Roseblood Review – Buddy Read with Irena @ Book Dust Magic

About: Roseblood is a fiction novel written by A.G. Howard. It will be published on 1/10/2017 by Amulet Books, 432 pages. The genres are retellings, young adult, fantasy, romance, paranormal, fairy tales, etc. The author has a Splintered series that I was told was worth the read.

My Experience: I started reading Roseblood on 11/17/16 and finished it on 12/2/16. For this book, I was lucky to have read it with the lovely and awesome Irena @ Book Dust Magic! Please click on her blog name to read her review of this book! We both struggle with this book but she has more patience than me because she read the entire book while I skimmed the remaining 25% of the book. This book started out slow following the train of thoughts of Rune. She’s on her way to joining the music school in Paris. There seems to be a lot going on in this book, but it was mostly narrated. There were two story running parallel, one with the original Phantom and the other was of Rune. The first 75% of the book was all suspense and the remaining 25% of the book is the big reveal. I have no patience after pushing myself to read the first 75% of the book that I no longer care for whatever happens in the end. It’s a big loss because the end has all the info I was seeking when I was reading word for word in the beginning.

Buddy Read Questions & Answers:

1) How addicting is the book?

Irena: The books was not addicting. I liked the idea of reading the book more then the book itself. It took me 150 pages just to get into the story, which is too long in my opinion.

Jasmine: This book is not addicting to me. There was hardly anything to grab my attention. At 75% of the book, I no longer care what’s going on and started skimming to the end.

2) Which character do you like?

Irena: I liked Diable the best. He is side character, probably the least important one, but he was the one I liked the most. I also like Thorn when I learned his story.

Jasmine: I like Thorn. His character seems to be the only one that was well developed. I like the story of him when he’s young and how it turned out in the end for him.

3) Did this book meet your expectation?

Irena: Not at all! I expected to fall in love with the story and to have a great time while reading, but instead I got a boring and pretty confusing story. I wonder if the fact that my expectations were so high is the reason why I got disappointed in the end.

Jasmine: No. With so much hype going around this book and especially how gorgeous the cover for this book is, I was hoping the book to be an awesome read, but it was not.

This book has potential to be great. Instead of saving all the actions to the end, all of those could be spread out throughout the book. The friends roles are great and I like how clever Sunny is. I like how reliable Diable is and the Red Swan. I like Thorn (Etalon) and his life story. I like the surprising twists with the violin. I like the ending even though I didn’t read word for word. This book test my patience and I read on longer than expected because of the buddy read. Had I read it on my own, I don’t know if I would reach the end. This is the book where the cover is gorgeous but the story is not.

Pro: 2 POVs, friendship, family, music, retellings, gorgeous cover

Con: lacked actions in the first 75% of the book, too much narrative and not enough conversations, too much info remaining 25% of the book

I rate it 3 stars!

Grab yourself a copy here: Book Depository

***Disclaimer: Many thanks to the author A.G. Howard, publisher Amulet Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review. Thank you! Please be sure that my opinions are honest.

xoxo,
Jasmine