Take Advantage Of The Rose Master Written And Illustrated By Valentina Cano Published As Pamphlet

ARC
The writings below are my opinions, you may let it influence you or you may not,


THE THREE R'S

REVIEW
Upon seeing the cover doesn't it just have that creepy Poe feeling I knew I would either love this book or hate it.
I had such high expectation that if it disappointed I would be so pissed and overwhelmed

with negative feelings,

Good news: this book was fantastic,

Bad news: After I finished reading, I kept hoping some news of a sequel hint, hint would pop up and it made me tear up that there wasn't.
I want more!

Three things I'll touch on: characters, plot and romance,


The characters:
Anne, the narrator, is a levelheaded, courageous young woman.
She's a gogetter. She sees a problem and starts figuring out ways to solve them, As the book progresses, she has to untangle herself from the chains of societal expectations and rigidity to bloom I couldn't resist into who she wants to be.
She has to learn to embrace her gifts and, thereby, accept herself, Halfway through this book I would have ran away but she sticks with it, running towards the problem and, ultimately, love,

August: giggles August, He posses one of my favorite names, I love saying it: August, August, August, What can I say about him He makes me dissolve into a pile of giggles, A smart, charismatic and sarcastic young man, August is molded by tragedy and, unfortunately, is in way over his heads as he attempts to protect his servants.
His past and current experiences has left him heartbroken, hiding his caring nature under a cold facade,

The plot:
REUTS describes this as "Jane Eyre meets Beauty and the Beast, " Now, I can't attest to the Jane Eyre part having no memory of reading it but it does have that Beauty and the Beast je ne sais quoi: there's roses, secluded house, magic and an owner who is more than he seems.


The story moves along at a steady pace, fast but not breakneck, If, like me, you figure out who the bad guy was a third of the way through, it still makes for an interesting read, Even though the subject of tragedy is an overarching one, the overall book is not deary, There's a ray of hope throughout the book, You know Anne and August will persevere but there's still that element of uncertainty that they will not,

The romance:
I melted, Because Anne is so levelheaded, it takes her a while to realize her growing feelings for August, Meanwhile, I was a puddle of feelings, These two were perfect together: a blend of sarcasm, loyalty and mirth,

Conclusion:
What do I have to do to get a sequel
Organize a protest Get signatures Make a lifesize model of August One of Anne Raise a wraith
Because I will!

RATING
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RECOMMEND
yes, Why aren't you reading yet Lovely prose, and an intriguing storyline that mixes Gothic with Horror and Suspense, all deftly handled, At least until the ending, which shouldn't have been so underdeveloped and abrupt, The story would do better as a single book as well instead of stretching it out,

The premise doesn't follow the traditional BampB plot, but the curse placed on Lord Grey does adhere in general to the spirit of the curse in the fairy tale, which I appreciate because there's many retellings that adhere to the plot but not to the metaphors contained in the curse and redemption.
Also, Anne is a very welldone character that will likely remind you a bit of Jane Eyre and the romance is very understated and slowmoving, more credible to the setting and situations she and Lord Grey are in.
This book has everything I've been hungry for in a read lately: gothic setting, dark magic, a wellwritten heroine, and a subtle but genuine romance, I'm a huge fan of Austen and the Brontes, and THE ROSE MASTER has the same feel, plus all of the supernatural elements I could hope for.
The mystery kept me guessing all the way up til the end I finished the last half of the book all in one sitting because I couldn't put it down.


I look forward to reading more from Cano, hopefully continuing the adventures of Anne and Lord Grey! This review and many others can be found on my blog sitelinkFeed Your Fiction Addiction

The Rose Master was kind of an interesting mix of Downton Abbey meets Supernatural.
Anne is a servant at a large manor the manor is the only home she's ever known, since her mother was a servant there before she died when Anne was only seven.
But when the lady of the house informs Anne that she's being sent off to live in a strange new place with a new master, she has no say in the matter.
She is forced to leave everything she knows, She soon finds that her new home is more than a little strange, Not only do very few servants work there, allowing the manor to fall into disrepair, but she discovers that something else is in the manor something that means her and the others living there harm.
When she grows closer to Lord Grey, she learns that the thing in the manor is very real and very dangerous,

What I loved:

The creepiness,
There were lots of scary elements to this story things that go bump in the night, birds that fall out of the sky, things scratching at the door, unseen violence that happens in the night I could go on and on.
I don't get terribly scared when reading books for some reason, so I wasn't as freaked out as I could have been, but when I think about this book as a horror movie, it makes me shudder!

Anne and Lord Grey.

I loved the slowburning relationship that developed between Anne and Lord Grey, At first, Lord Grey is just a sort of creepy presence on the estate to go along with other even creepier things, but Anne eventually starts to get to know him and we see an interesting, tentative relationship form between these two.
There are plenty of barriers between them, though, The romance element of the book was actually relatively minor compared to the supernatural storyline, but I really enjoyed it,

The paranormal storyline,
Once we find out what is really going on in the manor, things really start to heat up! I loved the paranormal aspect of the book!

The negatives:

Slightly slow in middle.

While I did really enjoy this book, there was a portion in the middle after Anne had started discovering the creepy stuff about the manor and before she started really interacting with Lord
Grey that felt a little bit slow to me.
I liked the scary elements, but horror isn't my favorite genre I like it, but don't love it, so I was a little anxious to get to the meat of the story.
That's just me, though.

Overall, I thought that The Rose Master was a great mix of YA historical, paranormal and horror, The ending gave us closure, but certainly left room for future installments of a series Goodreads doesn't show this as being part of the series, but I assume that there will be more books.
I give this book/stars,

Disclosure: This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review, No other compensation was given, All opinions are my own The setting, the idea, and the magic of this story had me involved from the beginning, I love evil lurking in the shadows!
I didn't connect deeply with the characters, but I did really enjoy the dark, creepy feel that stroked the pages.
So many times I wanted to roll around in the beautifully written words,
I hear there might be a second book, . . bring it on! Opening line: "The day I turned seventeen, birds fell from the sky, "

Summary: This is a new twist on the story of Beauty and the Beast, It Anne as a maid working for a family when suddenly she gets shipped off to a relatives house that is in need of her, She travels to this grand house in the middle of nowhere and has onlyservants living there, This was not what Anne had in mind, She is curious about its master and tries to do her duty by cleaning and trying to find answers, The house feels alive and only when she meets its master, August that she begins to unravel the truth about what lurks in the dark but also her own special powers.


My Take: I love anything to do with Beauty and the Beast, It's my favorite Disney princess and I love reading retellings so when this popped up I had to read it! It's unique, . . a new twist that was needed in the retelling, Anne is a brave but sometimes annoying young girl but she fights for the ones she cares about, August is aloof but is likeable, He is witty and made me laugh a couple of times throughout the book, The magic in the book can be a little confusing, I had to reread some sections to fully understand, I also thought the ending was a little too quick, It had built up all of this tension only for it to go "poof" instead of a "BANG",

Highs: Anne was a great heroine though sometimes a little dimwitted but you could relate to her really well,

Lows: The magic could be explained a little more and the ending,

Closing line: "For a new beginning, For a new life. " This was great fun and beautifully written, The prose is clean and pure, Cano is a poet and it is evident in her language and imagery,

It started out slow and I put it down for a day, There was a lot of Anne cleaning and dusting and sweeping and scrubbing, But it called to me and I quickly picked it back up, I'm glad I did. Once Master Grey appeared it started to take off and then pulled me into a mysterious world of magic that built in intensity until the end,

This is Jane Eyre and Beauty and the Beast! Cano interweaves elements of both stories beautifully, Her descriptions of power and magic are surprising and adept, She describes emotion expertly but hasn't yet mastered the skill of evoking it, This is her first novel though and I have great confidence in her talent and future progress as a writer, I will definitely read the next book she writes, I have such high expectations for this book however it did not reach it, : the story was great in general but I did not enjoy the writing style :,/stars
“On the halffrozen pane were dozens of moths, their muslin wings extended in paused flight, their impassive faces staring at me, Id never seen so many before, their spun sugar bodies covering every inch of the glass, ”

My review:
This was such a deliciously creepy little story, Atpages, I flew through the entire book in the matter of a day, At the end I was definitely left wanting more not because the story came to a poor conclusion, but because I wanted to read more about the characters and plot that had so intrigued me.


The reason I enjoyed this book the most was the writing it was absolutely lyrical, There were many times that I stopped to reread a description so that I could hang onto the beautiful words for just a moment longer,

“And then, there were the roses, Theres never been a more appropriate name for a place than the name which crowned that manor, On either side, almost leading us, were rose bushes, their red flowers pooling petals on the snow like drops of blood, ”

The poetic writing drew me, I believed the creepiness of the story, the fantastical elements, and the characters struggles all because of the writing, I feel that if another person had wrote this novel, that my buyin would not have been as great, Something that could have easily gone in the wrong direction was steered down an utterly perfect course because of the author, I cant tell you how many times Ive read a spooky book that wasnt spooky, UGH.

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Another reason I really enjoyed this book was the time period in which it took place, I have this thing for books that have to do with maids, old houses, etc, This book took those things and combined it with a creepy plot, I was basically on cloud nine,

This book was reminiscent of several others Ive read, but in the best possible way, Lord Grey, a main character in the story, reminds me of Anluan from Hearts Blood, They both share the same sort of mysterious brooding characteristics that I happen to love, The relationship reminds me faintly of that in The Paper Magician A teacher teaching his student the ways of magic .
Lastly, there was the creepy old home element that is present in so many amazing stories Ive read, It was enjoyable to see so many different elements Ive liked in other books come together as one,

Overall: This was a thoroughly enjoyable and quick read, I feel as if there is still more of this story to be told Lily is still alive, so who knows what she will concoct next! .
I would definitely be interested in reading a second book with the same characters,

P. S. I could absolutely see this book as a movie, I would be first in line to see it, so make way folks,

On the opposite side, next to a grouping of yet more skeletal trees, was the outline of a man, He turned in my direction and held my gaze through the dimming, bland light, I blinked, and he was gone,
.