Review: Rose Petal Graves (The Lost Clan #1)

Author: Olivia Wildenstein

Started reading: May 23rd 2022

Finished the book: June 8th 2022

Pages: 368

Genres: YA, Fantasy

Published: March 29th 2017

Source: Netgalley

Goodreads score: 3.75

My score:

Synopsis

I wasn't the type of girl who believed in fairytales, much less tales about faeries, but that changed the day the fae walked into my life.

Staying away from my lakeside hometown was the plan, but Mom died suddenly. Dad said she suffered a stroke after she dug up one of the ancient Native American graves in our backyard. Creepy, I know. Creepier still, there was no corpse inside the old coffin, only fresh rose petals. As we made preparations for her burial, unnervingly odd and beautiful newcomers poured into my small town. A coroner with emerald eyes and black hair, much too young for the job. An arrogant blond socialite, who lived to get under my skin. And a tattooed Native man, who wasn’t supposed to be alive. By dying, my mother had inadvertently revived an age-old feud between the fae and the tribe that hunted them. A feud that was about to tear my world apart.

My thoughts

I've read multiple books by Olivia Wildenstein already and I feel like I always really enjoy them! When I saw this audiobook on Netgalley, I knew that I wanted to listen to it. I just finished listening to the two Quatrefoil Books, which Olivia Wildenstein has written with Katie Hayoz, so I was definitely excited to jump into this series!

Pros

• Excited: You know it's a good book if you're excited to start listening every time you get into the car! I could easily focus as well, which is sometimes a bit of a problem for me when listening to Audiobooks. But I do know, when I CAN focus, the story is fun! I even took my phone out every now and then to listen while doing chores.
• Lot is happening: A lot is happening in this book. Important characters actually DIE. Like wtf are u doing to me?! It takes ballz to kill of LIKED characters. Sometimes I did feel like Catori made certain events feel worse than they would've been to me, but the book is so fast paced that I could easily overlook that small point.
• Loss: Loss is a really big part of this book and I could relate with Catori so well. The way it was described was so spot on that I had a connection with the main character right from the start.

Cons

• Connection: In this book we have some love and romance happening, but I didn't feel the connection at all. I felt more of a connection with other characters. Then there was more romance and other connections and some of the relationships just felt a bit weird. I wasn't convinced all the way. Mabye I have such high hopes, because of other books by Wildenstein. 😉
• Catori: Catori sometimes says really harsh things to loved ones that made me like her a little less. She also has some sort of mood swings, she can exaggerate thing sometimes. So where I did feel a connection, I was also a bit annoyed by her sometimes. Maybe a bit like a younger sister? Lol.

Overall

Wildenstein is so good in writing different ways of magic, fantasy, romance and YA books. I've read (I think) 3 different series by her and its really fun to see how creative she is. I'm definitely going to continue this series. I saw that it's a long one, so as long as there are Audiobooks; I'm in!

Other opinions on this book

"Rose Petal Graves is a story of grief, family, mythical creatures and tremendous power, with at its very core the most haunting love story."

- Astrid Arditi, bestselling author of Olympian Challenger

"Olivia blends romance, mystery, and magic together perfectly! I couldn't put Rose Petal Graves down and I'm currently looking for a house for sale in Rowan."

- G.K. Derosa, bestselling author of Darkblood Academy

Thanks for reading!

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