I'll be shelving this book for now and hoping to come back to it in the future.

Thank you for the opportunity to read. Hoping to be at a better place to read this one.

A Forgery of Roses by Jessica S. Olson is a captivating read that will enthrall fans of dark, mysterious, and romantic fantasy, particularly those who delight in the intersection of art, magic, and murder mystery, and are eager to be spellbound by a tale of twisted gothic fantasy.

I am a fan of Kasie West, but i have to say this one fell off a bit short for me. It was interesting enough to finish, but a bit predictable and slow to me.

“I'm far stronger than you'll ever be. Because I've fought for every victory. Because those fights have taught me compassion and kindness.” - wow, if this line alone doesn’t hit close to home or perfectly summarize what this book means, then I don’t know what will.
The strength that we gather from the hardships we go through is detailed in the most painfully beautiful way by Jessica.
This book left me with a lusting for life; no matter what it brings me.

I went into this with no idea what I was getting into. What a creative and new magic system. The characters were enjoyable and the romance was swoon worthy. I found myself rereading and tabbing away. Highly recommend.

Unfortunately, this book was not what I imagined. I expected a heavy romance, but the murder mystery plot was more dominant. I'm still unclear what the title has to do with the book. I guess it could be related slightly to the ending but not certain. Dark and lots of trigger warnings that were not included.

Thank you to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

What a great story. Added it to the middle school classroom. If you want a great story, and need a good book for a great rainy day, this is for you and your students!

I actually DNF this book. The writing was off and the world was too contemporary for me. It felt like contemporary trying to be fantasy. I’d almost say this was urban fantasy or paranormal romance. I just didn’t care for the story and didn’t feel any connection with the characters. I had to put it down for a while and when I did, I never felt like picking it up again.

It was an okay story that took me several chapters to finally get into. The middle definitely picked up and the ending was well done.

This book!
This author!

One of the most, if not best, original story written!
Jessica S. Olson has one of the best story telling talents I've ever had the pleasure of reading.
I seriously cannot wait to see what she will write next!
Excellent.

As a lover of The Picture of Dorian Gray, this book really did justice to the art-based-magic genre (something I woefully need more of in my life). Add gothic romance murder mystery and you've got my heart all aflutter. It's also written in first-person present tense, which really drives the story forward and adds to the sense of urgency and impending danger. There's some heavy sister stuff as well. I don't even have a sister and I was bawling my eyes out.

This book wasn’t super memorable for me. I absolutely loved Jessica S. Olson’s debut novel and still think about how much I loved it but this wasn’t as good. I still very much enjoyed it and love the atmospheric writing and the entire world and vibe she creates in her stories but this was a touch of a letdown by comparison to her debut but still worth a read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

“Pink has always been my favorite color. Like sunrises and springtime, new beginnings and hope.”

⭐⭐

Thank you to Inkyard Press and NetGalley for a copy of this book for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

content warnings(from storygraph): severe illness, murder/death, death of a family member, parental abandonment/missing parent, blood, panic attacks/anxiety attacks/anxiety, violence, gore, miscarriage, classism, kidnapping/torture

I already generally avoid blurbs because I feel like it's often people pressured to say exaggeratedly/flowery things about a book, but for this one I did fall into somewhat of a blurb trap. One of my favorite authors rated this 5 stars on GR, so I requested an ARC myself solely because of that and the beautiful cover. This is comped to Kerri Maniscalco (a 3.5 star author for me) and Erin A. Craig (a 4.5 star author for me), so I was expecting a 4 star read. 😂

A Forgery of Roses follows Myra, a young woman who has the ability to alter or heal small injuries of subjects she paints, simply by altering and then touching the painting. Unfortunately, she lives in a place where this ability is seen as sacrilegious against their deity (The Artist or The Painter or something like that), and must hide it. The only person she knows with this ability is her mother, who has been missing, so Myra knows very little about her abilities and cannot profit from them to help her severely ill little sister. When the wife of the man most set on capturing those with supernatural artistic abilities shows up at her shop, offering a large sum of money and blackmailing her for her powers, Myra has no choice but to take up this secret mission to try and resurrect their son. Can she manage this in time to save her sister and is such a thing even possible?

The characters in this are flat. We know that Myra cares about her little sister and is hard-working in order to care for said sister. We know that her little sister is smart and likes frogs and wants to help with water pollution (this might be the most developed character and she's barely around). We know that August has severe anxiety and is scared of his parents. We know the parents hate magic. That's... pretty much it. Also... I think this was meant to be read as some sort of like positive anxiety rep story about learning to accept people with anxiety, but... as someone with anxiety who has anxiety/panic attacks.... this was not it. August was one of the worst characters I've read in a long time and his entire personality was being a spineless doormat to the point that I was physically cringing when he was on-page instead of finding him relatable or inspiring. I also despise when panic attacks are used as some sort of ??? reason for the ship to be intimate ??? and that was probably not the intent, but that's the vibe I got.

The atmosphere was the best part of this book. I adored reading the descriptions of the paintings and, although this was not particularly a hobby for Myra as much as a career and life purpose, it was still refreshing to see a character in a fantasy book have something remotely resembling a hobby that isn't reading.

I listened to an audiobook of this the majority of the time, so I don't have many thoughts on the actual writing style. I think it was fine. I was intrigued by this book in the very beginning and also about 2/3 in when I thought we were getting a better love interest, but the rest was mostly forgettable. I struggled with the logic of the magic system as well, as some rules seemed to change back and forth throughout the book.

Overall, other than a couple of quotes I liked, I did not find this book enjoyable and would most likely not recommend this book or read another by this author.

A Forgery of Roses had such a unique premise, but the main character (Myra) was hard to like, there's a love triangle (not a very good one), and the story wasn't really about a "gift" people would kill for. I think if the author had focused more on Myra's magic and what it was capable of, I might have enjoyed it more. Unfortunately, it's about her wanting someone she can't have (a guy she's known for a handful of days that did nothing as she was unceremoniously tossed out into the snow), and a "bad guy" that seemed to genuinely like her despite her being interested in someone else. He gave her food, clothes, offered her shelter, saved her life... and yet THAT is the guy she pushes away.

I could have tolerated her liking the first guy initially, but Myra should have been more realistic. I know some people will say it was because he had anxiety, but ughhhh. You can have anxiety and still do the right thing. He shouldn't have entertained something with someone he had no intention of ever being with. Family loyalty and blah blah blah. At least Vincent cared about her wellbeing.

I'm curious about the disappearances and potential murderer, but not enough to keep listening to the book. If you've read this, please feel free to message me with spoilers.

Side note: The narrator is amazing! I've really enjoyed other books they've done.

Such a fun, unique idea for a fantasy. I really enjoyed the murder-mystery elements and the MC's magic. Plus, there was some nice commentary on anxiety and disability. Particularly, I enjoyed that the love interest wasn't flawless. The relationship between the MC and her sister was sweet, too.

The romance for the most part was fine, but a bit on the insta-love side. And then a random addition of a love triagle? That didn't work super well for me.

Overall, a nice read. I'm generally very intrigued by Jessica Olson's work and I'm excited what she gives us next.

This was an entertaining fantasy mystery novel. I love Myra's character, she is strong, independent, caring, and inquisitive. Myra does everything she can to make sure she and her sister have a roof over their head and food in their bellies. Myra's ability was cool, not only can she paint but her painting can heal people. If there was a sequel, I would definitely read it.

this book reminded me a bit of Sorcery of Thorns. The idea of a girl that paints but is also able to capture peoples real selves. I really liked that Myra can alter the bodies of the people she paints. It was really fun and interesting to read about an ability like that. Especially when she decides to bring somebody back to life. I did miss some info, like the town they live in, the government outside of the one governor, that felt very limited.

I liked the romance. Myra was pretty bland in my opinion. She was just always busy with her sister and I didn't really like that.

Overall the book was enjoyable and I liked reading it.

I was not able to connect with this book like I had hoped. I ended up DNFing it despite really finding the premise of the story interesting. The magic was super interesting and I enjoyed the mystery aspect but I wasn't able to connect with the characters.