I cannot remember the last time I needed to write a review and have stared this long and hard at a blinking cursor, both wonderfully devastated and utterly beguiled.
As readers we all have favourite authors, favourite tropes and favourite storylines. Some books break those preferences we have and remake them and then remake us. I walked into Rose in Chains with a clear expectation of how I wished for it to go, from my past experiences with similarly themed stories. About 5% in, I knew this book was not going to go in the direction that I had anticipated and I suddenly had a thought: “What if I held on to my expectations, anyway? Will I still enjoy the book?”
It was a risky experiment to have chosen to pursue, as most books end up being quite the disappointment when they don’t meet a reader’s pre-existing expectations of them. For the first time in my life, I held back against trusting the author and going with the flow of the book. And for the first time in my life, I was so so grateful the author did not go in the direction I had anticipated or hoped to see her explore. For if she had, I would not have experienced Rose in Chains as the emotionally shattering experience that it was.
Julie Soto has chosen to take the road less travelled with the plot in this book. Stepping into Rose in Chains with the idea that this story is about a boy saving a girl and a girl saving him right back would be a grave mistake on the reader’s part. This book is about a girl’s world being ripped out from under her and her slow, painful and dangerous climb back to her feet. This book has the strength to make and unmake your thoughts by twisting your understanding and breaking and mending your heart several times over.
The narration in Rose in Chains follows an unpredictable non-linear storytelling pattern. In my experience, these are tricky to position in a book because they can sometimes take away from the pace of the current timeline. However Soto has truly outdone herself, weaving what can sometimes feel like two different melodies side by side before they merge into one ringing tone, that resonates long after the last page is turned.
The simplest way to have readers enjoy a book is to make them feel for the characters. Soto mercilessly takes us on a journey that makes us feel a multitude of emotions for nearly every single character—including the FMC, Briony, herself. Two of my own personal favourite experiences while reading was, one, how Soto has written characters who can incite many contradictory emotions as more of their motivations begin to emerge and two, how even tertiary characters that appear for as little as three scenes have a lasting impact on the plot, world building and emotions of the characters in the book and the reader’s mind.
The worldbuilding in this story is threaded through, with the finest needle, into every single word from the very first page. The narration and story telling style only further support it, with the FMC and the readers being kept in the dark about many aspects of the story and unveiling truths together. Initially, there is a large influx of character names and the author does a subtle call-out of it, that as a reader can make you feel more confident of not recognising and remembering everyone in the moment. However, with time, Soto narrows down the world to a few known characters before slowly expanding it once more, giving the readers a great deal of time to acclimatise and be ready for any new information that is introduced. This, added to the non-linear narration, fills in all the gaps that any reader could have.
Soto’s writing is the heart of Rose in Chains. While reading a book, to live through the eyes of a character is quite different from living as a character themselves and Soto ensures you’re so comfortable with her world, that many moments of the story you feel, grieve and arrive at conclusions with the protagonist. Soto’s writing is what ensures that no matter what notions, expectations, feelings a reader walks into Rose in Chains with, they will certainly leave devastated and shaken in ways that they had not prepared for. Perhaps, I recommend walking in with doubts because the journey you then take through Soto’s book—where you come to trust and fall in love with her work—was what made this book mean more to me than anything else.
The pace in this book was wonderfully even. The transition of events between timelines and within each timeline was done with great care and thought and it comes through to the reader throughout. Nothing is rushed, nothing is left hanging, except perhaps the reader’s jaw.
I cannot imagine waiting another day for the next book, much less a year. This is the closest I have ever come to wishing I had not read this book early, for that means the longer the wait to reading the next one.
Rose in Chains by Julie Soto is a 10 on 10 for me. Thank you for writing Soto, I cannot wait for every single book you’re going to publish in the future.
Rose in Chains is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of July 8th 2025.
Will you be picking up Rose in Chains? Have you already? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
USA Today bestselling author Julie Soto crafts a lush romantic fantasy that’s filled with intrigue, magic, and an irresistible enemies-to-lovers romance.
The war is over, the dark forces have won, and the hero who was supposed to save them is dead.
Captured as her castle is overrun by the enemy, the world as Briony Rosewood knows it is changed forever. Evil has won, and her people face imminent servitude, imprisonment, or death.
Stripped of her Magic and her freedom, Briony and the other survivors are quickly sold off to the highest bidders in an auction—and as Evermore’s princess, she fetches the highest price. After a fierce bidding war, she’s sold to none other than Toven Hearst, scion of a family known for their cruelty.
Yet despite the horrors of her new world and the role she must learn to play within it, all is not lost. Help—and hope—may yet arise in the most unlikely of places…
