The book juggles a large cast of distinct characters effectively, immersing readers in their varied perspectives and driving a character-focused narrative. The rich, complex world is unveiled piece by piece through an omniscient, fairytale-like writing style, enhanced by intriguing excerpts from "The Book of Maw." Despite a slight repetition in character thoughts, the unique approach to pacing and the compelling atmosphere make this a promising start to the series.

4.5. stars.

I really enjoyed this book. It truly felt like a fairytale.

Characters:
First, there are a lot of characters to follow. There are 6 main characters and a handful of secondary characters very important to the story.
I felt it was clear whose head you were in as each character had their own way of talking/thinking. I didn't feel lost at any point even though we jumped from one pov to the next. Of course, there are characters I liked more than the others but all brought something unique to the story and I'm looking forward to learn more about them.
One of my favourite character doesn't even have a pov and I really hope we'll get to learn more about her in the second book.

Atmosphere and Worldbuilding:
I loved the way information was given to us to understand the world better. The world is rich and complex. Even though we don't see a lot of it in this first book, we learn information piece by piece through the different characters and our perception changes as each one see this world from a totally different perspective. The extracts from "The Book of Maw" added to this in a wonderful way and felt very magical (and quite dark).

Writing style:
It was really refreshing to have an omniscient third-person pov in a fantasy romance! I loved the writing style. It really made me think of a fairytale. I liked how the authors managed to write a dark magical story while adding humour to some parts. The thoughts of some characters sometimes felt a little repetitive and that is why it's a 4.5 stars and not a 5 stars.

Some quotes I liked :
"She was just a woman. But history has always feared women."
"Of course, it is almost impossible for anyone to enter the Otherworld entirely unnoticed. All passage through the membrane leaves a trace, sends a jolt out into the air, like a current of electricity. And the current that went out into the night when Aurelia crossed the border was more intense than most. It was almost as though the Otherworld itself breathed a sigh of relief as she set foot on that land, for she had long been expected."
"Six different streams, six different hearts, all set to converge in the heart of Aithrim, and none had any idea."
"Sometimes all we can be is what we are told we already are."

Pacing:
The events of the book span over only a few days but so much happened! I loved how we jumped forward then backward in time to have the point of view of several characters for the same scenes. I felt it was more character driven than plot driven as we spend so much time in the characters' heads.

I think this book isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea because of some of those points but if you want some refreshing writing style in a fantasy romance and love a big cast of characters, I think you won't be disappointed. I will definitely pick up book 2.

A big thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

*Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC and ofc to Sera Foxe*

This book was a total trip at first I was so confused, an Then baaam everything conects, and Then there's different POV's, and my Brain was like who tf Is talking now I had to re-start the chapters sometimes haha but During the passage of the story I was so intrigued to understand what was happening with so many Secrets and misunderstandings ....

Then there were the entries of the book of Maw and I was like what Is happening right now and then boom she's a scribe and when she talks to Nova about their pasts.... I gagged bc she remembers When no one is supposed to do it

I had a serious problem with Andar's mom I wanted to slap that biatch 🤡🤡 YOU CAN'T MANIPULATE DESTINY CIAROTHE 👹👹👹

Anyway I loveeeeeedddd Nova and Killian omg they're so good characters 🩷

Buuuut I think even if it's destiny.... The relationship of Aurelia and Andar was so rushed 😭😭😭 I mean I love that man but it's only been like 72 hours and a lot was happening at the Time 🫠🫠🫠

To conclude, I loved the book and everything it includes, but my rating is 4 stars because of the urgency of the relationship between Aurelia and Andar.

I'm already looking forward to the book coming out. 🤌🏼🤌🏼

This is a very creative story, but there’s something about the writing style I cannot connect with, and my ADHD brain cannot keep track of all the different POVs.

As a lover of high fantasy, I was intrigued by the premise of this book, and while it has potential, it ultimately left me feeling a bit conflicted. This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy (ARC), so there is always the possibility that additional edits will smooth out some of the rougher elements.

One of the most surprising parts of this book that there is not one, but six different points of view. While multi-POV storytelling can be a fantastic tool for expanding a world and deepening character arcs, the execution here is somewhat flawed. The transitions between POVs are often abrupt and jarring, making it difficult to stay immersed in the narrative. Instead of a smooth flow between perspectives, the shifts feel disjointed, which pulled me out of the story at times.

The book classifies as more high fantasy, which required me to keep track of all the perspectives, world-building elements, and character motivations. This level of complexity can be rewarding, but in this case, the payoff is hindered by pacing issues. The events of the book take place over just two or three days, yet the pacing feels all over the place. The inconsistency in pacing makes it difficult to fully engage with the story’s stakes and character development.

The writing itself is serviceable but does not particularly stand out. While the prose is functional and conveys the necessary details, it lacks the lyrical quality or distinct voice that can make high fantasy novels feel truly immersive. Some passages are compelling, but others feel like they could have benefited from another round of editing to tighten the prose and enhance readability.

That being said, the book does show promise. The world-building is intriguing, and there are glimpses of strong character dynamics that could be further developed in future installments. With some refinement—particularly in terms of POV transitions, pacing, and overall cohesion—this series could become something truly special.

Overall, this is a book with potential, but it may not be for everyone. If you enjoy intricate fantasy worlds and don’t mind a bit of a challenge in following multiple perspectives, it might be worth picking up.

I really wanted to love this book, but unfortunately I don't think this one is for me.

The storyline seems super promising, but I did find it hard to keep up with the multiple POV's, especially those in the one chapter.

I did also find the story very slow in parts, which I feel is from the very descriptive nature of the story.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review.

DNF @ 14%

I did not like the writing. I'm not really good at picking out what POV books are, but another review said this was third person omniscient, so maybe that's something I'm not into? I'm not really sure.

It felt like I was being read a story, but with the multiple POVs (I think 6?), it was just too much and I couldn't connect to it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the eARC. My thoughts are entirely my own.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

I want to start off by saying that I think the marketing failed this book a little. It was not at all what I was expecting, which makes me sad for rating this book low. I expected a romantasy akin to authors suggested in the blurb, but the romance was not a strong element in this at all.

In Blood, Iron and Bone the worldbuilding was easily the strongest element—I could really picture the dark, Otherworlds setting. I also loved the variety of fae characters and creatures, and the magic and prophecy elements.

However, this book was not for me. There's too many POVs (6!) that change mid-chapter, and pacing that often felt too slow.

It was not my cup of tea, but I could see someone really liking it who likes a lot of characters, perspectives, and doesn't mind the romance being on the back burner.

Thank you NetGalley and Victory Editing for an e-Arc of Blood, Iron and Bone by Sera Foxe.

Blood, Iron, and Bone had a great idea, but it didn’t work well for me. The story was interesting, but it stars very slow and doesn’t pickup until around the 60 % mark. The characters are difficult to connect with due to the constan switch between first and third person across six different POV’s; add in the fact that there’s more than one time line, and it just made the book hard to follow. There’s also no chapter headings so it was confusing and frustrating to constantly have to figure out whose POV you were reading from.

I also wasn’t the biggest fan of the romance which was on me but it was just one more to dislike.

In the end, the book has some really great moments, especially in its creative and unique world-building. But the repetitive story structure and weaker characters held it back from being as good as it could have been

This is not say that people aren’t going to love the book because I can see it becoming popular and with the many tropes this has, it’s a perfect romantasy story.

This book had a lot of potential to be amazing. For me it was a little confusing and overwhelming. Now that I have read it once I may circle back in a few months and reread it and I think I might enjoy it more the second time. It is still an interesting book and am curious to see where this series will go!

Honestly I wanted to love this book, and it held such promise but I just couldn’t connect with the characters or the story
It was interesting though and maybe a sold 3.5 stars just wish it had a bit more

Aurelia hears a call in the night and follows it to another world. Andar is betrothed to the future High Queen of Aithrim but their relationship seems unable to progress past friendship. Nova is human but has been a servant in Aithrim her whole life and has no hope of ever returning to her own world. This assorted group of humans and fae must come together to prevent Aithrim from falling into permanent darkness.

The world building in the book was done well. Getting the perspective from multiple characters gave depth and insight into how fae and humans lived in Aithrim.

The pace of the book was a little slow. The book takes place over only a couple of days and it seemed to take a long time for everyone to meet and the story to move forward.

The romance was underwhelming. Aurelia and Ardan feel an instant connection but we don’t really see them build their relationship. I cared more about Nova’s relationship, but it also was an instant connection without much growth. Overall, I liked the world and characters but was a little bored by the story.

the title absolutely made sense after I completed reading the book— blood, there many instances where blood gets slipped, iron is harmful to the magical creatures in the book whereas bone also have it uses in the book. (I'd hate to spoil it for anyone)

I appreciate the glossary in the book— it helped me to grasp new terms, the phrase "Tù mo ghra" was my favourite one!

At first, I was quite confused with the scene changes from otherworld to earth. It took me sometime to get adjusted with it. There were mainly six characters whose point of views are written in the book, the wonderful part is I didn't get confused with these povs but I did expect the characters to have more depth and intensity. It wasn't a slow burn— yet it lacked the intensity and chemistry between the characters which somehow made it fall flat for me at some scenes. The same goes with spicy scenes (or which were supposed to be spicy), they lacked flow and intensity that made those scenes quite uninteresting for me to read.

The writing style complimented the world building in the book, there's extensive world building with prophecies, history, myths and lore. The writing style was simple and was what made navigating between different point of views in the book pretty easy. The best element of this book was the world building element for me!

Thanks NetGalley and agency press for a free early review copy!

This book had so much going on it was difficult to follow and love at times. Too many points of view and entertwined aspects of curses and prophecy.

I’d like to thank Netgalley for the opportunity to read this prior to release!
This book is told from the POV of 6 people. It is immersive and will require some time and patience to world build. It may be confusing at times, but you will understand. This is a great read and a good start to the series. I have listed some tropes below.

If you love magic, and you love the lore that is fae, you will also enjoy this one of a kind story telling..
• Multiple POV
• Fated Mates
• World Building
• Magic
• Fae x Human

Blood iron & Bone
1.25⭐️3🌶️


6 POV
Fae + Humans
Dated mates
Found family
Chosen one
Curses
Prophecy
Witchcraft


The blurb for this book was great. I was excited to start it. The premise had so much potential.

I wish it was otherwise, but the inconsistent shifts between past and present tense as well as 1st and 3rd person within the 6 POvs was absolutely too much for me. The lack of chapter heading that stated which POV the chapter was in really hurt the flow of the book.

This book needs another round of line editing. The structure and style of what is here is not refined. There are many poorly structured chapters. I found at-least one moment in each chapter that needed heavy restructuring and proofreading.

The writing was drawn out with many moments that failed to move the plot forward. It fell into the trap of being overly descriptive at inoperative moments and relying on internal monologuing to world-build. I wanted to be shown, not told. I feel like this book was really made to set up the action for the next book.


This book just really wasn’t for me.



Thank you NetGalley and Agency Press for the DRC of this book. All opinions are my own.

This an ARC review for Blood, Irone, and Bone by Sera Fox, thank you to Netgalley for sending me this ARC copy.

This book will be published 21 March 2025

This book was 3-star- read for me. I think the plot and premise behind this book was really intriguing, but I found the execution of it fell a little flat. I found the first ten chapters or so were quite slow and the introduction to all the POV characters also took some time. The latter two thirds of the book improved, I found the plot okay, but I did find the character development for several of the characters to be lacking.

I would consider this book to be moderately spicy, I am expecting it to get spicier in the upcoming sequels.

The storyline mostly takes place within Aithrim (the faery realm) and focuses on several POV characters including:
- Aurelia Bartlett- grew up in the human realm, never feeling like she belonged.
- Princess Skyelark (Lark) – a fae princess; destined to become High Queen of the realm once she marries Andar
- Andar- a highborn fae; is the son of the Commander and his marriage to Princess Lark is prophesised to overcome the darkness in the realm. Neither he nor Lark truly feel that their match is right, they feel more like siblings than lovers.
- Nova- a human, stolen as a child by the fae. She is Lark’s maid. Humans are considered less-than in the eyes of the fae
- Alasdair- Cillian’s Captain, has two chapters in his POV in the entire book.
- Cillian- a fae soldier, stationed at the castle for further protection ahead of the impending marriage and coronation of Lark and Andar. He is sent by Captain Alasdair to deliver a message to Commander Waymar (Andar’s father) regarding a potential threat, he then goes on several reluctant side quests while on this mission

I found the character development for Aurelia, Lark, and Andar to be lacking, I found them a little boring and that they kind of just let things happen to them, it didn’t really feel like they were fighting or scheming to get what they wanted. I think their characters could have been fleshed out a bit more.

I really liked Cillian and Nova’s characters, I think they were more interesting and their stories within the entire plot more compelling. I also really liked Aife who is Lark’s half-sister, she was a side character but I think she was really entertaining.

I feel like Alasdair’s chapters could have been better served in Cillian’s POV, I think he is better as a supporting character rather than a POV character. I think we would gleaned more about Cillian and how he perceived his captain had these chapters been from his POV.

I think the story setting and overall plot was okay, but I do think with fine tuning and fleshing out the world and characters more the book would have been so much better. The use of foreshadowing in this book was good, but, I found that the foreshadowing was so obvious that I knew what was going to happen anyways so it took the shock factor of a good twist out of the story, if the foreshadowing had been more subtle I think it would have hit better.

I do think I will read the next book in the series because I am interested in the story but I am really hoping Aurelia, Andar and Lark really step up as characters and try and fight for themselves and their world. I am looking forward to learning more about Nova and Cillian’s journey, and I really want more Aife because she is awesome.

Had a hard time following this one. Not saying it was bad just not for me personally. Too much going on.

I liked this one but I did find it a bit challenging. There's a lot of povs and sometimes that's okay but in this situation it was a little hard to keep track of everything. It's got fae and romance though so it's still pretty good!