The Rose Stone

The Rose Stone is an amazing book and it's truly brilliant. The writing is absolutely fabulous and I loved everything about this book. It's a page-turner and you can't get enough of it from the very start. Every single chapter is addictive and sweet.

It has fantasy, romance and adventure. recommend The Rose Stone to any reader who enjoys those genres.

[This review will be posted on 15th June, 2022, on GoodReads. An extended version will be also be posted on Instagram, on the same date. Links to the reviews are attached]

The Rose Stone is the story of Jessica Stone. Recently going through treatment for an inoperable brain tumor she is told that there is a new trial for her to try, but it is very risky. Jess decides that she really has no other choice. The first step is it get a new MRI to check the tumor's growth and position which they will do the next day. Jess goes home to rest but gets a sudden urge to paint. As she does so she begins to paint a beautiful rose with a glowing aura around it.

Jess arrives for her MRI with the help of her friend Melanie who is also a doctor. While in the MRI she she wakes in an unusual land called the Commonwealth of the Rose Stone. It is a most vivid place with the most unusual animals, and a warrior named Griffin. He rescues her during a strange war that she witnesses and a bond is formed between them. When she wakes up from the MRI she feels the dream was so vivid and real and hard a hard time separating the two realities. The MRI takes a lot out of Jess and Melanie takes her home. Once she gets there she sees her painting and feels compelled to add more details.

Jess will undergo the treatment over the next few days, but will also visit the alternate reality at the same time. But she is also in a fight for her life from the tumor in life and danger in her dreams. In her wakeful life she will continue to add more details and images to her painting as it becomes more important to her to finish.

The Rose Stone is an entertaining book as the story depicts Jess Stone's fight for her life in two realities. I don't usually read sci fi, but I did enjoy this one. It is a real page turner. I was sure I knew how the story was going to end and it took me by surprise, didn't see it coming.

Jessica Stone is an artist that is recently given the news anyone would dread to hear: she has an inoperable brain tumor. Despite the outlook, she is given the chance at a new rare trial treatment that could save her life, but comes with its own challenges as it is incredibly risky. As she goes home to wait the first step in this trial, she is compelled to paint and finds herself painting a glowing red rose. Adding to this bizarre, impulsive need, she finds herself in an unusual, but vivid and lifelike, realm called the Commonwealth of Rose Stone where she is rescued by a charming stranger, Griffin. But this reality is just a hallucination dreamed up by the medication from the MRI, isn't it? Reality becomes hard to separate from this 'hallucination' as she continues to find herself back there time and time again.

The dual perspective of what is happening as she battles for her life to beat the cancer in her normal life and to defeat the evil in The Commonwealth of Rose Stone was wonderful, but I found myself continuously racing through the reality to get back to the fantasy. Each waking moment back on Earth is spent adding the details to the painting, a need to give in to the compulsion and finish it.

There are some characters I wish we could see more of, this book could have easily evolved into a series with all the questions and information I would have liked to seen fleshed out.

I absolutely loved The Rose Stone. The plot was imaginative and entertaining, without being cheesy. It was funny, sarcastic, lighthearted, yet heavy. Suspenseful, thrilling, dramatic, yet sweet. The kingdom was very idyllic with a diverse cultural and racial population which is ""not the typical white-washed fairy tale." However, based on limited descriptions, it is difficult to determine races of all but the main characters Jess and Griffin (both white). The kingdom is beautiful and the talking animals are fun and interesting.

I enjoyed this story has many heroes and I felt empathy for them all. At times, this book made me want to cry with the sacrifices people were willing to make. I did think some of the sci-fi towards the end battle was complicated, but I understood enough of the context for the story.

Overall, this is an excellent happy, but sad story. I am so happy I read it. It has been a while since I 5 starred a book and I think this book deserves every one of them.. Long live Jess, Griffin, and the Rose Stone in my heart.

The Rose Stone is the first book that I have read by L.A. Kelley and it won’t be the last if the others are anything like this one. The Rose Stone is the perfect blend of a sweet fairytale romance, good verses evil, and fantasy all rolled into one amazing story. True love concurs all in this story, even between two worlds. I loved that this story had such a strong heroine figure, who fought with everything she had to save others.
I highly recommend this fantasy fairytale to anyone who likes a good romance with a strong heroine, who saves two worlds with the help of a special band of characters. The Rose Stone was truly unlike anything that I have ever read.

This is a wonderful tale, masterfully told! The premise was electrifying.

Action, adventure, and fantasy wound around Jess and Griffin in a beautiful, supportive romance, begun when both were children, in different realms. The race to kill Jess’s brain tumor and to defeat the darkling choking the life out of the Rose Stone was totally engrossing, and the ending was sublime.

I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to others.

***Thank you NetGalley for sending me this ARC**

I really enjoyed this short and sweet standalone fantasy story. It did hit a little close to home for me with the cancer storyline. But the way it was worked throughout the storyline as the battle she was fighting in her fantasy world was really well done. This definitely isn't a super challenging book as the story keeps itself light-hearted even through the toughest of times. The romance is sweet and only gets the smallest bit steamy. I was worried for a moment that it wouldn't have a HEA, but am happy to say that it does and it is satisfying. This book is great for a fantasy romance lover who wants something they can concur in an afternoon and not have to worry about grabbing the rest of the series later.

The Rose Stone is a fantasy, adventure with a little bit of romance (spice level 0). This story kept me moving through the pages as I was very curious as to where the author was going with the story jumping through worlds. I enjoyed the sass and the array of characters along with the fight for living though a inoperable medical diagnosis.

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