I really enjoyed Bonesmith and would recommend it! Stick with this one as it really builds into a strong fantasy adventure story with lots of mysterious occurances that have you on the edge of your seat guessing how things will turn out. So much happens in the second half of the book that it had me staying up all night to finish reading it. I now eagerly await book 2 so I can continue to read more in this exciting world and see how the plot continues!

Really great world building and well constructed characters with interesting powers and backgrounds. I especially loved the dynamic between Wren and Julian from their first encounter and all of their interactions during the journey to find Leo. They have such opposing personalities making each encounter entertaining. Leo was a great character too, bringing some lightness to the tense situations.

Overall, a very solid read. Although it didn't precisely click for me, I can see many readers enjoying this one!

thank you to netgalley, the publisher, and the author for this arc.

the star rating is in NO way based on this book or its contents, so please don't take it as that. the formatting of the e-ARC i have received is awful, and just not pleasantly readable. i really tried, but it's not working for me. :(

i do plan on buying and reading this book, so i will update this review accordingly when i have done so!

Bone Smith is a ya fantasy, set in a world heavily inspired by series such as game of thrones. I also felt there was some inspiratation from series such as lockwood and co by Jonathan stroud - all the ghost hunting vibes!

The book follows Wren, a trainee valkyr - a type of bone smith who is deployed to deal with the dead and protect reapers whilst they exorcise the spirits and make their bones safe. Wren is the bastard child of the heir to the main bonesmith family, and everything she does is to prove herself worthy and gain her father's approval. However, after her final test goes wrong she finds herself exiled and before she knows it, involved in a complex kidnap plot with a prince and forced to work with a sworn enemy.

The world building itself is heavy, and the first 20% of the book is very much about the politics and magic system. But once you are through this you are in for a treat. The world is detailed, and whilst parts of it feel familar from similar fantasy novels, it is fresh enough to keep you interested. The magic system is intricately built and complex - i have never seen a magic system quite like this and it kept the book alive.

As for the characters - Wren is the driving force for this book and i loved her. She's not an easy to like character, and wears her flaws on her sleeve. But there is real character growth in the book and her relationships with the others really blossom into something special. Julian is just as dark and brooding and works well with our girl as a balancer. Leo adds a nice touch of humour and sass into it and im excited to see where his story goes.

Whilst i felt i could see the plot twist coming early on, this book had me ravenous for more and once i was half way i couldn't put it down and devoured the last half in 1 sitting.

I give this book a solid 4. ✨

My first introduction to this author was from reading Crown of Feathers and I was so incredibly excited to read it because I am OBSESSED with phoenixes, and I was beyond excited for Bonesmith especially when I saw the world Valkyr ( I am OBSESSED with Valkyries!) in the description!

I’m an absolute sucker for anything involving houses or factions (Harry Potter, Percy Jackson Divergent etc) and I loved the names of the five houses that govern the Dominions (Bone, Gold, Silver, Iron and Ghost). I loved the magic system and how their powers were seemingly tied to the elements. I haven’t read or watched game of thrones but I believe that that’s where the inspiration of the houses came from. Either way, I really liked it!

I absolutely loved the creativity of the names such as Valkyr (obsessed with Valkyrie’s!) and Reapyr’s.

I absolutely love a flawed FMC, but more than that, I love seeing that character grow and develop as the story progresses - which Wren most certainly did! I also love that even though Wren is impulsive and often reckless, we can clearly see that there is a reason why she is the way she is. She’s constantly having to prove herself and often feels like she’s fallen short of exceptions (her own and those of others). I think that’s something that a lot of people can relate too and it was really well written.

I love Julian and, of course, I love a good enemies to lovers (even though it wasn’t very heavy on that part just yet, I do think we will see more on that front in book two (hopefully!))! I honestly think that they are good for each other and make a great team balancing each other out, and I really enjoyed the whole foes to unlikely allies aspect!

I would like to say that whilst the lore is really great and the world is very well thought out, I did find there to be a lot of exposition/ “info dumping”, particularly at the beginning of the novel. I know that doesn’t bother some people and sometimes it’s quite necessary/unavoidable but a lot of readers don’t enjoy it and I did feel at times that it was just a bit too much and that it drew me out of the story.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for accepting my request to read and review this one!

This honestly sounded like it could be my new fav book, being likened to Gideon the ninth and game of thrones is big shoes to fill though. The idea of a darker fantasy with a ghost fighting protagonist sounded AWESOME!

But sadly this was just a fairly average YA fantasy and nothing really stood out, I think some of the advertising for it his gave me the impression it was on the adult side of YA but it wasn’t.

I really did not care for our protagonist, and that was half the problem in itself. She didn’t feel like she had any depth, in fact none of the characters really did. My interest for this book reminded surface level the whole time.

This author really really wanted to hammer home the world building in EVERY chapter but it was never straight forward or clear and to be honest it was confusing and uninteresting.

Also, the author had a large tendency to tell not show which meant the writing itself was quite lacklustre and mediocre. In fact sometimes the sentences were so boring I was skimming over them.

Overall, a pretty standard YA that I maybe would have loved when I was 14 but….

A powerful and very dark fantasy, a cast of fleshed out and flawed characters, a gripping plot and a fascinating world building.
It was an exciting and entertaining read.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

One of the best YA Fantasy books I've read in years! This feels like a mix between Game of Thrones and Necromancer.
The characters have brilliant depth of character and feel so well rounded, the plot is fun and intense and the magic system feels fresh and fun to follow along with! The world building is also done very well.

I'm excited to continue on in this series, this is a book to keep your eye on!

I think we need to take a second (or a whole minute) to appreciate the cover. Because ?? Shoutout to whoever is responsible for this. It’s fantastic. 10/10.

Now onto the book: I really really really enjoyed it!

50 pages in and my girl Wren was betrayed, lied to, almost died (twice, I think ?) and got exiled. I love it.
Much like those first 50 pages, almost the whole first half of the book is a constant high. There’s rarely a moment where nothing happens. Wren escaped one attack to just stumble onto the next fight, the next almost death, the next *something*.
While this high does drop a little in the second half, it definitely picks back up throughout and especially towards the end.
Which also leads the pacing to be a bit quicker even though it’s not like the book’s overall pacing was slow to begin with.

As someone who very much dislikes first person narration, this was an absolute treat! Almost the whole book was written from Wren’s perspective but in third person and I loved it. And Wren. I loved Wren!
While unexpected but yet appreciated were the couple of chapters written not from Wren’s perspective but from Leo and Julian, which just added to the characters’ charm. Especially Leo!
I do however have to admit that I had to restart the first chapter where this happened twice until my brain caught up.

I did sense the plot twists from a mile, but wasn’t disappointed or annoyed at that.

The hater in me would love to say things that weren’t good, but I can’t think of anything that was (noticeably) bad or annoying or somehow worsen my reading experience.

Having said that: I enjoyed this book and I’m excited for the sequel.

"He wanted to surrender. To let go. To unravel.
Even just for a moment.
Which was exactly why he couldn’t."

Bonesmith was not what I was expecting - the premise of 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, was intriguing but a review I had seen had indicated that this had elements of horror which did not appeal (I absolutely do not do horror).

It was interesting, complex and well-paced story with great world-building where you are drawn into Wren's need to prove herself to her family and the resulting quest that begins when she embarks on a rescue mission with her enemy. The plot twists are plentiful and some unexpected so you are kept guessing. I still have a few theories that I hoping to see proved in the sequel. Wren is proud, determined, impulsive and messy - a "real" main character that you can't help but admire and root for. Leo is a fun, smart character who you enjoy and Julian has such depth to his character, I feel that this book has only just begun to scratch the surface.

Read this for a mix of power struggles, enemies to lovers romance with a supernatural twist.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the eARC in exhange for an honest review.

It’s been a while since I picked up a YA book, and I am so glad I picked this one up.

The tension, the secrets, the betrayals! This has everything you could want from a fantasy read. I fell into the world so easily I just couldn’t tear myself away.
The FMC goes through so much and just comes out of it stronger and better. I can’t wait to see what she does next and how her relationships change!!

rating: 4.25 stars

man i love YA fantasy. dark fantasy? even better.

the feeling you get when one of your most anticipated reads of the year actually HITS is unmatched 🙌 the game of thrones energy actually shined through and i did get a little lockwood and co. vibes. it held my attention from the very beginning and once i started reading, i did not want to stop. i loved wren and how flawless she was and the whole trio at the end >>>

EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ THIS ASAP

thank you to simon and schuster and netgalley for the arc !!

Amazon Summary
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 defence 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.

My Review
This is one of my most anticipated books this year and i wasn't disappointed.

The World building was interesting alongside a brilliant magic system. I really loved Wren and her journey especially the romance. It had a bit of a slow start but made up for it by the end. I cant wait for book 2.

Bonesmith - Nicki Pau Preto
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

A very enjoyable YA fantasy-adventure read. I was hooked from the first chapter.

The book follows Wren a Valkyr(ghost fighting warrior, she's pretty badass if I do say so myself) as she enters into an uneasy alliance with Julian an Ironsmith, to rescue the Gold Prince who has been kidnapped. However on this journey both Wren and Julian discover that there's more to the kidnapping than they originally thought.

I really enjoyed this book. It was an easy read and overall a very gripping story. I loved how all the little truths about the kidnapping and their history were revealed along their journey.

The characters were all loveable, and although the romance was not the focus of the book we got some slow-burn. In addition I really enjoyed the lore and world building, it was descriptive however not overwhelming.

This book had me gripped to the end, I loved the little plot twists and I did not see a few of them coming.

Overall I'm very excited to read the next book in this series, there is definitely alot of potential! If you're feeling for an easy YA fantasy-adventure type book I'd definitely reccomend you give this a shot!

Thank you Hodder and Stoughton, Netgalley and Nicki for giving me an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the start of this except for the ellipses that seemed very fan fiction and a weird choice. Even though I didn't necessarily love the voice at first I quickly became immersed in the story.

I felt like it then stalled around the 30% mark and the mid section felt like it took more effort to get through.

Once I hit the 80% though I was much more interested again and keen to see how it all unfolded at the end.

The characters are fine, I think they could use some deepening in book two but I was invested in the end. There are a few too many 'twists' that are easy to spot coming and the foreshadowing could have been pulled back a little so that there was more surprise in the reveals.

Having not read any other work by the author I would consider reading more and will likely pick up book two when it comes out.

My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Thankyou to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton, Hodderscape for a free e-arc in exchange of an honest review!

This is one of the best YA books that iv read in a while.
Iv started to pull away a little from YA books recently, preferring more adult style books but this one was so good!
-Great atmosphere and i found it really easy to visualise everything
-Great characters and relationships
-Left me wanting more and looking forward to the next book!

The 3rd person POV was a little off putting at first and its not really something i notice usually but i did in this (only critique that i can think of and its not really a big deal and down to preference)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I could not get enough of this book. While the individual beats aren't much different from most YA fantasy novels (talented outcast, forced into an uneasy truce with an enemy, trying to achieve one thing only to find out there's a much larger thing happening), Preto's worldbuilding and her character development is first class. The narrative was well-paced and there were points at which I could not stop reading! While I did see a couple of the twists coming, it didn't make them any less enjoyable. New favourite series.

Bonesmith is a story filled with twists, intricate magic and relatable characters, and while there was plenty about this story that I loved, there were also certain bits that didn't truly work for me. Wren is a bonesmith, someone with the ability to fight the ghosts that now roam the dominion after the breach. When her trial to become a fully fledged valkyr doesn't go how she planned, she finds herself shipped off to the Border Wall, the once last line of defence against the Breach, but now nothing more than an punishment. Wren doesn't know how she is going to get back in her family's favour, but help comes in the shape of a Prince being kidnapped. To prove she has what it takes, Wren ventures beyond the wall in search of Prince Leo, but she isn't alone. Forced into working with one of the would be kidnappers, an ironsmith names Julian, The two form a tentative alliance. As the pair travel together, they start noticing things that shouldn't be happening, the undead seemingly working together, talking, and before long Wren and Julian will realise what exactly has been brewing in these lands since the breach, and to defeat it, they will have to bury their houses grievances and work together.

I feel like the characters were one of this books main strengths, despite them being overly stereotypical in parts. Wren is your usual kick ass female MC who believes she can save the world with her own two hands. She's a little bit too cocky in parts, goes in guns, or rather swords blazing, and for the first part of the book tends to cause more damage than actually help, but despite all this she grows hugely as a character, and starts putting the bigger picture ahead of her own family baggage. We also get the sporadic POV's of Leo, our kidnapped Prince whose POV's didn't really further the plot in any way, but did allow us insight into what had been happening beyond the wall, and Julian, our Ironsmith. Though we spend a good amount of time with him in the book, we only get one or two POV chapters from him. He just wants what's best for his people, a people who feel abandoned by the bonesmiths, and so it takes him a good long while to warm up to Wren.

Preto keeps the side characters pretty close knit meaning we never struggle remembering who is who, and I enjoyed this because it allowed us to get a deeper insight into them, into their wants and needs and beliefs.

Now for the worldbuilding which, while intricate and well built, was incredibly info dumpy in parts. The first 25% or so of the book was filled with SO much information it took me an age to get through it. I prefer my world building to be brought in more naturally throughout the story so, while this did allow the main plot to pick up pace (and boy did it) I was also fairly close to DNF'ing for the first part because of how bogged down it felt. So yea, the pacing was off a little, but once you push through that first quarter or so the story picks up at a breakneck pace and never really lets up. There's plenty of plot twists, tension as well as some emotionally rife scenes, and Preto managed to foreshadow her ending as well as a few of the big plot twists well throughout the story.

I was a little worried we were heading into love triangle territory, but thankfully Preto steered away from it. The main relationship we see is between Wren and Julian, it's enemies to lovers at the basest sense, but from their first meeting you can see the budding feelings, Wren comments more than once on his looks and how he makes her feel, so if you're looking for an enemies to lovers romance filled with tension and more trying to kill than kiss, you might be a little disappointed. While it did come on a little fast for me I did enjoy it, especially how Preto shows the differences between them. She's the sunshine to his grump, the bullheaded to his more tempered behaviour, the lack of morals to his extremely black and white style world.

As a whole I enjoyed this book. It did take a little while to get going, but once the story picked up pace I was hooked and will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for book two.

DNF at 10%

I'm trying to give everything at least 10-25% of a read through before I stop reading, but I couldn't get on with this.

Elements of the ghost/undead fighting reminded me of some of my favourites - Sabriel with the undead and her bandolier, and Lockwood and Co with the Ghostlight, the anchors (left behind - in Lockwood and Co this is the source, in Bonesmith's case one of the bones being more significant than the rest(?) - and the Tier 1 and 2 ghosts, but the encounters with the ghosts in this book so far weren't that imaginative, one part of the pair holds the ghost at bay while the other deals with the anchor bone. I do like the premise though, and I wanted to engage with this faster than I have.

Because this is modern YA, we are told that the main character is the best of her particular type of warrior, because of course, unfortunately her claims about herself fall apart pretty early as she is beaten by the second best in a random trial of their warriorness, because of course there has to be trials. Also, this is the third book, in a pretty short succession of YA books, where the main character is called Wren, so that wasn't entirely in her favour for me personally, but then that won't happen to every reader. Basically, I didn't have anything to latch onto in order to root for or have a connection to the main character... so far.

I have read some reviews where the book seems to pick up in the last 40% or so of the book, and many people seem to think persevering through the beginning and middle is worth it to reach that end, but... so many books so little time. If I make it back, I'll update this review with my complete thoughts.

This is now the third arc I've read in a row that made its way onto my ultimate favourite books list, so you could say I've had an amazing reading month. Hopefully this continues with the next arc as well.

So I've heard of Nicki Pau Preto before, I've had her Crown of Feathers series on my tbr since 2019, and have been wanting to read them since 2018 at least. But I was always waiting to get physical copies which didn't happen yet, but after reading Bonesmith I'm going to be prioritising them.

Bonesmith has a gorgeous cover, an interesting world, good storyline and lovable characters. It also has ghosts.

I wasn't sure about the ghosts at first, or rather the undead. I tend to associate them more with paranormal books, but they were worked well into the story and I ended up loving them. Especially the one more prominent undead character.

Another thing that was a bit off at the start was the pacing. I wouldn't call the whole book slow paced, but the beginning definitely was. And it was a little info heavy too. If you have the patience to sit through it though, it's worth it.

The middle is medium paced and the end pretty fast paced, so you could say this book has it all. And it really does.

The romance might seem like a love triangle at first, but if you don't like that trope then worry not, it's not really a triangle. One pairing is pretty obvious and the other is very friendly, and when all three of them meet there's no hard feelings or jealousy.

Also this is one of the very few YA books where I actually *like* who the mc goes for, but again it's not a triangle, but still. Usually my luck would have me favouring the other guy regardless, and while I do love him, I'm very fond of his friendly bond with Wren.

So yes the romance, I shipped it instantly, like before you could even snap your fingers. I just knew they'd be a good fit together. I so enjoyed them journeying together, their banter, the tension!!!

Which in turn reminds me, this is upper YA, I believe? Because the love interest is almost 20 and Wren is 17, but some of the jokes included make me think it's meant for the upper YA and above crowd.

Anyway, Wren was a very fun main character to follow, because she was selfish for a lot of the book, and she had to unlearn that in order to do what's right. But I liked that she was reckless and did whatever she wanted to, no matter the consequences.

Julian and Leo were both lovely too, and they also got PoVs of their own. Leo's PoV came first, but we had to wait a bit for Julian's so I wasn't even sure if we'd get it. I'm hoping we'll get even more in the next book.

I did see some of the twists coming, but that didn't stop me from enjoying this to the fullest. I am still so intrigued by Wren's family history and I can't wait to see what else we'll learn about it.

I'm super glad this is going to be a trilogy, because a duology simply would not have been enough.

*Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review*