Book Buzz: Rose in Chains by Julie Soto
One of the things that I love about reading and writing fanfiction is the immersion. I don’t have to explain to you what The Force is or what a lightsaber is. In fact, I don’t have to know what it is myself, but we can use these magics and sci-fi things to move the story along. We don’t have to set anything up. I never felt like I was someone who knew how to set anything up. I didn’t ever need to flex that muscle of world-building as a writer. I didn’t have to describe a new political climate or create a new magic system…One of the things that’s really exciting to me about Rose in Chains is that opportunity to take something that worked really well and meant a lot to me and getting to actually flex those world-building muscles now. Even beyond the Rose in Chains trilogy, if I wanted to continue writing fantasy, it doesn’t feel as daunting anymore. It’s another new genre to play with, and that’s the fun part.
― Julie Soto, Interview, Swoon
What booksellers are saying about Rose in Chains
- Your honor, I am once again in love with fictional characters (no one is surprised). Set in the ashes of war, this dark fantasy follows a fractured rebellion, shifting loyalties, and one dangerously complicated romance right at its center. The tension in this book is something that should be bottled up and studied in a lab. I lost so much sleep reading this… and I’d do it again with zero hesitation!
― Janisie Rodriguez, Copperfish Books in Punta Gorda, Florida | BUY
- There is nothing I crave more in a romance than yearning and a slow burn. Soto delivers the slowwwwest of slow burns that will have you giggling one moment, and then your draw dropping in the next. I loved seeing Soto build this magical world and can’t wait to see her continue! We might not like Rowling, but we like writers making a fan-fic world their own!
― Morgan DePerno, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina | BUY
- I am a huge fan of The Auction, through and through, but I’m so happy with the novel this turned out to be, as it’s own thing. I appreciated the parallels to the original work and the remaining plot but also the exploration into fantasy and the changes!
― Meghan Haile, The Lynx in Gainesville, Florida | BUY
- So I didn’t realize this was Draco x Hermione fan fiction until a couple of chapters in because who else would have silver hair besides Draco Malfoy? The world-building was great, although sometimes too much was going on. There are different types of magic that a person can hold, and the succession of power is very important to the storyline as well. What I also didn’t realize was that this was a dark romance, a genre I typically try to avoid, but this wasn’t as dark as it can typically get. That being said, one of the main things that I kept going back to was the fact that Briony is essentially the property of Toven. Not a fan of that dynamic at all so it felt pretty icky. Especially when Briony was remembering her crush on Toven, but then we immediately remember that he owns her. Yeah… Seeing how Briony and most of the other captured women are discreetly fighting back and starting their own revolution was amazing. Women during wartime had to be compliant in front of others, but in the dark, they were plotting. And this book delivered just that. It was pretty cool to see how much of a revolution can begin with a couple of women who refused to back down. As it’s only the first in the trilogy, I expect the rest to be flushed out more. The epilogue was the best part as we truly get a sense for what’s to come in the future.
― Itzy Morales, M Judson, Booksellers in Greenville, South Carolina | BUY
About Julie Soto
Julie Soto is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, playwright, and actress originally from Sacramento, CA. Her musical Generation Me won the 2017 New York Musical Festival’s Best Musical award, as well as Best Book for her script. She is a musical theater geek, fandom nerd, and the author of many spicy fan fictions. Julie now lives in Fort Bragg, CA, with her dog, Charlie. She is probably drinking coffee as you read this.
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If you talk about witches nowadays and you ask somebody to picture a witch, they’d probably say a pointy hat, a broom, a black cat. They are no longer considered malevolent.
I don’t know it there’s an inspiration per se other than “I like dragons, and I like lady knights, I want to write a book about those things.” And so I did. “Brighter Than Scale” tells the story of Yeva, a dragon hunter with special abilities who was absorbed into empire against her will as a child and, as an adult, is sent as an ambassador to a nation that worships dragons as part of her emperor’s territorial aggressions. There she meets the girl-king Sookhee, the charismatic leader of the nation. But their growing relationship is threatened when Yeva uncovers secrets that will challenge the way she sees the world, and herself. The book may appear to be a queer love story, and it is indeed a queer love story, but at its core I think it’s about identity, it’s about finding your place and finding yourself in a world which constantly wants to erase you.
