I really loved We Call Her Rose as it was an unusual and unique romance novel. It showed how love can blossom and grow despite the challenging circumstances of a dystopian world. It felt hopeful and I liked how the narrative was written too - like someone recording their story for a memoir or for the sake of having it documented. There are some hard topics in this book (see the triggers section), but there was only one chapter where I found it particularly hard to read. I did like Rose's character development as well. It was also nice to see the return of some of the characters I read about in Beneath The Birch Trees and see where they have progressed to and understand some of the links between the books. That said, both are great standalone novels and do not need to be read in order.
I really enjoyed Everything and the Moon by Julia Quinn. It was set in one of my favourite eras of history and I liked that it was true to the era, with the exception of the fact that it included the spicy scenes! I thought the characters were interesting and well written but I was annoyed at the miscommunication trope that went through the first part of the book and also Robert's arrogance and assumption that he could get everything he wanted, even if that was the way of the nobility back then. The plot didn't go where I expected to which was nice, although I did anticipate the ending clearly it was going to be a happily ever after but I was very happy it ended this way and all the loose ends got neatly tied up too. I'm looking forward to finding and reading/listening to more of Julia Quinn's work.