another book tiktok made me buy XD

Bone Crier’s Moon – Kathryn Purdie

Young adult, fantasy, romance, fiction. 

Rating 9/10

Ailesse had been preparing for her Rite of Passage to become the matriarch of the Bone Criers. She had collected all the different bones she needed and learned all the different songs. Now she must go to the bridge to play the flute of a song that would attract her soul mate, the man whom she is destined to love and kill. Bastien was orphaned at a young age and promised to take revenge by murdering a bone crier. Sabine doesn’t like what the Bone Criers do nor their work but she must do what is expected of her. Ailesse’s mother assigns Sabine to watch her daughter’s Rite of Passage. Ailesse gets taken by her amour, Bastien, who wants revenge by taking her hostage. Sabine makes it her mission to rescue her best friend. Ailesse makes it her mission after learning about Bastien’s intentions to free him from their bond without death involved. 

I had seen this while on the booktok side of TikTok and couldn’t resist the whole enemies to lovers trope. The premise doesn’t appear to be that way but it’s flushed out throughout the novel. This was one of my favorite fantasy young adult books so far. There was a perfect amount of action and fantasy along with some romance. There was a lot of tension between all the characters from the first page until the near end of the novel. The plot moved at a graceful pace that couldn’t have been more perfect. I was just sad about the cliffhanger and I have to find out if there is a sequel to the novel because this is excellent. The world-building was great and spread out just enough that it wasn’t just a lore dump in the beginning. I hate novels that do a lore dump at the beginning of the first book is the lore dump. I loved the whole enemies-to-lovers trope that is present. I can see Bastien really going for Ailesse hence I do ship it.

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this was interesting

Shadow and Bone – Leigh Bardugo 

Fantasy, magic, abilities, monsters, orphan, young adult, fiction. 

Rating 7/10

Soldier and orphan Alina goes with her fellow soldiers into the Fold to discover and take down some of the monsters. She discovers that she has powers of a very powerful Grisha. She is taken to the King and enters his court. Not only that but she was an apprentice to The Darkling. She starts training and learning about how to use her powers. Not only that but she learns more about the new world she is in but she misses the simple life before this extravagant life she was forced into. The Darkling wants Alina to help him destroy the Fold. Something darker and sinister is brewing and Alina tries to decide what to do that is right. 

I saw that this book had a lot of hype and I didn’t understand. I read it and still don’t understand. I love writing and world building. Some of the characters seemed too cliched for my taste and I felt that I had read this before. Even though it’s fairly new, I read the trope before and didn’t really care for it. I know this is a part of a series but I will not continue the series as this didn’t get my attention that much.

i need to read the sequel because this was sooo good~

Children of Blood and Bone – Toni Adeyemi 

Fantasy, young adult, magic, fiction.

Rating 10/10

It has been a long time since the maji had their magic. The magic was taken away by the rulers of Orisha and there is no hope of the magic ever returning. Until one day, in Zelie’s village she is approached by a girl with a scroll claiming it can bring back magic. She introduces herself as Amari, she is on the run from where she witnessed her father kill someone over the magic. Zelie and her brother, Tzain, under Mama Agba’s vision go try to bring back magic to the maji people along with Amari. Amari’s father instructs her brother Inan to stop them from bringing back magic. This becomes a race against time to bring magic back. 

This was so fun to read and I simply loved the book from the first sentence to the last. I never had read any young adult fantasy novels that were this interesting. The pacing is excellent and there are multiple points of views that enrich the storytelling experience. I couldn’t stop reading this book and it took me two days to read due to how rather large this novel is. The characters are so unique and perfect to the plot. The idea of Zelie going and getting magic back to her people as well as learning about her identity was phenomenal and beautifully put together. There is a lot of world building along the way and such beautiful descriptions. I would love to reread this and possibly continue the series soon. I highly recommend going to a nearby bookstore, snatching this book, and reading it. 

bones

The Bone Labyrinth: A Sigma Force Novel – James Rollin

Excavations, archeology, scientific world, voyages to the other world, special operations, military science, action, suspense, fiction.

Rating 8/10

Lena goes to Croatia, to an archeological site where she found the bones of a Neanderthal woman in a closed off chapel. Inside that site, there are artworks as well that depict society and the evolving brain that was humankind. The site is attacked and ransacked, leaving her and a few survivors straggling to get out of the cavern and questioning why the bones of a Neanderthal woman and to destroy the cavern. Commander Grey Peirce is on the case to go rescue and help. Whereas Monk and Kowalski are to talk with Lena’s twin, Maria, about their work. Maria explains that they wanted to know the mystery jump that happened that caused homo sapiens to be very smart and changed their ways of life. She and her sister think it’s a union between homo sapiens and Neanderthals. There’s so much danger that comes with this research because there are others hunting the same answers as Lena and Maria as well as wants them dead. This will take Sigma into the history and evidence of bones of human ancestors.

This was really intriguing and very adventurous. I enjoyed it so much, but it was a bit of a slow read for me personally. At the time of reading this novel I didn’t know that this was a series and I had read another book before this one and not know it was a part of a series. I plan to find out the first book of the Sigma Force series to read in order hopefully in the future. Overall, loved this indepth slow burn of a novel that kept me on my toes as well as kept me leaning towards reading rather than doing anything else. The author really panned out everything in the novel and made it very easy to read to understand the plot narrative.