Review: Rose by Holly Webb

Rose has always dreamed of leaving  St Bridget's Home for Abandoned Girls and getting a job.  She knows that by being employed, she one day will be free.  When Miss Bridges shows up at the orphangage looking for a new  housemaid, Rose thinks that the solution to her problems have been solved.  Yet, working for the famous alchemist Mr. Fountain isn't everything she expected it to be.  For one, there is magic at the mansion and Rose begins to think some of it is inside of her.  

I've been intrigued by this book for sometime.  The idea of a grand mansion flowing with magic and a girl around ten who rather then be adopted, wants to gain employment.  Going in, I was expecting a magical story, but Rose spends most of the book resisting her magical skills.   Rose's resistance and attempts to stop her magical abilities (communicating with animals and make vivid images appear during story telling) really slowed the story down. Things don't get moving again until Rose needs her magical skills to help Freddie, the apprentice of Mr. Fountain, and when trying to find  the local children and girls from the orphange who've gone missing.   Given it's the first in the series, I may seek out the other books; Rose and the Lost Princess, Rose and the Magician's Mask, and Rose and the Silver Ghost just to see where the magical elements go.  Plus, I really liked the talking cat.