Hello, folks!

A few weeks ago, I was offered to be a book tour stop for Romance me with Books for a dark romance novel. At first, I was intrigued, but when I saw that it was a duet, I thought this sounded pretty fancy… Guess what? It's a Romeo & Juliet retelling, so fancy it is!

Being a huge Shakespeare, and mostly Romeo & Juliet fan, I was hooked.

But still, would it suit me, I wondered?

Goodreads (Add it to your shelves!)

Ok, so lemme just… pull out the official bullet point description of this Duet from the author's website…

– Second chance love

– Stalker / Prey vibes

– I hate everyone but you

– Betray me and I'll kill you

– ALOT of angst, secrets, and betrayal -if you want to rip your heart out then this duet is *exactly* what you're after!

Like, come on! How could I ever say no to that?!

So, of course, I was all "GIMME THE ARC! OMG I NEED TO READ THIS!"

Want to know how my reading went? Scroll down for the review! ^.^

The Book Review

I received an e-copy for free and I write this review willingly, without any compensation whatsoever. Thank you to Ellie Sanders and Romance me with Books!

*STRONG TRIGGER WARNINGS: Sexual assault, rape (detailed), physical assault, emotional abuse, emotional blackmail, physical assault of a child (hitting), forced pregnancy themes, human trafficking, forced drug use, gang rape (this is fade to black), torture, murder. *

I will summarize Uprising like this: delicious dark! Also, if you're looking for a story that tears your heart out, puts it back in, then rips it out again, this book is perfect!

Trust the trigger warnings as they all apply!

This story is extremely heart-wrenching emotionally, it's beautiful! Honestly, I never read anything so dark and angsty–and that beats a dark romance with a sadistic serial killer…!

This book contains the strongest dark/angsty scene I ever read, and I call it "the coffin scene". Uprising is atrociously excellent for dark romance readers!

Moreover, the psychological and physical reactions to such stress and miserable conditions that Rose and Lara are suffering are spot-on from what I know. Stress and dire situations are familiar to me (not in THAT sense, but more like life-critical heart surgeries, terrible family issues, and other fun ones like that). So her fainting due to a temporary cardiac issue? SPOT. ON.

I found the romance to be feelsy and beautiful and emotional and angsty, and urgh, yes. I love Rose, I love Roman, and I love their love. THERE!

As for the characters themselves, well I love Rose–she is so sweet yet so strong. Lara is a cute girl. And the maternal love Rose has for her as well as her purpose–to keep her daughter safe–that's exactly how most mothers would think and act in this situation. Something-someone- to love, to hold onto and to defend. Her own daughter.

Reading Roman's POV feels like creeping into a man's mind. It's different, but interesting. I believe his character, and his love for Rose is romantic and beautiful. Swoons

As a big fan of Romeo & Juliet (I like the tragedy, ok?!), I could clearly see the retelling in this work! Very fun!

Oh, and the author, kind Ellie Sanders, added a playlist at the beginning of the book so that we can listen to fitting songs while reading. Of f*** course, I compiled it. Click here to listen to my Spotify playlist as per the author's suggestions! (PPPPSSST, you're welcome :))

And lastly, since I am insatiable with this story… I bought the first volume of the Duet on Kindle. (Yeah, I didn't get the chance to read the first one until now… but I'm fixing this! ;))

Because it's the bestest darkest romance I ever read, I give Uprising a rating of 5++++ out of 5. I HIGHLY recommend.

Please note some of these links are affiliate links. If you buy the product, I will receive some percentage of the sale but at NO additional cost to you. I only vouch for products I either LOVE or USE in my own life. Thank you.

Introduction

In 2019, I was lucky enough to be one of the first people who knew about Plottr. I was there in 2021 for their big update. And to this day, I still use the software Plottr to outline my stories and series.

What is Plottr?

Plottr is a subscription-based software (now app as well) that allows you to outline both novels and series, as well as to keep track of your characters’ timelines and items, locations, and much more.

You can check it out here.

How do I Use It?

Well, first of all, I found a “trick” to outline any type of stories I want. Screenplay? Sure! Comic book? No problem! Novels? Absolutely!

But how?

Let me tell you something first: When I started using Plottr, I had trouble making sense of how to actually outline the whole book and the characters’ timelines in something cohesive and intuitive directly into the software. But at the same time, I was deep into studying the Save the Cat method for both my screenwriting (Daphné and Philip) and other stories.

You can see where I’m going with this, huh?

So, one day, I figured “Why not?” and began creating “Chapters” with the beats’ names—this way I knew where to head to and which beat to hit next. Then, I created scenes to expand the chapters. I got through a lot of my Rise of a Heroine story like this!

Nowadays, you can purchase the Save the Cat method in Plottr as an add-on. While I do have it, I prefer creating my own. It suits me better and I can tweak it like I want; however, theirs is an excellent resource and/or starting point to customize your own.

I am now outlining the whole series of Rise of a Heroine (you can add covers to the books in your series in Plottr! Neat!), a comic book, and a novella.

Anything is possible!

As long as it’s for plotting and outlining. Otherwise, you might be at the wrong place…

In Conclusion

Plottr is definitely one of my top softwares to work with as an author/writer—and it was right from the start. Sometimes, it just needs a bit of customization to really grasp the tool, but once you do, you’ll get a-plotting with Plottr in no time!

Don’t forget to check it out here for more info: Plottr

See you next post, lovelies!