The Rose Bargain

Written by Sasha Peyton Smith, The Rose Bargain (2025) is a New York Times best-selling romantasy novel that incorporates faerie characters and elements of magic to create a fantasy version of England based upon Victorian standards and social conventions. Within this framework, the novel follows the struggles of a young debutante named Ivy, who must navigate the Societal Limitations on Victorian Women and The Hidden Costs of Bargains in order to survive The Ruinous Impact of Upper-Class Corruption that permeates her fae-dominated society.

This guide is based on the HarperCollins first edition hardcover.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide include depictions of physical abuse, emotional abuse, illness, death, graphic violence, and sexually explicit scenes.

Plot Summary

Moryen (known as Mor) is a faerie who came to England in 1471, during the War of the Roses. She made a bargain with Edward IV, ensuring his victory. One year later, he died, and the immortal Mor then became queen of England. Since then, she has gone on to rule over a Victorian-style society for hundreds of years. Each May, debutantes make “Rose Bargains” with her, gaining new qualities to improve their marriageability, but often at a grievous magical cost.

When a young human woman named Lydia strikes a Rose Bargain with Queen Mor, asking to experience something new, the price of the arrangement is that she will never be able to tell anyone about her experience. Lydia then disappears for eight days, during which time her sister, Ivy, goes looking for her and meets Prince Emmett, Queen Mor’s human stepson. Later that night, Lydia returns with no memory of where she has been. She claims to have run off with a lower-class lover, and this scandal ruins her family’s reputation. To make matters worse, their finances are ruined when their land becomes barren.

The following May, Ivy goes to make her own Rose Bargain. She wants to restore Lydia’s memory, but Mor refuses, so Ivy doesn’t make a bargain at all. Mor then tells Ivy and the other debutantes gathered at the event that her fae son, Prince Bram, is currently looking for a wife. Twenty-four of the debutantes sign a contract in blood and enter Mor’s contest to determine which of them will marry Bram. The debutantes first compete in a maypole dance contest, which narrows the competition to six contestants. In a follow-up contest, Ivy wins and is crowned the May Queen. She and the other five debutantes (Faith, Marion, Olive, Emmy, and Greer) are housed in a cottage on palace grounds and supervised by Viscountess Bolingbroke.

When the debutantes attend a ball one night, Prince Emmett pulls Ivy into a room and asks if she cheated during the maypole dance. She reveals that she won the contest because she wore boots, not heels. After they part, Ivy waltzes with Bram but struggles to perform the dance properly.

Later that night, Emmett sends a maid named Lottie to bring Ivy to his room through a secret tunnel. He teaches her to dance and tells her about his father’s plan to unseat the queen. His father has explained to him that if another woman is crowned twice (as Mor herself was crowned twice—once in the fae “Otherworld” and once in England), all of Mor’s bargains will magically dissolve. Emmett says that because Ivy has already been crowned as May Queen, all she must do is win the contest and be “crowned” future queen as Bram’s wife; at this point, Mor’s original bargain and all subsequent Rose Bargains will be undone, and Mor herself will be dethroned. Ivy agrees to help with Emmett’s plan.

The following day, Mor magically swears the debutantes to secrecy about the details of her various contests. The debutantes have lessons with Bolingbroke, then compete to find a trophy in a hedge maze. Emmett tries to get Ivy to flirt with Bram, but she is too awkward to do so. Bram wins the maze’s trophy.

Later that night, the queen brings them back to the maze, which magically attacks the debutantes in various ways. Emmy wins this particular contest, but they all sustain injuries.

The next day, the debutantes go to a boat race that Bram and Emmett win. In the boathouse, Emmett and Ivy talk about their plan, and Ivy also overhears a conversation between Faith and Emmett. Later, that night, Ivy and Emmett meet again, and he explains that he isn’t in love with Faith; he originally planned to help Faith to win the contest, but he is now backing Ivy.

Ivy catches a fever and is sick for three days. After she recovers, she goes for a walk in the park with the other debutantes and the two princes. Emmett tells Bram that Ivy looks ill and suggests that Bram take her back to the cottage. Ivy has Bram make a detour to the stables, where they flirt, and also Bram gives her a pearl ring. Meanwhile, Marion falls in love with Faith and intends to lose the contest deliberately because all losers are automatically destined to remain spinsters.

Mor’s next trial involves stations of activities such as sewing and dancing. When the debutantes make mistakes, they are physically harmed. Marion refuses to complete the contest, and the others agree to a tie—all except for Olive, who secretly completes her final station and wins a dinner with Bram. That night, they all attend a party, and Emmett arranges for Ivy to be alone with Bram. Bram kisses Ivy, who worries about her technique; it is her first kiss.

The next event is a ball. Ivy sees Emmett and Faith kissing. Bram then takes her to a gentlemen’s club, where they play poker and draw the ire of a lord who objects to Ivy’s presence in the all-male space. When she calls the lord out for cheating, he insults her, and Bram and Emmett both engage in a brawl with the lord. A few days later, Olive has dinner with Bram, and he kisses her.

The debutantes go on a hunting trip for Bram’s birthday. Bram has already given Ivy a book about faeries. She pretends to be sick so that she can be exempt from the hunt, then goes with Emmett to find the book’s previous owner, a man whom Mor gifted with immortality. He tells them about unsuccessful attempts to unseat the queen. Later, when a storm descends, Ivy and Emmett have to stay at an inn, and they share a kiss. When they return to the campsite, the others have not yet returned, as they were also caught in the storm. Emmett and Ivy are therefore able to keep their night in the inn a secret.

The next event is a garden party. Ivy overhears Bram confronting Emmett about spending time with Ivy, and Emmett insults Ivy in order to deflect Bram’s suspicions. Later, a furious Ivy goes to Emmett’s room to confront him about his comments. Emmett says that they can’t be together because the plan to dethrone Mor calls for Ivy to marry Bram.

Mor’s next trial is a tea party with the debutantes’ family and friends, who have all been enchanted to tell only the truth. Greer’s mother tells Mor about Greer’s relationship with the stable boy, and Greer abruptly leaves the event. The next morning, the newspapers report that Greer is dead. Ivy and the other debutantes try to find the stable boy, but he is missing.

Ivy and Faith are magically forbidden from directly telling Emmett about Mor’s abusive trials, but they can speak to each other about it in front of him. Thus alerted, Emmett tells Bram about Mor’s trials, and Bram demands that she stop them. Mor agrees and publicly announces that Bram will soon choose a wife. Meanwhile, Faith falls in love with Marion. (Faith’s earlier kiss with Emmett was only an experiment to confirm that she isn’t attracted to men.)

One night, the debutantes individually meet with Mor, who tells all of them that they have lost the contest. Ivy sneaks off to Emmett’s room and tells him that she lost, after which they have sex. Afterwards, she says she must marry Bram in order to save her family’s finances and reputation. Emmett reluctantly agrees. Ivy goes to Bram, who suggests that they elope. While Ivy packs a bag at her family’s home, Mor tells Bram that he is welcome to marry Ivy.

Mor commands Ivy to return to the palace, then congratulates her on winning Bram. However, Ivy must make a Rose Bargain. Mor asks if Ivy wants to be with Emmett, but Ivy denies this. She asks Mor for an hour’s time to consider what bargain to make. During this time, she sends a letter to Emmett, explaining her plan: for the Rose Bargain, Mor will erase all of Ivy’s memories of Emmett so that Ivy can more easily marry Bram. Emmett tries to stop Ivy, but it is too late.

At Bram and Ivy’s engagement party, a distraught Emmett goes outside and vomits, and Faith and Marion comfort him. A few days later, Emmett agrees to be Bram’s best man so that he can remain close to Ivy. Bram and Ivy get married on the summer solstice. When Ivy is crowned, all of Mor’s bargains are undone, and Ivy remembers that she loves Emmett.

Bram kidnaps Lydia and takes her back to the realm of the fae, the Otherworld. She recalls that she was there during her disappearance. Bram originally tried to crown Lydia twice in the Otherworld in order to unseat Mor, but he did not realize that the crowning had to be done in England. The narrative reveals that Bram killed his father and took the Otherworld throne; he has been torturing humans in the Otherworld. When Bram returns to England, he has Emmett taken away. Ivy and the other debutantes try to find Emmett, but instead, they find Mor locked in the Tower of London. She tells them not to kill her and insists that they will need her help. Ivy goes to the palace and discovers that Bram has opened the gateway between worlds; the palace is now filled with partying fae.