
In Briar Boleyn's "Queen of Roses," Arthurian legend meets fae mythology as Morgan Pendragon wields forbidden magic in this NYT bestselling author's dark romantasy debut. What makes 16,600 readers obsess over a romance that moves at "turtle pace" yet leaves them desperate for more?
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Hidden beneath her mother's four-poster bed, young Morgan Pendragon witnesses a scene that will haunt her forever: her father, King Uther, murdering her mother in a drunken rage. The violence is made more disturbing by her mother's resignation-she neither flees nor fights, suggesting this isn't the first time she's faced his wrath. When she falls lifeless to the floor, Uther immediately begins crafting a lie about an accident, knowing his position as king means no one will question him. This moment establishes the central tension of Morgan's existence: she lives in a world where power determines truth, where her own identity must remain hidden, and where her fae heritage-evident in her not-quite-human ears and prematurely gray hair-marks her as an outsider in the human court. The Rose Court, with its imagery of beauty concealing thorns, perfectly symbolizes this deceptive world where appearance and reality rarely align-a cruelty Morgan witnesses firsthand when her brother Arthur orders the execution of a young part-fae boy for stealing an apple. What makes this world particularly dangerous is how violence against the vulnerable becomes institutionalized. Uther's three wives-Ygraine (Morgan's mother), Ettarde (executed for adultery), and Enid (who died in childbirth)-were all ultimately sacrificed to maintain the patriarchal power structure of the kingdom.
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