The Rose Society (The Young Elites #2)
Author: Marie Lu
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons BYR
Publication Date: October 13, 2015
Pages: 398
Format: Hardcover/Own

Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all.

Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she flees Kenettra with her sister to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her.

But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good when her very existence depends on darkness?


*Spoilers if you haven't read the first book, if you have, carry on!*

Review: This was even darker than the first book. I really enjoyed it. Adelina's powers grow immensely in this book as well as the fact she wants vengeance against those who wronged her. I also had a lot of questions answered that I had from The Young Elites regarding Adelina's Rose Society and the Princess, now Queen of Beldain. I knew Maeve would play a part from the epilogue of The Young Elites, but I wasn't expecting just how big her role was going to be. I also found it to be incredibly interesting how the daggers led Adelina to believe they killed a previous elite that didn't control his powers like he should but we find out they actually didn't.

So I wanna talk about the Daggers first. I thought they had a lot of nerve to talk about Adelina lying about things when they literally lied about killing a previous elite. Who Adelina found alive and well and brought into the Rose Society. Not to mention these idiots literally kept stuff from Adelina and talked about how to get rid of her behind her back, but yet they think they are still the good guys and better than her??? I just can't with their warped sense of betterment. If they hadn't treated Adelina like they did, they wouldn't have had most of the issues they had in this book. They realized way to late they made a bad choice making an enemy of her. And the fact they let Maeve bring Enzo back from the dead. Raffaele could see that Maeve's brother, the only other person brought back as tainted with darkness from the underworld. He was not the same person he used to be. Yet he still believed just cuz Enzo was an Elite that he wouldn't be like that. That's not how it works! And whats even worse is they still wanted to put Enzo on the throne after bringing him back even knowing that. They were so blind to getting Enzo back and taking the throne from Giulietta that they refused to see Maeve using them as a pawn to get someone she could control on the throne so she could rule Kenettra and how bad of an idea it would be to have Enzo ruling not being all there as he is now. They just did not think things through or look at the reality of everything.

Adelina. I'm so so about her at the end of this book. Like I said, her darkness and need for vengeance grew big time in this book. Her powers seriously took off due to this. She started killing a lot more, and even though she seems to regret it at first, she justifies it every time later on. She also makes her bold plan to take the throne herself, especially when finding out the daggers and Maeve's plan. I'm definitely feeling iffy about Adelina when it comes to how much she lets her power and darkness control her. She even seems to let the voices in her head from her power have more control over her than her own head. She throws out the reasonable things everyone around her says as warnings and good counsel in favor of what the voices tell her or what she thinks is better, even when the other can see its not. But then she gets angry or sad when those warnings turn out to be true or someone she trusts leaves her because of her actions. She's just not stable by the end of this book. She needs to take the warnings Violetta gave her at the end regarding how the powers could destroy them seriously if she doesn't want to potentially end up dead herself. But with the voices and her power taking more and more control of her, I don't know if she will listen to reason anymore.

We did finally learn a little more about Teren. Not much, but enough to put things in perspective. He isn't just in love with the queen, he's obsessive over protecting her. He thinks its his job to protect her and do what he wants instead of listening to her since he thinks she isn't making the right decisions. I have to admit, with his attitude still about malfettos and how he acted, I did enjoy the ending with him getting locked up. I'm curious as to how he's going to handle his downfall in the next book.

I did like that Adelina tried to treat her Roses better than the Daggers. She definitely wasn't great, but she didn't exactly threaten to kill them either. I do think her powers are clouding her thoughts though when it comes to letting them get close to her. I also really liked Magiano! He was such a fun, interesting addition to the book. I loved his power, how he tried really hard to have Adelina's back, despite the darkness in her, how he was willing to help her get more support and take down the daggers after what they learned about them. Definitely looking forward to more Magiano! I also enjoyed Sergio. He was the elite the daggers led Adelina to believe was dead. Imagine her surprise when she found him living and helping her. Definitely looking forward to seeing more of him and his men in the next book.

I'm definitely curious as to where Adelina ruling Kenettra will go. I'm also curious if she'll heed her sisters warnings and try to fix the relationship she ruined at the end with her. And I hear the Roses and Daggers will have to team up. Will it be because of the issue her sister warned her about? And will the daggers and Enzo let things go?? Definitely curious about these things.


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