Rose in Chains by Julie Soto

TL;DR: This should have stayed fanfiction.
Source: NetGalley – many thank so the publisher!

Plot: Our main character is capture after a failed rebellion and sold to a school enemy.
Characters: They were very clearly Harry Potter characters with changed names sadly. So I can’t say much to this.
Setting: This had promise! But it couldn’t care the rest of the story. Fantasy/Romance: Just me but I’m not going to be into a guy who harassed me for years and then humilates me and allows his friends to sexual harrass me. JUST ME MAYBE THOUGH.

Summary:

The war is over, the dark forces have won, and the hero who was supposed to save them is dead.  

Captured as her castle is overrun by the enemy, the world as Briony Rosewood knows it is changed forever. Evil has won, and her people face imminent servitude, imprisonment, or death.  

​Stripped of her Magic and her freedom, Briony and the other survivors are quickly sold off to the highest bidders in an auction—and as Evermore’s princess, she fetches the highest price. After a fierce bidding war, she’s sold to none other than Toven Hearst, scion of a family known for their cruelty.  

Yet despite the horrors of her new world and the role she must learn to play within it, all is not lost. Help—and hope—may yet arise in the most unlikely of places…

Thoughts:

My initial interest in this was purely due to Julie Soto’s name. I have read some of her contemporary work and liked it! I heard whispers it was based on fanfiction she’d written I felt it was strong enough that the work stood on it’s own. This one I had no idea was fanfiction till close to receiving an arc and even then I hoped. But I was sadly and deeply disappointed.

The way in which this is so obviously Draco & Hermione fanfiction is a bit insulting. Names have been changed, friends are now sisters and brothers, and the setting is different but it’s very much using the cast of the franchise and I fear if you take out the elements that can be similar you have nothing there. Fanfiction often relies on you the reader to be familiar with established relationships and politics, and without that understanding this I do not think would stand well.

The romance, the driving point of this plot, is also one I simply cannot stand behind. I’m not a Dark Romance reader most days so this could simply not be to my taste. However, I struggle to find the appeal of a hero like this. Allowing his friends to touch and harass you? Forcing nudity in front of others and locking you in a room for days? It’s not for me my friends. I would be looking for a way to commit murder, not finding him appealing. No matter our history.

So this is a hard no. And a rare one star for me. These special single stars I reserve for my most disliked, offensive, or upsetting books and we’ve found my first for 2025. I felt gross and sick reading this and I truly wish I could have those hours back. Additionally this needs a LOT of triggers for enslavement, sexual assault (on page to the PoV character), violence, the list goes on. Flashbacks attempt, poorly, to establish history but just serve to reinforce that this is Harry Potter reskinned. I don’t recommend, and I am sorry if this is your cup of tea. It’s just not mine.