About the Book:Title: Wolves & Roses (Fairy Tales of the Magicorum #1)
Author: Christina Bauer
Published by: Monster House Books
Publication date: October 31st 2017
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult
Synopsis:
“If Janet Evanovich teamed with a young adult, fairy-tale author like Marissa Meyer (the Lunar Chronicles) or Alex Flinn (Beastly), the result might be something like Christina Bauer’s Wolves and Roses.” –Blue Ink ReviewSeventeen-year-old Bryar Rose has a problem. She’s descended from one of the three magical races—shifters, fairies, or witches. That makes her one of the Magicorum, and Magicorum always follow a fairy tale life template. In Bryar’s case, that template should be Sleeping Beauty.
“Should” being the key word.Trouble is, Bryar is nowhere near the sleeping beauty life template. Not even close. She doesn’t like birds or woodland creatures. She can’t sing. And she certainly can’t stand Prince Philpot, the so-called “His Highness of Hedge Funds” that her aunties want her to marry. Even worse, Bryar’s having recurring dreams of a bad boy hottie and is obsessed with finding papyri from ancient Egypt. What’s up with that?
All Bryar wants is to attend a regular high school with normal humans and forget all about shifters, fairies, witches, and the curse that Colonel Mallory the Magnificent placed on her. And she might be able to do just that–if only she can just keep her head down until her eighteenth birthday when the spell that’s ruined her life goes buh-bye.
But that plan gets turned upside down when Bryar Rose meets Knox, the bad boy who’s literally from her dreams. Knox is a powerful werewolf, and his presence in her life changes everything, and not just because he makes her knees turn into Jell-O. If Bryar can’t figure out who—or what—she really is, it might cost both her and Knox their lives… as well as jeopardize the very nature of magic itself.
FAIRY TALES OF THE MAGICORUM
1. Wolves And Roses (Fall 2017)
1.5. Moonlight And Midtown (Spring 2018)
2. Shifters And Glyphs (Fall 2018)
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Author Bio:Christina Bauer knows how to tell stories about kick-ass women. In her best selling Angelbound series, the heroine is a part-demon girl who loves to fight in Purgatory’s Arena and falls in love with a part-angel prince. This young adult best seller has driven more than 500,000 ebook downloads and 9,000 reviews on Goodreads and retailers.Bauer has also told the story of the Women’s March on Washington by leading PR efforts for the Massachusetts Chapter. Her pre-event press release—the only one sent out on a major wire service—resulted in more than 19,000 global impressions and redistribution by over 350 different media entities including the Associated Press. Christina graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School with BA’s in English along with Television, Radio, and Film Production. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband, son, and semi-insane golden retriever, Ruby.
Review:
I was excited to begin reading this story from Christina Bauer after reading the synopsis. I'm a big fan of paranormal romance, plus this seemed like it offered a unique twist on fairytales. While I did like it for the most part, there were a couple things that fell a little flat for me, which meant I couldn't give the book a higher rating. Regardless of these problems, I still greatly enjoyed the story and am looking forward to reading the next in the series!
Wolves and Roses is set in a world similar to our own where the Magicorum (aka magical beings) live alongside humans. We are quickly introduced to Bryar Rose who is not your average princess. She has no desire to fulfill her "template" of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale, including a marriage to Prince Philpot at the ripe old age of 18. I honestly loved Bryar Rose as the MC. She was independent, fierce, and fiery. She certainly could handle herself and wanted to be free to make her own decisions. Bryar Rose was definitely a standout amongst the other cast of characters (even for her wit alone!), but I enjoyed the other characters as well. They were all very likable and fun to read about.
The story itself is very fast-paced with a lot of twist and turns that I didn't fully see coming. Sure, I was able to figure some stuff out, but not everything. Everything is more or less wrapped up in the end, so there isn't a cliffhanger, but there are still plenty of questions for future books to explore. For the most part, the world-building was excellent...but this is also where my first problem arose. When we first start the story (and even in the synopsis), there is mention of how the Magicorum live their lives according to "templates" modeled on different fairytales. The problem is that it's never really explained why this is a thing or what happens if they don't actually fulfill there "template." This is something that was bothering me throughout the story and I wanted to know more about! The only other information we get about the "templates" is in regards to shifters: if they do not let their inner animal transform before their 18th birthday, the animal will die. We don't however, learn about what happens to any other magical beings. For now, I'm just kind of assuming that nothing happens to other Magicorum, but maybe this idea will be explored and further explained in future books.
Another small problem I had was that there are certain things in the book that are told to the reader repeatedly (e.g. the inner animal of shifters dying). I know it's important to repeat certain things in a story, but it just became a little too much repetition after awhile. Finally, I did feel like the story slowed down in the end. This was only because the main battle took place over 50 pages before the actual end of the book. With everything being so fast-paced in the story prior to this, I felt like the pace lost its momentum a bit after that final battle. I don't have any problem with how the book ended though because Ms. Bauer did wrap things up very nicely. I just wish things didn't slow down as much as they did.
All in all, I really enjoyed Wolves and Roses and would recommend checking it out when you get the chance! It's a fun and unique story with a couple flaws that could be fixed in the next book. I am excited to see where this story goes and what is in store for these characters next!
Wolves and Roses is set in a world similar to our own where the Magicorum (aka magical beings) live alongside humans. We are quickly introduced to Bryar Rose who is not your average princess. She has no desire to fulfill her "template" of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale, including a marriage to Prince Philpot at the ripe old age of 18. I honestly loved Bryar Rose as the MC. She was independent, fierce, and fiery. She certainly could handle herself and wanted to be free to make her own decisions. Bryar Rose was definitely a standout amongst the other cast of characters (even for her wit alone!), but I enjoyed the other characters as well. They were all very likable and fun to read about.
The story itself is very fast-paced with a lot of twist and turns that I didn't fully see coming. Sure, I was able to figure some stuff out, but not everything. Everything is more or less wrapped up in the end, so there isn't a cliffhanger, but there are still plenty of questions for future books to explore. For the most part, the world-building was excellent...but this is also where my first problem arose. When we first start the story (and even in the synopsis), there is mention of how the Magicorum live their lives according to "templates" modeled on different fairytales. The problem is that it's never really explained why this is a thing or what happens if they don't actually fulfill there "template." This is something that was bothering me throughout the story and I wanted to know more about! The only other information we get about the "templates" is in regards to shifters: if they do not let their inner animal transform before their 18th birthday, the animal will die. We don't however, learn about what happens to any other magical beings. For now, I'm just kind of assuming that nothing happens to other Magicorum, but maybe this idea will be explored and further explained in future books.
Another small problem I had was that there are certain things in the book that are told to the reader repeatedly (e.g. the inner animal of shifters dying). I know it's important to repeat certain things in a story, but it just became a little too much repetition after awhile. Finally, I did feel like the story slowed down in the end. This was only because the main battle took place over 50 pages before the actual end of the book. With everything being so fast-paced in the story prior to this, I felt like the pace lost its momentum a bit after that final battle. I don't have any problem with how the book ended though because Ms. Bauer did wrap things up very nicely. I just wish things didn't slow down as much as they did.
All in all, I really enjoyed Wolves and Roses and would recommend checking it out when you get the chance! It's a fun and unique story with a couple flaws that could be fixed in the next book. I am excited to see where this story goes and what is in store for these characters next!
Happy reading and HAPPY HALLOWEEN 💀💀💀
GIVEAWAY!
~Cassie
Thanks for being on the tour! Great review! :)
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