An interesting re-telling of the "Phantom of the Opera." I think it's a great introduction for teens, one that will not only make the original story more accessible but also keep them entertained. I look forward to adding it to the collection!

It makes me sad to say that I didn't enjoy this book. I gave it my best shot, but by 40% I had to admit I wasn't interested in the story. The writing was fine, if a little flowery, but the pacing is what killed things for me. Nothing had really happened. And I just didn't want to continue when in all possibility, nothing would until the very end.

This was a most anticipated read, so it hurts to even send this. Thank you for the chance to read!

DNF. While I loved AG Howard's past Splintetered series, Roseblood fell short. Unfortunately, after reading 40 percent of the novel I gave up. Why? Too slow, while I was interested in the idea and concept of the book, it simply wasn't enough to keep me reading. Nothing was happening and that was a major disappointment. The characters seemed like they had lots of potential and I'm giving the novel a plus for such a brilliant and unique retelling story, especially in YA, but it was simply just to slow and at 40 percent I was unwilling to continue reading.

As a huge fan of Phantom of the Opera, I enjoyed RoseBlood so much. I really loved the story. It was such a unique twist on the original story by Gaston Leroux. I basically never wanted the story to end.

I don't want to give too much away from this book but I can't press enough how orginal this story was. There are elements from the original Phantom of the Opera, of course, but A.G. Howard definitely made it her own, with a twist. There was something rather dreamlike about this book, I couldn't help but being hooked by Rune and Thorn's story.

RoseBlood is written in both Rune and Thorn's point of view. I loved the chapters of Thorn the most because him and the Phantom and the connection to Rune and what they are was wrapped in a lot of mystery and intrigue, which is something I love.

The romance almost ended me, especially at the end when I didn't think things would end well at all. I'm glad the author didn't decide to go with a love triangle like in Leroux's version with Raoul/Christine/Erik. It was perfect as it was between Thorn and Rune. So many feels!

As much as I loved Rune and especially Thorn, I've got to say that my favorite character was Diable, the cat. I seriously adored him. He'd probably hate being adored but I couldn't help it.

The setting of this story was also really great. I could almost picture RoseBlood with its dark atmosphere, all the mystery. This book had swoonworthy romance, a lot of twists and the writing... Oh my gosh, the writing! It was so freaking gorgeous. RoseBlood is yet another favorite book of mine by A.G. Howard.

I love the phantom of the opera and I knew I would like this book as well. I will be purchasing a few copies for my class! I know my students will be excited. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this amazing book.

This was utterly boring. I could not connect to the characters or their motivations or the love interest or anything with this story. I have to stop reading at about 50% So I will not go much into detail but this is my 4th AG Howard book and I feel like she is trying to create these beautiful and whimsical stories but they always miss the mark unfortunately.

I received a review copy in exchange with an honest review.

The writing style in this book will enchant you with its hypnotizing symphony.

I am a huge fan of the Splintered book ( Yes, I know that Splintered is actually a book series, but bookstores over here only have Splintered. No,don’t suggest pirating the book online!) I was mesmerized by Howard’s writing Style; as well as, her cleverly spun twists on the classic Tale. With Roseblood, I can easily say that she absolutely delivered.

This is a retelling of Leroux’s gothic tale of The Phantom of the Opera. Rune Germain is 17 years old girl who is having has a mysterious dilemma linked to her operatic talent, and a horrifying mistake she’s trying to hide and understand. Her mother sends her to a French arts for her senior year to give Rune’s talent clear direction. This school is located in an opera house rumored to have ties to The Phantom of the Opera!

“One paragraph is all I needed to fall in love with this story !!!”

I am not even exaggerating! The descriptions that build this book are absolutely phenomenal. The words are intoxicatingly lyrical and luscious, with a spoonful of Goth beautifully spilled in. This makes it one of the best lyrical, twisted tales that I have ever read.

The beginning of the story is bit slow, true. But you have these pretty words to hang on until all of the oohs and Ahhs kick in.

Every single aspect of the main characters, as well as the plot, is well fleshed out, making every single back story worth the wait.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but let us just say that A.G. Howard will manipulate your mood’s auras to every single color known to mankind.

GO GRAB THIS BOOK ALREADY, K?????

Can’t wait to read more A.G. Howard haunting stories. I give it 4.5/5 stars.

In summary: Rune is a special snowflake with a special past (she could hum opera when she was a toddler, kids), going to a special super goff school, has special dreams about a special boy she's pretty sure is dead, and every time she sings, it almost kills her.

EVERYTHING about this book revolves around the characters being as flat as pancakes, with only one person being even remotely interesting, and the interest I had was quickly dashed in the first four hours of the audiobook. Thorn is a thorn in this book's side. He is drowning in his own angst, in his own special-ness, fancying himself in love with Rune because their dreams are CONNECTED. They've known each other their whole lives because they dream of each other. Of course, he lived a terrible life as a child (which I found incredibly unbelievable due to the fact he was born in the modern century and not, you know, the 1800s) and now, to pay his 'father' back for all the kindness, he needs to... trap Rune? Kill her? Or something. I'm not too sure. I think I stopped listening after the 30% mark.

This is the first negative review I've written in over a year, and although writing negative reviews used to be cathartic, I literally do not feel a thing towards this novel except for apathy and boredom. I can't deal with how goth RoseBlood Academy is.

Let's talk about that for a second, shall we?

Rune is sent to RoseBlood to work on her music and, one day hopefully, become some sort of musical start. Rune, however, is less than ecstatic about this, which made me roll my eyes. Bad, considering we're only five pages in at this point.

Why on earth, out of all the romantic, gothic, dark names provided by literature, is the academy called RoseBlood? Why? Why?! I don't get it. Is it supposed to be symbolic? Because at the beginning of the book, Rune is describing a painting she has at home about roses that bleed or something, and then later on she's given a bouquet of bleeding roses, so it has to be symbolic, right? But it's still stupid. I don't get it. Why not call it THIS IS WHERE YOU COME TO DIE Academy?

I also don't understand how things work at the academy. So they have class in the morning then... chores in the afternoon? WHY? If you're paying thousands of £££ to send your kid to an academy called RoseBlood, don't you want your kid to learn something except for how much soap to put in the dishwasher? I mean, it's cool that they're learning real life things they'll need to know as adults, but in that case teach them about taxes and how to not be a dick!

Speaking of, of course we have the Mean Girls clique who torment Rune left, right and centre (view spoiler) and constantly try to sabotage her chances, because how else are we going to feel all the feels for her? Spoiler: I felt nothing.

My review is all over the place. I apologize. I can't even turn my brain on long enough to write this thing because I'm that bored. I'm so bored I'm practically asleep.

The only Phantom of the Opera-ish thing this book has is that the original phantom is still lurking around. That's it. Oh, and he signs his name as "OG" which, to my disbelief, does not stand for Original Gangster, or even Oppa Gangnam-style (thanks, Natalie!) but for "Opera Ghost." Barf.

From what I've gathered: Rune likes wandering the gardens and feeling all emo-like and misunderstood; Thorn is a weirdo who peeks at girls (specifically Rune) through the air vents in her bedroom and tells her how they're "destined to be lovers"; Thorn and Rune have glowing fairy blob things that transfer from one to the other called heart chakras (what even?!); Eric the OG is very much just a backdrop so that Rune and Thorn can wile away the time talking about how much they are destined for things. And that's it. That's all I've got.

There were too many cliches in the opening chapter for me to finish this. I wanted the Phantom of the Opera, but this wasn't it.

As a huge fan of "The Phantom of the Opera", this book unfortunately did not meet my expectations. I found the plot-lines to be rather cliche and the characters flat and unbelievable. While the writing was fine, I, personally could not connect to it. The biggest issue I had with "Roseblood" was that it was an appropriation of "The Phantom of the Opera" story and never truly explored the deeper themes presented in the original.

Opening line:

"At home, I have a poster on my wall of a rose that's bleeding."

First off, I love the cover.
Second, I connected with the sidekick
Third...

I really wanted to love this story. A twist on Phantom of the Opera? How cool. And it was cool until about a 1/3 of the way in. Then there were so many twists and turns and strange things going on I lost my interest. I think there were just so many new ideas introduced that it got convoluted for me. First there's the animals, then the powers, and the music, then the other thing and then what? I can't give much more away but it was strange and at times hard to follow.
I skimmed a LOT.

I've heard great things about the author's other books and I might give one of those a try.

Thanks to netgalley for the early read!

Well, I tried really hard to like this book. I started reading this and restarted three times to try and get into it but sadly this one just isn't for me. I didn't enjoy the characters, I didn't enjoy the plot, and I just thought it was badly written. I hate writing that, especially since I liked the author's Splintered series, but this one was just not on par with those.

I loved this book! A fantastic Phantom of the Opera retelling :) full review on my blog!

You tell me that a book is inspired by Phantom of the Opera and expect me to just let it stay untouched on the shelf? I don't think so!

I adore Phantom and when I heard about RoseBlood, a twisted re-telling of the story, my hands couldn't get a hold of it soon enough. Unfortunately, my expectations were a bit too high and I didn't enjoy the book nearly as much as I had hoped.

Rune is a young woman with an unnatural skill for song. Her family sends her to a school in France in order to help her gain control of this power, but stories of the mysterious Phantom from old abound. RoseBlood really captures the mystery and darkness that I've always associated with Phantom, following as a sequel of sorts form the original events.

Unfortunately I really struggled to finish this book. This is my first attempt at anything by A.G. Howard and I've heard wonderful things about her Splintered series. Combined with the inspiration for RoseBlood, I was excited to see this new spin on the tale. What I found were excessive info dumps, writing that circled and circled around an idea without ever really reaching it (as if it was meant to be over the top and a bit flowery to fit the Phantom vibe but didn't quite reach it), and characters that I really didn't care about.

I neither liked nor hated Rune. I honestly didn't feel much toward her period. I wasn't rooting for her or shipping her with the love interest (a.k.a. Thorn). There was no connection and even the ending was a "meh" moment.

The thing with RoseBlood is that the concept is intriguing, captivating, enticing. The writing isn't all that bad either, though some of the elements didn't work for me. When it came down to it, I was simply bored. I didn't find the magical realism business going on in any way believable, nor did I buy into the romance between Rune and Thorn even in the soulmate-type sense that you tend to see in YA paranormal romances (not really sure if this was more paranormal or fantasy but you get the idea). Honestly, it kind of gave me a stalkerish vibe after a while.

Frankly, I should've trusted my gut with this one. I have this habit of rating a book within the first 10-20 pages. I had this one pegged from about page 3 and nothing changed after that. And I think that if I allowed myself to DNF books more often, this would have made that list. I just found nothing special about it, though it hasn't turned me off of the author's work since it was only one book (and a standalone at that), so I'll be giving her Splintered books a try someday. But as for this one, RoseBlood was too much like a stage play. Beautiful on the outside, on display, a bit of a chaotic mess behind the scenes and beneath the cover.

While this book was not a good fit for me, I think YA lovers will definitely enjoy this one. The author's writing is lovely, and it is through no fault of hers that I was unable to connect to the characters and storyline. This particular book may not have been my cup of tea, but it will not keep me from seeking out more of the author's work.

RoseBlood is a novel for fans of gothic literature and The Phantom of the Opera, but also for those who can suspend their disbelief. Unfortunately for me, I'm not one of them. There were so many contrivances in this story, so many unbelievable twists and turns, that I ended up DNF at a little over 50%.

ROSEBLOOD is, for lack of a better word, a bit weird. Billed as a young adult retelling of The Phantom of the Opera, it reads more like a sequel to its inspiration, rather than a retelling. Dark and mysterious, ROSEBLOOD has a lot going for it, but it just didn't live up to what I felt it could have been.

One thing that is important to me when I read is the cast of characters of the book. Unfortunately, the characters of ROSEBLOOD never felt more than one-dimensional, and all could easily fit into a nice little box - none were very complex, save one adult who mostly just went from heartbroken to scary.

The magic in ROSEBLOOD felt almost like an afterthought, like halfway through the book the author decided they needed a reason for something and added it in. What I felt was "the big reveal" was casually remarked upon and then not explored much further.

As the original phantom is a character in ROSEBLOOD, but the main characters are two teenagers, like I mentioned, it reads more like a continuation of the original Phantom of the Opera story, which could have been quite cool, but ended up failing in a few major ways. The ideas were creative, and the story well written, but the characters fell flat and the mythology just wasn't developed enough. If you liked the original Phantom of the Opera, you might like ROSEBLOOD out of curiosity, but I wouldn't recommend it for everybody.

Roseblood is the first book I've read by author A.G. Howard, though I've had her Splintered series on my TBR for way too long. I was super excited when a copy of Roseblood showed up on my doorstep one afternoon, and I absolutely couldn't wait to get started on the story. That cover, it's almost too gorgeous to resist! I'm thrilled to have finally read something by A.G. Howard.

The storyline for the book is based around The Phantom of the Opera, which I ashamedly know next to nothing about. (When I say next to nothing, I seriously mean next to nothing. Sigh.) This book definitely left me curious to know more about the original though, and one day I'll have to make sure to check it out. While the book is a modern retelling, it also has an interesting paranormal twist to it that I really didn't expect, but found rather interesting. I also liked that this was a standalone novel, and everything wrapped up rather nicely in the end.

There are a lot of fascinating characters in the story, including the two main characters, Rune and Thorne, who both have had great sadness in their pasts. I was curious to discover how the bond between them came about, and why it was already so strong when they finally meet in person. It's a pretty interesting story! There were a lot of great secondary characters in the story as well, some I wish we could have read more about, like all of Rune's friends, for instance. They were seriously the best!

Overall; Roseblood was definitely an interesting story! And now that I've finally reading something by Howard, I'm totally curious to read more! I'm hoping to start the Splintered series, hopefully soon. Check these books out for yourself!

Happy Reading!

Rune’s mother has decided to send her to a special boarding school to develop her beautiful voice. Rune, however, is terrified at the talent she views as a curse. Compelled to sing, Rune is convinced her voice has the power to drain the lives of others, including her beloved deceased father. When Rune encounters a strange masked man who wants to help her conquer her voice, the legend of the Phantom that haunts the school becomes more than fiction. A great update on the Phantom of the Opera, couldn’t put this one down. Just the right amount of horror/romance/mystery.

Pub Date Jan 2017