Sleeping Roses

Dead Roses #1

by RaShelle Workman

Her marriage may be dangerous, but leaving could be deadly.

Sophie married into a lie.

Sick of her dangerous marriage, Sophie leaves her husband, determined to start a new life.

But her husband isn't going to let her go that easily. If he can't have her, no one can.

It's hunter versus hunted.

Genre: Romantic Suspense.

Genres: Romance, Mystery, Thriller, Contemporary, Suspense, Fiction, Ebooks

367 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 14, 2009

About the author

RaShelle Workman is an international bestselling author of reimagined fairy tales, supernatural suspense, paranormal cozies, and more. Her novels have been listed on multiple bestseller lists, including her Blood and Snow series (now Seven Magics Academy), which has sold more than a million copies worldwide. In addition, three of her books have been translated into Turkish.

When RaShelle isn't writing, she enjoys baking, creating new taco recipes and hanging with family. She lives in Utah with her husband, three children, and their dogs.

Find her online by visiting her website at: www.rashelleworkman.org. And sign up for her newsletter to receive free books and get information on book release dates: http://eepurl.com/chMcej.

Books by RaShelle Workman:

BROOMSTICK BAY COZY MYSTERIES
Zucchini Cake & Zombies
Wedding Cake & Werewolves (coming 6/23)
Vanilla Cake & Vampires (coming 10/23)

EERIE VALLEY SUPERNATURALS
Undercover Reaper
Twice Reaped
Reapers Creepers
Deadly Reaper (coming 4/24)

FABLE TOWN MYSTERIES
Iced Raspberry Cookies and a Curse

FAIRY ACADEMY
Hidden Princess
Broken Curse
Stolen Magic

THE FAIRYTALE CHRONICLES
Royal Selection
Royal Contract
Royal Keeper (coming 12/23)
Royal Everlasting (coming 2024)

DEMONLAND SERIES
Alice in Demonland
Alice Fights Demonland
Alice Takes Demonland
Alice Ignites Demonland

BEASTLY SERIES
A Beauty so Beastly

WOLF BLOOD ACADEMY
Initiation
Inheritance
Induction

MAGIC BLOOD ACADEMY
Elemental Outcast Games: Fire
Elemental Outcast Games: Water
Elemental Outcast Games: Earth
Elemental Outcast Games: Air
Elemental Outcast Games: Shadow
Elemental Outcast Games: Monster

VAMPIRE BLOOD ACADEMY
Vampire in Training (coming 8/2023)
Monster Trials (coming 9/2023
End Times (coming 9/23)

SEVEN MAGICS ACADEMY
Blood and Snow
Fate and Magic
Queen of the Vampires
Deadly Witch
Royal Witch
Vampire Lies
Vampire Secrets
Vampires and Dragons
Vampires and Gargoyles
Vampire Magics

ETERNALLY ENTANGLED
Eternally Entangled
Thoroughly Tousled
Infinitely Intertwined

PARANORMAL INQUIRIES
Ghoulish Whisper

IMMORTAL ESSENCE
Exiled
Destined

ACROSS THE AGES
Goddess Curse
Mystical Gift

__________

Ann Hardy ~ Sizzling Sweet Romance
Most Eligible Cowboy
Happily Ever Summer
Rockstar Billionaire
Billionaire Best Man
Faking it With the Billionaire
Dating the Billionaire
The Betting Billionaire
The Country Singer's Billionaire
The Prideful Billionaire
Totally Scrooged


Reviews

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow and bravo to that twist. I don't usually get surprised in books, and holy cow I sure did.

HOWEVER. I want to STRANGLE whoever did the proofing of this novel (and I use the term lightly!) It's HORRIBLE! There are errors literally on every page. English misspellings like brake/break, you're/your, to/too, than/then - my mouth was literally dropping open in disbelief at the errors, and I almost even stopped reading it a few times because it is so bad. Oh, and chicken COUP!? Are you f'n kidding me? COUP. Not once, but twice. Are the chickens planning a revolution? It's COOP! Chicken coop! What is this world coming to that a professional novel has errors in it after the author, editor, and publishing company have all gotten their hands on it. There is no excuse for these kind of errors. A fifth grader could have proofed it better. I can NOT get over it.

[pdbkwm · Rating 1 out of 5]

By far one or the worse books I've ever read. Bad pacing, one dimensional characters, stupid main character, an ending that made the rest of the book seem like it was a waste of time, and tons of grammatical and spelling errors that leave you wondering how this got published.

Only good points is the book cover and the synopsis for the next book, which actually sounds interesting.

The Good

I love the cover. It's really pretty.

The Okay

The synopsis for the next book in the series is quite intriguing.

The Bad

Shut the faulty door, I sure have a lot of reasons why this book is positively horrid. But to save time and to refrain from ranting so much, I'll only mention 5.

1. The grammar and the amount of spelling mistakes in this book will make you scream. It's almost like this book didn't have an editor to look through this book before publishing it. I don't think you even needed an editor to catch these mistakes. Just looking over the work would have been enough. There are a lot of adverbs used for no reason too. They don't add to the story or the writing, it just makes everything sound clunky.

2. The characters are so one dimensional it isn't even funny. Sophie is stupid. Rena is the gay best friend who is in love with Sophie, but not really. David is the abusive husband who is so over the top you can't take this book seriously. Phillip is meant to be the complete opposite of him and while he seems nice, his love for Sophie is so shallow that you wonder why he wants to be with her when all she does is yell at him.

3. I feel bad for this point, because it sounds bad if you haven't read the book. Even though Sophie, the main character, goes through a horrible situation with her husband and is clearly scarred from the ordeal. She's way too much of a Mary Sue, which means she's TSTL for me to care.

The book starts off with Sophie leaving her abusive husband. We're told many times he's a psycho and that he's beat her a lot. So at point in the novel Sophie decides enough is enough and files for divorce.

The divorce lawyer asks her if he should send the divorce papers to her husband. Sophie says no and that she has to do it. David, the husband, before this happened has been leaving messages to Sophie telling her that she's dead if he sees her. He's already abused her and put a knife to her neck while they were together, killing her should be easy for him. Still Sophie decides to go to him, alone, when she delivers the papers. When her friend Rina offers to go with her, Sophie says no because she wants to be a strong independent woman and face her problems head on. So she visits David and almost gets raped.

Oh Sophie, you sure are a smart one.

4. Like I mentioned in the beginning, the ending makes you feel like this book was a complete waste of time. This is a spoiler, so...At the end it turns out that Sophie has been in a coma for the past 10 years and none of the events in the book really happened. Things happen to her while in a coma which is why it translated to her dream world, but this whole thing was done in such a way that it made you feel cheated as a reader.

5. Phillip and Sophie kind of suck as a couple. In the dream world they made sense. But then we find out that Phillip is really Sophie's doctor. That automatically makes the relationship inappropriate to me. Sophie, in the real world, has feelings for dream world Phillip and not the real person. She thinks she loves him, but knows nothing about him. Nothing. And for some reason he stops seeing her as a miracle, she did wake up after 10 years, but as a love interest and it doesn't make sense either. It's almost like the author wanted a happy ending for those two and put them together when it makes no sense. At all.

Overall:

This book had a lot of potential and if this was written better, I think I might have liked this a lot. But the writing isn't good, there are a lot of spelling and grammatical errors, the characters are very one note, and the ending makes you feel cheated.

Don't read this book. It is, by far, one of the worse books I've ever read.

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Aaaaaand another one star audiobook. YAY. Who is surprised? Not me! This is like the fifth one in a few days I think. Now I found a couple of good books along the way so it's not all bad (and it's why I keep trying and keep listening).

Sigh. Sleeping roses had such a beautiful cover and the title hinted at a sleeping beauty retelling and oh boy was I disappointed. I wasn't even surprised to find yet again a bad book (this time the audio quality was fine so that was nice) but the characters and story were a let down. Now that I'm looking at this book I see it was originally published in 2009 but had a new cover in 2018 to attract new readers and I just wish this book would have stayed buried and not promoted with a new cover and an audio recording. Honestly, I'm annoyed by this book first because of the main character who wasn't the brightest and was a Mary Sue. Her husband abused her and even though she was in a bad situation I couldn't care for her because she was so annoying.. Also (it's a spoiler but come on.. do you really want to read this book?) the ending !! The "twist" or retelling is because the main character is actually in a coma for 10 years and what happened in the book never happened. It was all in her head. And the love interest is her doctor... like... what? that's not creepy at all. It also doesn't make any sense.

Conclusion: I should probably read some reviews before diving into my next audiobook and before choosing which ones to borrow. I'm just glad I'm listening to these flops with my Audible escape subscription and not by buying credits...

[Pamela · Rating 1 out of 5]

A horribly written book with pathetic characters and unbelievable plot.

[Coco.V]

🎁 FREE on Amazon today (2/29/2020)! 🎁

[Bèbè ✦ RANT ✦ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall score: 3 Stars

Sophie married a monster and there was no way of getting out of the relationship. Until one day she said it was enough and left him. However, having a man who sees women as slaves does not do her any good and she has to live in constant fear for her life. Specially after she finds out that she is pregnant with his baby and the child that she is bearing may upset him even more. While hiding from her soon-to-be-ex-husband, she finds an amazing job and starts having a relationship with her coworker that she is falling for which scares her. But David finally catches her and the past that she has been trying to forget for so long might catch up to her as well. That is until she wakes up...

Ummm I am not even sure about this book. Before I write a review, I always check out other people's reviews and just see what they thought about it. This is the time where their review may have opened my eyes to the things that I haven't noticed before. Weak and emotionally-distressed main character, unbelievable spot and uncontrollable pace of the book. Yes, I thought that Sophie was relying on her Lesbian BBF too much and sometimes she really annoyed me. But it was a quick read and some moments made me pause and think: "Holy sh*t!". I think when people get very emotional and then someone says "Just kidding", they get a little upset and take everything out on the whole book instead of just one part. But hey, I felt the same moment and this book can definitely change some minds. 3 stars.

[Melissa’s Bookshelf · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was free on Amazon and because the plot sounded interesting and the author is from where I'm from, I decided to download it. I loved reading about the area I grew up in and the author is very descriptive. While the mystery was really unique and intriguing, the author gave away too many clues and unfortunately, I figured the plot twist out in the first few chapters. There were also A LOT of typos and grammatical errors that made me want to chuck the book across the room.

There was a little bit of swearing and violence, but probably the most awkward thing in the book was that the author made one of the minor characters gay. There aren't many details given about the character's life, but it just didn't make sense with the ending of the story and I couldn't figure out why the author decided to go this route. It just made the story uncomfortable in spots and like I said I couldn't quite figure out where this character came from in the end.

I think that this could have been a much better story. The premise was really unique and the mystery was good too. There were just too many issues I had with the book for me to recommend it. Frankly, I finished the book out of pure stubbornness to see if all my presumptions were correct and for the most part they were

[Jek Jamison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is completely different from Exiled, the other book out by RaShelle Workman.

First it's written from 1 point of view, that of Sophie, the main character.

It's an adult contemporary (sort of). It's strange, mysterious, and down right cool! It made me wonder if this really happened.

Something occurs in Sleeping Roses that threw me for a loop. I seriously turned off my kindle for like an hour, fuming mad. Then I went back to it because I had to know where the story was headed.

The ending was one of the better I've read in a long time!

RaShelle Workman says this is part of a series. I'm intruiged to know where she could possibly take it. Kind of giddy excited.

Hurry and write the next one.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sleeping Roses is a wonderful book. You really get pulled into it and feel like you are the characters. I think the author did an amazing job with her writing that you can feel that way. Sophie is an great character. You really get to see into her life. David I won't say if I liked him or not. It may ruin the story if I do say. This book is so great I actually read it and then reread it. It is a very emotional story that will keep you on the edge wondering how it will end. Then you are left wanting more. I'm glad to know there is going to be more to this story cause I want to read it now. The characters have so many hidden depths to read about I just know more is waiting to be uncloaked. Hands down a great book you need to pick up and read.

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointed in this book- and I wasn't even expecting very much.

First off, the editing for this book is atrocious...misspellings and missing words run rampant through the book. Kindle editing in many of its books is bad, but it is especially bad in this case.

Story-wise.. every part of this book is predictable, from beginning to end. The plotline itself is boring and uninteresting, and when it seems like it might become interesting, and incredibly predictable "twist" in the story comes out, making the book feel like a waste of time.

I was only able to finish it because I was on vacation, and had limited reading material. Definitely do not recommend.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let me start this off by saying I LOVE this book! I did not at all expect the twist. The characters were so well developed it felt like I was watching a biography unfolding before me. I didn't want it to end. I'm glad to see that there is another book but picking up later down the road with other characters. I'm quickly becoming a huge fan of this author!

[RaShelle Workman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genre: Adult Romantic Suspense/Thriller

First released in 2009. I'm re-releasing 12-21-11.

[Francais Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one might mess with your mind a little bit.

World Building: A-
Mythology: N/A
Plot-Twists: A-
Villains: B+
Girl Power: B
Guy-Hero: B
Love-Interests: A
Suspense: B
Feels: A++

For you clean-readers: this book does NOT have mature content. There is some stuff that might trigger victims of abuse, though.

[Nicole Pope · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read several of RaShelle's novels and I have to say that she is definitely one of my very favorite indie authors. And this book was one of my favorite! The story line was well developed, consistent, and so incredibly imaginative! The plot was unusual and through me for a loop - what a twist! The characters were relatable and well developed. I felt like I understood all of them. It was incredible how it all fell together! What an imagination this author has! I stayed up late to finish the book and after explaining to my husband the entire story, he wanted to read it too! Granted, as with all indie books, there were some typos and errors, but very few. It kept me intrigued and captivated. If you love the movie Enough or Sleeping with the Enemy, enjoy medical mystery novels, and enjoy reading excellent indie authors, you will not be disappointed. I look forward to the next installment!

Edited to add: I am a fan of indie novels and their authors. I admire their work and dedication to an underappreciated craft. On Amazon, there were some negative reviews regarding editing and technical criticisms. Grammar, spelling, and editing are very important to me - I consider myself a gramma ninja. In fact, I highlight mistakes that I find in the books I read. With that said, when reading self published authors, you need to look past those things (unless of course they are truly excessive) and read the story, not read for editing. If you have ever edited or proofed, or graded papers for that matter, you look past the story and focus on the technical aspects. When reading for pleasure, the opposite is true. If you are looking for professional editing and proofing, stop reading indie books.

[Liza]

Had a very hard time getting into this book.

Abuse is not... this... casual. The writing was forced, or unrealistic, I don't know.

The "lesbian friend professing her love" scene was a little awkward, mainly because it seemed so unnecessary, with nothing leading up to it to suggest its validity.

This is a little too personal for such a public website, but: I watched someone I love go through a relationship like that. Controlling, abusive, life-altering. It culminated in my renting a Uhaul (in my name so that he wouldn't find out, at her request, during a rare unmonitored phone call), bringing a large male friend to her house to help load the truck and keep her abuser at bay once he realized why we were there, and pulling her physically from the situation because she was too afraid and physically incapable of doing it alone.

I found the reaction of the main character to be a bit odd, but moreso, I found the reactions of her friends and the people that cared about her to be unrealistic. I know every abusive situation is different, and not all women (or men) are able to acknowledge that there's an issue, but nobody seemed to give a crap. That just... The book didn't seem worth finishing.

I stopped reading when she decided she was going to deliver the divorce papers herself. What kind of idiot...?

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sleeping Roses, by RaShelle Workman, is an adult suspense novel, with romance thrown in, about a woman named Sophie who marries an abusive man named David. When Sophie discovers that David is cheating on her and that a relative left her with an inheritance, it gives Sophie the impetus she needs to leave David, the man she married in college.

Sophie starts a new life as an art teacher at her friend Rita's place of employment, a private school. Sophie begins a relationship with the theater teacher there, a man named Phillip. Sophie begins to be harassed by David and she can't help feeling that Phillip is somehow involved.

This book had many interesting twists and turns. The author crafted an engrossing story with a likeable cast of characters. It would have been nice to have some of the plotlines more developed, such as the relationship between Sophie and Phillip and the entire final third of the book when the surprise ending takes place. However, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to fans of suspense and adult romance.

I received this book as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaway program.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rarely give a book a 4 star rating but I will for this one because I was more than half way through it before I begin to realized there something was amiss with the main character, Sophie. Its hard to explain why this was such a good book without giving away the surprise twist near the ending. Suffice to say this is a well written book about a woman who tries to escape an emotionally abusive relationship and begin a new life. Unfortunately her husband sees her as his possession and her journey to independence is not easy. Yet she decides not to run an chooses to build a new life in plain sight. This aspect of the book alone was a good story but there is a plot twist that makes this book unique. In hindsight the opening of the book should alert you that something unusual is going to happen. Just read it. I don't think you will be disappointed. Overlook the editing error.

[Celeste · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I had forgotten the synopsis of this book having downloaded it long ago as a freebie. I suppose this was something of a romantic thriller. No murder though.
Super cheesy! The main female character seemed so frail and dependent on her motherly, lesbian BFF. Sophie is clearly on the rebound but she's falling for a coworker and won't tell him about her abusive marriage. I kept looking for different plot twists that didn't happen. "The lesbian BFF secretly doing things to drive Sophie into her arms" "The new man in her life secretly stalking her so she will fall for him" Nope. Pretty strait forward plot but surprise twist at end.

Sappy romance book but I had to find out what happened so I finished it. Good vacation read. If you like breathy romance with a happy ending and some intrigue thrown in you will probably enjoy it.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

SO this book started out blah and was hard for me to get into especially because it went from present to past I hate those type of books (most of the time) and then it started to get good but there were parts that confussed me and then it got really good I didn't want to put it down and THEN my mouth dropped I did not expect what I got but strangly I loved it.

I am glad I kept reading the book, yes in the beginning I kept putting it down, it just couldn't keep my intrest but like I said it did eventually get good and i think people should read this book just for the mouth dropping moment I didn't expect it, which I really should have because of the little inserts here and there that didn't make sense but eventually did. Maybe other people will get it though and it won't be such a jaw droppping moment.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book wasn't what I expected, it started off like a relationship gone bad, a woman trying to gain her independence and then...wow did it veer off into left field.

Without giving to much away, I really liked left field. It was completely unexpected and added something to the story that well made it even better. One review I read earlier said that the main character was this whiny girl, and maybe she was but I think the reviewer should give the book a second chance and actually finish it.

Don't give up half way in this book because the second half is the best half of the story. That wasn't to say the first half was bad, it sounded like a typical romance novel

[Jeannine · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give more stars I would. This book was so good! It did not end the way you tink it will. Loved this book...There is another book in theis collection. I am going to try and download it on my kindle. I've really enjoyed all the books that RaShelle has written so far. They are ALL great! She is a wonderful writing.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Amazon and RaShelle Workman for this free download. All the twists and turns kept me thumbing through the pages. At the end I was thinking this could possible be a true story. Don't want to say much because it'll give it all away, but great book, worth the read.

[♥Tiffany♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was interesting.....it totally had a twist that I didn't see coming and that was a surprise. Will I read the next one? I'm not sure.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
Stong story but the characters got kinda annoying.

[Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was hard to follow. The pacing was off and the settings changed with no warning, so much so that I didn't realize it a few times.

The characters weren't well fleshed out it wasn't clear how anyone felt or their motivations. The twist would have been awesome if it weren't for the other issues. It didn't feel like a twist at that point and it became unclear what was dreams and what was reality.

[Sue Monteiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW!!

I don’t have the words to explain what an amazing wonderful story this is or was ugh I hate that it ended but loved it from the first word!! I felt every emotion sadness happiness fear worry...I didn’t want it to end but was thrilled with the ending and more than surprised at the twist totally unexpected but thoroughly enjoyed!! I will be following this author for sure!! Read this you will not be disappointed you’ll love it as much as I did...promise!

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just weird! I appreciate the big twist to the story about 2/3 of the way through but the very end was too predictable. Sometimes the writing felt disjointed or almost juvenile, although it may have been what the author was trying to achieve once you learn the whole story. The main character drove me nuts, but then my taste leans heavily towards stories with strong women in them. Just not my cup of tea.

[Jeni Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow!! Definitely kept me on my guessing game until almost the end, and then it got a little disappointing. Once the twist hit everything was too clean and perfect, just not believable. There were some things I would've liked more story on, but overall not a bad read. Book definitely needed some editing and fine tuning though.

[Chrystal Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you struggled with the first few chapters like me...hang in there. I found the writing a bit formal and stuff in the first few but as the book went on it softened yo and the story was worthwhile. I really enjoyed it but felt like it left without some resolution... to a few points.
1. Adjustment to life after
2. Facing david

[jean baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

best ive read in awhile kept my interest.could not but it down till i finished reading .great read

beast book ive read in awhile.kept my interest could not put it down till i finished the book.great book .