Review: Wolves and Roses by Christina Bauer

Title: Wolves and Roses
Author: Christina Bauer
Series: Fairy Tales of the Magicorum #1
Genre: Urban Fantasy/YA/Fairy Tales
Publisher: Monster House Books, LLC
Publication Date: October 31st, 2017
Edition: Kindle Edition
Source: Library
Purchase/Pre-Order: Amazon US | Kobo | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | BAM

Synopsis:

     Seventeen-year-old Bryar Rose has a problem. She’s descended from one of the three magical races—shifters, fairies, or witches. That makes her one of the Magicorum, and Magicorum always follow a fairy tale life template. In Bryar’s case, that template should be Sleeping Beauty.

“Should” being the keyword.

     Trouble is, Bryar is nowhere near the sleeping beauty life template. Not even close. She doesn’t like birds or woodland creatures. She can’t sing. And she certainly can’t stand Prince Philpot, the so-called “His Highness of Hedge Funds” that her aunties want her to marry. Even worse, Bryar’s having recurring dreams of a bad boy hottie and is obsessed with finding papyri from ancient Egypt. What’s up with that? 

     All Bryar wants is to attend a regular high school with normal humans and forget all about shifters, fairies, witches, and the curse that Colonel Mallory the Magnificent placed on her. And she might be able to do just that--if only she can just keep her head down until her eighteenth birthday when the spell that’s ruined her life goes buh-bye.

     But that plan gets turned upside down when Bryar Rose meets Knox, the bad boy who’s literally from her dreams. Knox is a powerful werewolf, and his presence in her life changes everything, and not just because he makes her knees turn into Jell-O. If Bryar can’t figure out who—or what—she really is, it might cost both her and Knox their lives… as well as jeopardize the very nature of magic itself.

    This might be my favorite book by Bauer yet. I really loved the characters, the subtle humor, the setting, the writing is some of her best. All around, I loved this book, small things aside.

    Honestly, as of now, I am not a huge fan of the main character's name, Bryar Rose. The name just is odd to me. I hope there will be a reason to have such a unique name. Knox, the love interest, also had a strange name. With him, it seems he's named that because his wolf is black, or something. These names are strange, not bad. Just want to clarify. 

    Her odd name aside, Bryar Rose is a great character. She is smart, self-assured, funny, she was likable; just an all-around great character. I loved the plot of this book, it actually had some surprises, some twists I wasn't completely expecting. I like it when a book actually surprises me. I don't get nearly as annoyed as some people do when they can guess the twist long before it comes.

    I like that there is still a huge mystery surrounding Bryar. Not everything is solved in this first book, a lot is, but enough is left unanswered that it makes me excited for the other books.

    Now, what made this not a perfect book is kind of related to the romance. I liked Knox and Bryar together, I thought they complimented each other nicely, it wasn't as cliche as a lot of YA, and I wouldn't call it "insta-love" exactly, but they do fall in love and it was kind of fast more so on Knox's side than hers, but that could be associated to his wolfy-ness, I guess. But the way it happens is strange, and still a little too fast for my liking. They don't drop any L-Bombs to each other, but I still felt that it happened really fast. 

What I did like about the romance is that it didn't really change Bryar's character, she changed but it was more of a growth than anything. When Knox came into her life, other things also happened that helped push her to become more of who she really is. But she never retreated as a person, she never became "small" in comparison to him. 

    I keep wanting to talk about the romance, while it plays into a reveal for Bryar's character, it's not really the main focus of the book. The plotline of who cursed her and why is another focus of the book, deciphering hieroglyphs to reconstruct a magic book that disappeared two thousand years ago is what starts Bryar on the crazy path of meeting Knox and discovering who she is, is more the main plot of the book.

    I have a sequel to this book, the halfway book between the first and the second book, that I got through NetGalley waiting to be read, it's why I picked this one up in the first place, and I can't wait to read it and then eventually the second book. This is a really interesting series, I look forward to finding out more about Bryar.