*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review*

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson follows Artemisia, who is training to become a Gray Sister, a nun who cleanses the bodies of the deceased so their souls can pass on. She would rather deal with the living than the dead. She was possessed as a child, and now bears scars to remember it by. She is happy to be alone in her mind until she is forced to use a powerful relic to save her convent. Using this relic, she now has a Fifth Order Revenant in her body. Now on the fun from the Leander who wants to catch her to exorcise her, she must fight possessed soldiers all while trying to figure out who is using Old Magic to control these spirits, and what their plan is.

The plot of this book may seem all over the place, but once you get into it, it’s one book you will not put down.

Rogerson is one of my favourite authors (specifically Sorcery of Throns), so going in I was expecting a little romance inside. There is no romance. However, the story itself really doesn’t open doors for a romance for Artemisia. And I like it that way. I feel like a romance would hinder the plot and make it weak.

Though, I have seen that other reviewers say there were some quotes taken out by the publisher that indicate Artemisia is aroace (aromantic asexual), and I HIGHLY suggest the publisher to put it back in. When have I ever seen an aroace MC? Oh wait, NEVER. I really hope that Rogerson will push to have Artemisia be aroace, because that’s how she feels in this story. I have never read a story with an aromantic character (I have read some with an asexual MC). I really hope that the finished copies confirm Artemisia is aroace, or at least explore the possibility of love. It would be lovely to see some aroace rep in a fantasy novel.

Characters: I absolutely LOVE Artemisia. She is the classic definition of a badass MC. She will fight for her life, and she’s not afraid to voice her thoughts when necessary. She is a reliable MC who speaks her thoughts. As for side characters, there aren’t too many, but each one is flushed out so you know about them. My personal favourite is the Revenant who is inside Artemisia. It brings sarcasm when needed in dire situations, it cares for Artemisia, and it’s just a great dynamic.

World: I felt like this world was pretty well explained. Rogerson did amazingly in her two previous novels (especially since they are standalones), and this one did not disappoint. I’m even more excited for this world because Vespertine is not a standalone. That’s right, it’s NOT a standalone!! I can’t wait to see what Rogerson has in mind. (Disclaimer: Artemisias story is round up in this book, so there is NO cliffhanger!)

Vespertine is easily one of my favourite reads of this year! It’s the perfect book for October (when this book comes out)! It’s got convents, magic, ghosts, Revenants, and a spooky atmosphere perfect for Halloween!

Vespertine is the story of a young girl, Artemisia who was raised by nuns after being possessed by a spirit as a baby.

In Artemisia's world, the spirits of the dead do not always pass on, instead they rise back up to torture the living. When the convent that Artemisia calls home is attacked, and she stumbles upon a a vast and terrifying power, her entire life is changed.

Margaret Rogerson does an amazing job of building a unique and spell binding world. The characters are relatable and I found myself hooked, always wanting to read just one more page.

Lovers of Brigid Kemmerer and Shelby Mahurin will love this action packed, young adult fantasy.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster Canada and Margaret Rogerson for the ARC of this book which was freely given in exchange for a review.

As someone that loves everything Margaret Rogerson has ever written from An Enchantment of Ravens to Sorcery of Thorns, reading Vespertine has been an absolute delight. It gives me Joan-of-Arc vibes in the best way and was action-packed from start to finish. Artemisia is really compelling and I loved her interactions with the revenant.

I honestly found the entire premise really interesting and Vespertine really conjures up all the wonderful imagery related to saints, spirits and the dead in a tactfully written way that isn't preachy but stands alone as it's own world. The characters are compelling and after the initial attach on the convent the plot quickly escalates and suddenly you've finished the book wondering where the time went. With that being said, the pacing of this is excellent and truly keeps you on your toes the entire time. The characters develop and evolve in a way that is authentic and the world building is excellent. Vespertine is really great and I'm really appreciative that I got to read it as an ARC. I've always been a huge fan of Margaret Rogerson's work and the opportunity to read Vespertine was like winning the lottery honestly.

WOAH WHERE DO I EVEN START.

Okay so at first the whole nun thing had me like “is this really gonna be something I’ll enjoy??” But once I actually started reading I knew instantly that I would like the book. This YA fantasy starts off with a bang and only gets better from there. By about the 20% mark I was sure it was going to be a 5 star read for me (and I was right 😎). I will now discuss why it was so awesome.

Tropes/things to love:
- AWESOME magic system
- cool aesthetics ✨
- neuro divergent mc
- disabled mc
- PTSD reps
- tragic backstories GALORE
- mysterious priest
- *chef’s kiss* world building
- fat rep (one of my fav characters)
- girl power
- girl friendships
- lots of swords
- clerics
- sassy spirit… (my fav character)
- treasure troves
- excellent vibes??? Idk just read the book already!!

Magic system: SUPERB. I absolutely LOVED the magic system in Sorcery of Thorns and this magic system blew that one out of the water. This magic system had a legend in the back so you know it’s good 😝

Characters: so freaking loveable. Also one thing I love about all of Rogerson’s characters is that they have so much depth and personality. Artemisia (first of all has a great name) and is so honest, kind, and relatable I want to be her best friend 😭 (*wink*). Mysterious boy character 10/10 and other supporting characters 10/10 (I want to tell y’all my favs but I’m keeping this spoiler free)

Plot: super awesome. YA vibes but the complexity of the magic system and the age of some of the other characters make it feel more new adult (NA)… idk anymore lmao. There’s no smut (which was great for me) and there’s no swearing- just thought I’d mention that. ALSO I guessed the main plot and that did not make the book any less enjoyable for me. I loved it all the same and even if you guess plots easily I think you’ll really like this story.

Setting: the vibes are immaculate as always- this gives kinda French catacombs vibes. The props-things the buildings/ cities and the CLOTHES are all so cool I want all the sparkly things 🤩

Writing: as a writer I appreciate Rogerson’s writing so much it is beautiful while also being straightforward, descriptive, and impactful. As a reader I absolutely DEVOUR it and cannot wait to reread this book again.

Final thoughts: no thoughts, head empty, only visions of cool robes and sparkly jewels 🤩 AND THE FACT THAT THIS IS NOT A STANDALONE- I REPEAT- NOT A STANDALONE (which I thought it was, and when it ended I was like aw that was a great book but I want more…) AND WE GET MORE ASDFGHJKL 🥳

Book and character aesthetics coming soon!!

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Vespertine in exchange for an honest review.

Nooooo. I was so excited for this that I broke my "read ARCs in order rule" to move this right to the top of my TBR so trust me when I say there's no one more disappointed than me over the fact that I didn't like it. Every single one of the reasons I didn't like this came down to it feeling narratively off though which might be because of the actual narrative style (I have a 50/50 love/hate relationship with the styles of Rogerson's other books) but the author posted on goodreads specifically to say that the narration in the ARCs might sound off so definitely don't take my word on anything and wait for the official version to come out.

Let's start this off with a very quick and very LOUD praise for the COVER ART!!!!!!!!

Anyways! I have such high standards for Margaret, and somehow she raises the bar every time.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review and I can honestly say I LOVED IT. The plot was well paced, and the characters well fleshed out.

Artemisia is a main character worth rooting for.
Her pained backstory gained my sympathy for her immediately, and-sadistically-i love a character who doesn't have life easy. She isn't popular, and she isn't great at communicating with others. And I don't think I have genuinely connected to a character more than her. Despite all the hardships she has a positive look on the world, and she thinks everyone (and everything) is worth saving.

Plus the lack of romance, REALLY made this story better. Wasn't so distracting, BUT, I do see some potential for the next book... fingers crossed and breath held for that. I do love the way Rogerson writes her romance!

Oh! And the relationship between her and her Revenant is interesting... and bloody hilarious. I want a Revenant to banter with!
...Minus the risk of possession and mass destruction, yada yada yada, but come on... it makes it seem fun.

I will be IMPATIENTLY awaiting the next book, with a deep hope that a certain bitter white haired person (AKA my favourite character) will be in it much more, WITH more of their backstory. I shall fall to my knees and pray to the Lady for it!

Big thanks to Netgalley and Margaret Rogerson for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

So normally I would give a bit of a synopsis of the book before starting my review cause, lets face it, my opinion counts for nothing and the plot of the book is why you are here. BUT, and I cannot stress this enough, this book was EXCELLENT.
5 Stars all the way. The story was so active and I felt Artemisia in my soul. She is a strong woman who's had some horrible life experiences who wants nothing more than to lead a quiet life preparing the dead. Until that quite life is rocked by a loud mouthed revenant.
There is literally no romance, which is sorta my jam, but that doesn't take away from the story at all. Artemisia doesn't need a male character to lead the story in a direction. She knows what she has to do and is willing to get it done.

I enjoyed the writing style of the author. The plot was good and written well. This is a type of story I think I'd enjoy reading again.

4.5 stars
Margaret Rogerson has done it again! This book was so much fun! At first, I was a bit worried that I wasn't going to love Vespertine, since there's no romance, but the book did not suffer from this exclusion. Don't get me wrong, a book does not need romance to be good, and this book isn't tagged as a fantasy romance, so it obviously isn't owed to the audience, but in Margaret Rogerson's other books my favourite aspect of them was the romance, so I was a bit hesitant going into this. Luckily, this book was so well written that I barely even noticed the lack of romance. Anyway, on to my main thoughts. First and foremost, I love this world. As usual, Margaret Rogerson absolutely excelled with world building. Next, the plot was really interesting and kept me always wanting to read the next chapter. Lastly, the characters were incredible. I loved Artemisia as a character and found her to be very relatable, but even more so, I absolutely loved her dynamic with the revenant. Overall, I had a great time with this book and cannot wait for the sequel.

Brace yourselves for what is likely about to be a useless review. I, a Book Shrew, loved every second of this, yet had no idea what was going on half the time.

In Loraille, the dead do not sleep unless their souls are put to rest by the Gray Sisters. Otherwise they roam the earth, possessing people as thralls. However, they can be "controlled" by being placed inside relics, objects that a user can wear and call upon them when needed. Each type of spirit is so named and categorized for the way that it died, and that death grants a related power to whosoever holds their relic. Not everyone is strong enough to carry a relic. Few can wear more than a few, and even less can keep their wits about them with the higher order spirits. Enter Artemesia, an untrained teenager who accidentally takes on an all powerful fifth order revenant that could level a whole city if it wished. In doing so she becomes a target by the clerisy, and an unwilling Saint by the populace.

Artemisia was a great character. She is a solitary individual who suffered a lot of childhood trauma that made me feel so fiercely for her. She very much keeps to herself but will do whatever she must to assist those around her. For a main character, she is extraordinarily quiet, and in hindsight I am genuinely impressed by how well it worked. Most of her dialogue is her essentially talking to herself because that is the only way she can speak to the revenant. I do wonder if Artemisia is neurodivergent. I personally am not ND and cannot speak from experience, nor have I seen this confirmed anywhere else so please take this with a grain of salt, but the way the character is portrayed with touch aversion, facial expressions, and certain things overwhelming her makes me think she is. And for what it's worth, I thought it was beautifully done.

As solitary as she is, Artemisia is never exactly alone. The revenant is truly a star in its own right. Both serious danger and comedic relief wrapped into one. A villain and a cinnamon roll trapped inside the body of a teenage girl. Honestly, I adored their relationship, particularly with how it developed. The symbiosis between them really made this book shine and had me turning the pages quite quickly.

I have to give a tiny shout out for this book: a YA that doesn't have romance at its core. Like a gremlin, I collect books where the main character does everything based on her own agency and wants and thoughts versus how they apply to a boy. There are so few of them published that I feel it a huge victory when I come across one. It means a lot to me because it feels more like my own teen experience, and I know I'm not alone in that.

As much as I liked this, I just cannot give this five stars. Like I said, I loved this book, but I was so lost half the time. Off the top, I think that is because of Simon and Schuster's utter REFUSAL to properly format their e-ARCs. I found my mind drifting, skimming over parts without properly ingesting them because it just looks like a wall of text. And my reading experience suffered for it. For a lot of the book I was asking myself what was the point? The purpose? I found Artemisia often lacked a motive because I didn't recall reading it. Oh, Artemisia has the revenant inside her, she's escaped the clutches of people who believe her incapable of controlling it, and here she is running through the countryside, fighting in battles and running some more without a goal in mind. I feel like I missed a lot, which left me feeling some parts with aimless and useless. And that's really not fair when I really did like this book.

My rating is 3.5 rounded up to 4, and I do believe a re-read of a finished copy is in order for me. I adore Margaret Rogerson's writing and am absolutely using this as a comp title for my current WIP!

Wow! Just wow! I absolutely loved this story! The storyline kept me riveted until the very last page! Highly recommend!

This was my first Margaret Rogerson book and I really enjoyed it ! It was cute - I felt the characters could have been a bit more developed and I really enjoyed the plot but the lack of time spent developing the main cast took me away from the story a bit.

Another great book by Margaret Rogerson. I absolutely fell in love with her writing when I read Sorcery if Thorns and this book was just as amazing. She has amazing world building skills and her character development is always great! I loved Artemisia and her story. The revenant was very well written and the story moved at a wonderful pace. There was a wonderful set of side characters as well that kept the story moving. The banter in this book was excellent as well and there was humor laced throughout. This is a world k very much want to read more about and I believe this is going to be a duology, which is awesome! And the cover! Charlie Bowater always does amazing cover art. Love it.

In the realm of Loraille, boys and girls with the sight (that allows them to see spirits) are taken in by the Clerisy and raised in different groups. The boys are sent in monasteries to become soldiers or monks, and the girls are trained to take care of deads or become a priestess. 17 years old Artemisia has been a member of the Grey Sisters' convent of Naimes since she was a child. The Grey Sisters are dedicated to purifying and preparing the bodies of the dead. If a deceased is left unattended, its spirit will rise, and depending on the type of death the person had, the spirit can be dangerous and malevolent. Spirits can also be bound into relics (bone of a saint, jewel, etc.) that allow their owner to use the spirit's power, but the owner also risks possession if he is not strong enough to control the spirit bound into the relic.

Here is a recap of the hierarchy of spirits. It can be found at the end of the book.
- First Order – Order of the innocents, this is what happens to a soul if the dead body is not properly treated and prepared by the Gray Sisters.
- Second Order - Souls lost to the forces of nature such as famine, fire, or drowning
- Third Order - Souls lost to illness and disease: fever, blight, flux, pestilence, etc.
- Fourth Order - Souls lost to violence: death by battle, murder, execution, or slain cleric
- Fifth Order is composed of the Seven Revenants, harbingers of death.

Artemisia is a solitary and socially awkward teenager, she was possessed by a malevolent spirit when she was a child, and still bears the physical and mental scars of it. She is happy to stay alone and care for the dead until she is forced to use a powerful relic to protect her convent, and the Fifth Order Revenant contained in the relic enters her body. From that moment, Artemisia is on the run. Fleeing from the confesser Leander who wants to catch her probably to exorcise her, she also has to fight possessed soldiers, while trying to figure out who is using Old Magic to control these spirits, and what their evil plan is.

I don't want to reveal too much information about the plot, but there is action and magic. Humans and spirits are fighting together, and against each other, and even though it is a 400 pages book, it was a fast read. The pace is good, and it just sucks you into the story from the start. There are some unexpected turns of events, and I wasn't sure where this story would lead until the last part. One downside of this book though is the weirdly anticlimactic ending. There is a great buildup to a final big confrontation between powerful revenants and spirits, but then it just ends and we are at the epilogue... I was hoping for something grander, but it is still a very enjoyable book.

Artemisia is a nice main character, she made me laugh a few times with her awkward tentative at conversations and nice gestures. Her snarky interactions with her spirit were also funny, and I like the evolution that we saw in Artemisia's character, but also in her relationship with her Revenant, and her interactions with her allies. She went from being a recluse that could talk to anyone, to having kind-of friends, and realizing that having people around her actually felt nice. Also take note that there is no romance at all in this book, which is not a bad thing because let's be honest, Artemisia is very socially anxious, and she has too many things on her plate right now to focus on romantic feelings. She would probably feel nauseous just at the thought of it.

The world-building is simple enough, yet intriguing, and I really liked the system of clerics and saints, and the use of relics to control and combat spirits. Some parts of the hierarchy or the Clerisy were not completely clear at first, but it didn't prevent me from understanding and enjoying the story, and everything becomes clearer as the book progresses, giving us a better grasp on what's happening to Artemisia, and what she's up against.