Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review – This review contains small spoilers.
The Rose Bargain (pub date Feb 2025) is the highly anticipated YA romance set in Regency England but with a fae twist. Queen Mor offers her subjects one bargain that will aid them in their quest to secure a husband on the marriage market in the ton. Each bargain comes with a twisted meaning and strings attached. Each year girls bargain for skills and lose something dear to them in a game of wits and societal politics. However as the Queen grows bored she ups the stakes and announces her fae son Prince Bram will take a wife from 6 girls willing to lose everything if they don’t win. Ivy Benton decides to risk everything to save her family from reputational ruin and find a way to undo the horrid bargain her sister Lydia made. However, this glittering fairytale has a dark underbelly with plots to over throw the monarchy and forbidden love.
Review
The Rose Bargain captures the Regency England / Bridgerton atmosphere perfectly and I love the intrigue with Queen Mor and how she twists her words and bargains. The whole concept was really interesting and each pov of the girls competing for Bram’s hand in marriage add a lot of emotional depth to their characters. I loved how they turned from competition to friends and sticking together. The author does well to convey the complexities of why each girl needed to enter or win the competition. This being said, I felt Ivy as the main female protagonist was lacking in emotional complexities in comparison to the other girls. Ivy wasn’t presented as special enough to understand why both Prince Emmett and Prince Bram fell in love with her so quickly. As much as I liked Emmett and his complexities from this rakish persona to a vulnerable individual, I thought his and Ivy’s sudden confession of love was too quick. I liked Faith as a character and how she changed from jealousy to becoming a real friend to Ivy. Especially when her relationship with Emmett is revealed and it wasn’t what the rumours and gossip circulated.
The cruelty of the fae is touched upon in the trials, but I wanted to know more about them – this idea that they enjoy playing with the feelings of mortals for entertainment was suggested at the end, so I hope this is given more depth in the next book. I think the trials were interesting, but were glossed over in parts despite showing how ruthless the Queen was as a fae. This also made the pacing slow down in the middle of the book and then speed up towards the end where everything was suddenly crammed into the last few chapters. The twist at the end with Bram was well-written and juxtaposed from his character, which made a shocking plot twist. It was also interesting how Lydia’s bargain and secret is suddenly woven into this twist. I loved how everyone like Emmett, the Queen and Bram all have their individual motives to deceive those around them. The ending highlighted the Queen’s vulnerabilities when she was betrayed and redeemed her from this cold and cruel ruler. Bram and Emmett’s relationship was interesting and offered a mirror to each other’s motives and personality which makes the twist at the end even more shocking.
Overall, a really enjoyable read set in Regency England with a fee twist. I can’t wait to read the next instalment in the series.
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Amy is a writer and reviewer and is currently querying literary agents with her debut fantasy novel inspired by the magic and adventure of Pirates of the Caribbean. For more content click here to read book reviews, short stories and updates on Amy’s writing journey.
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