Member assessment:
(2 votes) —
Recommended by Chris Poirier, Sarah Suleski, and 1 other member.
City of Roses
A serialized novel, updating Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
City of Roses is about what happens when Jo Maguire, a highly strung underemployed telemarketer, meets Ysabel Perry, a princess of unspecifiable pedigree. It’s also about hearts broken cleanly and otherwise, the City of Portland, Spenser, those moments in pop songs when the bass and all of the drums except maybe a handclap suddenly drop out of the bridge leaving you hanging from a slender aching thread of melody waiting almost dreading the moment when the beat comes back, and the occasional swordfight.
City of Roses
A Serialized Phantastick on The Ten Thousand Things & The One True Only
— contains some graphic sex, graphic violence, and harsh language —
Tags: fae magic online novels present tense third person urban fantasy
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Editorial Reviews
Beauty, grit, and song
When I first I click on a link to web serial it’s without any intention of reading it right then and there. I just want to have a nose around the site, scan a few paragraphs, look at some pictures if there are any, and decide if it’s of interest to me and how soon I may return to read further.
I did that with City of Roses and after an hour found that I had read all of Act One and was utterly captivated. The prose flows effortlessly, like a song, and the beauty of it juxtaposes brilliantly with the grit and grunge of the city and characters. I rarely come away from a dirty urban setting feeling as if I’ve just lilted through a Shakespearian sonnet but City of Roses gives me just that illusion, without being boring or sluggish in an over fascination with its own narration. The story moves, the characters come alive, and the world sucks you in with its mysterious alternate reality adventure.
As for that story itself, you need know no more than the summary tells. I clicked through just to see the site design and having no other knowledge of the serial, found myself drawn into it like a fly happily entrapped in the writer’s web.
Stop reading this review. Go read the story. Read it. Go. Now. What is the matter with you? Why are you still here?
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