Book Review: The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith

Official Synopsis: London, 1848—For four hundred years, England has been under the control of an immortal fae queen who tricked her way onto the throne. To maintain an illusion of benevolence, Queen Mor grants each of her subjects one opportunity to bargain for their deepest desire.

As Ivy Benton prepares to make her debut, she knows that not even a deal with the queen could fix what has gone wrong: Her family’s social standing is in shambles, her sister is a shadow of her former self, and Ivy’s marriage prospects are nonexistent. So when the queen announces a competition for Prince Bram’s hand, Ivy is the first to sign her name in blood. What a bargain can’t fix, a crown certainly could.

Ivy soon finds herself a surprising front-runner—with the help of an unexpected ally: Prince Bram’s brother, the rakish Prince Emmett, who promises to help Ivy win his brother’s heart…for a price. But as the season sweeps Ivy away, with glittering balls veiling the queen’s increasingly vicious trials, Ivy realizes there’s more at stake than just a wedding. Because all faerie bargains come with a cost, and Ivy may have discovered hers too late.

If this blog reads like a fever dream, it is probably because I do actually have a fever but wanted to make sure ya'll heard about this book.

The Rose Bargain follows Ivy as she enters a competition to marry Prince Bram, who is the immortal son of the immortal fae queen who has been ruling over England for 400 years. Ivy wants answers about what happened to her sister, who disappeared for weeks and came back as a shell of herself. Her sister's disappearance also left a mark on the family, leaving them on the outside of society and struggling to keep going in their current conditions. This marriage could change everything. Every season, the girl's get a bargain with the queen, though they always lose something in return. Ivy hopes she can get the queen to tell her what her sister's bargain was, but instead she ends up never making a bargain and instead signing a contract with blood to enter a competition for Bram's hand.

What Ivy doesn't expect is to be picked by the prince's brother, Emmett, to be the front runner in the competition and potential help him take down the queen for good. The problem is the challenges become more and more sinister, and neither of the boys know about it. Queen Mor continues to push each of the girls to their limit, breaking their spirit and also physically harming them at times. When the girls decide to stand against the queen, everything gets worse for all of them. Now Ivy is fighting to remain on top while also realizing her feelings might not be for the prince at all, but his brother instead.

This book is a fun combination of Cruel Prince and The Selection, and I really enjoyed that it had the fae's being monsters at times. I really like that this book was a historical retelling, having Queen Mor take over after the War of the Roses. I really enjoyed how Ivy moves through this world, but at times did find her way of seeing things a little grating. She definitely misses some obvious signs of things at times, but to be fair there is a lot going on around her and she is trying to make sure her family isn't striped of their titles and land. I really enjoyed both Emmett and Bram and the different things they bring to the story. One thing that I did really enjoy was the last like 80-100 pages of the book. The plot twist was so good and I really enjoyed how it lead into the second book of the duology.

I rated this book 4 /5 stars!

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