I really enjoyed this book. It was also a nice change when it came to the writing being all in verse. This is a very magical book that, although is set in the present, still has a very fairy tale style feel to it. I loved the main character Ilana and she was written very well. The romance between her and Benjamin was sweet and believable. I think that this would be a perfect book for someone who loves magical realism or just wants to read something different from the norm.

Thank you Peachtree and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R. M. Romero is a stunningly original YA fantasy verse novel. The whole book is written in free verse, which is a lovely choice. The story revolves around Ilana, a biracial girl who moves to Prague and meets a ghost named Benjamin in a Jewish cemetery. They spend time hanging out and get to know each other very well. But Benjamin is not the only "monster" who wants to get to know Ilana. Will she be able defeat the monster before he gets her? And will she be able to save Benjamin as well?

Here is a lovely excerpt from Chapter 1, which demonstrates the book's free verse:

"The city I was born in
embraces each person
who steps off the mainland
and onto the island
known as Miami Beach.
It understands we have nowhere else to go.

A dozen countries converge here;
languages tangle like bright ribbons
in the humid air.
Nearly everyone
on the island is an expat, a survivor of a
tragedy that swallowed their family and
nation
whole.

So the last thing I expected was to be
exiled
by my own parents."

Overall, The Ghosts of Rose Hill is a poetic and lyrical verse novel that will appeal to fans of Ellen Hopkins and Laini Taylor. It will appeal to fans of Ellen Hopkins, because I feel like she really popularized the YA verse novel movement. I think it will appeal to fan of Laini Taylor, because similar to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, the book involves a fantasy Prague filled with supernatural creatures.

If I had to choose one book that this book really reminded me of, I would say that it reminded me the most of Bizenghast, which is also about a girl meeting ghosts. I loved reading this book, because the plot was original and was absorbed into the atmosphere of the story. If you're intrigued by the excerpt above, or if you're a fan of YA fantasy in general, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in May!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this Arc in exchange of an honest review ：)

a beautifully written book with interesting fantastical elements.it’s a book with a full plot , diverse and unique as the author works on magic,music,art,love,dreams. It was interesting to learn about the vodnik and watch llana grow and change as she becomes brave and follows her heart and chases her dreams.
the author did a good job with the character development and although Benjamin isn’t a human,yes he did charm me quite a lot,the description of the characters were in a manner such that it’s hard to not fall in love with them.and the other children were pretty interesting as well :)) it definitely added a lot of points for me
llana was also really well done!! I could totally feel her struggles between choosing her dreams or following the route her parents have kind of chosen for her that in their terms is more practical and ideal.I totally understand where llana is coming from because I’m probably struggling as much as she is and yes I can relate to her.you really can see the change in llana as she finds her own identity,learns to leave some people out of her life temporarily as she makes choices to make herself happy.
I really loved llana and Benjamin and it’s a pity they didn’t get an ending I would like but hey I should have expected when I started on a book with a girl in love with a ghost …

anyway,oh crap I don’t know what to write but yes it’s beautiful and while I don’t know what the Jews have been through,I believe those portrayed in the book were pretty accurate considering the author is a Jewish.(this sounds like me bullshitting) I think what she wrote gave me quite a bit of insight about the life of the Jews in war and how much they have been through.and considering I’m a history student,this book left me an impact slightly larger than i expected

basically ,it’s a really beautiful book that I loved and would reread again and definitely recommend my friends to read !!oh and the prose writing is pretty interesting,a really quick read for me :))

The Ghosts of Rose Hill is a beautifully haunting tale about remembering the dead. It follows the story of Ilana Lopez, a teen whose passion for the violin gets her exiled to her aunt's place in Prague in order to think about her STEM-related future. Instead, she encounters magic and history that is far more menacing than she expected.

I love novels in verse, and I love historical fantasy written for young readers. For this book to be both is a huge source of excitement for me, and it delivers! Romero is a master at weaving together images that vividly describe Ilana's, Benjamin's, and Wasserman's stories. Though the form/structure of the actual poetry doesn't do it for me, this minor dislike is overpowered by the sheer beauty and heart infused into conjuring images of love, death, memories, and music.

The Ghosts of Rose Hill was a surprisingly deep read. I was expecting ghosts and a dangerous antagonist, and had no idea this entire book was written in verse until I cracked the cover.

It was a marvelous read. Poignant and beautiful, this book is so much more than ghosts—it’s belonging, and courage, and a girl digging her heels into her family’s story to find herself. I think it’s the best book I’ve read so far in 2022, hands down. There were so many things to love about the story. Highly recommend.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an eARC version of this wonderful novel. All opinions are my own.

Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4631958908

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This is what it's like to be Jewish in Europe. Every beautiful thing has horror buried under it. I'm always walking on bones."

A lyrical and deeply-touching read. <i>The Ghosts of Rose Hill</i> is a YA novel in verse about Ilana, a Jewish-Cuban girl spending her summer in Prague. While in Prague, she begins cleaning up a Jewish cemetery and soon meets the ghost of a boy named Benjamin. The story flourishes from there on out, filling the pages with a man with no shadow, a girl who sheds flowers, and a house separated from time.

I wish this book existed when I was younger and trying to understand what it meant to be Jewish in a world hell-bent on destroying us. R.M. Romero does not shy away from reality (cue Wasserman’s collection of children’s shoes - an obvious allusion to the shoes in Yad Vashem), yet she also manages to bring hope, ambition, and love to the story. Romero writes about how we can reconcile with the past and live our most authentic lives.

R.M. Romero, <i>a sheynem dank</i> for creating such a potent and important story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this eArc!!

A very spooky story! I really liked it! It was formatted in a very interesting way! I recommend it definitely!!

The Ghosts of Rose Hill was available as a read now on NetGalley and as a verse prose, magical-realism story I was instantly interested in reading it. Never before have I so wholeheartedly agreed with a book’s introduction, usually I don’t even read them, but when I do, they flit out of my mind nearly instantaneously as I draw my own conclusions about the story. You’ll have to read the intro yourself to see what I mean, but this was absolutely a 5 star read for me.

The only other verse prose novel I’ve read was Burned by Ellen Hopkins and, ironically, this story was similar in that a girl whose parents don’t agree with her priorities is sent to live with an aunt, but it takes on a Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children magical-realism twist. Ilana is a girl who imagined magic all around her and had her fantasy come true. To say more about the plot would sound suspect, this truly is a story one must take in on one’s own.

What I can say is that there is a common theme among YA stories of self-discovery in which the children of immigrants are pushed by their parents to find a stable and profitable career, and Ilana finds herself caught between doing as she’s told and following her dream to become a violinist. Ilana’s experiences are further informed by her biracial, Latina and Czech, and Jewish heritage in the city of Prague, where barely any Jews remain and even some streets are paved with matzevah from a desecrated Jewish cemetery. But while Ilana’s story is all of the former, there are also undertones of the universality of being a girl.

I highlighted so many stanzas of this story, morsels of beauty, sadness, love, cruelty, and strength. I think this story could be for anyone whether or not one sees parts of oneself in Ilana or simply goes along for the adventure with The Ghosts of Rose Hill.

Romero’s latest novel is stunning. Told in verse, it dazzles with imagery and revels in structure. The Ghosts of Rose Hill unfolds in stanzas — formatted like poetry. Imagery leaps off the page. Bold and beautiful, it grabs your attention and frequently offers stanzas strung together that could comfortably fit in poetry collections. Many stanzas offer crystalline images of the scenery, allowing your mind to paint a picture better than a page’s worth of description in many novels. Take, for instance:

“Behind me is a grove of trees. The alders and ash
devour
the pink light of dawn;
the wind
makes them laugh and shiver.”

Most of the narrative is well executed. Ilana, the protagonist, is a sixteen-year-old biracial Jewish girl, torn between two worlds: what her parents want for her, and what she wants for herself. There is a conflict between the perceived stability of a diploma and the precariousness of a life lived as a musician. Inherent to the discord between Ilana and her parents is a measure of pain. The misunderstood teenager, a staple of YA novels, feels right at home amidst the poetic narrative. This does not die down once Ilana moves to Prague. She balances the demands of her parents who want her to study for the upcoming SATs while confronted with the ghosts of the country’s haunted past. These echoes are alluring, drawing her away from her parents, and into the echoes of a time of horror and despair.

Unfortunately, the narrative dips in quality occasionally. The interludes give far too much away, unlike the main narrative, which takes its time giving away its secrets. They concern an interesting character, and would have been a welcome secondary POV character, if they were more tactical with the information they share. The romance also felt unnecessary — only there because audiences expect it in a YA book.

The genre — which jumps between magical realism and fantasy, always straddling a coming-of-age core — is filled with magic. But not everything is pleasant. There is darkness in the world, even in the present day. From a mysterious man with no shadow who seems to have more to him than meets the eye, to Benjamin, a teenaged ghost-boy who cannot move on, nothing is perfect. Even closer to home, both sides of Ilana’s family have experienced tragedy. They have a painful history with oppressive regimes from either end of the political spectrum, both in Cuba and the Czech Republic. It is this past which allows Ilana to connect to the echoes of Prague’s own past, who she meets and learns from.

But despite the darkness, Ilana’s world is one worth living in. She feels for those unable to see the world as she does, “where flowers can’t blossom / from a lost boy / and love is concrete, / proven / with a touch / or a kiss.” Ilana recognizes the danger and momentarily wishes she had not been blindsighted by it. But despite this, she lifts power from her ability to see the world beyond. There are two kinds of magic, she explains: artificial and real. There is the Disney kind, which Ilana dismisses as packaged and choreographed, and the real magic, which is anything but safe. Though the false magic may be alluring, Ilana can only accept reality, darkness and all. By the end of the novel, she realizes she is more than she gave herself credit for. She is not the maiden in need of rescue; she is a knight who can decide her own destiny.

Wow, this one blew me away! I really enjoyed reading a book written in prose and it reminded me just how much I miss reading poetry. Such a compelling premise, fast paced, and easy to binge. Plus how beautiful is that cover? The Ghosts of Rose Hill had everything I enjoy in a book: coming of age story, magical realism, biracial MC, romance, and historical context. Romero absolutely knocked it out of the park and I will have to buy this for all of the teenagers I know. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as I did and it was a wonderful surprise. One of my favorite reads this month and I’ll be recommending this to everyone who likes YA and doesn’t mind a different type of book structure. Romero has a new fan!

<b>Esta reseña está disponible en español en mi blog.

Thanks to Edelweiss+ for kindly giving me the chance to read this as an advanced copy.</b>

<i>"I'm glad
she didn't name me
after the ocean—
it's much too powerful.
I'm just a girl
who dreams about magic
and can't wrap her mind
around algebraic equations."</i>

Ilana Lopez is Jewish and Cuban. Her parents were forced to flee their respective countries due to war and found themselves in Miami, Florida. Ileana has lived there her whole life, along with her two close friends and music. But when things started to get serious, her parents told her that she should give up music to pursue a career that would give her a good life, since they didn't want her to struggle as much as they did at the time. To give her a new vision, they send her to Prague in the summer with her eccentric aunt. There without her violin she thinks she has nothing to do, until she discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery and decides to restore it. On the way he meets Benjamin, a ghost, whose body lies in that cemetery. They become friends and now life in Prague doesn't sound as disappointing as he thought it would. Only Benjamin is not the only ghost in town who hides darker secrets than Ilana would have thought.

A beauty itself. This book can be defined in several ways and beauty is one of them. I have never had the opportunity to read anything like it before and I must say I am pleasantly surprised with the outcome.
Ilana is a sixteen year old girl with dreams as big as the ocean itself, but she feels cornered in several ways. She believes her parents want to destroy her dreams, she knows she has two good friends, but feels that if she is not with them then they will forget about her, and music, she believes, is her soul mate. She is a character as complex as she is curious, she had thoughts of an older girl or her age but, here the funny thing, I forgot she was a teenager. I was reading her as a superior minded twelve year old, that there were scenes that caught my attention until I remembered that she is no longer a child.
Benjamin is a similar case, he's a ghost and his soul has been anchored to the world for a long time, so he has a greater aura as a lesser in turn. And while I would like to talk more about him, I will simply say that I ended up loving him a lot and I hope that when you meet him you will see that I have great reason to and end you will end up loving him just as much.
The story grabs you and educates you, I don't have a voice to say how good the structure is, how realistic it is since I am not Jewish, for that I recommend looking for own voices reviews that talk about this topic more in depth. That I will say as a Latina in the few moments that it was talked about, yes I can see Ilana living in Miami with that loaded presence on her back.
One way to catch you is the writing. I mentioned before that I had never read in verse and I believe I was missing out on some great magic in my life. Aside from the fact that the book is quick to read, I felt it got to me deeper than other prose books do. But this is solely because of the ability of the verse, but R. M. has a pen that makes us dream, sigh and feel in an impressive way. I don't have a physical copy, but I have no doubt I would have ended up marking the entire book from beginning to end. And I probably will when I eventually get my hands on it.
Moving right into the story itself, I repeat, I won't mention what I don't know about or am not a part of, so the Jewish theme and its way of being carried out will be dealt with over the table. But we start with Ilana who is afraid of going to Prague and what might happen in her life after this summer because of her relationship with her parents. I'm in college, I'm already studying a career and yet sometimes I feel my mom in the background questioning the decisions I make because they don't go according to what she wants from me. The weight she carries is real and traps you enough to wonder what she will do when the time comes, how this summer will impact her life when she must leave her friends and her violin behind.
And there's another theme there that I can confirm: the fear of forgetting her friends. It is something I still suffer from, where I know I have great friends, but sometimes I feel that the moment I am gone I will be forgotten. I felt like hugging Ilana and telling her that everything will be fine, that her friends are real and it is her fears that speak in her head and heart.
Once in Prague, the real magic begins.
Her aunt wants to help her, but Ilana is devastated, so she pays no attention. Not until she discovers the cemetery. Connecting with her roots gives her a reason, a motive to not hate summer, but this is only the beginning of a magical time. Benjamin shows up and things change completely.
Ilana discovers a magical Prague full of secrets. Music returns to her heart, but also trouble begins. The magical presence is as powerful as it is dangerous and Ilana's life begins to be in danger without her realizing it.
And all because an idea of happiness blinds her to it. She and Benjamin become friends, a friend she knows will not abandon her as her fears tell her about her friends in Miami. They feel a closeness so pure and real that she forgets that Benjamin is just a ghost as their affection transcends life itself.
And towards the end, wow. I repeat, you don't need that many words to make such an impact. The ending was a bit confusing but perfect once you get the hang of it. There's a sentence that shows how perfect this ending is, just wait to read it. I'm not going to deny it, I did tear up at some point but at the same time I ended up with a full heart.
The only detail was something very random but possible spoiler* and you can find it until the end. It was a weird and confusing situation that made me think how? and I didn't end up grasping the idea completely.
The second thing is something I had already implicitly mentioned, which is the voice of the book. Technically it's Young Adult and the scenes keep it as the age of the characters, but it was too easy to forget that and think it was Middle Grade, so it took me out of the loop of what was going on until I remembered they were sixteen, not twelve.
In conclusion I can say that this book will stay in my heart for a long time and I hope you can all read it soon. It is a beautiful combination that you can't pass up.







*Possible spoiler but not spoiler:
The romance between Benjamin (a ghost) and Ilana (a human).

When Ilana's parents send her to stay with her aunt in Prague for the summer, they expect her to buckle down and study for her SATs instead of getting distracted by things like having fun and making music. Instead, the young Jewish Latina falls like Alice down a rabbit-hole of Czech and Jewish mythology. She begins to see the ghosts of children, and a terrible monster that has them trapped, feeding off of their memories to fill the empty hole within.
At first, I was intimidated by the prospect of reading a book in verse. I don't really "get" poetry, but the premise of this novel was so interesting, I decided to give it a shot.
If you're also intimidated by poetry and unsure about the idea of reading a story in verse, please give this book a try anyway.
It's written in such an accessible way, you don't need to know anything about poetry to enjoy it. The prose is so colorful and vivid it just draws you right into the mythology of Jewish Czech. Reading The Ghosts of Rose Hill is like listening to a Psalm, a lyrical and magical story. I loved the characters, and I especially enjoyed the beautiful exploration of what it means to be a Jew, especially a young mixed-race Jewish girl. Ilana is a treasure, and it was a blessing to see the world through her eyes.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I will certainly be preordering it with my next paycheck. This author is one to watch for certain.
I also really hope to someday see this done as an audiobook. What an absolute joy it would be to hear such lyrical prose spoken aloud by a skilled actress, with music and sound effects.
This eARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to R.M. Romero, Peach Tree Teen Publishing, and NetGalley.

This was the first time for me reading a book written in prose and it certainly did not disappoint. It starts off with Ilana, biracial Jewish girl going to Prague visiting her aunt. She wanders off to a forgotten Jewish cemetery and meets a boy Benjamin, rather his century old ghost over there. They come close sharing each other's stories and then enters the villain Rudolph who has a secret agenda. There is also some Jewish history added and that added more depth to it. The immigrant parents and their expectations were very much relatable for me. How Ilana gets into a mess and how she handles forms the rest of the plot

I loved the whole magic and mysterious/whimsical vibes throughout the book. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

A pretty heavy topic, but written in the most beautiful, caring, and still entertaining way. I think the author has an amazing way with words and writing this story in prose was a great choice. I think it's quite amazing how so much meaning can be put into something with so few words. The pace was fast and enjoyable. The characters weren't super relatable or talked about in detail, but I still was able to form a bit of connection to them and understand their personalities pretty well. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
Just wanted to share my favorite quotes:

"When you are a final girl, you run for all the girls who never made it this far."

"And the most impressive monsters are always the least impressive men."

Thank you NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for the Digital Review Copy of this title.

This is my first experience with a book written in verse, and I loved every minute of it.
The Ghosts of Rose Hill follows Ilana on her summer trip to Prague, her father's homeland. Ilana is supposed to be studying to create a better life for herself, but she finds herself tangled in creative fantasies. She soon finds out that monsters are real, and things are not always as they seem.

The characters in this book made me feel thing. I found Ilana to be very relatable. I understood her pain and struggle to be accepted by her family. The other children were also relatable in their own ways.

This is a story about a lost soul finding its place in the world.

I loved reading this book! I found the writing to be very insightful and interesting. I was intrigued by the premise and I enjoyed reading it from start to finish.

CW: Discussions of antisemitism, persecution, intergenerational trauma, and child abuse
.
.
.
Ilana loves music, mermaids, and magic—three things that do not fit into her parents’ practical world. After getting bad grades, Ilana is sent to Prague, her father’s country of origin. When she sees her Aunt Žofie after many years, she is surprised to meet an artist, a dreamer, someone not that different from herself. What will Ilana learn while she is thousands of miles away from everything she knows?

This is the first time I read an entire story in verse and I am now excited for more! Romero’s vivid writing felt like movie scenes, especially Ilana’s voice, which evoked a secondhand sense of turmoil and growth. In particular, I found myself empathizing with the struggle of being caught between who you’ve been told to be and who you might want to be if given the chance to decide for yourself. I was particularly grateful to learn about these experiences through the lens of a Jewish-Latina teenager. Romero weaves magical realism and folklore into this beautiful story about coming of age while reflecting on religion, culture, and family history.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fascinating concept, and I really wanted to get into the story. Ultimately the medium for the story wasn't for me, but I really appreciated the creativity and effort that went into it.

There is magic in history, told in lyrical, structured poetry that paints a tale of cultural connections, history, and lore.

Firstly, let me speak of the structuring. As it did for me, aI understands that the poetic structure may turn some people or even scare some away from it, but as this was my first foray into this type of novel, I can say that it does it such a service. There is no fluff in the plot, with the story moving efficiently and at a pace that keeps it entertaining. What brings the world to life is the poetic structuring, the use of metaphors, and descriptions that allow us to visualize the lore of the setting.

And the setting! The description of the mythological world with the natural world paints such a vivid image that shows so much of a place, the people, and their culture. It takes hold of the worlds that collide in the mind of our protagonist and finds similarities and differences that allow you to understand her place in life and her culture.

The addition of the lore/mythology that encompasses this story reads like a modern fairytale. one I would tell my kids. The characters are not given the said service as the plot with the book's structuring; however, personalities favored less over the story's outcome with character development being minimal.

This favoring of the plot over the character also leads us to come to the story's finale with no character development/growth for our main protagonist, with her conclusion coming abruptly, moved by the story's flow and journey.

There is a lot of good in this story, where its only weak points are the often faceless nature of the characters. However, I would still highly recommend giving it a read.

Thank you Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"Magic will burn you up.

Sent to stay with her aunt in Prague and witness the humble life of an artist, Ilana Lopez - a biracial Jewish girl - finds herself torn between her dream of becoming a violinist and her immigrant parents’ desire for her to pursue a more stable career.

When she discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery behind her aunt’s cottage, she meets the ghost of a kindhearted boy named Benjamin, who died over a century ago. As Ilana restores Benjamin’s grave, he introduces her to the enchanted side of Prague, where ghosts walk the streets and their kisses have warmth.

But Benjamin isn't the only one interested in Ilana. Rudolph Wassermann, a man with no shadow, has become fascinated with her and the music she plays. He offers to share his magic, so Ilana can be with Benjamin and pursue her passion for violin. But after Ilana discovers the truth about Wassermann and how Benjamin became bound to the city, she resolves to save the boy she loves, even if it means losing him - forever.

With spellbinding verse prose, R.M. Romero channels the spirit of myth into a brilliantly original tale, inspired by her experiences restoring Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe."

Here for the magic of Prague and history.