DNF’d I got very confused with all the different POV’s and time jumps. I got majorly lost. I wanted to love this book. It was very interesting from what I could understand. Sadly my brain just couldn’t get with the program.

I DNF’d this book. However, I didn’t finish because it wasn’t for me—not because I thought it was bad or poorly written. This is a high, epic fantasy book with descriptive and beautiful world-building. I really tried to keep reading this book as it was intriguing and different, but I really struggled with it being written in SIX, 3rd person POVs. Plus, there were moments where it mixed past & present timelines within the same chapter. This writing style gave my ADHD brain whiplash, and I struggled to keep the timelines and each character's stories sorted correctly. 40% of what I read, I have no doubt readers, who have no difficulty reading this type of writing style, will love this book. As I stated, it’s truly written beautifully and has an amazing and different story.

Really enjoyed this book! Loved the story and the writing and will be interested to read more from this author in the future.

I really enjoyed this!! Sometimes it read very YA, however, I loved Aurelia’s character. It really hooked me in right from the beginning. It has the tropes we all love while still being uniquely original. This is a great novel!

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC!

The book started out strong with an atmospheric and mysterious prologue that drew me in immediately. The rest of the book didn't give me the same feeling. I'm partial to more lyrical prose than casual, conversational style and this book was a mix of both. The book was written in a mostly tell rather than show style. The first 30% or so of the book was filled with discontentment of the characters. Lots of teenage/young adult angst about the mundaneness of their lives.

The book was written in third person POV but there are several different POV's. That can be difficult to follow since everyone's POV was written in third person. The magic system is unique and there seems to be an equally unique and layered world. But both were presented in a mass data-dump format. It pulled me out of the story and made it difficult to love and feel for the characters.

During one conversation, the authors would squeeze in a lot of information regarding relationships, background, history of the characters. Maybe now that majority of the information has been established, the second and third book would be more plot driven.

Thank you NetGalley and Sera for the ARC!

Cute YA fantasy story. Good for easing into the fantasy realm. This book is full of entertaining characters and different POV’s. It all happens in a span of a couple days. It’s has a bunch of twists that were a little predictable but fun.

I absolutely love finding new authors and entering their new fantasy worlds, this was such a fun reading experience!

“Blood Iron and Bone” follows the lives of fae and humans whos worlds cross, there is a prophecy involved which is intended to save the fae kingdom from eternal fog and darkness, and main characters who have been dreaming of each other for years without truly expecting to find each other in real life.

I don’t want to go into more plot detail to avoid any spoilers but the five main characters who find themselves in the middle of a chaotic event are so fun to read about!

I really loved Cillian as a person he is definitely my favourite and would make me blush like a school girl, but on the other hand the longing and tension between Andar and Aurelia is unmatched, the entire time I was reading this book I was dying for them to meet and for something to happen between them!!! I was so motivated to get to the end for the pure reason of seeing their connection 😂😂

I found the characters to each be flawed but uniquely likeable in their own way., even Lark who I wasn’t especially keen on giving her tendency to have a pompous nature, I still found it impossible to dislike her because I also felt sorry for all her hardships of being in an impossible situation her whole life.

I can’t wait to continue with this series! The literal only criticism I have is that some parts felt a little unnecessarily repetitive when we were getting a repeat scene replayed to us in the other persons POV, there were parts in the first 50% of the book I felt could but condensed because it slows down for overall pacing of the book where you are dying to get to the action and the best parts, but I promise this is a book well worth sticking through the slow parts because you are rewarded with such a juicy and entertaining plot overall!

Thank you so much to Agency Press and Sera Foxe for the EARC!

Publish date : March 21st 2025

It was so confusing and i felt that there was too many characters that were not relevant to the story.

Wow, all I can say is this is a top read of 2025 already and it's going to be insanely hard to top this. I can't wait for book 2, Sera is a new auto-buy author for me!

*Sigh*
Perhaps I have moved on from the fantasy romance genre because every single book that I try to read seems the same. Same characters. Same plot. Same romance. Nothing new, all formulaic. This book is no exception.
I truly did want to like this book and I did try to at least finish 50% of it, but I was dragging my feet by 15% and I did not want to waste my time reading a book I wasn't enjoying or rolling my eyes at, so I DNF'd at 27%. The blurb is what interested me (I thought, finally! A unique plotline) and when I saw that it had not been released yet, I was like bummer!! But then I saw it was available on NetGalley and requested an ARC (Thank you NetGalley!!). So here I am.
I would usually say something good at this point, but I seriously did not like anything of the 27% of what I read.
The world building was not so great, it felt like it was all condensed into a single place, never moving or expanding. There was barely any true details about the fae world or the fae themselves. The only thing I got was that they were pointy eared "humans" so to speak since their immortality and all their powers and stuff (the things that make them faeries) were diminished. There was unnecessary curse words that cheapened the dialogue (If you have the creativity to write an entire fantasy book, I'm sure you can come up with creative curse words). The sentences were choppy at times, ruining the reading flow. Some of the conversations between the fae felt like I was listening to random human beings talk amongst themselves. You'd think as creatures of myth, the fae would have their own manner of speech, different to the modern human world (not using words like 'boyfriend'). I didn't care for the FMC or the MMC. The FMC and her "Boring and useless life that she is so bored of that she could die of boredom" like WE GET IT! Every time Aurelia's POV appeared, that is all she talked about, literally. I don't even remember much of Andar tbh or Lark, they were both that unmemorable. Didn't care about Nova either. So, disappointed and tired is what I am. Gah, I'm done.
Though this was not my cup of tea, don't let my words stop anyone from reading this book. It did not work for me, but it may work for you.
Thank you again to NetGalley for this ARC!!

Blood Iron and Bone follows Aurelia Bartlett, a young woman who has never felt like she fits in, as she discovers another world and that her fate may be more complex than her first 20 years on Earth has led her to believe.

This is a romantic fantasy novel with complex world-building and STRONG 'fated'/prophesy vibes. Although there are a ton of characters and fairy 'races' to learn and remember, Foxe does a decent job at spacing out new information while giving readers enough detail to get by. I became invested in many of the characters' storylines by the end of the book (and now I want to know what happens in book 2!). Young adult or new adult readers would be best suited for this book due to the maturity level of the main characters and the writing voice.

The biggest thing that threw me as I was reading was the dialogue-- a notable portion of it sounds awkward and consist of lines that no one would actually speak out loud (either on Earth or in the Otherworld). The main character is also not very likable-- she is quite entitled with inflated self-worth, and overall annoying. It seems like more of the enjoyable characters will be the focus in the next book!

Quote that had me cackling: " '[info redacted for spoiler reasons]," she said, in a tone that hinted at just the slightest bit of disdain for men in general"

**TW: animal suffering & death**

*Thank you to NetGalley and Victory Editing for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.*

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would give it a solid 4..5 Stars!! While the first half felt a bit slow for me, the second half more than made up for it- it was everything I wanted and more. Once all the puzzle pieces began falling into place, the story had me absolutely hooked!

The unique world-building was another standout feature; it felt like a fresh and imaginative take on most fae and magic books. I also loved how the multiple POVs were handled. Each character’s perspective added depth to the story, and seeing events unfold through their eyes made the connections between them even more satisfying. Like I said, it was a bit slow until about half way through, but by the second half, when all the characters finally came together, it felt like watching an epic TV show or movie—the tension, the reveals, the drama! It was all perfectly executed.

This book was well-written, with a good balance of intrigue, light romance, and action. I really couldn’t stop thinking about how easily this book could be adapted for the screen. Someone needs to make it happen!

If you enjoy a well written, richly detailed fantasy world with compelling characters, and fated destinies, this book is a must-read! Cannot wait to get my hands on the next Lightbringers novel, I need to know what happens next for everyone!!

I was intrigued by this book because of the description and I thought the cover looked interesting. I have only been able to make it 30% through and have to DNF it. This is way too difficult for me to follow with the 6 different POVs and makes it really hard for me to understand what is going on. I think maybe if the chapters had whose POV it was from, that would help clear up a lot of confusion. It took me almost halfway through the chapter to really know who’s POV it was actually from and then there wasn’t really a clear introduction to some of the characters.

I have a feeling I'm truly going to love this one if I read it again. I was unfortunately struggling with personal stuff while reading, so I had a hard time focusing and therefore it didn't get my full attention and I had soft dnf it. I will give it another try soon though, because this might become a new favorite of mine!

3.75 ⭐️!

- fated mates
- fae & humans
- multiple povs
- unique world building
- romance subplot
- puzzle pieces falling into place
- fast paced

the only thing i had a hard time with was the 6 different povs - they were all interesting and fun characters but it made the story a little hard to follow at times. as well as the plot only taking place over a few days but felt like it should’ve been spaced out longer. the found family feel of the book at the start was super fun (i eat it up every-time).

i had a fun time with this one and definitely recommend!

thank you net galley and sera foxe for the arc!

I didn't really like this, it was very difficult to get through and I don't think I'll continue with this series, however this is 100% due to my own taste and pet peeves in which I am often in the wrong and just really picky.
Aside from that, from someone else's perspective I can totally see a lot of people loving this, it is entirely a me thing. Normally I wouldn't review a book that I reacted to this way but I am since it is an ARC
Congrats to Sera Foxe on their new book, I can't wait for more people to find it, I'm sure it will do great :)

Blood Iron & Bone has a lot of potential, but it took me a while to get into it. The world-building is creative and detailed, but the first part of the book felt overwhelming with all the information thrown at once. It took until about 50-60% for me to narrow down what was what. While I get that it’s necessary for setting up the story, it came across as pretty info dumpy and slowed the pacing down.

The multiple POVs were interesting, but they didn’t always feel distinct enough to immediately know whose perspective I was reading. There are 6 different view points. That said, there are some standout moments, especially in the final stretch of the book where the action and twists really picked up. I loved the unique take on fae lore and the prophecy elements. There’s enough here that I’m curious to see where the story goes next but I do hope the next book feels much less info dumpy and gets more into the bulk of the story and action.

Thank you NetGalley and Agency Press for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

The first book in the Lightbringer series follows six main characters as they journey towards fulfilling a prophecy, a quest that promises to save the land of the Fae from the darkness. However doubt arises, will the prophecy truly deliver salvation, and can everyone be trusted?

The narrative employs 3rd person, multiple points of view, a technique I enjoy. It provides insightful glimpses into each character’s thoughts and motivations, even as their actions sometimes left me questioning their judgement. It was interesting to see them develop and I found them easy to connect with.

A significant portion of the book (probably the first 60% or so) is dedicated to world building and detailing the hierarchy and landscape of Aithim. While there are moments of adventure, this emphasis on setting the scene may feel slow-paced to some. Because of this, while necessary for the plot, the ending feels rushed in comparison.

The prophecy serves as the main plot driver throughout, yet the origins and underlying mythology surrounding the prophecy remain largely unexplained. While a more in depth explanation would have been great, it’s possible this will be explored in more detail in the following books (I hope!). Despite some predictable twists and turns, the writing style kept me captivated throughout.

By the last third, I didn't want to put it down and found the story and world captivating. The writing is purposeful and intentionally interwoven. There were a few moments where I questioned certain character responses but I'm hoping these will be explored more in the following books. Overall an enjoyable and solid introduction to the world of Aithim with characters I grew to care for by the end. I particularly hope Nova’s story is explored in more detail.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy with a touch of romance and Grimms fairytale vibes - I'm looking forward to the next installment and finding out more about the characters who’s stories remain incomplete.

An extra note, I greatly appreciate the inclusion of a pronunciation guide and glossary. Accurately reading names as the Authors intended them to sound makes it so much easier to read! I wish more Authors would adopt this practice!

Thank you to Sera foxe, NetGalley for an Advanced Reader Copy

Tropes: Fae + mortal | Curses | Magic | Fated mates | Found family

A fun unique story with just the right amount of mystery and romance that any romantasy lover would enjoy!

My reason for 3 ⭐️ is mainly due to the pacing of the book. I sometimes found Aurelia’s chapters throughout the beginning to be quite slow and lengthy with not much action happening until after about 50% into the book.

I also struggled a bit with the amount of POV’s in the story and jumping between so many. I felt like I couldn’t connect with the characters as much.

Apart from that I did really love the plot and characters in general!

Random and weird thing I noticed in this book that has nothing to do with anything: there's not that much dialogue. Why does that matter? It doesn't, it's just a random thing I noticed that someone might care about.

This had such a good premise and I did have fun reading it, I just wish there was a little more oomph to it. I didn't get as invested as I really like to for this kind of book.

Fae and humans, a magical curse, multiple POVs (maybe too many, it could get a bit confusing at times), lots of exposition (sometimes becoming info-dumpy) and fated mates.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.