Reviews
Not sure what to say about this one. The writing is decent, the story is interesting albeit not overly original (imagine Twilight but Edward is Fae and hes in love with a Lady Jacob), but something is just... Not right about it. I had a whole review ready to go about how the author needed to utilize beta readers so that her details were more believable, but then in the postword she thanked her beta reader. The thing is, this book revolves around a fictional Indigenous American tribe, and the lead is one of the last remaining descendants of the tribe... But she feels white and everything about the book screams "a white woman wrote this". Unfortunately, the language choices also scream "a woman who's never been to Michigan wrote this" because much of it comes across like it was written in a language other than English and then put through Google translate. A teenager who grew up in Michigan just wouldn't make the language choices this lead makes. I didn't like that she was 19 and the love interests were all in their mid 20s (sorry, mid 120s...immortals you know). Given that she is supposedly a med student far enough along in her education to be looking for hospital internships, there is no reason for the lead to not also be in her 20s. It's good that the author used a beta reader, but I think she could have used a few more. Like one who grew up in a small town in Michigan for those details, and one who is an Indigenous American for sensitivity to the cultures she appropriates for her storytelling.
Thank you, NetGalley for the chance to listen to the audiobook for Rose Petal Graves by Olivia Wildenstein and narrated by Stephanie Fritz. Rose Petal Graves is the third audiobook I've finished in my life, and the second one I haven't hated. It's the first book in the lost clan series with a very very stupid main character, who also has an incredibly stupid family. It's truly a marvel that she and her aunt and her mother survived as long as they did. Who reads a book and decides, I want to see if our ancestors are still alive under the ground after 200 years? At least in our mains case, she's 19, what excuse do the others have?!?!?! It's also good for me in audiobook form, I don't have to pay too much attention, but I still get what's going on while I do things. Of course, I really do want the next book just to see who survives!
