Roseblood, another awseome retelling by A. G. Howard- except this one is based off The Phantom of the Opera.
It's one stand alone novel, but it is AMAZING.
Gothic feeling, France setting, boarding school, haunted and paranormal feels.
Synopsis: In this modern day spin on Leroux’s gothic tale of unrequited love turned to madness, seventeen-year-old Rune Germain has a mysterious affliction linked to her operatic talent, and a horrifying mistake she’s trying to hide. Hoping creative direction will help her, Rune’s mother sends her to a French arts conservatory for her senior year, located in an opera house rumored to have ties to The Phantom of the Opera.
At RoseBlood, Rune secretly befriends the masked Thorn—an elusive violinist who not only guides her musical transformation through dreams that seem more real than reality itself, but somehow knows who she is behind her own masks. As the two discover an otherworldly connection and a soul-deep romance blossoms, Thorn’s dark agenda comes to light and he’s forced to make a deadly choice: lead Rune to her destruction, or face the wrath of the phantom who has haunted the opera house for a century, and is the only father he’s ever known.
This book does have a little bit of Instant Love, but it's not that bad (in my opinion). Mostly because it seemed like they knew each other and had a connection since they were young.
The characters were interesting- two povs, one in first person and the other in third person. It made it a little confusing at times, but not as much as you would think. And I actually enjoyed both povs immensely.
The book kept me hanging right up to the end. The 'reveals' in the book were... surprising, as I did not predict them totally, but they didn't feel as much of a plot twist as I would've liked.
Then the ending, I loved it.
BUT right before it was the climax- the final battle- and... it was skipped. We get a two month skip, where Rune is talking about what happened after. She has questions of what went down- which gets answered a couple pages later.
But it was a little bit of a let down for me. Scratch that, it was a big let down.
Though overall, I did really enjoy the book- but the unclimatic scene, that the whole book was leading up too, keeps me from giving the book 5 stars.
My Rarting: 🌟🌟🌟🌟(4 and half stars)
What did you guys think of Roseblood? Did you like Roseblood or Splintered better?
Thanks for reading!!
~Books with Noel
P. S. My Book Talk on my YouTube channel is here.
I haven't read the book yet, but it sounds interesting. I'm not big into stand alone novels, but thank you for the review! Great work as always.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I have read very few stand alone novels actually, and I think I like A. G. Howard's Splintered series better than Roseblood. But it was still good.
DeleteI haven't read Roseblood yet but I am a huge fan of Splintered and A. G. Howard's writing. I was actually never a fan of Alice in Wonderland until reading that series. There is just something about the combination of fantastical retellings and Howard's writing that I just love.
ReplyDeleteThe main reason that I haven't read Roseblood yet is that I haven't read Phantom of the Opera. Do you think I can still enjoy Roseblood without reading the original? I don't have the time, or really the motivation, to tackle reading Phantom of the Opera.
Agreed! I love A. G. Howard's writing, her combinations and ideas are just so captivating!
DeleteI personally think you can enjoy Roseblood without having read the Phantom of the Opera. It does spoil the ending of the classic and mentions the author and characters throughout, but it also tells you a different story versus how the classic was. It takes a lot to push through the Phantom of the Opera for some people (and I'm one of them), so I actually read Roseblood before I read the Phantom of the Opera.