I just finished the audio book arc of Rose in Chains and oh my—narration by Ella Lynch is 🔥! Her voice brought every twist, betrayal, and tender moment to vivid life—it's all slow-burn tension, emotional depth, and even that crushing auction scene hit harder thanks to her delivery. Well done!

About the story: Briony Rosewood is my kind of heroine. Stripped of everything—home, magic, family—then sold as a slave, she finds the strength to fight back. And Toven… the enemy turned so much more. Their chemistry? Unforgettable. It’s enemies-to-lovers done right: respectful, longing, and oh-so-layered.

The world that Julie Soto created is dark and complex, with intricate magic and heartbreaking stakes. The dual timelines and flashbacks flesh out their past without slowing the pace. It’s emotional, immersive, and leaves you craving the next chapter.

If you’re after a lush, dark romantasy with a fierce heroine and slowburn romance—this is it. 5 stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you NetGalley, Julie Soto and Hachette Audio for the ARC.

I really enjoyed this book! The narration was absolutely amazing. It pulled me in right away and made it so easy to get lost in the story.

It’s definitely a slower-paced read, and it tackles some heavy topics, so I was really glad to see that there were trigger warnings at the beginning. That was thoughtful and helped set the right tone going in.

The focus here is more on political intrigue than action or fight scenes, which I actually really liked. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you enjoy slow burns and behind-the-scenes power moves, it totally works.

One of my favorite parts was the back-and-forth between the present and past timelines. It added a nice layer of mystery and helped the story unfold in a way that kept me guessing the whole time.

If I had one small complaint, it’s that I wish the characters had made smarter decisions in a few situations. Sometimes their lack of preparation felt a bit off, like it didn’t quite match who they were supposed to be.

Still, I’m definitely picking up the next book in the series. I’m hooked and curious to see where things go from here

I’m 100% convinced this book will find its audience but unfortunately it wasn’t me. First the beginning brought in some many characters it was hard to keep up and it felt soooo slow. It took me a lot of time to get through this one. And it didn’t really pick up u til the very end. I will say the audiobook for this saved me otherwise I would have given up.

🎧 Thank you to Hachette and NetGalley for the ARC of the audiobook. Before I begin, its only fair that I mention I am aware of the history/origin of this work, though this is my first time reading it. The parallels are there. HOWEVER, great effort has been made to separate the origin from the current state without it being jarring. You don't NEED to be familiar with the past and that's amazingly well done considering the origin is so iconic. Hats off to Julie and everyone involved in those decisions.

There are two main issues I have:
1. You had the option to modify the story in so many different ways. The creative options open to this story were endless… and we went with bonded dragons 😩 It feels like a missed opportunity to take a really solid foundation that could have reshaped the current climate of reading tropes and introduced something new and unique, but it went safe and went “you know what we need more of? Dragons.”
2. There is a lot of flashbacks. So many in fact that the story doesn’t actually get going till 30-40%. You don't really meet and interact with the MMC in current time until about 35% in. I appreciate the backstory and effort to make the story unique but I feel like I know Briony’s entire life and NOTHING about Toven.
Besides that, this was a great read. The story is solid and unique, I enjoyed the characters and the conflict. Its worth the read or listen for sure and I will be following the story as it is released. I loved the slow burn and I LOVE the dark elements. Very dark romance/dark fantasy.

In terms of the audiobook, it was very good if a bit slow. This is the only book I've listened to at 3x speed. Usually 2-2.5x is where I keep it. 1.7 if I want to set myself to a good simmer and live in the world a little longer. But It was very long and the speed was required in a lot of places due to pacing. The narrator was also definitely chosen based on their resemblance to where this story was originated and while not a terrible choice, besides the speed direction holding her back a bit, I kept thinking “oh this is very xyz sounding” and I was listening. Not BAD, it was enjoyable. She did excellent at differentiating the different tones and voices/accents for the other characters.

✨Forbidden romance
🖤Slow burn
✨Enemies to lovers
🖤Dark


Another Julie Soto banger👏🏼
THE TENSION!! Ugh this book will be living in my mind rent free 🙂‍↕️✨ I loved everything about it. The slow burn was deliciously slow dare I say, and I was just salivating for every single second Toven and Briony had their forbidden-attraction-disguised-in-hate moments. The protectiveness coming from both main characters made my heart melt every single time!!

I am so excited for the next book. I cannot wait to see where the story goes!

Thank you NetGalley, Forever Publishing & Hachette Audio for both my ALC & ARC💖

I was so excited when I got approved for this ALC & this book did NOT disappoint. I couldn’t stop listening & finished in 2 days. My tldr review is “OMG OMG THIS IS SO GOOD I LOVED IT!“ 😂

This is a (verrry) slow burn enemies to lovers Romantasy, and the action starts immediately. The magic and world building are very easy to follow. There’s 2 kinds of magic, from the heart & from the mind, and they are currently at war. Briony Rosewood is a princess that uses mind magic, and her side loses the war. She ultimately loses everything, is stripped of her magic & is auctioned off, with the highest bidder being her enemy & former crush, Toven Hearst. We get flashbacks throughout the book to see how the characters & world got to where they are & it’s all so well done. There are so many surprises & I can’t wait for the next book to see where it goes! Be sure to check the trigger warnings, because there are some very dark moments.

Also, between this book & The Thrashers, I’m declaring Julie Soto as the queen of epilogues!!

The narration by Ella Lynch was so good too! This was the first Fantasy/Romantasy I listened to on audio, since other times I tried it got too confusing & I had to stick with reading them with my eyes. But that was never an issue here. The acting was fantastic, I could really feel the emotion throughout. And the voices she did were all perfect for each character. The way my skin crawled every time Raven spoke, it was perfection.

Thank you to HachetteAudio, Forever and NetGalley for providing the ARC for my honest review!

This book has been one of my most anticipated reads and it did not disappoint. I have read The Auction and was so amazed at the new world and life that the story took on. The twists and turns… and that ending. The narrator was brilliant in her delivery, hooking me in through the whole book, making it feel like there was nothing else going on in the world. I will continue to scream about this book from the rooftops.

AAAAAAAJAAHAAHHBHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Okay, okay, okay.

I can overstate neither how excited I was for this OR how well it lived up to my expectations. Easily the worst part of reading this early will be the wait for book two. I’m OBSESSED.

(Real review stuff- the HP character parallels are still fairly obvious but the world building and plot lines have been thoroughly adapted to something new from the Fanfic roots. Vibes are still very Dramione and descriptions of some settings ring bells but given this has gone through so many levels of AU-ing it’s truly removed and unique at this point.)

((Audio review- STUNNING. I typically have some audio processing issues with fantasy but this worked for me. Whether because it’s not a super high fantasy or because the voices managed to be distinct enough. I really enjoyed this format))

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – Audio ARC Review

Rose in Chains completely won me over. While the beginning took me a little time to get into, the emotional payoff and incredible world-building made this an unforgettable read. Julie Soto continues to prove why she’s becoming one of my all-time favorite authors, and I cannot wait for more in this series.

What Took a Minute:
The start of the book felt a bit overwhelming. Characters were introduced rapidly, and since I was listening to the audiobook without a text copy to follow along, I found myself rewinding to catch details. But once I passed the first 5%, things smoothed out and I was hooked.

What I Loved:
• Enemies to Lovers: A classic favorite and done so well here. The tension was real and believable.
• Slow Burn: One of the slowest burns Julie has written, and I mean that in the best way. The emotional depth had me deeply invested, even with minimal spice.
• Magic System: The contrast of Heart Magic and Mind Magic was such a fresh and compelling idea.
• Dragons & Prophecies: High fantasy fans, you will not be disappointed.
• Found Family & Political Intrigue: Both elements were layered beautifully into the plot, keeping me emotionally connected and on edge.

Content Warnings (as included in the book):
• Explicit sexual content
• Mentions of non-consensual sex and sexual assault (including a POV character)
• Buying and selling of humans into captivity
• Forced sterilization and termination of pregnancy
• Minor character deaths
• Torture, suspense, and violence

Narration:
The narrator delivered a strong performance, especially capturing the emotional nuance of the story. I did find the male voice a little inconsistent, but overall it didn’t detract from the experience. That said, I’d love to see more duet narrations for books like this, it would elevate the audio even further.

Thank you to Hachette Audio, Forever, and NetGalley for the advance listening copy of Rose in Chains. I’ve already preordered multiple editions because this book is living rent-free in my head. The ending hit so hard, and now I’m absolutely desperate for the sequel!

I was so incredibly impressed by this story. The characters, the plot, the writing. I feel like it was exciting enough to keep my attention, shocking enough to make me uncomfortable, and descriptive enough to provide adequate world-building for a trilogy.

Julie Soto outdid herself with this story. It is a combo of a fantasy and dystopian society type book. I will say that many compared it to Handmaid’s Tale, but it was far more explicit. I do think they are comparable for sure though.

‼️Major content warnings: Sexual assault, abuse, violence, death, grief, and many others.

I know some of the girlies probably want romance. If that is the case, I will say that this is a very slow-burn romance. You will see few truly romantic encounters. Do not let that dissuade you. The tension is there, and you know as the trilogy goes on there will definitely be a strong romance.

That ending though… 😳

Thank you to Forever, Hachette Audio/Hachette Publishing, and NetGalley for this ARC read audiobook. The narrator did a spectacular job, and the story was amazing. I can’t wait for the next one.

Rosewood♡Hearst
I was able to read this book through netgalley. This book was such an amazing read. I couldn't put it down. The world building, characters and story was perfectly put together. This book was laced with crack I couldn't put it down. The political and magical aspects were a perfect balance .The auction scene With toven when he started bidding. I yelled. And cried. The racing scene for the tree. The lake. 😭 this book has easily become top 5 favorite book this year. Julie soto's writing is phenomenal. This book gave me all the feels. It will definitely live rent free in my brain. Julie soto has now become a favorite author for me. Toven is just pure book boyfriend gold and Briony is a great fmc her banter and wit. I cried, laughed, yelled, gasped the whole way through. I need book 2 and book 3 ASAP. Until then I'll just stare at the wall. 5☆ hands down. highly recommend

I haven't read Julie Soto's fanfiction but was still SO excited for this after loving The Thrashers earlier this year. This was a dark romance/fantasy (new for me) and pretty lengthy but still so captivating. Obsessed with these characters and that ending!! Can't wait for there to be a book 2! The narrator was wonderful with captivating the listener while world building in a fantasy novel - usually I have a hard time following this genre on audio but in this particular audiobook, the narrator did a phenomenal job! Thank you @netgalley and @hachetteaudio for the eALC!

🎧 AUDIOBOOK REVIEW 🎧

Thank you to @hachetteaudio for providing me an early copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

I am not familiar with the original fanfic of this story (nor any other fanfic of this variety) but it reminded me very strongly of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘥'𝘴 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦, in scope and story, with the addition of magic.

The book starts with the “end” of the war between two warring countries, but we also get flashbacks of the “before”. We find that there was a lot of mingling between the two sides in the past, as they all went to school together, so we get a little taste of how things developed into the “after war” period.

I found our FMC, Briony, to be a strong character, fighting back as best she can against so many odds. I was intrigued by the MMC, Toven, who you can tell is keeping many secrets behind the scenes.

I felt the story moved pretty well, and kept my attention throughout, but I did find that the world building was bit lackluster? It was slowly developed as we moved along, but I never felt like I really understood the background to the what and why of certain things.

I also found I had a hard time connecting to many of the side characters (there were arguably too many?🤷‍♀️) whom I felt we were supposed to care for, and I think that took away from some of the more emotional scenes of the book.

And, personally, I saw the big “surprise” at the end coming from a mile away. But, I personally didn’t find the “cliffhanger” to be too bad!

Overall, even though I thought some elements were lacking, I still very much enjoyed the story, and I’m looking forward to the next one in the series.

Audiobook notes: I thought Ella Lynch did well! Single POV and Single narrator, but I thought her voices were all very distinct.

What this book is giving:
✅ Dark Romantasy
✅ Single POV
✅ Slooooooow Burn
✅ Warring Factions
✅ The “end” of a war
✅ Princess
✅ An Auction
✅ Servitude

Rating:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5
🌶️🌶️ / 5

The war is over and the dark forces have won - princess Briony Rosewood and the remaining citizens of Evermore have been captured and auctioned off to the people of Bomard, their rival nation. Her brother is dead, her friends split up, and her childhood crush… purchased her.

The story goes between present day and the past, providing a good foundation of backstory throughout the novel to prepare the reader for what comes next. This provides helpful context, and helps the reader build an emotional bond to characters who are talked about in the present day, but seldom seen. Julie Soto does a great job of building the world, explaining how the magic works, and not overwhelming the reader with all the information at once. Instead, we are introduced to certain topics and explanations only as it becomes relevant, which really helped with the flow of the novel.

Once I felt up to speed on the inner-workings of magic in this realm, and the tensions between Evermore and Bomard, I had already developed a fairly emotional bond to Briony. I loved that even from the beginning, the story felt both unique and comfortable. While not necessarily groundbreaking, it was creative and inspiring, and kept me intrigued. I always had a list of questions about what would happen next - and it was hard to predict.

There were many nuances as we were introduced to essential characters, but only slowly learned what we needed to know about them. Briony’s curious mind helped keep the reader enthralled about what each person’s role was in the bigger picture of the Bomardi line, and who was loyal to it.

The relationship building was particularly good. We saw it first with how connected she was to her people, and to her brother, Rory. While their childhood could have driven a wedge between the twins, their relationship was stronger due to their hardships - because he saw her value, and made sure she saw it too.

“When they were very young, he used to say that they were answering the questions together, as a team”

We next saw the relationship grow between Briony and her captor, Toven Hearst. Throughout the book, we see the two as classmates, as enemies, and as captor/captive. The slowest of slow burns - politics mean that facing any feelings would risk the safety of many.

If you’re expecting a nice, magical romance, you’re in the wrong place. To me, the romance was secondary to the rivalry between worlds, the other relationships, and the plot to save Evermore. This is a fantasy through and through, with dark themes of captivity, human trafficking, non-consent, and s*xual humiliation. Definitely read your trigger warnings before jumping into this. That said, I thought they were handled very well and I was tied into every moment, desperate to learn more.

This was the longest audiobook I’ve listened to, but I was so impressed that I never once felt bored or like the story wasn’t moving. There was always something to unravel and explore. I’m completely hooked and eager for book two.

I only found out after reading that this was adapted from a fanfiction, but honestly, I never would’ve known if I hadn’t Googled it - it truly didn’t feel like one. If you love fantasy, adventure, and dark, brooding men… you will love Rose in Chains.

“She stared…listening to the echo in her ears of him calling her family”

I really think my only qualm with this book was how heavily it is marketed as a romance - I didn’t think the romance was the primary story, nor do I think it was developed enough to be considered the genre of the book. I would barely categorize this as romantasy… but I really hope book two changes that for me, because I can’t wait to see more of these two. In the end, the adventure and the mystery is really what captivated me, not the love story.

The audiobook was incredibly well done, and I was so impressed with the narrator. She was perfect for this book, the themes, the characters... all of it. She really helped bring the world to life, and brought so much emotion into Briony's character. I think she really helped me feel Briony's feelings and dive into the story more readily.

Thank you so much to Hachette Audio and Grand Central Publishing for the earc/alc combo. I always love that for me.

I did not read the original fan fic, but knowing about it make reading really distracting trying to line up these characters. I really loved the parallels to The Handmaid's Tale and overall dystopian vibes of the book. I did not like the slow slow slow slow burn. They needed to kiss, much much sooner. I am super excited for the next one.

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy of the audio! 4.5 stars. This was actually really good, but I personally was having trouble not comparing this to the original fanfiction It was based off of, mostly because it was so extremely similar that it was hard to separate the two, even though all reference to the actual source material is removed. But all of the basics of the structure that made the original fanfiction so good is still there as far as the plot and the character and everything that is so good from that original Work.
My biggest complaint as far as the actual contents of this book is that the magic system does not seem super well flushed out and explained I feel like I have more questions about the magic system and kind of the world as a whole now that I finished the book that I did when I first started the book which is not great. Hopefully More of the world and magic is built out a little bit more as the series continues, but considering our main character was a princess in this world before the fall I feel like there should be a better understanding of everything imported to the reader through her perspective than what we got in this initial story. That lack of consistent and in depth world building and explanation of the magic system is the main reason I rated this 4 1/2 stars instead of 5. I don’t know if the slight lack of world building is partially due to the fact that in the original fanfiction, we kind of already know the structure of the world and this reinterpretation to make it traditionally published just didn’t take into account how much would need to be different and explained better but I still had a really good time.
In summary, I liked the characters. I liked the enemies to lovers aspect. I think the plot is really interesting and even though I have an idea of how things will play out since I have read the original fanfiction I am really curious to see how the plot maybe changes as the story goes on and how small changes to the character building may influence slightly different choices in the plot as well.

Rose in Chains Audiobook Review
4.25/5 ⭐️
Pub Date: 7/8/25

Thank you so much @hachetteaudio and @netgalley for the ALC! I was SO excited to start as I’ve been looking forward to this for a while.

I wanted to read this back when it was still in its early AO3 days, and even downloaded it, but never got around to actually starting it. I actually think that probably was a good thing now that I’ve finished it. It was exciting to see this new story unfold not knowing what might be coming next.

It’s dark and action packed and I found I could not stop listening. I just needed to see what was coming next. There was a lot going on and a ton of characters to get to know, but I thought the pacing was well done throughout. I thought the world building was pretty well done and the magic system was interesting. It has pretty dark themes the entire time, so check triggers before reading for sure.

Overall, this story is 4.5/5 ⭐️ for me. My (very slightly) lower rating for the audiobook was primarily because I felt like the narrator was better positioned for a YA novel. Don’t get me wrong, she did a great job, I just had to keep reminding myself this is very much not a YA book and it felt a bit jarring at times.

I can’t wait for the book to release and to read the gorgeous physical copy 🥰

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and it absolutely did not disappoint. I was SO excited and thankful that I received an ALC of this wonderful book.

Julie Soto is one of my favorite authors. I will forever read anything she writes and she once again blew me away with this book. I listened to this book every spare moment I had. I could not stop. This book has everything you want in a romantasy. Forced proximity, enemies to lovers, morally gray MMC, incredible strong FMC. I do not want to give too much away in this review but absolutely read this book as soon as you possibly can! Immediate 6⭐️ read.

I could not stop listening to this book. The narration was great. I need book 2. Briony and Toven no words. the tension and banter it was good. I enjoyed thr flashbacks to understand the dynamics. The world building was amazing.

Thank you so much Netgalley and Hachette Audio for this ALC!
I really enjoyed this audiobook! Rose and Chains delivered exactly what I was hoping for in terms of romance. It’s definitely a slow burn that builds beautifully throughout the story. The pacing kept me engaged, and I found myself genuinely invested in the characters’ journey.
The narrator was absolutely fantastic and really brought the story to life. Their performance added so much depth to the characters and made the listening experience truly enjoyable.
However, the world building is where this book fell a bit short for me. While we do get some background through flashbacks, I found myself wanting so much more detail about the world these characters inhabit. The magic system, in particular, felt like it had untapped potential. It wasn’t overly complex, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but there were definitely some missing pieces that left me with questions. I would have loved to understand more about how the magic works and how it fits into the broader world.
Despite these gaps in world building, the strong character development and excellent narration made this a worthwhile listen. If you’re looking for a well-paced slow burn romance and can overlook some underdeveloped magical elements, I’d definitely recommend giving this one a try.

Perfect for: Fans of slow burn romance, audiobook lovers

Consider if: You prefer extensively detailed magic systems and comprehensive world building

Check your TW!!