A Forgery of Roses by Jessica S. Olson

  

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Mystery, Gothic, Fantasy
Content: Nothing I can remember

 

Myra Whitlock has a gift. One many would kill for.

She’s an artist whose portraits alter people’s real-life bodies, a talent she must hide from those who would kidnap, blackmail, and worse in order to control it. Guarding that secret is the only way to keep her younger sister safe now that their parents are gone.

But one frigid night, the governor’s wife discovers the truth and threatens to expose Myra if she does not complete a special portrait that would resurrect the governor's dead son. Desperate, Myra ventures to his legendary stone mansion.

Once she arrives, however, it becomes clear the boy’s death was no accident. Someone dangerous lurks within these glittering halls. Someone harboring a disturbing obsession with portrait magic.

Myra cannot do the painting until she knows what really happened, so she turns to the governor’s older son, a captivating redheaded poet. Together, they delve into the family’s most shadowed affairs, racing to uncover the truth before the secret Myra spent her life concealing makes her the killer’s next victim.

I enjoy gothic mysteries, and a gothic mystery in a fantasy setting seemed like something I would love. While I enjoyed certain things about this book there was a distinct lack of world building that I found disappointing. That being said, this book was hard to put down, and that's always a plus for me. I liked the portrait magic, it was interesting and different from anything I've read before.

In the beginning, the main character, Myra did some things that I thought were stupid, considering the fact that she is trying to keep her magic hidden, especially when the one person walks in that she absolutely should keep it hidden from. She seems to completely lose her brain at this point, so that didn't make me feel confident that I would like the rest of the book but I kept reading anyway, and it did get better.

The book is written in a way that makes us question whether or not we can trust the love interest, and I think it did that very well. I questioned how trustworthy he was throughout the story, and I enjoyed that aspect of the book. Of course, I'm not going to tell you whether he could be trusted or not. You'll just have to read the book to find out. I did have some issues with the love interest though. First there was the whole instalove thing that was annoying to me. A slower burn relationship would have been much more interesting in this setting. A male love interest that deals with anxiety was different, but not always a great idea. I thought it was carried too far at a very crucial point in the book. I prefer male leads to be more confident and capable.

Lastly, I felt this book had too many brilliant teenagers and not enough intelligent adults. There were several adults that could have seen through what was happening here, but didn't, and Myra's little sister's knowledge of medicine, anatomy, and science in general wasn't believable to me. 

Overall I liked this book, but didn't love it. For the most part, I thought the twists and turns were well done. I thought I had everything figured out only to find out I didn't. There were enough pluses to balance out the minuses for me so I do feel like it was a good reading experience. Would I read anything else by this author? I'm on the fence.