Rose in Chains by Julie Soto

Here is a summary with spoilers for Rose in Chains by Julie Soto

It’s the eve of war and Briony Rosewood is hopeful. The prophecy she has heard all her life, which everyone assumes is focused around her brother, is finally coming to an end. Her brother Rory is also hopeful, but tries to tell her she needs to prepare for the worst. They say their goodbyes just in case. Didion, her brother’s best friend and her most recent fling, also comes in to say goodbye. The goal during the war is to let Rory fulfill the prophecy, but also to keep Briony alive so she can carry on the bloodline.

The attack doesn’t go as planned, as the opposing army breaks in. A man Briony has known for years comes to her room: Toven Hearst. Before she can beg him to stop, she runs into another man, Gain, who casts a spell, and she is brought into darkness.

The book then goes back into the past, eight years earlier. Rory and Briony, royal twins, are attending a magical school. Briony is the smarter of the twins, but thanks to her father, she has to hold back her academics because they need Rory to look the part of a smart prince and ruler. So Briony constantly lives in her brother’s shadow and helps him along through school. During one particular magical session, Briony is somehow able to use her mind magic to boost Rory, making him look very accomplished. Toven, a constant thorn in her side and a bully to Briony, notices and starts mentioning that “boosting” is illegal. Briony had no idea that is what she was doing.

Back in the present, Briony wakes in a cell; her lady’s maid Cordelia is there with her. It is revealed that her brother Rory is officially dead, and hope has been lost by many. Also being held in separate cells are Didion and Sammy. In the women’s cell are also Phoebe and Larissa (whose father is part of the new world and was once involved with Toven). The two girls share that they are being fed and kept nicely for one reason: the auction. Something that had been threatened for years during the war, but now that it has been won, is about to become a reality. The girls decide to work together and try to find a way to break out of the jail.

Briony is then subjected to Gain watching her shower, and overall making her feel uncomfortable. They have also found a way to suppress her magic. But Briony tries to use it, as hers is mind magic rather than physical, and she gets incredibly close to harming another named Reighven. Reighven is just as bad as Gain. He admits that Gain is going to sell Briony at the auction, and Reighven has plans to purchase her. As Reighven is about to touch her, Orion Hearst, Toven’s father, arrives and stops what is going on. Along with him is Veronika Mallow, head of the other side and the one who thought of the idea of the auction. The two come in to drug Briony, as the collar is not suppressing her magic, but they have an elixir that will. They say that she needs to be sterilized, so when she is sold there will be no more of the royal bloodline. It breaks Briony’s heart, as she has always wanted children, but she has no choice, especially when they start threatening to kill her friends, starting with Cordelia.

Gain takes her to get checked out and sterilized, but when the doctor realizes who she is, she only sterilizes half of her.

Briony is then taken to the auction. She and the other prisoners all start a breakout, but are quickly shut down, leaving Briony blacked out. When she comes back, she is ready to be presented on stage. It turns into a massive bidding war where she goes for almost double the expected amount, with Raven and Toven leading the bids. Raven wins.

In a flashback to the past, Briony and Toven get a little closer together as they both fight over a tree. Toven knows she likes to use it as a spot to relax, which is why he purposely gets there early so she must either leave or sit with him.

Back in the present, Briony is taken away to be branded, but to her surprise, it is Toven’s name branded into her. As he arrives to collect her, he tells her that the tattoo is also a brand that will make it so she can’t escape. She tries anyway, and it leads to electrocution for one minute and a week of recovery.

When she wakes, Toven says there is no time, they both need to go to Mallow for a meeting. Mallow wants to confirm that they will complete the heartstring bond, making it so Toven can use her magic. Mallow also looks into her mind and sees that at one point in her life she had feelings toward Toven. Briony keeps that to herself, despite Toven wanting to know. She is taken back to the house, where she is locked in her room for days on end.

As Briony is slowly giving up, Serena, Toven’s mother, comes for her and walks her around the house so she can get some air. While out, she finds a newspaper that says her friend Sammy is alive; she wants to know more. That night, when Serena forgets to lock the door, Briony goes back to find the newspaper and learns that there is still a rebellion movement. She can’t read more as Orion catches her and takes her back.

Briony decides a hunger strike will get her point across, and when Toven comes in, he says she can have 10 minutes in the library if she eats. She then goes to the library to read up on blocking mind magic.

Days go on with nothing happening until a fox attacks Briony. It is Toven’s familiar animal, who he is still trying to attach to. Her being injured gives them time to chat. She mentions that she wants a new book; Toven calls her out on it and says she can have a new one if she masters the one she has. She fails the task of proving she is ready. He then tells her he is going on a mission and will be gone for a few days.

The next morning Briony receives a note from Serena saying that Toven got injured and no one will be there for days. She breaks out and uses the library often, and also finds her old hair ribbon in his room when she is snooping.

Toven finally returns, and it is confirmed that her cousin, Finola Rosewood, was killed by Orion. Briony gets angry and somehow uses her magic, hurting the already injured Toven all over again. She doesn’t see him for days as he heals. Briony realizes it is Toven’s birthday, so she barges into his room to say sorry, but in the midst of it, she realizes that Finn, his friend, is also there. She leaves, but Finn later talks to her, saying that Toven has been telling everyone she is sick, and also that their bond is complete and he has been using her.

In a past memory, Toven uses Briony as a pawn to get a girl that he likes at a ball, Larissa. She feels used and hates that Toven treated her like that. Now, whenever she walks around school, all she sees is Toven holding and kissing Larissa. However, Briony starts to suspect that Toven has both heart and mind magic.

One day as Briony and Toven are having a conversation, his friends Finn, Canning, and Liam show up to celebrate his birthday. Toven tries to get her out but they insist she stay. As a last-ditch effort, Toven spills a drink on her, making it look like she did it. He dismisses her, but his friends tell her to stay and just take off her dress. She does so, hating every second of it. Toven then pulls some moves to make a show that Briony is his and only his, before dismissing her. Back in her room, Briony feels something toward Toven, but hates how everything feels. Now that his friends have seen her, she is to start going to parties with him. The first one is happening at her childhood home.

The party is in full swing, and Toven is forced to show off Briony to his friends, who all happen to have their own girls, some of whom Briony knows. Even though Toven’s friends all say he is treating her too kindly, Briony feels humiliated by the whole situation. After the party they go to an arena, where Briony learns what husking is. Two magicians fight and use their bond’s magic until there is nothing left. Sometimes their magic does not return. Briony hates the whole night, but throughout she finds little signs of people rebelling.

Six years ago, Briony returns to school. She is surprised to hear that Larissa and Toven did not get engaged during their break but instead broke up. Also during this time, Toven and his people have been told that mind magic is now illegal. But one night, Briony finds Toven practicing it. She calls him out on it, and in the end the two almost kiss until they are interrupted.

After the party, Toven reveals that he has been bringing other girls to the parties since he is not bringing her. He also says that she will not be allowed to go to the parties anymore, saying there is no way she can pretend to be under his magic and submissive. She puts on an act and tries to show him differently. He refuses, and at the next party he leaves her behind. When she is waiting for his return to be angry with him about it, he comes back with Larissa. Toven wants Briony to teach Larissa mind magic, to be able to project herself into Toven’s body. That way her body can go to the parties, but it won’t really be her. After a big fight, Briony finally agrees, but if Larissa can’t do it, she wants to go. After a week of tough training, Larissa can’t complete her task, leaving it so Toven has to take Briony to the party.

During the party Briony plays her part well, even when Reighven shows up and tries to touch her. The night turns into card playing, where Toven and his friends share secrets instead of money when they win. The whole time, Briony plays her part, until they bring up the known location of one of her cousins. Canning says he’ll give the destination to Briony if she kisses him. Before Toven can say no, Briony kisses him to get the information. Later at the arena, a mysterious woman comes up to her and kisses her. When they get back home, the two fight, and then Briony realizes that the girl who kissed her slipped a note under her collar.

Briony and Toven start a tentative truce; they practice being a submissive couple so it seems more natural. But things change when, at the next party, Mallow is there. She turns the party into a public execution. The two people being killed are the girl who kissed Briony and her brother. Briony is in tears the whole time, and Toven helps hold her together. The whole night he stays with her, so Briony feels like there is a slight change. But the next day Toven seems standoffish in the library. Briony finds out why that night when she is woken by him and Serena. A healer is coming the next day to see if her virginity is still intact. They cast a spell on her to make it so it looks like it is.

Reighven comes with one of the healers. Not only do they need to check her virginity, they need to check if she is sterilized, as apparently a doctor did not do it to all of the girls. They check and find that she has not been fully sterilized, but before they do it to her, Toven says no, he wants to keep her like that. Things quickly escalate, and it turns into Reighven passing out and Briony using heart magic to kill one of the healers.

In a past memory, Toven helped save Briony during the first siege, the one that killed her father. They then meet up again when Briony is being chased and attacked, when suddenly four of her attackers just die. When Briony is running, she finds Toven on the ground, clutching his heart. He somehow used his heart magic to kill four at once. This had been unheard of; his father Orion had only ever been able to do two. Briony leaves Toven on the ground suffering and runs away.

Briony feels awful for what she has done, but they must act quickly. With the help of Serena, the three change the memories of Reighven and the other healer to make it seem like everything went well with the exam, and that Serena was the one who killed rather than Briony. Just as they finish, Orion shows up furious. He says that soon Mallow will arrive to assess the situation. Toven takes Briony to her room, where they end up kissing for the first time. But it is interrupted by Serena, who says Mallow has arrived.

Mallow believes that Briony is hiding secrets, especially since she hid that she wasn’t fully sterilized. Mallow digs into her mind, but thanks to her training, Briony is able to fight her off. She realizes that Mallow is looking for information about Rory, her brother. That’s when Briony realizes that if she was connected via a bond with her brother, she never felt it sever. Rory is still alive.

Briony finds an old memory of Rory saying that if he ever wasn’t king, he would be a sailor. Briony feeds that memory to Mallow in hopes of keeping her off her brother’s trail. As she leaves, she tells Orion and Toven that she expects more of them, and that they will soon have more tasks than normal. Back in Briony’s room, Toven says their kiss never should have happened. Briony fights him on it, and demands to know which side he is on, because she wants to find her brother.

In an epilogue, the dragon that Mallow has bonded with is furious that she was tricked into the bond. In reality, the dragon wants to be bonded with another human prince who showed up, and the boy keeps talking about how much the dragon will love his sister.