I really enjoyed this read! I am a big fan of fantasy books that have been coming out lately and Blood Iron and Bone really hit where others have as well! I am excited by it being part of a series because there are so many points of view in it. I enjoyed going along for the ride with all of them.

I really enjoyed reading the ARC of Blood Iron and Bone! I think some readers may have a difficult time from the jump, as the writing style is a very fluid 3rd person. Each character has their own unique voice but we can jump into any persons thoughts and actions at any point in a chapter. For me, that wasn’t a deal breaker, but there was certainly a learning curve.

Some selling points:
1. PRONUNCIATION GUIDES AND GLOSSARY - I’m unequivocally a huge fan of a glossary and pronunciation guides in books. Why all big fantasy books don’t have them is beyond me.
2. There is really imaginative world building that doesn’t feel beside the plot. You are learning with the characters in a way that makes sense with the story.
3. There is a mystery element. Throughout the book you know something big is coming but how that occurs is a mystery and has you sitting at the edge of your seat.

Things that may put you off:
1. There are dream and flashback sequences that happen in the middle of some chapters without a clear delineation between present time and past event, so that can be hard to parse.
2. I think one of the primary romances deserved to be fleshed out more. Without spoiling anything, I think there should be more dialogue between those two characters to make a more compelling romance (this is something I except will be fleshed out in future books in the series).

Overall, definitely recommend to my fellow fantasy readers and looking forward to future releases from the duo known as Sera Foxe!

A fated mates Romantasy that I throughly enjoyed. I was really excited to go into this one. Of course when you throw in a prohophecct you are in for a good time. I had to sit with my thoughts for a few hours before going into this. Overall I really liked the story but I was unsure what my rating would be. I am normally easy to please and have no issues with a book rather it is first or third. But this was a third person and had 6 POV’s and that did at times overwhelm me. It is something I really wish I did know before going in. Sometimes I find knowing these things before I go into a book that I will be going back and forth between that many prepares me, and my adhd brain, for the work my brain is going to do. But in the end I thought the writing was well done and that the plot was put together for the first book in this new series. I am very interesting on seeing what the next installment brings.

I received an E-Arc of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher, for this opportunity.

Actual Rating: 2.5 stars

Blood, Iron and Bone is an adult fantasy romance that follows an expansive cast of characters—Aurelia, a mortal girl who is tethered by fate to Andar, a Fae from another realm bound by prophecy to marry a Princess he doesn't love. Lark, the Queen-to-be of Aithrim set to marry the childhood friend she does not love to save the world. Nova, a human servant stolen as a child and forced to serve the royal Fae, and Cillian, a Fae solider from the lower castes—all of whom find themselves unwittingly drawn into a complicated web of court intrigue decades in the making.

To start with some positives, the worldbuilding for the Fae realm, Aithrim, and its social hierarchy of different kinds of Fae was innovative. The Fae of Aithrim are separated into three main sects, Athruean, gifted with the ability to change their appearance at will and blessed with political leadership; Seileans, characterized by their animalistic features like horns and wings, often forced into warrior roles and Adharcans, a sub-sect of Seileans with impressive strength and deadlier instincts deemed monsters by most. The Athruean rule over Aithrim with an iron fist, suppressing the powers and rights of the Seileans and Adharcans in addition to the Obiri, the humans stolen from their realm to serve as a servant caste living in tunnels beneath the royal palace. With the story's shifting PoVs, the reader is given insight into how this complicated system affects characters from the various castes, with Andar and Lark providing insight into the Athruean perspective, Cillian the Seilean perspective and Nova, the Obiri. Despite this exciting premise, I found it could have been better explained. There was also a lot of confusing world-building around the 'prophecy' that connects Andar and Lark, our two Athrueans, that I think could have been explained better, but overall, I believe that the worldbuilding was good.

Similarly, I think, for the most part, that the character work was pretty well done. Personally, I believe that there were too many PoVs. Indeed, in my summary above, I excluded one of the PoVs (Captain Alasdair, if anyone was wondering) because this character only got one chapter focused on them and rarely appeared in the story. Because of this, the characters were given an uneven amount of attention and would often disappear for extended periods, making the story hard to keep track of. Additionally, I felt that the characters were somewhat inconsistently written; for example, I really did not enjoy Aurelia and Andar's chapters, but I did enjoy Lark, Nova, and Cillian's chapters for the most part. However, I often found that the writing for all of the characters was inconsistent across the different chapters. I think this could partly be because Sera Foxe is an author duo, so they may have each had their own ways of writing the characters, which I found confusing.

Likewise, I think Sera Foxe being an author duo had something to do with the inconsistent grammatical choices. For instance, I found that in many of the earlier chapters, mainly Aurelia's, parentheses were used rather flippantly to add in, in my opinion, unnecessary details. These relatively minuscule changes in the grammatical structure of the narrative made it hard for me to follow along with the story as I kept being pulled out from it by the shifting narration. There were also a few issues with the narrative 'telling' more so than 'showing.' For example, we were often told about how a character felt instead of getting any insight into why they felt that way, which often left the characterization hollow. There were also a lot of times when the authors would repeat the same thing over and over again. One such example is that some variation of "Aurelia's parents don't love her" is constantly repeated throughout the first half, multiple times in almost every chapter, and how much she is 'not like other' girls and a 'weirdo who doesn't fit in.'

Unfortunately, the negatives don't end here either; as I stated before, Aurelia and Andar were my least favourite characters, and despite this book's marketing as a fantasy romance focused on them, I hated that aspect of the book and thought it was one of the weakest points of the narrative despite the premise of star-crossed human and fae lovers from different realms being what drew me to the story in the first place. Their relationship was very insta-love mainly because of their shared connection with Aurelia and Andar, both having dreamed of each other for most of their lives. Despite this book being marketed as a fantasy romance, these characters don't even meet each other until about the 75% mark. Andar as well is one of the most neglected characters, and I think the main cast has the least amount of PoVs chapters, most of which made me like his character less; in particular, some of the chapters that he has with Lark paint him as a relatively dense, selfish and all around ignorant to the privilege that he has.

Furthermore, as mentioned in the synopsis, Aurelia begins the book in the human realm, setting the expectation that she will journey to the Fae realm. However, this doesn't come to pass until around 50%, which is incredibly jarring because the other four characters are in the Fae realm. Their plotlines focus on common themes like the prophecy, the upcoming royal wedding, or the politics of Aithrim, while Aurelia is instead reflecting on her complicated relationship with her parents or her vaguely supernatural cat from her childhood and some weird story about how it died while at a sleepover that has absolutely nothing to do with the main plot. I believe that these characters and their relationship should not have been the focus of the marketing of this book, and I believe, in part, were emphasized to appeal to the current market trend of fantasy romance, which is a shame because I think that there was more potential to the story to have focused on the main fantasy plot as opposed to cramming in a lacklustre and rushed romance.

Overall, Blood, Iron and Bone is unfortunately hampered by poor narrative and characterization choices but still has a lot of potential with a few solid characters, an interesting interpretation of Fae and unique worldbuilding that could have been a lot better with some plot-based editing and whether or not each PoV and plot line it explored was necessary to the overall narrative.

A beautifully crafted world narrated from several perspectives. The multiple perspectives feel hard to follow at first but it's worth persevering with as once the fates of these characters intertwine the narrative flows much better. As such it was a slow start, but once I got going I devoured this book and look forward to seeing what Foxe does next with her Lightbringers.

"Blood Iron and Bone" by Sera Foxe is an enthralling debut that masterfully blends epic fantasy with romance. The intricate world-building and well-developed characters drew me in from the very first page. The narrative weaves together multiple perspectives, each adding depth and richness to the story. The MCs and the looming prophecy create a compelling tension that kept me eagerly turning pages. While the multiple perspectives add depth, they can be complex at times, but the payoff is well worth it. Overall, it's a captivating read that I highly recommend to fans of epic fantasy romance.

Thank you to Sera Foxe, Agency Press, and NetGalley for the ARC!

I’ll admit, it took me a while to warm up to this one. The story didn’t fully captivate me until about halfway through. The pacing at the start felt a bit awkward due to the brief sentences, but it picked up as I read on. I wasn’t bothered by the multiple perspectives—honestly, it added layers to the plot—but I can see how it could be too much for some readers.

The world-building didn’t impress me as much as I had hoped. While I could sense the potential, I didn’t feel fully immersed in the setting. There were also a few offhand comments that threw me off a bit, like the one referencing another character—didn't love that. I’m still curious about the magic system, but I feel like I’ll have to wait to get the details. Aife was the real highlight for me, though—her character was a refreshing surprise.

The romance was another area that didn’t sit right with me. It felt rushed, and I’m more of a fan of slow-burning chemistry in fantasy. The fated mates angle didn’t help to slow things down either, which was a bit disappointing. That said, the secondary relationships in the background do hold promise.

In the end, while it wasn’t an entirely bad read, I wasn’t as hooked as I hoped to be. I’m undecided about whether or not I’ll continue the series.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sera Foxe for the arc.

I really love twins in stories. I know twin sisters are becoming common, but I wish someone would write one with twin brothers soon. Switched at birth is also a trope I really enjoy—it adds more flavor to the story, if you know what I mean.

This might just be a me problem, but I always end up disliking one of the twins. Unfortunately, I didn’t like Aurelia. The story felt too slow-paced. While it had a strong start and I was somewhat curious about who Lark’s love interest would be, I ended up DNF’ing it at 29%. I’m not sure if I’ll pick it up again.

Blood Iron and Bone follows the lives of an unsuspecting group of mortals and fae tied to a prophecy. It builds pace slowly, focusing on world building and culminates in a quick solve jigsaw that leaves you begging for more.

I shall not delve into the characters in this review for I do not wish to spoil the book for prospective audiences.

The book admittedly starts very slow and has multiple POVs. The world building in the process is brilliant but the pace for me was too slow at times and lacked character development. Once passing the 60% mark, the pace steadily increases until you’re frantically page turning to find out what happens next. This is the reason the book is 4 stars, had pace been stronger at the start I would have no hesitation to give 5 stars.

The characters development was limited and I think that’s because there are so many POVs to articulate in the narrative. I still enjoyed getting to know the characters and found myself liking the majority. There are definitely hidden depths to several that could be further explored in upcoming books.

The plot itself is suspenseful. Often times with prophecy it’s abundantly clear the plot from an early stage of the book however the plot Sera gifts us is a complex web that is slowly unpicked (and not yet fully understood at the end of book 1!). Lots of twists and turn towards the end and more to come in book 2!

The writing itself was well done however as I said at the start, the pacing too slow at the beginning did bother me and had it not vastly improved, it’s likely I would have rated this lower. I hope this is remedied in future books.

All in all, it’s a rough start that totally transforms in the end into a complete page turner. It leaves enough intrigue and unanswered questions to have you sitting patiently waiting to unwrap book 2! If slow books are your pet hate then you may not finish this but if you can persevere, like to be kept guessing, enjoy a good romantasy then is absolutely for you!

Blood Iron and Bone by Sera Foxe is about a kingdom on the edge of being taken over by darkness and the only way to rid of it is through a prophecy of a boy and a girl born on the same night. But what if the fated couple is not the right one?

I was very excited to receive the ARC for this book just based on the plot. However, the book just fell flat for me. I normally don't care if a book is written in 3rd person, but it just did not pan out well here. The pacing is very slow and a big part of that is due to the over descriptive, passive writing. Not a lot happened in the first 40% of the book, which is where I decided to DNF it, and barely any conversation. We were majority of the time in one of the characters thoughts. The characters seemed very simple, which is weird as many of them are from the Otherworld. Speaking of characters, there are 6 POVs in this story and to be honest, I don't think I even got to read about all of them.

I have seen reviews that it gets better towards the end, but I just can't get myself to spend more time on the story when the first 40% has not hooked me. It could very well be a personal preference and this book is just not for me. This would be a great book for someone who loves books with a lot of details. and multi-POV.

I unfortunately had to dnf this book. I really liked the premise of this, but it was a bit much for me. I felt very confused. There were 6 pov's, which was to much to me. They all had different storylines. Because of that I felt like I was missing other things happening. And the fact that it also kept jumping back and fourth from present to past didn't help either. The world building was great and very interesting. But I felt there was just to much for me to focus.

Tropes:
Multi POV
Magic
Fated mates
Curse & prophecies

The concept of this book could have produced a really good story but sadly this was not good. I love that idea of having a prophesy attached to your destiny at birth and also that fated mates with the necessary arranged marriage storyline. I also like the idea of the princess locked in her tower until she can live out that prophesy and lift the curse of the land with her betrothed. I even don't mind the "I am not like other girls" (spoilers: because I am not actually a human from this world)...

However, I think mainly this book needed a lot more editing -- editing in structure, length, and writing style. I almost DNFed it twice but read some reviews that claimed it got better so I pushed through and still I was disappointed in the end and did not like it.

The first and biggest issue is the pace. Nothing, I mean nothing at all happens for the first half. This feels excruciating because the writing is overly verbose and descriptive (not in the good way), lingering on random details that sadly don't contribute to make the world feel more interesting. The story actually begins around the 60% mark and we get something finally happening around the 70% mark. That's simply too long to grab our attention. What this does is everything is chaotic, messy, predictable, and rushed at the end to make it all happen in the last 30% of the book.

Now, all this could have been tolerable or even worth it with incredible characters. Alas... none of them were warm, none of them had depth, none of them were like-able (maybe Nova the human maid/captive?) or hate-able for that matter, none of them were intriguing either to wait for more books in the series.

For being superior beings (as we were told) the fae characters were not that bright or assertive. If your story can exist without the supposed two main characters to some extent then something went really wrong. She was bland and I still don't know her personality, while he was absolutely inconsequential... in a hazy sex vision the whole book. Also the impression that not their union symbolically is the thing that broke the curse, but rather the actually practical sexual act ('we'll keep on trying" or something like after their second coupling) made it so cheap and disgusting really.

I do think it's possible to get over all these and still enjoy for what it was, and the rest of the story might become more interesting. For it felt like there were too many hurdles to jump over in order to like this book.

BLOOD IRON AND BONE contains multiple POVs ( 6, to be exact ) and fated mates.

i loved the premise and plot of the book, and i cannot wait to continue on with the series! nova is my favourite character thus far, i LOVE HER. although aurelia is absolutely a close second.

however, i felt like this book didn’t live up to it’s full potential. the first half of the book felt dragged out, with flashbacks adding as fillers. this book could have easily been cut 100 pages short. IMO the world building was a tad confusing ( but then again, that might just be me ).

in terms of the romance, it is more of a sub-plot ( which i didn’t mind ), but it felt more insta-lovey for me between two of the couples ? as for lark, while i empathised with her character, i can’t help but dislike her ( a little ) given how she treats nova.

to put it out there, I THINK I FIGURED OUT WHO ANDAR’S BROTHER IS ! i was raging at the characters towards the end out of sheer frustration because half the time they just weren’t listening.

This book really surprised me! 4.5 stars rounded up (thank you NetGalley, Agency Press, and Sera Foxe for this ARC. all opinions are my own).

I’m ngl y’all (I’m always honest in my reviews), I was 35% in and prepared to give this three stars at best. I was confused, there were a lot of main characters so I didn’t feel connected to them, and I felt like Aurelia’s character was a little inconsistent. Then, I don’t know what happened, but I turned the page and WOAH. I couldn’t put it down. I was so enthralled, so into the story. My confusion turned to me wanting to figure out the puzzle and eventually, I did really like the characters. The fated mates was something I was constantly rooting for but the romance worked in harmony with the main plot and wasn’t everything in the book. Plus, there were seeds for multiple romances, which is great for a romance lover like me.

At one point I was like, “…is this the next cruel prince?” It was an immersive fantasy world that was different than other romantasies but still familiar—hitting all the things you wanted. I’ll definitely be tuning in for the rest of the series because that ending was satisfying but left me in a way where I know it’s going to get juicy.

Things I loved:
🌞 the prophecy with the sun!!!
❤️‍🔥 the fated mates. Y’all know I love this trope. Plus, I know we’ll get more in future books
🏰 the Otherworld setting. I love a world within a world!
🗡️ Nova. I loved her from the moment we met her and I am so rooting for her and Cillian
🛡️ Andar!! Now that he (spoiler) has his wings and is Commander, I know he’s going to get hotter.
🕊️ The lost twin sisters storyline. I really hope they get close and each twin finds happiness

While I struggled to get into the book at first, and many POV's - the endurance was worth it! The story is told from six different points of view, which becomes more naturally the longer you read but can be confusing at first. Central to the plot are themes of destiny and preordained relationship, a detailed and immersive setting, blending elements of magic, politics, and prophecy! For those interested in a romantic fantasy featuring complex characters and a richly imagined world, "Blood Iron and Bone" is a promising addition to the genre.

well that was an experience, if you want a quick mindless read... this isnt it. The author writes in 6 different POVs and the feeling of whiplash is definetly there but hang on for the ride because the book is so unique and great. The book is fast paced and feels like unraveling a giant mystery. The magic system needs a little more explaining for my taste but im sure it will come. The spice was there but it wasnt very important, solving the curse is. I will definetly be re-reading this and will wait for book 2.

Thank You NetGally for allowing me to arc this book.

I’m always honest in my feedback of books, that I am given the chance to read and review on. Especially here on NetGalley. I appreciate the fact that I got access to this- but I need to be honest and admit that this book was a hard read. Aurelia feels a bit naive as a MFC, of such power and prophecy that her story arc develops in. Maybe it’s just me. 3 stars- idea was original. But I needed more.

I received this book as an ARC.

I want to start by saying that I found the book and storyline to be interesting! I will be picking up book 2 to see how it continues.

The crux of my issues are that I struggled to follow the various POVs at times and I don’t like when books frequently jump between the present and past. While I understand the need for the multiple points of view after completing the story, I tend to find that more than a few is overkill and weighs the story down. I liked what I read, but wish that it had been condensed in POVS, if that makes sense. In regards to the time jumps, I typically become bored when we dive into past “memories” more than one or twice in a book and prefer to have brief mentions of the past rather than fully reliving the moments.

As I said, I will be reading the next book so obviously the issues mentioned above are not going to deter me from finding out what happens next 😊

Overall I really enjoyed this book! There were some editing issues I noticed throughout, I started marking them on my KU to see how often I stopped. It was a bit confusing at times but overall I was very fond the story.

The multiple viewpoints definitely sets up for a lot of storylines and I can see so many different ways this could be taken. I also enjoyed the simplicity of Aurelia and her more modern thinking crossover with a world so unlike most other fantasy stories I have read. It really is a unique take. I can honestly say I have not read another story like this and will recommend it.

The point of view switch that seemed to be happening by line at times, was where it was hard to keep track of who was talking. The story didn’t always identify who was speaking and with so many different perspectives I feel that would make this easier to read. I almost put it down a few times and I’m glad I pushed to the end.

.I would have given it four stars if it wasn’t for the two things mentioned above, but I’m excited to see the story progress and with continue the series.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. I personally did not enjoy the writing style and it made it hard to continue reading. That’s not to say the writing style is BAD, it’s just not my preference, which is okay, it happens! I think if the premise sounds intriguing to you, and you usually like 3rd person/multi pov stories, still give this one a shot!

I’m choosing not to review this book on my other platforms because I don’t want to dissuade others from trying this book, when the reasons I didn’t like it were due to personal preferences and not the quality of the actual book.