Review: Scent of a White Rose

Title: Scent of a White Rose (The Rose Trilogy #1)

Author: Tish Thawer

Publisher/Imprint: Amber Leaf Publishing, January 2012

Genre: Fantasy/paranormal

Format: I was given an ARC by the author.

 

Rose is perceived by everyone to be innocent and pure – a “white rose” but Rose isn’t what she appears. Underneath her pure exterior lies the heart of a young woman who is nobody’s fool. She is repressed by an over protective father, held back by the death of her mother and holding in secrets that no one can imagine.

Christian is the man that Rose loves. He has secrets of his own. Like the fact that he’s a vampire and has been alive for hundreds of years. He can’t tell Rose, he can’t break the code of his clan and the laws of the vampire world. But he has a plan. With the arrival of a new “sire” on the horizon Christian sees it as his opportunity to finally make Rose a complete part of his life and world. Forever.

But before Rose can get to forever they both have to push past the secrets that they are keeping and accept one another for who they truly are…

 

I was excited to receive an ARC of Scent of a White Rose from Tish Thawer because I had seen the covers around social media and I was intrigued to read the story that lie behind the gorgeous artwork.  Artwork designed by Regina Wamba at Mae I Design.

Scent of a White Rose is a quick and easy read that keeps the reader intrigued as the story and secrets unfold. What I liked best was the new concept that Thawer has brought to the vampire world. I know that many readers have grown tired of the vampire book (I am not one of them, I appreciate a good vamp still) and I think this new concept will intrigue a lot of people. It’s the concept of “drifting”. A vampire drifts from dark to light… how does one know when a vampire is drifting? I’m not giving it all away, read the book!

I also enjoyed the pace that the story moved. Something was always happening so the story never really lagged.

I enjoyed the coven of vampires – seeing their closeness – their humanity… something that not a lot of vampires show but they all did and it made them more real in a lot of ways. Christian was a great character and I liked his loyalty to Rose and his understanding.

Rose was a complex character. On one hand she was innocent and seemed young but on the other hand she was strong and wanted to break out of the mold that everyone put her in. It was good to see her stand up for what she wanted in her own life.

Something that I was a little put off by was the bad language. It seemed (to me) that the characters cursed an awful lot. I certainly don’t mind bad language (I’m guilty of it too) but it seemed unnecessary to me. I thought that the characters could display their outrage and strong feelings in other ways. There were also a few parts that I thought the story was being “told” instead of “shown” but with the great pace that the story moved this wasn’t something that hindered my reading.

Overall, I would say this was a unique and well thought out story that many paranormal readers will enjoy. I cannot wait to see where Rose and Christian go next in the second book of The Rose Trilogy. I definitely think that Tish Thawer is an author that we all should be watching.

So there you have it. My opinion.