Book Review: The Bone Thief (The Bone Charmer #2) by Breeana Shields

Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Audience: YA Fantasy
Length: 384 pages
Author: Breeana Shields
Publisher: Page Street Kids
Release Date: May 26th, 2020
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A deft exploration of the weight of grief and cost of revenge, Breeana Shields’s Bone Charmer duology reaches its spine-tingling conclusion in this high-octane fantasy-thriller.

Saskia returns to Ivory Hall to train in bone magic, determined to stop Latham from gaining the power of all three Sights—past, present, and future. But danger lurks within the fortress’s marrow. Trials are underway for the apprentices, and the tasks feel specifically engineered to torment Saskia, which is exactly what Latham wants.

As she grows increasingly more suspicious, her thirst for revenge becomes all-consuming. Together with the friends she can trust and the boy she loved in another lifetime, Saskia traces clues from Latham’s past to determine what he’ll do next. Their search leads them across Kastelia and brings them to a workshop housing a vast collection of horrors, including the bones Latham stole from Gran, and the knowledge that the future isn’t all that’s in jeopardy—but the past as well.

A SOLID DUO.

This was a good duology!! I thoroughly enjoyed both books. And even though this one didn’t have the same pop as the first, I still liked it and the final conclusion.

It’s such a cool magic system. I love the vast options that magic has in the world and that tattoos play a huge part in their lives. What type of events they’ve gone through, if they’ve fallen in love, or mastered a magic. It’s interesting and one of the best parts of the series.

Saskia is a main character I liked a lot. A bit stubborn, and occasionally making mistakes made her feel real. She was also tender and loyal to those around her. I would have looooved a bit more romance like there was in the first book. Nothing really happened until the end and I wish it had flowed through the entire story more.

At times I thought the plot didn’t matter or fit the revenge plot idea from the first book. The further the book goes, things seem to round out. The tasks that Saskia and her friends are asked to do start to converge with the final showdown.

It’s a great duology with easy, magnetic writing. Even if I was struggling with the plot at times, I still never felt the need to skim. A lesser known duo to definitely look into!

Overall audience notes: