RoseBlood by A.G. Howard is a dark, gothic retelling inspired by The Phantom of the Opera. It follows Rune, a gifted singer with an inexplicable draw to a mysterious Paris opera house. As she uncovers eerie secrets and connections to the legendary Phantom, the story unfolds with romance, intrigue, and supernatural elements. Perfect for fans of atmospheric fantasy with a haunting, musical twist.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this title.
I wanted to love it, but it just moved so slowly and I was not invested in the characters or story at all.
I will not be leaving a review anywhere, as I did not finish this book and I'm sure there are readers who are looking for this book and I don't want to sway them away.

A retelling of one of the most famous stories, Phantom of the Opera. While I know that a lot of people loved this book, sadly it just wasn’t quite right for me and I just didn’t gel with the plot. I wouldn’t necessarily not recommend this however as tons of people have given this a wonderful rating!

I have very mixed feelings about this book. It’s definitely not Howard’s best work. (Stain is FANTASTIC, read that instead.)

I loved the premise and setting – I’ve never read a Phantom of the Opera retelling, and don’t see many of them to begin with. Howard’s take on incubus/succubus lore was really cool! I also loved Rune’s song and abilities and how they worked.

However, the romance utterly ruined it for me. The soulmate trope has to be done a certain way for me to enjoy it and this one just did not work for me. It was too instalovey and cheesy for me. I found myself rolling my eyes and zoning out in those parts. The “twin flame” (two halves of one soul) idea was interesting but the execution was not my cup of tea.

I also found some of the interactions and dialogue to be kind of juvenile and awkward. I don’t have examples because I’m terrible about bookmarking audiobooks – I usually listen at work when my hands are busy so going back to find certain passages is difficult. I don’t know if I’m just getting too old for high-school-esque interactions or what, but it just felt kind of shallow. I’m not a super huge fan of the boarding school trope anyway. I did love RoseBlood Academy itself and how it was dark and atmospheric!

The characters fell flat for me, too. I did really like Sunny but she was the only one I cared about. It didn’t help either that the narration was kind of meh – I did like the French accents, though.

I’m so sad that I didn’t love this one.

I love everything Phantom of the Opera and this didnt disappoint. I had to get a physical copy as soon as it came out.

I have been looking forward to read this book for a while. I've heard a lot of good reviews on A. G. Howard books and I've been collecting some myself. I liked her works and I enjoyed reading them a lot

I want to thank NetGalley and Abrams for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review.
I'm a huge fan of Howard's Splintered series. She has a fantastic way of retelling stories. I was super excited when I heard she was doing one surrounding Phantom as that is one of my all time favorite musicals (the music in particular is just amazing). Of course I wanted to read this one and see how her spin was added.
I was not disappointed. And what a perfect time to read it, as Halloween approaches. I expected suspense, I expected creepy, and, of course, I expected romance, And I got all three! I wasn't expecting the supernatural aspect of this story, but it added another layer the Phantom. It made the story all the more haunting (as if Phantom wasn't haunted enough).
It's not so much a retelling as a story that is built upon another story. Set in the modern world, where the past and present collide. I won't get into how Phantom is able to be part of the modern world (as that will ruin the twist of the supernatural aspect), But I will say his character is just as obsessed as he is in the true story. Rune makes for a great heroine with her amazing musical talent. Her friends offer a nice backing for her, though I would have liked to see a bit more depth to them. And the idea of a school housed in an opera house, in France nonetheless, is very different in it's concept.
I will admit to having some confusion in parts of the book. The writing was good, the plot moved, but I feel there were areas where I truly wasn't sure what was going on as the author tried to describe the scene.
Overall it was enjoyable and a fast read considering it's length.
I'm hoping to see more from this author in the future.

I love AG Howard. I loved her Splintered series. I was so looking forward to this, as both a fan of her AND Phantom of the Opera. And while I finished the book, it felt more like a chore to read, and I just couldn't get invested in it like I wanted to. I do hope to try again someday!

This was a decent retelling of phantom. It is always interesting to see what parts of a source material that authors focus on. The characters were interesting and the plot moved along alright.

Unfortunately, after reading reviews from readers with the same taste as mine, I don't think I'll enjoy this book. It sounded so good, but I'm just no longer interested in it.

I did not finish reading this title. The story line was a bit hard to follow and did not capture my attention the way that some of the author's previous works did.

I'd like to preface this review by saying that I've never read any of A.G. Howard's books, but I love all things Phantom of the Opera, so I knew I had to give this book a chance. My rating would be lower except that this book made me feel so nostalgic because I love Phantom of the Opera, and the romantic scenes truly were amazing! The writing, though, felt a little subpar

Have enjoyed A G Howard’s others books but felt this one was a let down. I found it hard going and just found it too predictable

Fantastic, I seem to love anything this author writes. The stories and characters that she create seem so vivid.

When it comes to this book, I think I need to try it again. I first started reading this book when it was first sent to me. I was so excited to read this book and I sort of fell short for me. Maybe I wasn't feeling it at the moment or maybe I just didn't like it but I want to try again one day. The idea of a modern day romance story based on Phantom of the Opera sounds amazing. I will give this another go soon. Until then, I will stick with 3/5 stars.

I have a couple of girls that love PoO. They will want to read this one.

2017 has been a strange year in that I’ve DNFed two books this year. Normally I’m surprised if I DNF one.

Both books were DNFed for the same reason: boredom. Unlike my last DNF, I didn’t find the characters irritating but I was struggling to get into the plot.

ROSEBLOOD is a Phantom of the Opera retelling and I feel like that was lost on me. I am not familiar with the original story. I was oblivious to all the references and little connections that Phantom fans would probably love this book for. But for me, a person who knows nothing, it was quite boring and sometimes strange, and meant I didn’t care all that much for it.

Not knowing the origin tale really does make it difficult to get into the plot if there isn’t much else drawing you in. The writing wasn’t fast paced enough to really keep my attention either. The descriptions were quite long and made everything sound gorgeous, but I didn’t care enough to appreciate it all fully. The characters weren’t annoying (thank god) but they also weren’t all that interesting despite their detailed background.

The other thing thing that bothered me was the stalkerish and manipulative behaviour of Thorn. I know it’s part of whatever Erik’s plan (he otherwise seemed like a decent person), but it bothered me that Thorn is a love interest who is probably going to end up with Rune in the end. The fact that he’s the likely end game love interest is what makes the behaviour super creepy.

Even though I was bored, it was a hard decision for me to DNF because there were some things that intrigued me. Namely, the atmosphere was super gothic and creepy, I wanted to know what type of paranormal creature Thorn, Erik are, and I wanted to discover what Erik’s plan was. They kept teasing their abilities, saying “one of us”, talking about the auras and effects, but they never outright told us what they were (which was incredibly frustrating. My guess is some variety of succubus) or what they were planning.

While I decided to put ROSEBLOOD down, I think I might eventually pick it up again in the future, if only for the sake of answers. But in the immediate future I don’t want to waste my time on a book that bores me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Amulet Books for the opportunity to read and review RoseBlood by A.G. Howard! Roseblood. Rune is being taken to an elite school in France and wonders what the motives of her relatives are by helping her have access to this expensive school and paying for everything she needs from tuition to uniforms, when they haven’t been kind or close in the past. Her father passed away years ago and his relations are the ones helping Rune with acceptance to the school. Her mother has traveled from Harmony, Texas with Rune to take her to the school. For some reason, Rune needed to leave her hometown because of some kind of trouble she caused. Her father shared a musical talent with Rune and without him, this talent is taking a toll on her health and life. As I read, I became more engrossed in this interesting twist on "The Phantom of the Opera". Chapter four intrigued me with it’s foreshadowing and I couldn’t stop reading after that! Magic is somehow involved with this story along with a bit of the supernatural. Each chapter begins with a literary quote that applies to the chapter content and, as always, I appreciate and enjoyed the author’s note at the end of the book which explains A. G. Howard’s research into the truth behind the Phantom. A supernatural fantasy retelling of The Phantom of the Opera, told with imagination and complex, multidimensional characters, 5 stars!

This title was a Did Not Finish. Unfortunately, I was unable to connect with it whether it be for characters, story-line or writing style.

Thank you for providing me with a copy.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title. Unfortunately, I have lost interest in the title, partly due to trusted reviews, and will not be reviewing the title. I have, however, promoed the title through my weekly recap with links to Amazon. Thank you again, and I apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.