The Bone Way
Ratings2
Average rating2.8
Teagan's wife, Cressidae, is missing. She has left for the Shadow Realm, a kingdom of the dead filled with untold nightmares-and the only place that can save Teagan from a lethal poison that's killing her slowly. It is ruled by a princess said to make powerful deals with those brave enough to find her, and Cressidae has gone to bargain for Teagan's life. Cressidae has forgotten one very important thing: no one makes it out on their own. Despite the risks to her own safety, Teagan is determined to save her wife-and perhaps even herself in the process. The princess of the Shadow Realm, however, doesn't let mortals roam her territories without opposition. In this thrilling fantasy novella, Teagan and Cressidae must face both the horrors of the Shadow Realm as well as their own past.
Tags
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
Thank you the publisher and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this book
I have bumped this down to a 4 from a 4.5 after further thought.
Τhis was a very wonderful sapphic novella reminiscent of one of my favourite Greek myths, that being the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Unfortunately, while this was a fun, short read, I would have longed for it to be longer. Underhill creates this incredibly interesting world with witches and princesses and destruction (or so everyone thinks) but doesn't really build on it. Had it been a non-established relationship, perhaps the Teagan's quest to save Cress might have been more believable, might have made me believe more in the power of their love. We do get flashbacks which help understand how the couple met and what led to Cress leaving for the Shadow Realm and Teagan following behind. There is a spoiler section, feel free to scroll down past it for the rest of my thoughts.
In addition, for a being as feared as the Shadow Princess, her story arc fell sort of flat.
Spoilers ahead
I really thought there would be more to the Shadow Princess and their deal instead of just her (Shadow Princess) having a very selfish ruler of a husband and her not wanting to be his crown jewel and therefore she gets her revenge by putting this whole Shadow Realm between her and the other people of the world. Also the deal? Her saying that T and C can't touch each other and then showing up at the end and then one of them saying “you only said it for so-and-so road' was a bit of an easy win.
End of Spoilers
I think this novella would have benefited from seeing parts of the journey from Cress' perspective and part of it from Teagan's. In result of the 3rd person POV centering on Teagan, I didn't feel much connection to Cress and while I could see that Teagan did love Cress, I wanted to see that same love, that same feeling from Cress as well.
I think that is all I can think of for this novella. This was a fun short read, as mentioned before and thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-ARC.
First of all I want to thank NetGalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.
And now onto said review. I feel like I would have needed a hundred pages more to be able to fully connect to the characters and the story. I liked the premise, what I read was fine, but I felt like it was not enough. I would have loved to see more backstory to the main characters, I don't find what we need enough to root for them as a couple. I would have also loved to see more of the Princess, she seemed interesting but we didn't get enough to grasp me.
Writing a short story is hard for the very reasons this one didn't get me as interested as it should have. It's still an entertaining read, but I feel like it could have been more than that.
