Possibly one of my favorite reads this year so far, it's definitely a 5/5 for Queen of Roses!

This book is a loose retelling of King Arthur and Camelot with a fae twist, and is book 1 in the series. When I first saw the book it was tagged as Young Adult for whatever reason, but there are some darker themes that are apparent pretty early on. New Adult is definitely a better fit, which I see is in the author's note at least.

The pacing of this book was pretty fast, and the author managed to pack in a lot of good worldbuilding and character background throughout. Within pages she managed to make me get bad vibes from Morgan's brother, Arthur, and by halfway through I hated him lol. I do kind of hope for a redemption arc, but I'm pretty sure there's no coming back from what he's doing. Also I would love to see what made him turn out the way he did, like was it all his father's influence or something more??

I know people tend to complain when female main leads are too naïve or let the people around them make all their decisions, and I did see a couple reviews mentioning that about Morgan, but honestly I thought it fit for this book. Morgan has been through quite a bit of trauma in her 20 years, is constantly being put down for things out of her control, and it seems like her every attempt to do something beyond what she is told is met with death. Is it really completely out there for her to just agree with people to keep the peace, or to become trusting in people who offer her the slightest bit of kindness/sanctuary... no!! I feel like as long as we get to see Morgan evolve and become more confident in herself and her decisions, this is a good starting point for her.

I look forward to reading the rest of the books in this series, and also seeing where the romance starts to go between Morgan and Draven !

Thank you to Briar Boleyn, Victory Editing, and NetGalley. Queen of Roses was great. I enjoyed the story and the characters and I did not want to put it down. The story held my attention. I felt very connected to the characters. I also felt a few gut punches along the way. This was pretty much everything I want in a fantasy romance book. I can’t wait to read the next part of the story!

My only VERY TINY complaint is that it feels like it should have been proofread one more time. Especially since it is already released. A few words or sentences repeated too closely together or words that were left out or wrong in a sentence. Again- very tiny- and did not make the story difficult to comprehend. Just stood out enough to maybe say something.. I don’t want that to turn people away from a great story.

I really loved this book! It was full of adventure and I loved how the author developed the characters! I was never bored because of how well the author kept the story going. I will be recommending this book to all of my friends and family.

Well this was an unexpected delight! Honestly I wasn’t sure what to expect reading the blurb (and I was a little worried that this might be a very surface level, overly cliché fantasy romance) but this was honestly so much better than I was expecting and I thoroughly enjoyed Queen of Roses. It’s a solid 4 star read for me and I will absolutely be picking up the next instalment (Court of Claws)

There are a couple of disclaimers that I think are important here though;
-- It’s posed as a dark fantasy romance and while I do think that’s accurate this is not the sort of romance that we are seeing flood this genre right now. It’s a slow burn. Don’t expect instant love and graphic scenes the moment the love birds are alone because this just isn’t that sort of tale. I think that while the romance is very central, the plot tries really hard to assert itself so if you’re purely interested in the romance aspect then this might not be the right fit.
-- Just like the romance being a slow burner the whole pace of the book is slow (Which surprised me honestly given what actually happens in the book and the blurb mentioning it being action packed). But if you’re not a fan of slower paced reads then this might be one to skip as while I really, really enjoyed it this was a touch too slow even for me (and I love some slower paced reads as they can offer so much space for character development and world building)
-- There’s lots of references to the tale of King Arthur but don’t go into this expecting this to be a retelling of that age old story - there’s a whole magical world that’s been created here with it’s own developing mythology, an amazing caste of characters and it’s own complex plot (I say that so that no one is put off by the King Arthur aspect as I know for me the idea of a King Arthur retelling wouldn’t normally interest me!)

I loved how the story developed here and how more and more layers to the world seemed to be slowly revealed as we went on this journey. Morgan discovers more about herself, more about her country, her family, her whole world really and we’re along for the ride. I thought this was actually a really clever way to start introducing some of the magical underpinning to the current
to the world and political climate without there being huge info dumping.

I still don’t entirely know how i feel about Morgan, but I think that’s intentional. She’s been closeted away for so long as despite some small acts of rebellion she’s mostly been raised to obey so it makes sense to be that she’s overly subservient throughout. I did feel like she was slowly starting to grow into herself in this book and as she did she definitely became more likable so I’m feeling optimistic for the next books in this series!

That ending! While I saw the majority of the twists and turns coming and I knew ‘something’ was going to happen at the end I loved how it ended and that final reveal!!!

Overall there was so much potential here and I’m really excited to see how things develop in the next instalment. I think Morgan’s character development it really growing on me, I love the twist the plot has taken and I feel like the next instalment is going to be so much better.

Thank you NetGalley and Victory Editing for the chance to read Queen of Roses in exchange for an honest review.

Queen of Roses is book 1 in the Blood of a Fae series by Briar Boleyn.
Such a phenomenal debut novel from Boleyn.
This is a great retelling of Arthurian Legend! But also it’s a very different retelling with Mortals and Fae, magic and mythical creatures.
This was a spectacular dark fantasy romance and enemies to lovers read that captivated me from get go.
I loved this well-written, imaginative story with its fabulous immersive world-building.
I can’t wait to start book two because this was a fun, fast-paced adventure.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Victory Editing for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

Reread

Queen of Roses is debut novel by Briar Boleyn.
I absolutely love everything about King Arthur and Camelot and I was so happy to receive arc of this book by NetGalley and Briar Boleyn.

So as you probably guessed Queen of Roses is retelling of King Arthur with Fae and main character is Morgan who is Arthur’s older (half)sister. And Arthur is a bad guy in this story, which is refreshing twist.
Lancelot is a girl in this story and she is badass!
Amazing world building and plot of QoR with magic, together they make absolutely perfect book. This book contains so many plot twists that you won’t be able to put it down.
There’s also slow burn romance with enemies to lovers between Morgan and Draven, assassins with his own secrets 🫶🏻
I wish we knew more about Morgan’s mother but I believe there’ll be more about her in Court of Claws.
And let’s not forget Morgan’s and Arthur’s brother Kay who is sweetheart. Can I have a younger brother like him too?

Fantastic Series from start to finish!

I actually read Queen of Roses awhile back after picking it up on Kindle. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this title with a fair and honest opinion.

What a great retelling of Arthurian Legend! With fae & magic added in, this makes for a wonderful world building arc with the opportunity for a knock out twist of who the real villian is!

I fell in love with Morgan's story and how she interacts with Draven. The slow burn between them is *chefs'kiss* The building of their story through their journey to find the sword is wonderful and kept me engaged throughout to the "cliffhanger" end of this book.

I've also read book two and can't wait for book 3!

Overall a well done retelling that I recommend!