Bonesmith

Gideon the Ninth meets the Game of Thrones White Walkers in this dark young adult fantasy about a disgraced ghost-fighting warrior who must journey into a haunted wasteland to rescue a kidnapped prince.

Ready your blade. Defeat the undead.
In the Dominions, the dead linger, violent and unpredictable, unless a bonesmith severs the ghost from its earthly remains. For bonesmith Wren, becoming a valkyr—a ghost-fighting warrior—is a chance to solidify her place in the noble House of Bone and impress her frequently absent father. But when sabotage causes Wren to fail her qualifying trial, she is banished to the Border Wall, the last line of defense against a wasteland called the Breach where the vicious dead roam unchecked.
Determined to reclaim her family’s respect, Wren gets her chance when a House of Gold prince is kidnapped and taken beyond the Wall. To prove she has what it takes to be a valkyr, Wren vows to cross the Breach and rescue the prince. But to do so, she’s forced into an uneasy alliance with one of the kidnappers—a fierce ironsmith called Julian from the exiled House of Iron, the very people who caused the Breach in the first place…and the House of Bone’s sworn enemy.
As they travel, Wren and Julian spend as much time fighting each other as they do the undead, but when they discover there’s more behind the kidnapping than either of them knew, they’ll need to work together to combat the real a dark alliance that is brewing between the living and the undead.

As soon as I heard the announcement for this book, I knew I needed it more than anything. Necromancy!! Fighting to prove yourself after betrayal!! Hints of enemies/rivals to lovers!! By an author I love!! I mean come on, it sounds incredible just from that right? AND THEN!! The cover reveal happened and omggg it’s epic and beautiful, and by my favorite cover artist (Tommy Arnold). And the fact that he also did the covers for the Locked Tomb series? Yes. I’m 10000% in.

A friend was kind enough to send me an ARC of it, and the publisher actually sent me one as well! So thank you friend, and thank you Simon & Schuster! Now let’s get into the actual review part haha. Just so you know, this will be a lot of me gushing about all the different things I loved. This book really hit the spot for me, and it is definitely a new favorite.

Let’s just start of with the world, meaning both the magical elements and the setting. There are different types of “smiths” in this world, and each smith type has magic with a particular material/substance. Our main character is a bonesmith, which you may have been able to guess from the title. She is able to wield any type of bone, be it full skeletons or bone dust or small knucklebones. She is forced to team up with an ironsmith, who, you guessed it, has magic to do with iron. So think magical iron weapons, armor, etc. We don’t get to see much of the other smith types, but I’m hoping in later books that will change. I like this concept a lot, and it was interesting to see how the magic worked for different smiths and how that shaped their society.

The general atmosphere of the world is delightfully dark and creepy, but not really scary. Well okay let me amend that – I would probably find it scary if I was living in that world, but reading about it is not scary. The story takes place after a massive civil war that happened 20 years ago, and I like that the ramifications of that were very evident. Especially when Wren (the main character) has to travel across the wall and into territory plagued by ghosts and cut off from the rest of the kingdom. The lawlessness of this land was gritty and totally made sense given the history.

Pau Preto did a very good job with the pacing of the story. From the synopsis you can tell it’s going to be a bit of a travel/journey story, but it was never boring. The action sequences were well placed and well balanced with the quieter moments and events. She also did a great job interspersing mystery and lore, which kept me super engaged and wanting to know more. Some of the reveals I did see coming, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think it just made me even more eager to see how it would eventually play out, and what the consequences would be.

As for the characters! Wren is a wonderful character and I had a lot of fun reading from her point of view. That being said, I think the novel was greatly strengthened by the addition of a handful of chapters from other POVs. Especially the prince’s POV! I’m glad he wasn’t just shunted to the side as a character, and that we got to see his story too. Of course I was a sucker for the enemies to reluctant allies to ?? dynamic between our two main characters. It was deliciously slow burn, and very realistic in how they came to view one another.

Hopefully by now I’ve convinced you to read it, or at least to check it out!! It will release on July 25th. Please do let me know if you think you’ll be picking it up!

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for a review. This does not affect my opinion, and all thoughts are my own.