This one was SO SO good! I highly recommend this book for fans of The Selection and fantasy! The plot was well written and fast paced! I adored the romance! This book had so many great tropes like forbidden romance, slow-burn, and more! Definitely give it a try!
rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
spice: 🌶️chapter 29-mildy explicit with vague descriptions!
CW: moderate language!

This was a delightful mix of regency drama and fae. Ivy is desperate to improve her family's reputation and find a match this season, and she may just have a way. This was such a well crafted story, and the fallout of the bargain was so much fun to watch unfold.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ivy was never meant to be her family’s only hope—that role had been the burden of her perfect older sister. But when Lydia refused a marriage proposal and went missing for weeks with no memory of what happened, suddenly their family became the ton’s pariahs. When it is announced that the Fae Queen’s son will be taking a bride this season, Ivy knows she has one change to secure her family’s future.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and Sasha Peyton Smith for an ARC of this lovely book! This YA fantasy regency story is a great mix of Bridgerton vibes + The Selection plot. I also loved the entire concept of bargains - you get ONE chance to touch magic, and it will come at a high cost. This was fairly high paced, engaging read that balanced schemes, action, and secret moments really well. This is the first of a series and the ending does NOT cleanly resolve…in fact, the last 10% is an absolutely insane series of twists, so brace yourself!!

Content warnings: violence, mild gore, language, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, sexual content

If I could make my own bargain, it would be for the opportunity to read this for the first time again.
For a romance/fantasy plot, it held its own by being unlike many that I’ve read- equally intoxicating and captivating. I found myself almost completing it within the same day as starting it because it’s a book you can get lost in by the author’s way of storytelling.
Not only was I enraptured with the characters and their dynamics between one another, but how the magic from fae tangles itself in England’s high society, especially when it comes to the marriage mart.
One of my favored highlights from the story is how we as the reader gain multiple POV’s from the side characters throughout, making them more than just one-dimensional and showing how they all equally play a key part in the unraveling of the many schemes.
As for the ending, my mind was completely whirling with revelation after revelation. Truly unexpected, and after the cliffhanger- it has me eagerly waiting for the next chapter of Ivy’s story.
If you loved the political intrigue of The Cruel Prince and the romantic tension specifically in season two of Bridgerton, this is a definite must-read for your 2025 reading list!

I loved this book so much. It’s definitely up there in my top romantasy books and can’t wait to continue the series!! Bridgerton vibes with fairies, yes please!
This is a book I couldn’t put down and was truly pulled into the world, thinking about it all the time and even after reading! Some of the characters were annoying at first, but I love how they all truly served a purpose and weren’t just filler. The found family vibes/descriptions of friendship were great.

While I enjoyed the pacing and the plot for this book, the dialogue and character motivations made it difficult for me to stay invested sometimes. The dialogue felt wooden and unrealistic at points, and I was amazed that the MC was able to sneak away so frequently -- especially at points when she should've been locked in and forbidden from leaving. The Fey Queen didn't act enough of a Fey for me to really believe in her as the bored villain playing with humans for fun, either.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc!

I’m realizing I kinda hate these bachelor-esque romance competitions in books they give me the ick, but I knew what I was getting into here. I kept reading this one because the world is really cool and unique to me and that kept me engaged, I love fae elements and mixing that with aristocracy/marriage mart elements is so much fun.

This book was so good. It gives The Cruel Prince, Once Upon A Broken Heart, and The Selection vibes, which I’m obsessed with.

This book was so amazing and I can’t wait for it to be released so I can talk about it with other people!

This book has everything I love in a good ya fantasy. There’s a good romance, love triangle, friendship, secrets, and super shocking plot twists. AND THE ENDING?!?!? I am so excited for book 2!!!

Holy. Moly. I’m going to be screaming from the roof tops about this one. Where do I even begin? First. The characters. My goodness. The female characters are all so amazing. The relationships captured are so perfect, the situation they are in is not easy but their interactions constantly had me saying: yeah I mean I’d react the same way. Their bond, amazing! Their back stories?! Perfection. Gave them so much more depth.

The love story? INCREDIBLE. I have not felt this way since finishing Ballad of Never After and that is a very good thing.

This book’s plot was so so good. I would have never anticipated it would end up where it did. The pacing was so well done too. I seriously cannot say enough good things about this book. I cannot wait to purchase a copy (pray for some special editions) and tell all my friends to read it!!

This book was fabulous. Definitely a top read for the year. Well written and accurately described as The Selection meets The Cruel Prince. This was a character driven story (my favorite.)
The world building was creative and full without being overwhelming.

My goodness, I desperately need the next book immediately after that ending.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Want to read a fae version of The Selection?

Check out “The Rose Bargain” by Sasha Peyton Smith if you like…

* Competitions to win the prince
* Glam ups
* Love triangles
* Fae antics
* A little spice


HER:🩷
The fae-obsessed, never good enough second daughter of an English noble forced to save her family’s reputation after her perfect older sister’s scandal.

HIM:💙
He may be fae, but his picture is in the dictionary next to Prince Charming. Sweet, honorable, kind, heart-stoppingly beautiful, and of course a bonafide prince.

THEIR STORY:📖
The fae Queen of England’s son is looking for a bride. So this season the competition is fiercer than ever at the marriage mart. In fact, it’s a literal competition, and Prince Bram is the prize.

Lady Ivy never planned on court life. That was always her sister’s job, until her sister Lydia went and created a scandal that ruined their entire family. Now an outcast from society, Ivy enters the competition as one last desperate chance to restore her family’s name.

But does the girl who was too busy daydreaming about faeries to learn social graces have what it takes to be a princess?

Worst case the answer is no and she remains an outcast. After all she has nothing left to lose.

Except maybe her heart.

🌹🫱🏼‍🫲🏾🏰👑♥️🏆

Get your copy now: (out 2/4/25)

https://amzn.to/4eDG2Fm

Thank you for supporting me. I earn from affiliate links.

And thank you to Sasha Peyton Smith and #NetGalley for letting me enjoy an advanced copy of The Rose Bargain.

If you like The Cruel Prince and The Selection Series, you’re gonna love The Rose Bargain.

This book is like Bridgerton with faeries, and I absolutely devoured it. It takes place in London, and most of the story takes place at the palace. Ivy and five other girls who are coming out for the season sign up to try to win the heart of Prince Bram, entering into a contest led by the Queen. But who will survive Queen Mor's challenges, and who will win the Prince's heart?

I enjoyed this world so much! I loved the idea of rose bargains, little bargains made to make one prettier or more clever etc for marriage. I also loved how faeries were slid into a real time in history to create this amazing new world.

I can't wait to see where the story takes us in the next book!

A love triangle, girls competing over a man like he will solve all their problems, too many points of view to keep up with...This was just not for me.

Fae Meets Bridergton with the Selection thrown in

Book Name: The Rose Bargain
Author: Sasha Peyton Smith

ARC
Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books  for an ARC

Stars: 5
Spice: 3

Series
Cliffhanger
Fast Paced
Multi POV
Historical Fantasy
Similar to Bridgerton meets Selection meets Folklore Fae Fantasy

- Thoughts.
- OMG addicting - 3 am Read
-I love our FMC she’s a force yet not forceful
- Selection vibes but make it bloody
- Fae (folklore style)
- Bargains with Fae Queen
- Bridgerton undertones
- WARNING 3rd act with MAJOR cliffhanger
- MMC 1 is so broody and misunderstood
- MMC 2 is a golden retriever fae…
- This is such a good well-written book Tension and Pacing is PERFECTION
- Quotable lines
- Sasha Peyton Smith is now solidly an auto-buy author for me

stopppp
why the cliffhanger?!!!?!
if this book isn’t even out yet, how long am I going be to have to wait for book 2?? 😭😭
literally in love with emmett
brams complete 360, was absolutely NOT expecting that ending at all
the selection but way for fantasy and with fae?!? yes please. i ate this up

The Rose Bargain
By Sasha Peyton Smith

If you loved Bridgerton, The Selection, and Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries, then this book is for you. The Rose Bargain is set in England in the 1800s, where you follow Ivy, the second daughter, as she comes out in society. After her sister, Lydia, has gone missing, all Ivy wants are answers. Lydia mysteriously reappears, but cannot remember anything. When the girls enter society they are able to make a bargain with the Queen Mor, a Faerie, of their choosing, but it will cost them each something.

When all the girls are presented to Queen Mor, she announces that her son Bram will be looking for a wife this season and that a select few will have the opportunity.

Now Ivy must do all she can to win the affection of Prince Bram, while searching for answers for her sister. While trying to survive the lessons the Queen gives, Ivy works together with Prince Emmitt, Bram's partial "brother", to discover a way to undo all of the bargains made.

The Rose Bargain was such a fun, twisty book to read. I devoured it so quickly I couldn't wait to see what happened next.

I give this book 4.5/5 Stars. I would say that this book is New Adult. There are no explicit scenes, but there is violence and a little spice.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read The Rose Bargain.

This was such a fun read! Historical fiction meets fantasy—honestly, this felt like a hybrid of fantasy favorites: ACOTAR, The Selection, The Cruel Prince, etc. Knowing that might deter you, but I was hooked. I read it in a day! It had everything I wanted from a story like this—fae, trials, high stakes, heartbreak, good banter… what more can you ask for? If these story elements aren't broken, let's don't fuss about fixing them.

I saw the end twist coming, BUT when I tell you I am on the edge of my seat for the next book in this series, I mean it. I cannot wait!

Note for those who are curious: While it is marketed at YA, this book is toeing the line of New Adult.

This book was such a fun mix of Bridgerton, The Bachelor, and The Cruel Prince—basically, all the vibes you didn’t know you needed until now. It’s set in an alternate-history England, starting from the War of the Roses, which immediately grabbed my attention because, let’s be real, I’m a sucker for that era. And while it’s technically a competition to marry a fae prince, it’s not all fluff. There’s a real depth to the characters, and the tension—romantic and otherwise—had me hooked.

One thing I absolutely loved was how the story included chapters from the perspectives of other girls in the competition. It gave them real dimension and made the whole thing feel less like “everyone vs. the main character” and more like a group of young women with their own stories and motivations. It made the book way more dynamic. And honestly, I was here for the slow-burn romance. Minimal spice, but the tension was so well done that you didn’t need it to be over the top. If you’re someone who enjoys watching a romance build rather than explode from the get-go, this will be right up your alley.

And let me just say—the ending? Talk about leaving me hanging! It’s such an intriguing setup for what’s coming next, and now I’m sitting here impatiently waiting for the next book. If you love fantasy with a bit of romance, high-stakes competition, and some serious girl-power moments, this book is absolutely worth a read. I’d give it a solid 4.25 stars—super engaging, with just enough mystery to keep me wanting more!

5 Reasons Why I Gave The Rose Bargain ALL THE STARS

The similarities to The Selection – The Selection was my series. I dutifully bought every book after its release, reading them all until the pages became worn and the ink slightly faded due to sun exposure. In my opinion, Smith takes the best parts of her inspiration and makes them even better: more detailed, more twisted, and more addictive.

The love triangle – Most of the time, I am indifferent toward love triangles. Typically, I have an instant favorite and all the will they / won’t they only serves to irritate me. That was not the case with Ivy and her suitors. I was genuinely rooting for both boys until the last second. Sasha Peyton Smith writes romance exactly the way I want to see it.

The multi POV – I am such a fan of the snippets from each girl. Seeing the situation from their perspectives made them more likable. Now that the competition is over, I cannot wait to see their friendships strengthen.

The sapphic relationship – While I wasn’t expecting this, now that it’s here, I hope that the sequel explores this side story even further.

The mystery – I was sold from the start with the competition, but the mystery with Ivy’s sister makes this book even more enthralling. I love a mystery and, in this case, the strangeness of the whole situation had me hooked. Honestly, every character has such an interesting backstory; I know The Rose Bargain hasn’t even been published, but I cannot wait for the next book.

Bottom line: It’s not often that I love a fantasy release as much as I love The Rose Bargain.

This is a fun, twisty little book that — while it resembles many others in the genre (the wedding contest, the plotting, the falling for the wrong brother /romance) — it’s well written, well paced, and has some nice and unique elements that kept me entertained. This isn’t the sort of book that I tend to read, and I was expecting to be whelmed by it, but really … I had a good time. I read the book in a single sitting and, when I finished, went to see when book two would be published.

The Queen’s magic is nicely cruel and the reveal at the end, while coming a little out of left field, felt grounded enough in the story that I thought it worked. All in all, this is a solid romantasy with grounded characters, a nicely put together plot, and strong writing.

Thank you so much to Net Galley and the publisher for letting me have an ARC!