by Maria Medina
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Pub Date: August 5, 2025
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
Book Links: Goodreads Amazon Bookshop
An epic, multi-POV debut fantasy perfect for fans of The Bone Shard Daughter and Six of Crows, where a necromancer trying to resurrect her sister gets embroiled in bigger, world-ending plans instead.
Necromancer Azul del Arroyo only wants one thing: to steal her sister back from Death by reclaiming her sister’s bones. But the Emissary of the Lord Death will do anything to stop her, no matter how alluring he finds her . . .
As their paths collide, they’re drawn into a deadly game of pawns and power with a count who begrudgingly works for a child king, a faceless witch who transforms the bones of gods into dreams she can peddle, and a long-lost half-brother with a secret of his own—and soon realize the fate of the lands is hanging in the balance.
For long ago the gods raised the continents, binding them with their own bones to keep humanity alive. But in an era when the gods’ sacrifice has been forgotten, Death might not be the only resentful god Azul must defy.
Swashbuckling, grand, and tragically romantic, Mistress of Bones is a can't-miss start to a duology about love, loss, and, of course, death.
However, this entire book was not executed well at all.
Not a fan of POVs and this one had too many. Constant back and forth from timelines but it didn't transfer well and made it difficult to keep up with what's going on. Having to constantly figure out what's going hard takes away from being invested in the book and characters.
Don't like how one chapter titled as 9 years and some months, cant it just be 9 years? Then in the same chapter just jumps right back to the present and the about two chapters later its now just 9 years earlier. It was confusing and looks thrown together. Then it jumps to a year earlier then right back to the present and then jumps to 7 years earlier. It was just difficult and headache inducing to keep up and not having it in some sort of order didn't help.
The main character also didn't act their age which was frustrating at times. You're an adult but acting like a teenager just ruins it for me.
The characters weren't done well enough to like them and be invested in them. The page stuffing to just throw something in there. The pace, development, world building, etc. It all could use some fine tuning and then maybe it would have a better chance.
Just couldn't with this book. Had to DNF it and have no plans to continue the series.
My Rating:
✪
