Rating: ★★★★
Audience: YA Fantasy
Length: 464 pages
Author: Nicki Pau Preto
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
Release Date: July 25th, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

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 danger: a dark alliance that is brewing between the living and the undead.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the ARC.

LOVED THE MAGIC SYSTEM.

This book was a great young adult fantasy series starter. I love Nicki Pau Preto’s previous series (Crown of Feathers) and I can see how Bonesmith will be setting up for its own epic tale.

I loved Wren as the FMC. She’s filled with strengths and flaws that we get to see play out over the book. I like when characters don’t always make the right choice and you get to see the repercussions and reparations made. There were a lot of good reveals as the ending pages concluded and it makes me all the more excited to see what book two holds.

The romance with Julian was a lot less angsty than I was thinking it would be, BUT it really grew on me and I thought it was sweet. There’s so much more to their dynamic and relationship in general that had me enjoying them from start to finish.

For the plot, consider me INTRIGUED. I love this magic system with all of the different smith’s and how those actions have played into the present situation. I think it’ll be really cool to see more of the smith’s in book two and how could I forget? ALL OF THE GHOSTS. The ghosts were their own compelling little side plot that was super interesting.

Really looking forward to the next book.

Overall audience notes:

• Young Adult Fantasy
• Language: a little strong
• Romance: kisses
• Violence: high
• Trigger/Content Warnings: physical and magical altercations, blood depiction, near death experiences, loss of parents, war themes

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