An interesting re-telling of the "Phantom of the Opera."  I think it's a great introduction for teens, one that will not only make the original story more accessible but also keep them entertained.  I look forward to adding it to the collection!

It makes me sad to say that I didn't enjoy this book. I gave it my best shot, but by 40% I had to admit I wasn't interested in the story. The writing was fine, if a little flowery, but the pacing is what killed things for me. Nothing had really happened. And I just didn't want to continue when in all possibility, nothing would until the very end. 

This was a most anticipated read, so it hurts to even send this. Thank you for the chance to read!

DNF. While I loved AG Howard's past Splintetered series, Roseblood fell short. Unfortunately, after reading 40 percent of the novel I gave up. Why? Too slow, while I was interested in the idea and concept of the book, it simply wasn't enough to keep me reading. Nothing was happening and that was a major disappointment. The characters seemed like they had lots of potential and I'm giving the novel a plus for such a brilliant and unique retelling story, especially in YA, but it was simply just to slow and at 40 percent I was unwilling to continue reading.

As a huge fan of Phantom of the Opera, I enjoyed RoseBlood so much. I really loved the story. It was such a unique twist on the original story by Gaston Leroux. I basically never wanted the story to end.

 I don't want to give too much away from this book but I can't press enough how orginal this story was. There are elements from the original Phantom of the Opera, of course, but A.G. Howard definitely made it her own, with a twist. There was something rather dreamlike about this book, I couldn't help but being hooked by Rune and Thorn's story.

RoseBlood is written in both Rune and Thorn's point of view. I loved the chapters of Thorn the most because him and the Phantom and the connection to Rune and what they are was wrapped in a lot of mystery and intrigue, which is something I love.

The romance almost ended me, especially at the end when I didn't think things would end well at all. I'm glad the author didn't decide to go with a love triangle like in Leroux's version with Raoul/Christine/Erik. It was perfect as it was between Thorn and Rune. So many feels!

As much as I loved Rune and especially Thorn, I've got to say that my favorite character was Diable, the cat. I seriously adored him. He'd probably hate being adored but I couldn't help it.

The setting of this story was also really great. I could almost picture RoseBlood with its dark atmosphere, all the mystery. This book had swoonworthy romance, a lot of twists and the writing... Oh my gosh, the writing! It was so freaking gorgeous. RoseBlood is yet another favorite book of mine by A.G. Howard.

I love the phantom of the opera and I knew I would like this book as well. I will be purchasing a few copies for my class! I know my students will be excited. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this amazing book.

Like many others, I was absolutely stoked for this book. Unfortunately, I found myself somewhat disappointed by A.G. Howard’s latest retelling, ROSEBLOOD. The Phantom of the Opera is a favorite story of mine but this version was filled with cliches. It had big plans plans but a not-so-great execution.

We are immediately introduced to the heroine, Rune, who is being sent off to a boarding school in France (which would be a dream for some of us) that has ties to the Gaston Leroux novel (which is already kind of meta) but of course doesn’t want to be there (which is a similar plot to many other YA books). We also learn she has a special power that makes her stand out and be disliked by the other characters e.g. the “mean girls.”

On the first day before she even gets out of the car on the way there, she sees a mysterious man that she is automatically intrigued by. Of course, this will be the love interest that the rest of the story pretty much revolves around and it can pretty much be defined as insta-love, but don’t worry – it’s justified because these two are soulmates that have been dreaming out each other for their entire lives.

From there, it just gets sort of … odd. The explanations for everything that is going on with Rune and behind the scenes with the other characters are fairly farfetched. At that point, getting through the rest of the book was a serious challenge, which is sad considering how much I adored the author’s other series SPLINTERED.

This was utterly boring. I could not connect to the characters or their motivations or the love interest or anything with this story. I have to stop reading at about 50% So I will not go much into detail but this is my 4th AG Howard book and I feel like she is trying to create these beautiful and whimsical stories but they always miss the mark unfortunately.

"I need to know why I’m so broken, so I can fix myself. One way or another. Maybe this place can help me do that, and then I can finally look forward to my future. Because I’m starting to realize there’s something worse than stepping up and facing your fears – and that’s living as if you’re already dead."

RoseBlood is a modern day spin on Leroux’s gothic tale, The Phantom of the Opera. In this YA retelling, Rune Germain is a girl with a peculiar operatic talent. In the most unexpected moments, Rune will burst into song if she hears music that speaks to her. And, unfortunately, this all consuming musical flair has also lead to some tragic events. Rune’s mother decides to enroll Rune at RoseBlood, an elite French arts conservatory that is the very opera house rumored to have ties to the original classic, in hopes that Rune will tame this musical blessing/curse. There she secretly befriends the masked Thorn, a mysterious violinist who lurks in the school’s shadows and helps guide her musical transformation but with a dark, ulterior motive. The two will uncover that they have an otherworldly, soul-deep connection, and Thorn is forced to make a deadly choice: lead Rune to her destruction, or face the wrath of the only father he’s known, the phantom who has haunted the opera house for a century.


"This place isn’t just an opera house, it’s an opera: unrequited love, jealous rivals, eccentric personalities, stalkers, sabotage, and vandalism. And last but not least: mortals pitted against monsters."

I actually liked RoseBlood a lot, but my biggest problem was that I wasn’t able to come to this conclusion until I was well past the 70% mark. In other words, RoseBlood starts off as an extremely underwhelming, lackluster read and it doesn’t pick up until the last quarter of the book, which is really too late to salvage much of the readers’ interest.

I guess it’s fortunate that I am a fan of The Phantom of the Opera, the musical and film then. (I’ve never read the original book by Leroux though.) Because that was the only motivation I had to patiently pioneer and see this retelling through the end. But, like I said, there was plenty I did enjoy once I was able to get past the initial snail pacing and the other reservations I harbored.

“Guard your throats and hide your eyes. He’s not dead, you fools. Legends never die.”

This book was dark, creepy, grotesque, and very strange. And, to my surprise, many of the creative twists actually did work for me. As I read RoseBlood, I did indeed see why this was advertised as a The Phantom of the Opera inspired story, but it could have perhaps passed as an YA quasi sequel even. Of course, not as a sequel because it rivals the epicness of a classic but because it certainly gives off “Erik’s life after The Phantom of the Opera” vibes.

“Embrace your revulsion,” Father Erik’s resonant, masterful command had cradled Thorn in softness that day, quieting the buzz in his throbbing ear. “But never pity me. Never. For pity makes us both victims. Be true to your instinctive horror. Turn it outward and wield it.”

It was interesting how Howard managed to use Erik’s presence in the original story and history to mold him to the character he is with this book. The Phantom is still illustrated as a tormented genius that is blindly lovesick and obsessed.

As for the other characters, I found most of them to be totally bland; I didn’t feel much of anything towards them. (You know it’s bad when my favorite character is a cat that roams a haunted school. Diable is a cute furball though.) Rune isn’t a complex protagonist and her affliction towards her musical talent is solved rather quickly when Thorn comes into the picture.

“Today, you become someone new. From this moment on, you belong to the underworld, from which you were born. You are something monstrous, but beautiful. Something fierce, yet fragile. You are Thorn. The part of the rose that is unloved . . . that everyone fears for its ability to bring a soul to bleed. That was your gift, and shall now be your identity, to honor what was taken from you by vile and treacherous men. It is a falsity, that monsters are the instigators of all the evil in the world. Our kind is capable of acceptance and mercy where mankind is not. For we see beyond the surface, as we live beneath it.”

However, with Thorn, unlike Rune, I found his character intriguing. Or more specifically, his past fascinating. Getting to know Thorn and learning his backstory with his childhood and mother and then his relationship with the Phantom were probably my favorite parts of this novel. There’s a strain in Thorn and the Phantom’s father-son relationship, for sure, but I liked how that dynamic was explored.

The romance, however, took some convincing because there’s some weird instalove situation going on. In addition, I initially found Thorn’s infatuation with Rune uber creepy because he’s basically a random guy that is skulking in the shadows and keeping tabs on her. Alarms blaring “stalker” were going off in my head. But once I was on board (much, much later in the reading journey for particular reasons), I did find Rune and Thorn’s attraction to be quite romantic.

I also really liked that this was set in Paris, but like Romancing in the Dark in the City of Light the descriptions showcased the more grungier sides of the beautiful, romantic city.

But then there were also moments that I wasn’t so impressed by.

“I’m Sunflower Summers. But you can call me Sunny.”

I was especially annoyed by how the only supporting character I liked was portrayed. Of the side cast, I was the most fond of Sunny because she may have been the only one that had a personality. (And her name? Cool beans.) Her character isn’t layered either but she’s crazy and different. She also hails from the south which is where I’ve grown up all my life. What I didn’t like was that it didn’t end with her just having a southern drawl. Was it necessary that the dialogue included “ain’t”s? I don’t know this irked me more than it should but that’s so stereotypical. I’m from South Carolina (where pretty much the entire state loves sweet tea and pecan pie), but I, in truth, think I’ve made it a point in my life to never say “ain’t” and “y’all” and those around me don’t say these contractions (especially the former) at all really.

"…I realized why I was enchanted by the spider’s feeding rituals, that there was something in my gypsy blood-something tainted and wrong… just as Grandma said."

I’m not sure if you guys noticed but something is very wrong here (with this quote). In Roseblood there are uses of a racial slur: gypsy. I don’t know why Howard didn’t just call them Romani? And, honestly, the fact that the term is used negatively and repetitively in the story was absolutely unnecessary.

Another jarring flaw I could not ignore was how extremely easy it was for readers to catch on to Erik’s secret and where the plot was heading. Hmm. Like, what paranormal creature stalks the night and feeds off of human energy? Oh and sleeps in coffins? That’s familiar. Even though I can see how this made things convenient for the author in terms of explaining why the Phantom is  immortal… And as many of you know, it’s not that I don’t like books with vampires but I had hoped Howard would chose another and more imaginative solution to get around that that age loophole. It was just so obvious and, in turn, it made the plot very predictable.

To tie this review up, I’d say the positives of RoseBlood lied in the last quarter (where Thorn’s past is revealed, there is a bulk of music involved, and the otherworldly romance unfolds). I would give the creativity of recreating a beloved classic a 3/5 in execution because overall it was acceptable to me. (There were instances in which I did roll my eyes at though. Like a vampire rave? Really?) But aside from these elements, this was more disappointing than impressing. And it’s truly a bummer that RoseBlood couldn’t capture the readers’ interest sooner. Unless you’re a fan of The Phantom of the Opera, I would encourage you to give this a pass. There are few things this book has going for it beside its stunning cover.

---

Quotes were taken from an uncorrected advance readers copy.

---

Thank you Amulet Books for the opportunity to read and review RoseBlood. In no way did this affect my reading experience and honest review.

I received a review copy in exchange with an honest review.

The writing style in this book will enchant you with its hypnotizing symphony.

I am a huge fan of the Splintered book ( Yes, I know that Splintered is actually a book series, but bookstores over here only have Splintered. No,don’t suggest pirating the book online!) I was mesmerized by Howard’s writing Style; as well as, her cleverly spun twists on the classic Tale. With Roseblood, I can easily say that she absolutely delivered.

This is a retelling of Leroux’s gothic tale of The Phantom of the Opera. Rune Germain is 17 years old girl who is having has a mysterious dilemma  linked to her operatic talent, and a horrifying mistake she’s trying to hide and understand. Her mother sends her to a French arts  for her senior year to give Rune’s talent clear direction. This school is located in an opera house rumored to have ties to The Phantom of the Opera!

“One paragraph is all I needed to fall in love with this story !!!”

I am not even exaggerating! The descriptions that build this book are absolutely phenomenal. The words are intoxicatingly lyrical and luscious, with a spoonful of Goth beautifully spilled in. This makes it one of the best lyrical, twisted tales that I have ever read.

The beginning of the story is bit slow, true. But you have these pretty words to hang on until all of the oohs and Ahhs kick in.

Every single aspect of the main characters, as well as the plot, is well fleshed out, making every single back story worth the wait.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but let us just say that  A.G. Howard will manipulate your mood’s auras to every single color known to mankind.

GO GRAB THIS BOOK ALREADY, K?????

Can’t wait to read more A.G. Howard haunting stories. I give it 4.5/5 stars.

Rune Germain has a gift of a beautiful, powerful singing voice but it's only a curse, leaving her feeling sick and faint after every performance. Rune is sent to Roseblood, a special school dedicated to the art of opera, in Paris, France, which has a link to the legendary Phantom of the Opera. Rune becomes obsessed with the legend, convinced she is seeing and hearing her very own phantom. 

I quite enjoyed this. It took me a while to get properly stuck into the book and its story but I think that was just because of me and not necessarily anything wrong with the book. I don't much about the Phantom of the Opera. I haven't read the book, and I've only ever seen snippets of the movie but I think I knew enough to really enjoy this book and how AG Howard made it her own. 

First off, I loved the setting - not only Paris but the whole setup of Roseblood. The idea of this huge, kind of creepy school seeped in opera is literally something you'd only find in a story and the images i had of it in my mind were great. The stage, the classes and its weird teachers, the taxidermy, the dark, candle-lit canteen. I just really loved it. I really think that AG Howard did a fantastic job wrapping the reader into the story through all these elements, from the school, the underground caverns, the garden. She took a lot of what is famous about the phantom and placed them into a different setting, twisting them so the story became original and able to stand on its own.

The mystery behind Rune and her voice was pretty great once I understood it. I did feel it took a bit too much time, and I got frustrated being left in the dark and hearing cryptic comments between Thorn and Erik but once I found out, everything made sense then. Rune and Thorn's relationship had some problems for me, more so that there was a bit of insta-love (I know, I know, twin flame and all that but still!). Rune seemed to fall for Thorn so easily and I feel like they didn't have that much conversation before literally bonding to each other forever (!!). However, despite all that, it was very easy to get swept into their relationship and their love for one another. This book is written in a very poetic way and some of the writing is very flowery and I think that helped the over the top relationship between Thorn and Rune.

I think everything wrapped up very neatly and the way it was wrapped up (with Rune going person to person to update the reader on each individual) reminded me of how a movie wraps up. It was a little bit too neat but for the type of story it was, I didn't mind it too much.

In summary: Rune is a special snowflake with a special past (she could hum opera when she was a toddler, kids), going to a special super goff school, has special dreams about a special boy she's pretty sure is dead, and every time she sings, it almost kills her.

EVERYTHING about this book revolves around the characters being as flat as pancakes, with only one person being even remotely interesting, and the interest I had was quickly dashed in the first four hours of the audiobook. Thorn is a thorn in this book's side. He is drowning in his own angst, in his own special-ness, fancying himself in love with Rune because their dreams are CONNECTED. They've known each other their whole lives because they dream of each other. Of course, he lived a terrible life as a child (which I found incredibly unbelievable due to the fact he was born in the modern century and not, you know, the 1800s) and now, to pay his 'father' back for all the kindness, he needs to... trap Rune? Kill her? Or something. I'm not too sure. I think I stopped listening after the 30% mark.

This is the first negative review I've written in over a year, and although writing negative reviews used to be cathartic, I literally do not feel a thing towards this novel except for apathy and boredom. I can't deal with how goth RoseBlood Academy is.

Let's talk about that for a second, shall we?

Rune is sent to RoseBlood to work on her music and, one day hopefully, become some sort of musical start. Rune, however, is less than ecstatic about this, which made me roll my eyes. Bad, considering we're only five pages in at this point. 

Why on earth, out of all the romantic, gothic, dark names provided by literature, is the academy called RoseBlood? Why? Why?! I don't get it. Is it supposed to be symbolic? Because at the beginning of the book, Rune is describing a painting she has at home about roses that bleed or something, and then later on she's given a bouquet of bleeding roses, so it has to be symbolic, right? But it's still stupid. I don't get it. Why not call it THIS IS WHERE YOU COME TO DIE Academy? 

I also don't understand how things work at the academy. So they have class in the morning then... chores in the afternoon? WHY? If you're paying thousands of £££ to send your kid to an academy called RoseBlood, don't you want your kid to learn something except for how much soap to put in the dishwasher? I mean, it's cool that they're learning real life things they'll need to know as adults, but in that case teach them about taxes and how to not be a dick!

Speaking of, of course we have the Mean Girls clique who torment Rune left, right and centre (view spoiler) and constantly try to sabotage her chances, because how else are we going to feel all the feels for her? Spoiler: I felt nothing.

My review is all over the place. I apologize. I can't even turn my brain on long enough to write this thing because I'm that bored. I'm so bored I'm practically asleep.

The only Phantom of the Opera-ish thing this book has is that the original phantom is still lurking around. That's it. Oh, and he signs his name as "OG" which, to my disbelief, does not stand for Original Gangster, or even Oppa Gangnam-style (thanks, Natalie!) but for "Opera Ghost." Barf.

From what I've gathered: Rune likes wandering the gardens and feeling all emo-like and misunderstood; Thorn is a weirdo who peeks at girls (specifically Rune) through the air vents in her bedroom and tells her how they're "destined to be lovers"; Thorn and Rune have glowing fairy blob things that transfer from one to the other called heart chakras (what even?!); Eric the OG is very much just a backdrop so that Rune and Thorn can wile away the time talking about how much they are destined for things. And that's it. That's all I've got.

There were too many cliches in the opening chapter for me to finish this. I wanted the Phantom of the Opera, but this wasn't it.

As a huge fan of "The Phantom of the Opera", this book unfortunately did not meet my expectations. I found the plot-lines to be rather cliche and the characters flat and unbelievable. While the writing was fine, I, personally could not connect to it. The biggest issue I had with "Roseblood" was that it was an appropriation of "The Phantom of the Opera" story and never truly explored the deeper themes presented in the original.

Opening line:

"At home, I have a poster on my wall of a rose that's bleeding."

First off, I love the cover.
Second, I connected with the sidekick
Third...

I really wanted to love this story. A twist on Phantom of the Opera? How cool. And it was cool until about a 1/3 of the way in. Then there were so many twists and turns and strange things going on I lost my interest. I think there were just so many new ideas introduced that it got convoluted for me. First there's the animals, then the powers, and the music, then the other thing and then what? I can't give much more away but it was strange and at times hard to follow. 
I skimmed a LOT.

I've heard great things about the author's other books and I might give one of those a try. 

Thanks to netgalley for the early read!

Well, I tried really hard to like this book. I started reading this and restarted three times to try and get into it but sadly this one just isn't for me. I didn't enjoy the characters, I didn't enjoy the plot, and I just thought it was badly written. I hate writing that, especially since I liked the author's Splintered series, but this one was just not on par with those.

I loved this book! A fantastic Phantom of the Opera retelling :) full review on my blog!

You tell me that a book is inspired by Phantom of the Opera and expect me to just let it stay untouched on the shelf? I don't think so!

I adore Phantom and when I heard about RoseBlood, a twisted re-telling of the story, my hands couldn't get a hold of it soon enough. Unfortunately, my expectations were a bit too high and I didn't enjoy the book nearly as much as I had hoped.

Rune is a young woman with an unnatural skill for song. Her family sends her to a school in France in order to help her gain control of this power, but stories of the mysterious Phantom from old abound. RoseBlood really captures the mystery and darkness that I've always associated with Phantom, following as a sequel of sorts form the original events.

Unfortunately I really struggled to finish this book. This is my first attempt at anything by A.G. Howard and I've heard wonderful things about her Splintered series. Combined with the inspiration for RoseBlood, I was excited to see this new spin on the tale. What I found were excessive info dumps, writing that circled and circled around an idea without ever really reaching it (as if it was meant to be over the top and a bit flowery to fit the Phantom vibe but didn't quite reach it), and characters that I really didn't care about.

I neither liked nor hated Rune. I honestly didn't feel much toward her period. I wasn't rooting for her or shipping her with the love interest (a.k.a. Thorn). There was no connection and even the ending was a "meh" moment.

The thing with RoseBlood is that the concept is intriguing, captivating, enticing. The writing isn't all that bad either, though some of the elements didn't work for me. When it came down to it, I was simply bored. I didn't find the magical realism business going on in any way believable, nor did I buy into the romance between Rune and Thorn even in the soulmate-type sense that you tend to see in YA paranormal romances (not really sure if this was more paranormal or fantasy but you get the idea). Honestly, it kind of gave me a stalkerish vibe after a while.

Frankly, I should've trusted my gut with this one. I have this habit of rating a book within the first 10-20 pages. I had this one pegged from about page 3 and nothing changed after that. And I think that if I allowed myself to DNF books more often, this would have made that list. I just found nothing special about it, though it hasn't turned me off of the author's work since it was only one book (and a standalone at that), so I'll be giving her Splintered books a try someday. But as for this one, RoseBlood was too much like a stage play. Beautiful on the outside, on display, a bit of a chaotic mess behind the scenes and beneath the cover.

While this book was not a good fit for me, I think YA lovers will definitely enjoy this one.  The author's writing is lovely, and it is through no fault of hers that I was unable to connect to the characters and storyline.  This particular book may not have been my cup of tea, but it will not keep me from seeking out more of the author's work.

RoseBlood is a novel for fans of gothic literature and The Phantom of the Opera, but also for those who can suspend their disbelief. Unfortunately for me, I'm not one of them. There were so many contrivances in this story, so many unbelievable twists and turns, that I ended up DNF at a little over 50%.