Series: Immortal Rose # 1
Format: 496 pages, Hardcover
Release Date: August 18, 2026
Publisher: Avon
Source: Publisher
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Members of the ancient House Rosebourne have a strange gift born of a fairy ancestor: the ability to infuse fragrance with magic capable of manipulating mind, body, and emotion.
When a shocking murder leaves the kingdom of Albion vulnerable to a coup, royal spymaster Hugh Thornton seeks the one person who can help: Viola Lockhart, the last living Rosebourne and secret heir to a fraught legacy.
Livid at the silver-eyed aristocrat who had her thrown in jail to force her compliance, Viola nevertheless comes to an agreement with him. In exchange for crafting Immortal Rose, the singular perfume capable of saving Albion, illegitimate Viola can seize the life—and fortune—that should have been hers.
As Hugh and Viola race to find the perfume’s lost fairy ingredient, hidden deep in Albion’s dark underbelly, neither can deny the scorching attraction building between them—especially as the attempts on Viola’s life grow increasingly brazen.
But a terrible truth lurks in the heart notes of their kingdom—and while every bargain has a cost, Immortal Rose may demand more than Hugh and Viola can ever pay.
Immortal Rose is the first installment in author Alexandra Bracken's Immortal Rose duology. Immortal Rose is Alexandra Bracken’s adult debut and a Regency-inspired romantasy built around perfume magic, class resentment, political conspiracy, and a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers pairing that actually earns its heat. The story alternates between Viola Lockwood and Hugh Thornton. In the kingdom of Albion, the last descendants of the fairies—the fairyborn—can work magic through scent.
Members of House Rosebourne inherited the rare gift of infusing perfume so that it can alter mind, body, and emotion. That gift is both coveted and criminalized, depending on who is using it. Viola Lockwood is the illegitimate last Rosebourne. She has spent years scraping by in the illegal Midnight Market, hiding a lineage that could either restore her fortune or send her back to Fairgate Prison.
After a shocking act of violence leaves the king poisoned and the realm ripe for a coup, royal spymaster Hugh Thornton has her arrested specifically so he can force a bargain: craft Immortal Rose, the one perfume that might save Albion, and she can claim the name, fortune, and life that were denied her. They go looking for a lost fairy ingredient in the city’s underbelly. Attraction arrives whether they want it or not. So do assassination attempts, secrets, and the kind of political rot that perfume cannot cover.
The magic system is the book’s best idea. Scent-as-power is not just window dressing. Bracken treats fragrance the way a good historical novelist treats etiquette or a good fantasy writer treats bloodlines: as status, contraband, intimacy, and weapon. Top notes, heart notes, and base notes become plot mechanics. The result is unusually tactile. You can almost smell the rooms. Viola is a stronger heroine than many current romantasy leads. She is not a bratty chosen one. She is practical, proud, already tired, and unwilling to be grateful for a gilded cage.
Hugh is the yearner: silver-eyed, morally compromised, professionally secretive, and increasingly undone by a woman he first treated as an asset. He falls first and harder. The banter and the careful noticing of each other are the book’s emotional engine. Also, I would pay attention to the secondary characters, especially in Hugh's house. They are all important, as are Oliver, Reedy, and Eleanor. Found-family side characters and the class critique give the story more bite than a pure ballroom romance.
The rich can buy fairy relics. The poor get jailed for making the same kind of magic. Viola’s anger about that hypocrisy is one of the book’s most adult notes. This is not a standalone, despite some early marketing that made it feel like one. It ends on a genuine cliffhanger—abrupt, high-stakes, jaw-dropping, and infuriating depending on your tolerance for unfinished duologies. Do not start this if you refuse incomplete series. Read it if you want slow-burn historical romantasy with a new magic hook, a competent heroine, a down-bad spymaster, and a world that smells expensive and dangerous at the same time. Wait for the second book if cliffhangers ruin you.
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