for a good ending that would keep me hooked and wanting the next one. The end does have me wanting to read the follow up, though I did predict part of it. It was just enough excitement to want me to know what happens next.

HOWEVER: I absolutely loved the narration for this. I’m a big fan of single narration, though I know it’s not a crowd favorite. Ella Lynch did a phenomenal job on this audio. She managed to give each character a distinct voice which is quite a feat since there are a TON of characters. She was also able to convey a lot of emotion within her narration so despite me not enjoying the actual story as much as I wanted to, her performance was an absolute hit for me. If I had eyeball read this and not had the audio, I can’t be sure I would have finished. (Or at minimum it would have taken me a long time to get through it).

Thanks again to Hachette Audio for an early copy of this one!

Rose in Chains is a dark, slow-burn, enemies to lovers romantasy. Princess Briony Rosewood, captured and sold after her kingdom’s fall, is forced into the home—and power—of Toven Hearst, her former school rival and heir to the enemy empire. I've read a few of Soto's other novels and I was suprised to find that Rose in Chains contains such dark themes including trafficking, coercion, and war trauma.

The audiobook is particularly outstanding. The narration adds tremendous emotional weight to the story, capturing Briony's vulnerability and resolve, and giving Toven's intensity a brooding, magnetic edge. The voice actors elevate the already powerful prose, making the emotional beats land even harder and drawing you deeper into the story.

For fans of dark fantasy romance with political intrigue, this is a must-read—and a must-listen.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hachette Audio for gifting me an ALC of Rose in Chains. The following thoughts and opinions are my own.

We are dropped into a magical world with a lot of people. The first 35% was setting up a magical world and A LOT of characters. It was done so in a chaotic way that made it difficult for me to follow who was good, who was bad, and how the magical system worked. It was hard for me to become invested in the world, in the characters. I know that was Dramione fan faction, which it was still coded into the plot. Briony is princess, and her family died in a war. She and her friends are auctioned to the highest bidder. Briony’s heart magic is a prize, and ultimately she was sold to Toven Hearst, a white-haired boy who she went to school with. Toven is aloof, cold, dangerous, and sexy. There was a lot of pining between Briony and Toven even after Briony and Toven were at Hearst Manor. Even behind the gates of Toven’s family’s house, there is a lot of politics and scheming. Not everyone can be trusted, and Briony uncovers who is a real ally and who would love to torture and kill her.

Despite the beautiful cover, Rose in Chains is a DARK ROMANTASY. Be aware that there is non consent (not by the MMC), dubious consent (not by the MMC), and forced sterilization to name a few triggers. Toven is not as morally gray I thought he’d be, but I like him. Briony is a strong heroine. Toven still has his secrets at the end of the book. There is no spice, just kissing and the longing, so be aware that the romances SLOOOOWWWW!! It is hinted that there will be more romance in the subsequent book. The cliffhanger is interesting, and I liked it.

I cannot give it a full five stars, because of how muddied the beginning was. I understand that she had to de-Harry Potter Rose in Chains, but it would have been clearer without naming a whole lot of characters and throwing us into a rich world without a clear direction of how the world and magic system works. ⭐️ 4.5 Stars

I received this arc after seeing so many Julie Soto recommendations and needing to jump on the bandwagon. I’m very glad that I did and will be seeking out her other books as well.

I could tell this series will be a slow burn because there was a TON of worldbuilding and tensions rising. The beginning and the end were full of action with enough sprinkled into the middle to keep me on the edge of my seat. The tension between the two main characters??? Insane. I could read a book about just the two of them and nothing else happening. Slow burn romance with banter is my favorite and this absolutely delivered. The fmc was a little insufferable at times from how oblivious she is but also you gotta love her.

I loved how the author provided flashbacks that were meaningful to the story at the perfect time and there were no moments that I felt were wasted. The writing was beautiful and very intentional.

This was an audio arc so speaking on the narrator: she was very alright. Her character voices were distinct and I always knew who was speaking but I felt like none of them matched how I would imagine them. I was sometimes confused about where the emphasis was put on a sentence of dialogue which pulled me out of the story. I will continue to listen to her because I really enjoyed the story but can’t say that I will seek out future books just based on the narrator.

Everything was just really underdeveloped and I felt nothing for the main characters. There was no character development as situations came and went.

The pacing was really off. The start of the book was awesome but really drug in the middle. There definitely could have been more action sprinkled throughout the middle part because it didn't really hold my attention.

The narration was good, and the narrator brought a lot more emotion and personality to the story.

Thanks you @HachetteAudio and NetGalley for my advanced ALC of this book.

2.5 Stars

📚Rose in Chains by Julie Soto
💜mf dark fantasy romance
💜dramione fan fiction turned trad published romance
💜hate to love
💜captured princess sold at auction to the enemy
💜forced proximity
💜fmc with hidden power
💜morally grey-ish mmc
💜singular pov
💜book 1 in an trilogy (ends with a cliffhanger)

⚠️CWs listed on author’s website: explicit sexual content, mentions of non-consensual sex, sexual assault, sexual assault of a POV character, buying and selling of humans into captivity, forced sterilization, forced termination of a pregnancy, minor character deaths, suspense and violence, torture and gore

Story: 3/5
Audiobook: 3/5 (narrated by Ella Lynch)
Length: 16h1min

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

I received an ALC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review 💖

I feel like I’m in the minority of people that haven’t read The Auction, so I went into this completely blind. While it was of course adapted for traditional publishing, the original source material still felt very present (for better or worse depending on your feelings/views).

I had a lot of fun with this read, but I was still left wanting a little more from it by the end. It was fast-paced and engaging but I didn’t feel that spark of “oh wow this is my next obsession”. The beginning in particular was a little jarring and confusing for me. It felt like the reader was thrown into the deep end with limited world building and tons of characters getting thrown at us all at once. The alternating timelines also took me some getting used to because I feel like the past scenes would just randomly pop up out of nowhere. Once I got a hang of the important characters and a general idea of the magic system/politics, I was able to settle in and enjoy the story. It was fairly fast-paced to the point I didn’t want to put it down because I wanted to see what would happen next. I wish the world had been fleshed out a bit more in this first book, but I’m hoping that happens more in the next installment (fingers crossed). I just never really understood the whole heart vs. mind magic and why mind magic was so controversial. Even though I hadn’t read the fanfiction, I could clearly tell that this was an aspect of the story that had to be reworked for this publication. Also, I really wanted the mmmc to be more morally gray? Sure, the content was very heavy and triggering at times…but I never really thought he was that crazy? I don’t know, I just think we’re using the term “morally gray” a little too freely nowadays. Or maybe I’ve just gotten desensitized by some of my recent reads 🤭

Regardless of some of my conflicting feelings about this, I’m definitely invested in the story itself and plan on picking up the next book when it drops.

♾️⭐️
As a massive fan of The Auction, I was equal parts excited and nervous to see the way that this was adapted and oh my gosh did Julie DELIVER!!! I can’t even express my level of obsession with this one! Julie did an incredible job of keeping the plot the same while also completely reworking the characters/world into something new that had me unable to think about anything else.


Briony’s twin brother Rory, the King of Evermore, is defeated in the war against Bomard. The dark forces of Bomard have now taken over power. Princess Briony, and all the Eversun people, have been captured and will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Briony is purchased by Toven, her school rival who she harbored secret feelings for.

What you can expect:
-Political Intrigue
-Morally grey MMC
-Unique magic system
-Enemies to lovers
-Slow burn
-TENSION
-Top-notch banter
-Forced proximity
-Secrets
-Dual timeline
-Suspense


I just finished and I’m already thinking about reading it again. I absolutely can’t wait for the next book in the series to come out! Julie Soto has been an auto-buy author for me for a while now and she just continues to show me why with every book.


Thank you to NetGalley, Hachette Audio, and Forever Publishing for the ALC in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed the audiobook narration.

This book absolutely shines as an audiobook, and the team at Hachette Audio did an amazing job with this rendition. I could feel the moods and visualize the facial expressions of the characters based on the tone used. I cannot commend the team enough for their success here—I’ll definitely be looking up the narrators and favoriting them for future reads!

This story addresses themes that may be considered dark or triggering for many individuals. I am glad the audio had a "trigger warning" at the start and hope the physical does as well. it was a little hard to follow the time jumps between the "before" and the "current time." Maybe this is something that’s clearer on the page, possibly through font or typesetting that doesn’t translate to audio, but I eventually got the hang of it once I figured out what Julie was doing. Adding some dates for the time jumps would be helpful, although its probably too late to adjust that for this run, maybe if the jumps continue in subsequent books in the series at least a "past" or "present" would help.

I’ve been anticipating this release for a while, and I’m a fan of Julie’s work. I went into this having read her fandom writing online, as well as Forget Me Not and Not Another Love Song. If you’ve read her recent books, you’ll know Elliot was an AMAZING MMC—truly hard to beat—but I didn’t love how helpless and self-sabotaging Ama was (leaving a check engine light on for years while relying on the vehicle for your business gave me secondhand anxiety). In Not Another Love Song, both characters were great—capable and competent—but they often let misunderstandings get in the way. Her fandom work, on the other hand, was always well mapped, with details that resurfaced later in surprising ways.

In this first part of the new series, Julie has taken the best elements of all three and combined them. Toven is even more compelling than Elliot, Briony is even more capable than Gwyn, and the details sprinkled throughout… I already have a list of ones I hope she brings back and ties in as the series continues! The new magical lore was reminiscent of The Paper Magician, which I loved. (If you’re a fan of Harry Potter or The Hunger Games and haven’t read The Paper Magician series by Charlie Holmberg, I recommend adding at least the first three books to your TBR!) It was a fresh and intriguing take—magic sharing and stealing opens up a whole new world of possibilities for both our heroes and our villains, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

This story addresses themes that may be considered dark or triggering for many individuals. I am glad the audio had a "trigger warning" at the start and hope the physical does as well. Adding some dates for the time jumps would be helpful, although its probably too late to adjust that for this run, maybe if the jumps continue in subsequent books in the series at least a "past" or "present" would help.

Thank you to the team at Hachette Audio for providing an advance copy of this audiobook for me to listen to and review. I look forward to rereading it in print when it’s released next week!

By the end of this book I was absolutely HOOKED and I will be waiting (not so patiently) for the next book in this trilogy.

Briony is a prisoner of war, striped of her magic and bought at auction by none other than her former classmate and object of her schoolgirl crush, Toven. As expecting this is a dark fantasy, enemies to lovers romance with the sloooowest slow burn. The tension, pining, BANTER - amazing! The flashbacks (which I'm not normally a fan of) actually work really well in this story to help build on their relationship.

The pacing felt a little slow in the middle and the world building was a little lack luster. This wasn't too much an issue for me since I am familiar with the original source work this was inspired by. But I do hope that we get some more in the next book! Especially after that epilogue 👀

Audio narration: 4.5/5 Loved the narrator and thought she was a fantastic pick for Briony. Not as big of a fan of some of the male voices but those were minor characters and didn't distract from the story too much.

Overall, highly recommend to anyone who is looking for a dark fantasy with slow burn, high political stakes, forced proximity, and top tier banter! (Please, please check the trigger warnings first)

Thanks to Julie, Hachette Audio and NetGalley for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.