This one indeed had tons of twists and turns, a lot more than I would appreciate. The problem with this many plot twists and revelations, is that as a reader, it becomes tiring. It is indeed exhausting when you can’t make a precise guess about a story, because the author just droops bombs of new information. This does indeed help tp keep the attention of the reader, but to my liking, they were too much.
There are likable characters, but most of them got me exasperated. They were constantly making irrational decisions, putting themselves in unnecessary circumstances, and acting harshly. There was a point were this became tiresome and I just had to pause the audiobook because it was just unnecessary.
Don’t get me wring, the story was clever, interesting , and has a lot of potential. But, the way that it is displayed isn’t the best.
This book is for adult audiences, since there are some triggers, like murder, blood, scarifies, etc.

SO FREAKING GOOD MA'AM!!

i mean, the story is well written and the characters are really good but the narrator has improved so much to the story that, when I was busy with others things, i was dying inside to get to listen a little bit of the audiobook. SO GOOD

The teenager version of myself would give this book a 5/5 but it’s actually a 2/5. My rating is a 3/5 because that’s as close as possible I can make it to a even halfway split.

Highlights:
⭐️The cast of characters. I loved Katori & who she is as a person. Strong, independent, & dependable.
⭐️The love connection that will most likely build to future books. Who will Kat pick? The fae or the hunter?! *dramatic music*
⭐️The buildable plot that will continue to build. What will happen with this feud between the fae & hunters? Will Kat stay human, hunter, or fae? The possibilities are honestly endless which is exciting for the reader as the author has many possible avenues to go to & it will certainly be a mystery what the plot ends up being.

Pitfalls:
❌There are a lot of dictation mistakes & the writing style can be choppy at some points.
❌There are a lot of heading turning “well what are the chances of this?” For example, Kat’s parents being 40 & she is 19. So not only did they get married very young but they started a family soon after. There is also the point that Kat is in “medical school” even though realistically she should in be a freshman in college. BUT it is a book about magically faeries - so do the rest of the details really
matter when we are looking at make believe creatures?
❌Again there are plentiful of pitfalls in this book. Unanswered questions, not clear plot jumps, overly dramatic characters & characterizations BUT it’s a young adult novel clearly geared toward young high schoolers. I could sit here & make a list of what is wrong or cheesy but at the end of the day, it’s very clear the target audience of this book.

i really loved this book but the audio wasn't my favorite. i didn't love the narrators so much and they really are make or break for an audible for me

Written by Olivia Wildenstein, this novel follows Catori as she returns home from medical school (at 19?) after her mother’s sudden death for her funeral, and to find out if something else caused her death other than the natural causes everyone is stating.

The writing in this isn’t great however, it could be that it is better and the lack of difference between characters and the difficulty I had keeping them straight because of this added to that.

This novel is really about the fae and a group of Native Americans who used to hunt them, and may be back agian. That is, that a hunter is back agian.

*SPOILERS AHEAD* And really confused writing. That is consistent with the writing in the story, and the plot.

A lot of very…. odd things happen throughout the book. The characters just let things happen, and the only thing that can really justify that is Fae magic, Mr. Cruise’s I’m assuming. But, still, there are just things that… happen so that the plot points can happen.

We also have Blake, the former… boyfriend? Or something? Also, my ability to spell any of these names are nonexistent. I don’t know where the romance is going to go, but… not enough to keep reading the books.

This just doesn’t make any sense. Then we throw in another murder, that maybe Cruise did.

There is a lot that happens, that is missing how those things happened. Other than that they do.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed this, Wildenstein seems to have a really original idea with fae and hunters in this book. The characters are dynamic and the story is hard to put down. I would highly recommend.

The narrator did a great job because I was most of the time into this because of how much, how well done it was.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this audio book.
This book had a lot of plot twists and I spent the entire book wondering if the fairies were good or evil. It was nice not knowing which side they were on throughout the entire novel. The use of Native American culture was very interesting and added depth to the book.
The narrator was great and engaging as well.

I went into listening to this audiobook wanting to enjoy the story. The opening had a lot of promise and I appreciate books that focus on populations not heavily represented, in this case, Catori’s family has Native American roots. However, before I was even a quarter of the way through this book I realized it had a lot of errors.

Catori comes back from college after her mother dies suddenly. Catori is 19 years old and supposedly in medical school? The medical examiner was called by her father and the autopsy was done in their basement? Catori has “the sight” and is able to see how different Cruz is immediately, but she can’t talk to her young cousin about “the sight” because then the hunter powers will begin? Yet Catori had no knowledge of being a hunter and she could see immediately. These are just a few of the many examples of a story that isn’t well researched or laid out. It’s written as if a certain event has to happen, no matter how illogical or impossible, to further the plot instead of the plot being driven by the natural progression of the story.

If I had to read this story I probably would not have finished it, but since I listened to it in audiobook form I’d like to recognize the outstanding work of Stephanie Fritz. It is very evident that she gave it her all to express the emotions needed throughout the story even when the story stopped making much sense at all.

It’s a solid 2.5 (rounded to 3 for Goodreads) for me. This isn’t a series I’d be interested in continuing on with.

The narrator was pretty good. I haven't listened to one of her readings before but the performance was quite good.

The story felt like a mix between Stephenie Meyer's Twilight and Holly Black's Cruel Prince. I found that the plot was good and that the story had a great idea behind it. Unfortunately for me it just felt lacking and I can't figure out why. I fell that the story is very obvious as to what is going to happen.

I loved the sound of it as was very excited to read/listen to it, but felt that I didn't particularly get along with it towards the end.

3ish stars

I wanted this to be a fun and exciting fantasy story, and I know that’s what the author was going for, but most of it just didn’t work for me. Writing and word choices were frequently awkward, characters and their (non)development were irritating, and some of the social/cultural elements she tried to include and/or create felt cringey and stereotypical rather than deep and nuanced, as I think the writer probably hoped. I don’t know. It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read, but it also wasn’t a win for me; I’m feeling a bit conflicted about it, I suppose. If a review copy of one of her other books comes up in the future and sounds really promising, I may request it, but otherwise, I think I’ll be moving on from this writer.

DNF at 55.8%

I have tried desperately to get through this but the story is quite boring and didn’t hold my attention. The concept was interesting, but I found the MC too whiny and everything was “me, me, me” which I totally despise in a YA novel. But I guess this being a YA novel, did I really expect better? Yes actually because it should be teaching a younger audience to NOT be this way.

I am unsure how to completely feel about this book. I enjoyed the narrator and the plot. I was hooked in the beginning until there was a big scene change that was a bit random that involves a bunch of characters to keep track of.

I am a huge fan of Olivia Wildenstein and read this book last year, however I was very eager to revisit it via audio! Rose Petals Graves was just as magical and romantic as I remembered it and the incredible narration only added to the thrilling story. I really love this books unique take on the fae and enjoyed every minute of the audiobook!

4.5 Was not expecting to love this as much as I did. The book totally surprised me, one thing right after another happened. The flow of this book was great. I prefer my fantasy MC to be a bit stronger, less just letting things happen to and around her. It worked in this book because things happened quickly and we learned about the world of magic through her. My hope is she starts to blossom into a more full fledge character in book 2. The audiobook was pretty good quality, NetGalley tends to have an echo periodically when I listen through their app, so I don’t think that was the issue with the actually audiobook.

i truly loved this audio and am suprised at that. I DO NOT like YA anything. This while YA wasnt a victim of the many YA tropes. The characters are 19 and up which means it COULD be YA but the story is actually meant for a 18+ year old reader so it could be NA. There wasnt the romance issue as far as scenes nor was there the OMG he kissd my cheek i shall die a thousands suns without another.

I went into this book pretending this was its own little book so I didnt suffer as many other readers did with age confusion(19 year old going to med school to be a doctor but asks like she is graduating very soon), lack of grieving from mother, love interests with her possible killers? etc.

I just accepted everything as reality. I really enjoyed the audio and how different the charactters were.. do we like fae? do we like hunters? do we ship them? i am so lost and i really enjoyed the amount of story in this.

So I do understand how they "tagged" this book as being a Vampires Dairy but with Fairies.....it's WAY better!
I absolutely fell into the story, I didn't have a hard time following...which I typically do in fairy stories...it gripped me immediately. I'm blown away at how much folklore was included in this story. The names are great without being too "fairy like".
I'm reading the second book now, I had to borrow it STAT.

Loved it, recommend it and will read more from this author.

Rose Petal Graves - Olivia Wildenstein

Loved it in parts, but on the whole didn’t love or hate it too much.

Rose Petal Graves starts off a bit slow with a lot of character and plot development. I enjoyed the book's unique plot and it's Native American references. However, the plot is very slow to develop and the love triangle between Catori and her beaus is weak and lackluster. On the upside, there's no cliffhanger ending :)

I struggled with how to rate this one. On one hand, it very definitely pulled me in and kept my interest for most of it. On the other, it's a story that I've read what feels like hundreds of times with nothing to really make it stand out beyond a not-much-explored Native American angle. Not to mention my much-hated love triangle being present and emotionally abused.
Stephanie Fritz is the narrator of the audiobook and you can tell she gave it her all to emotional parts because her narration makes you care for the characters even when the story doesn't necessarily lead you there. It's to her credit that I went for the full 3 stars.
I have a feeling this will be one of those series where the second book will be better just because all the heavy, drudgy work of introducing the world and the characters was set up here, but I don't see myself going to the trouble of continuing with the series.

Happy thanks to NetGalley, Olivia Wildenstein, and Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) for the interesting listen!