Sasha Peyton Smith

🌹 The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith

Victorian courts. Faerie bargains. Glittering balls hiding sharp teeth.
If Bridgeton, The Selection, and The Cruel Prince had a morally gray baby… this would be it.

📖 What It’s About

London, 1848 — England is ruled by an immortal fae queen who grants everyone one magical bargain… for a price 🩸👑

When Ivy Benton’s life collapses, she enters a deadly competition for Prince Bram’s hand, signing her name in blood for a chance at a show more crown.

With help from Prince Emmett—charming, dangerous, and absolutely suspicious 😏—Ivy rises fast. But beneath the glittering ballrooms lie cruel trials, fae deception, and a truth no bargain escapes: the cost always comes due ✨🔥

💭 My Thoughts

I was hooked from page one. The Victorian atmosphere is chef’s kiss—lush, sharp, and dripping with tension. I completely understand the Bridgeton comparisons and The Cruel Prince vibes I was feeling but make no mistake: this story has teeth and I was here for it all.

The story flows seamlessly, the pacing never drags, and the multiple POVs add so much depth.
I loved Emmett (dangerously so 😌), adored Ivy’s growth, and liked Bram… until I didn’t.
The side characters shine, the court politics are deliciously messy, and the emotional stakes keep escalating.

And that ending?!
I closed the book and immediately needed book two like oxygen.

⭐ 5 stars. No notes. Immediate obsession.

🗝️ Tropes You’ll Love:
🩸 Fae bargains with hidden costs
👑 Deadly royal competition
✨ Victorian romantasy vibes
😏 Morally gray love interest
💃 Ballroom intrigue & court politics
🔥 Love triangle (done right)

💬 Favorite Quote Vibes

(No spoilers — just the ✨energy✨)

“Every bargain takes more than you think.”

“Crowns are heavier than they look.”

“Faerie magic never forgets a debt.”

🐲 Final Verdict

If you love lush historical fantasy, dangerous fae courts, and romance wrapped in sharp political intrigue, The Rose Bargain deserves a spot at the top of your TBR.

Highly recommend. Immediately need the sequel. 🌹🔥 show less

First sentence: King Edward's face was streaked with mud and blood when the woman first appeared at the tree line. His sword hung by his side, limp, in a single moment of pause, and then he fell to his knees.

Premise/plot: The War of the Roses "ends" when a fae queen, Queen Moryen, murders King Edward and assumes the throne of England. The novel properly begins almost four hundred years later--give or two a decade. Ivy Benton, our heroine, knows better than some how risky bargaining with the show more fae queen can be. Her sister, Lydia, disappeared and returned with many of her memories just gone--including the memory of exactly what her bargain was. There's always a cost--a heavy price to pay--for bargaining with Her Majesty. However, it is almost expected that sooner or later every single subject will. Be careful what you wish for...and all that.

The new season is about to start, and Ivy Benton will be one of the debutantes. The queen announces that this year is the year her (fae) son will marry a bride. She's offering a choice, if you will. Volunteer--pledge by blood--to be in the competition to be his bride. Obviously, if you're the one, you'll be royalty. You will seemingly 'have it all.' If you lose, well, just know that you've pledged away your right to every marry anyone at all. Ivy knows that if she doesn't find a husband this season--and it's perhaps doubtful since her family has fallen on hard times financially--her family will be ruined regardless. So she is the first to pledge...

The competition begins...and the ladies have plenty of opportunities to spend time with both the fae prince (Prince Bram) and the mortal one (Emmett, a stepson). There's training and competitions as well, elimination rounds, etc.

While she is competing to win Bram's heart, it may just be the other brother who wins her heart.

My thoughts: I am SO conflicted. ALTERNATE HISTORY. It's been a long time since I've read fantasies with faeries or fae. But there was a time when probably half of YA was faeries and the other half were vampires. So though it's been a while, I soon found myself hooked on the story--particularly the premise. STEAMY ROMANCE. Here's where I'm conflicted. Is it too steamy???? Maybe. Maybe not. Every reader is different. But expect things to get GRAPHIC. For some readers that may be a plus. For others not so much. MULTIPLE POINTS OF VIEW. Again, every reader is different. I've been reading--skimming--through the GoodReads reviews. Some love, some hate, everyone has opinions. I personally did not care for the multiple points of view at all. I think because they seemed RANDOM and BIZARRE. Okay, I'll try to clarify. This wasn't an every-other-chapter dual narration. You might have half a dozen chapters of Ivy's point of view and then suddenly be thrown into someone else's head for one chapter and one chapter only. I would have preferred to see Ivy's point of view alternating with either Emmett OR one of the other ladies. But trying to get most/all of the competition to have one chapter each was offsetting. THE TWIST ENDING. It's like you spend 98% of the book with it firmly being a SMUTTY, SMUTTY YA romance with fantasy undertones. Like very steady, predictable, formulaic, both feet planted in steamy romance. Then the last two percent is like you are thrown--crashed??? tossed????--into the complete opposite genre. The contrast is so SUDDEN. And the ending is so abrupt. Not even a pause between BIG, BIG REVEAL and boom it's over. show less

With tons of unexpected twists and turns, a mound of grit, and dangerous magic, this is a tale which weaves and builds tension until the very end.

Frances' brother was murdered and her mother hauled off to the asylum, leaving her alone to survive as a seamstress in a workhouse. When the drunken owner tries to have his way with her, a scissors flies through the air, leaving him dead. She'll pay for the murder; she's sure. But when a odd pair of nurses swipe her out of police hands, claiming show more she has tuberculous, her world takes a dive she never dreamed possible. The sanitarium she's taken to is an academy for witches in disguise, but the rules and classes make it more like a prison. When strange notes appear on her pillow and claim they can help her find her brother's killer, Frances breaks one of the main rules and sneaks out of the school's grounds. Little does she know that the deadly game is just about to begin.

The blurb caught my attention, and I was hoping it'd be a fun, thrilling ride. I wasn't disappointed. The author weaves a very rich tale full of magic, deceit, intrigue, power plays, murder, and even a magical academy. The book starts out very well, drawing the reader in and shooting the tension high. The atmosphere of the working class of New York around 1910 sets the perfect scene with it's struggles and dismal outlook. While I was afraid the arrival at the academy was going to send this in a very different direction and ruin the read...which it did start to do a little bit, the author managed to steer clear enough to keep the dark tones and shadows through-out the read and keep this enough in the outer world to steer clear of a heavy academy flavor. In other words, word building and atmosphere get almost full points.

Frances is a girl with a lot on her plate, and she does the best she can with all of it. Her character carries an edge of darkness, which made her more realistic than one with a heart of pure gold. Some of her decisions are rash, but it's not over the top. The other characters don't gain nearly as much depth, but there are quite a few of them as she tries to learn who to trust and who not. I did wish that we'd learn more about her so-called friends, since this bond didn't quite hit home the way it needed in creating a golden friendship. Still, it was well done enough, and the surprises between character relationships are very laid out and hard to see coming.

This read does hit upon violent deaths and carries some gore. All of it fits well to the read and does build the necessary atmosphere. There is a beginning rape scene, but this ends almost as quickly as it starts. What is probably most present on the trigger end is the manipulation of people...which does lead to murder and death. Again, this is necessary for the tale and gives it delicious tension and needed depth while also fitting the characters, intrigue and such wonderfully. I wasn't quite okay, though, with how the author almost dismisses some of the actions at the end, but then, the end did happen a tiny bit neatly and fast. Since there are hints at a book two coming, I have no doubt this will work well in the end, though.

This one was hard to put down. There were so many twists, which were impossible to see coming and, yet, made sense. It plays with the emotions masterfully and keeps the reader at the edge of their seat. I do want to add that the author also made sure to slip in the usual LGBTQ, racism, and such, which sometimes fit better than others, but again, I'm hoping this gains more of a solid meaning as the possible (I hope there is one) series continues. I'm definitely recommending this one to all fans of witches, intrigue, power plays and such out there because it is a good read. I received a complimentary copy and liked this read quite a bit. show less

Frances is working as a seamstress and struggling to get by when a fatal accident lands her in Haxahaven, a school for witches disguised as a sanatorium -- because she, apparently, is a witch. At first she's excited, but Haxahaven turns out to be more of a prison than her salvation. When she meets Finn, a boy who promises to help her get to the bottom of her brother's murder, she can't resist joining forces with him, even if she's not sure she can trust him.

A serviceable YA debut, I read show more this around Halloween for some witchy vibes. Was it a perfect book? No, definitely not, but I enjoyed the story overall and will read the sequel. 3.5 stars. show less