The number one reason I loved this book – there are so many utterly fascinating characters. In my advance e-copy, there was a listing of characters at the end of the book. I wish I had realized it was there. It would have been helpful when I got a bit confused when only first names were used. When you read this book, look for that helpful addendum! Back to the characters – like I said fascinating. And oh, so full of surprises! I settled on Alice as the character I was most invested in, however, there are others who are just as key to the story. Pick your own favorite character.

The New Orleans setting is full of history, voodoo, culture, charm, superstition, and folklore. Whether you are a resident or a fan of NOLA, the use of such a rich city to set this story in will draw you in.

The King of Bones and Ashes is about witches, power, family and what could be. All these elements are interwoven to tell a beautiful complex story of horror, mystery and magic.

There is a cliffhanger ending of a sort, but the next book is due out in June. Since I don’t have to wait long to continue the saga, I won’t subtract any points for it. So 5-stars. I loved this book!

Through NetGalley, the publisher provided a copy of this book.

I received a complimentary ARC copy of The King of Bones and Ashes (Witches of New Orleans) by J.D. Horn from NetGalley in order to read and give an honest review.

The King of Bones and Ashes was the first in a new series from Author J.D. Horn. Although I haven’t read his first series “Witching Savannah” I have heard good things and was intrigued when I read the description of his new book

The King of Bones and Ashes is a fascinating and suspenseful supernatural story set in New Orleans. This novel has a bit of everything, it is a combination family drama, southern gothic and urban fantasy which although slow to build, keeps you captivated from page one to the very end. J.D. Horn has graced us with such strong, unique and multifaceted characters you connect with them within the first few chapters.

The story opens during Katrina, then jumps to modern day where we meet three unique and interesting women, three witches to be exact, all of whom are from different families yet connected through their family’s magic. We meet Alice, a girl who has been locked in an asylum for years, Evangeline an owner of a strip club who once dated Alice’s now deceased brother and Lisette the daughter of a famous Voodoo practitioner who has taken over the family’s voodoo shop. We also meet a great deal of other interesting characters both good and evil (and even feline) who come alive on the page and leave a definite impression on the reader. Perhaps the most mysterious and disturbing character is the creature who haunts Alice, Babau Jean (“the boogeyman”), a childhood legend who becomes very, very real. When magic appears to be dying and many elder witches are losing their powers these three witches remain as strong as ever. Each of them remains low key and try to hide their abilities but everyone suspects they are more than capable. When Alice’s grandfather, the main patriarch, and head of most powerful coven dies, there is a desperate attempt from the elder witches to usurp his magic. Murder, mayhem, and secrets come to the surface putting everyone in danger, especially Alice, Evangeline, and Lisette. Add that to sacred texts, warring witches, feisty felines, bitchy birds and hidden realms and you’re faced with a book to be read with the lights on.

I recommend this to anyone looking for something a little different, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. I’m looking forward to reading the next in this series and now more than ever I’m motivated to check out his Witching Savannah series.

5 Reasons To Read The King of Bones and Ashes

It's about...

Witches in New Orleans? Totally a thing, but alas – a thing almost of the past, because magic is slowly seeping out of the world. And unfortunately, desperate witch clans are doing anything in their power to grasp at the last straws.

Essentially, this is a family tragedy. We follow the lives of Alice, the child of those in power of the Chanticleer coven, Evangeline, a 'half-breed' witch, and several others in their family and circles. Poor Alice gets swept away into an asylum for magical individuals after living out a true tragedy in her childhood. Evangeline's life also turns unexpectedly. But some years later... She's approached by three dangerous raven witches who have something to offer... or demand.

Will we learn the true nature of the tragedy? And what of the disappeareances in the magical world of late? What of the world losing its magic? All of this is a start to a truly amazing tale about witches in New Orleans – The King of Bones and Ashes.

Reason #1.

New Orleans!

YES YES YES YES!! I have never been to New Orleans myself, so this book was nothing short of an amazing trip. There's jazz. There's color. There are all the French names. There's tribute to the events of Katrina. There's even voodoo – and not your Hollywood scare, but the actual religion (I hope I'm using the right name!) Not to talk about all of the mythology around it! I was skeptical before reading the book, wondered if it won't be too stereotypical, but when I started reading, I truly loved the setting with all my heart. Besides, I feel like this book wouldn't really be anywhere if not for the New Orleans lore!

Reason #2.

The Intrigue

This was a very slow burn intrigue, but SUCH a good one. I couldn't work it out till the end. Generally, the book is rather slow going, there are no tumbling events, but it truly goes out with a blast (something I didn't expect!) It keeps a very satisfying pace, and just the right amount of suspense to keep you hooked, but not too stressed. It was a very comfortable read that still kept me on my toes!

Reason #3.

Magical Cats?

I mean, ever since the cat was introduced, I just saw it coming. I never miss an opportunity to talk about cats in my review, BUT GUYS, one of the main characters can talk to her cat. No, not in words, nothing to cliche, but I promise you THEY TALK AND UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER. This was the absolute fangirl moment for me in this book!!! Head over heels! (I would have put it down as Reason #1 as well, but didn't for fear you wouldn't think I'm being serious in my review. For future reference, I'm ALWAYS serious about cats!!)

Reason #4.

Unnameable Terror

This book truly does have a villain worthy of Stephen King's IT! Primal, dark, coming from the depths of each of our darkest dreams. J.D. Horn dips into the depths of history of the city to create such a monster, and that's a beautiful way of doing it. I can appreciate a villain like that!! The only reason I remembered to not be scared while reading it was that I was sitting snuggled up in a beanbag, drinking hot chocolate, and the Christmas tree was glowing right beside me reassuringly.

Reason #5.

The Secondary Characters

Actually, it's pretty hard to tell who is a secondary character and who is not – as you would probably call it 'lead characters' instead of 'main characters'. The book follows quite a few lines, and there are at least three people whose lives you'll see up close, and they're all really likeable. But I loved the secondary characters even more! They are so fleshed out – all different, all unique (I'd dare to say that my favorite was a familiar called Daniel – I don't normally have book crushes, but I'm willing to make exceptions here.) All of this gives the story even more depth.

Overall...

This was such an engaging and pleasant read, but also an exercise for the mind (cause I'm still not entirely sure about the ending, it's all twisted up!) I loved the tone – it's a very no-nonsense tone, no silly banter, no fancy invented terms. It's quite down to earth, despite being about clans of witches. But despite my upbeat review, keep in mind that this book is sufficiently, unexpectedly dark. It doesn't really seem so from the tone, but when everything that happens, happens... You'll see. So be prepared! I can truly recommend The King of Bones and Ashes, and absolutely can't wait for the sequel!

I thank 47North and Darlene Chan PR for giving me a copy of The King of Bones and Ashes in exchange to my honest opinion.

This book is what I like to call a slow stroll. If you are patient, not in any hurry to get where you are going and just want to take in the scenery, then you will probably have the temperament needed to get to your destination.

I’m a pretty patient reader and so I’m fine with wandering around blind in a story for a little while as an author skips around to different characters points of view to build the ambiance and stage the story to come. I actually expected that a little bit for this story because it is set in New Orleans and it seemed like it wanted to encompass the laissez faire attitude of the city. Still, this flow isn’t going to work for some readers.

The King of Bones and Ashes has the feel of a gothic suspense. The thing it did best was give us an introduction into all the witching families of New Orleans that are going to be in play and some history on their family dynamics. Some witches are feeling the decline of magic more acutely than others and with power available for magic waning, some witches are willing to go to extremes to hold on to what they can.

This had some fantastic start up character building in it with a lot of room to grow. Each character given a PoV in the story shows us a very interesting surface and hints at some depths behind it. I think character development in the next books will show just how three dimensional all the characters of the story are. Alice, (the young witch locked in an asylum for years) in particular, I think we have only scratched the surface of who she really is down to her core. Evangeline is the other. She is a natural witch who loved one man and then after he died fell in love with his father. It was different but I still found myself wanting them to figure out a way to work through their past.

There isn’t a lot of action in the story until the end. So if you were thinking going into this that it is more of a horror novel, I think you will be disappointed. There is definitely a boogey man and some gore but it isn’t until the very end and I thought it would be a little scarier throughout. Mostly this is a story about a witch family and a secret they have kept for generations.

The concepts and ideas for the story are well planned but I struggled to follow a few times due to number of characters, PoV change ups and general pacing of the story. I loved the mix of both magic and voodoo and the different families that were part of each. I just wanted the flow of the story to feel a little smother because it got a bit jumpy at times.

I will continue the series as this is a solid foundation. I read J.D. Horn’s Line series and enjoyed most of it. But I’m hoping that the next book picks up the pace a little to a solid stride.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

This books contains all the elements that makes me love a book: New Orleans, witches, a family saga.
Unfortunately it was so slow I was not able to finish it.
Many thanks to Netgalley and 47thNorth

Magic is leaving this world, making the witches who've relied on it forever absolutely helpless. Some are willing to accept it, while others are willing to do whatever it takes to stay in power. Alice is using her remaining power to solve the mysterious disappearances of those in occult circles of New Orleans. She knows the feeling as her family put in an asylum and she just recently got out. She's afraid that her family is connected, and the more she investigates the more she comes to realize that her fragile psyche may be in trouble. Figuring this out, though, may be her only way to get out from under her mother's thumb while determining the future of magic.

The King of Bones and Ashes by J.D. Horn sounded like it would be exactly my kind of read. There are so many elements that I love - magic and witches, atmospheric setting (New Orleans), voodoo, warring families, and more. Unfortunately, I ended up preferring the concept to the final product. The novel travels at far too slow of a pace for me, and it follows far too many characters to get thoroughly invested in anyone. I liked Alice quite a bit, but I wish that the story would have focused primarily on her (and perhaps one or two others at the most) rather than bouncing back and forth between its enormous cast. There are a lot of characters, and there were many times I had trouble keeping everyone straight in my mind - definitely took me out of the story to have to keep flipping back to the cast list. Overall, J.D. Horn's new release just wasn't for me in the long run, although I wish I could say otherwise. I still would like to try his Witching Savannah series, which is described as a Southern Gothic urban fantasy with witches.

This book had all the ingredients to be a 5-Star read for me. Fabulous setting (New Orleans). Mystery. Feuding families. Witches and magic. The Boogeyman (Babau Jean). Voodoo, etc. And I enjoyed it mostly, but unfortunately, it also had a few issues that kept me from giving it a higher rating. It was a LONG (and slow) book with multiple POVs and a HUGE cast of characters. So many that at times it became confusing and hard to follow. That said, I enjoyed it enough I will keep my eyes out for book two (this one ends on a cliffhanger of sorts). Yours truly gives this one a solid thumbs up.

The King of Bones and Ashes is a new series featuring witches in New Orleans from the writer of Witching Savannah series. If you enjoyed the Witching Savannah series, I highly recommend picking up this book. It was a bit darker than that series with the whole concept of harvesting dead witches for their magic and a bogeyman running around. At its core, this can be described as a witches family saga. However, there were many other characters featured, and it was unclear sometimes who the main focus of the story should be on. Because of this, I found the story to be watered down and slow. I did enjoy the character development behind Alice, and feel that Lisette and Evangeline could be interesting featured characters in other books. However, the storytelling would have been a bit stronger had the author made them more supporting characters are opposed to borderline main characters. I did find the concept of covens doing whatever was necessary to get magic in a world where magic is dying interesting. I just felt like it could have been carried out a bit better.

The premises of this book are great: a goth/horror story about witches set in New Orleans. A modern New Orleans full of secrets, mystery, where magic is dying and the bogeyman walks free, brutally killing everyone who stands in his way.
I liked the writing and the characters are well described and characterized.
What I didn't like is the pace of the story: it is very slow and sometimes I found myself being a little bored and it was hard to stay focused.
The slow building of the story may be due to the amount of characters: they are well written, as I said, but there are too many of them and sometimes I found it hard to remember who was who.
I expected a little bit more, because the premises were very good and I think it had a great potential, but for me it was really too slow.

Having seen the cover pass me by on Netgalley, I knew I had to request this one with a title like that. It screams of an atmospheric, dark, horror tale with perhaps some necromancy. While it did have some of these elements (but not the necromancy unfortunately) it did not quite manage to capture me.

The biggest reason for that was how the story was told. We get the story through three main female characters with a point of view chapter thrown in from other characters here and then. I like seeing stories through different eyes but in this case I think a maximum of two characters without any side chapters would have been plenty. With only 350 pages and an incredibly slow pace there is absolutely no way you can do justice to any of these characters or the tale you are trying to tell. I thought it was a real shame because had there have been a bigger focus on the main character mentioned in the synopsis, Alice, we could have gone on a great ride I believe. As it stands now, I’m lukewarm.

As mentioned the plot of this book unfolds very slowly. We get drawn in to the lives of three women who have a connection to one another through one family, the Marin’s. The story is slow because of all of the groundwork and background that is being established, but it also made it confusing at times because we did not have a concrete focus at times. I wondered where we were going with all of this. I do see what the author was trying to do, and I certainly was surprised when it came to some revelations at the end. But because I was confused in placed the build-up failed a little for them.

Next to the cover and the title, another element that drew me to wanting to pick up this book was the fact that it is in New Orleans. Being an European myself I have very little idea of New Orleans besides what we see on television. I thought seeing a witches book set here though would be such a great add to the atmosphere though. I can’t tell you whether or not the author depicted New Orleans and its inhabitants well (and I haven’t seen any reviews that mentioned it) but I did think the descriptions of New Orleans were an added bonus on the whole.

As far as the characters go, I wish we could have delved more into the three females. Out of them I was most drawn to Alice who was admitted to an asylum for many years after the death of her brother. It was interesting to see her return to a family that had done that to her. I found her interactions with them interesting, but I missed the scenes where she was alone with her father in the house or her other brother Hugo, and she could confront him for instance. I just missed things. Deepening into those things. Those relationships. The other two females also deserved more deepening. I felt like we only scratched the surface. I hope there will be more on who they really are in the next installment.

I'm a sucker for New Orleans-based Southern Gothic paranormal literature -- yes, that is a real subgenre! -- and J.D. Horn certainly delivers the goods. Horn draws from the same well here as from his own Witching Savannah series, but swaps out the Georgian for plenty of local NOLA flavor and unique characters. I would have liked to spend as much time with some of their POV's as much as others; they are not all given equal weight, which is the inevitable consequence of packing such a sprawling cast into a book of less than 350 pages (and this sometimes leads to minor plot confusion as well). But I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the next installment.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title. Unfortunately, I was not able to finish this book which means I will not be able to review it. I truly appreciate the opportunity and apologize for the inconvenience the lack of review may cause you.

I am giving this book 3.5 stars, a very close 4 stars for 3 reasons.
1 - There are far too many characters thrown at you pretty quickly.
2 - Due to the large amount of characters the story is very slow to build up
( But kudos for the ability to fill you in ( mind you, slowly ) with all the background you need to tie the book up into a neat little bow at the end )
3 - I found myself having to flip back through to remind my self who some characters are and what their relationships were with other characters.

With those reasons set aside ( and a reason that I will not allow to effect the rating, which is being salty over the death of a character I liked a lot ), this was a good read. The time that it took me to finish was more my fault than the books, because when I really sat and read it, I didn't want to put it down.

We are first introduced to Alice and her 3 brothers, in the midst of Hurricane Katrina, preparing to abandon their family home to seek refuge from the storm. The magic in New Orleans has been fading, and it isn't strong enough to save the city from the path of destruction. Here we are also introduced to Babau Jean, the Bogey man.

The story focuses on 3 main women, Alice, Evangeline and Lisette - and their family's ties and feuds. These 3 women hail from families of powerful witches, each of a different type of magic. As the story progresses the dark secrets which intertwine these woman begin to unravel.

I actually loved all of the characters. Each one was unique and brought something different to the story. The element of unknown provided by Babau Jean's ability to appear as anyone really added to the suspense and surprise of the book.

I am most definitely going to look out for the sequel(s) to this series. :D

2.5 Stars

Celestin Marin, patriarch of the Marin family and former head of the powerful Chanticleer Coven has died after being in a coma for eight years. During his long illness his son Nicholas has been head of the coven and now is poised to take over permanently. But all is not well in New Orleans. Magic is dying and the scramble for what power remains pits the witches of the city against one another and some are willing to do anything rather than lose their magic.

I enjoyed J.D. Horn's The Line and was really looking forward to this one. The premise is great, and it's chock full of my favorite things; witches, magic, mystery, Gothic overtones, New Orleans, family grudges etc. There is just too much of everything coming at you from too many different directions.

Alice Marin was a wonderful character and I wish the author had stuck with her and one other, perhaps Lisette Perrault. Allowing these two characters to tell the story would have sharpened the focus and made things less confusing. I did like this, and I'm going to keep my eye out for the second book.

I am pretty sure there must be a coherent story in here someplace but trying to deal with multiple pov in multiple histories and a jump-cut narrative style is too exhausting for me and I quit.

I received a review copy of "The King of Bones and Ashes: Witches of New Orleans, Book 1" by J. D. Horn (47North) through NetGalley.com.

Magic is waning in the world and witches are desperate for whatever bit they can get. The story unfolds as you get to know many characters, but 3 main ones, and their web of connections to each other. The first half of the book slowly sets the stage, each chapter either introducing you to a new character or delving a little deeper into a character brought up a few chapters back. You learn their challenging histories and relationships and then slowly get glimpses of how each of their worlds are tied together.

I am very glad to have read this while on vacation. My more typical reading pattern is in 20 min chunks on the train to/from work. If I had done that I may have needed to re-read pieces here and there to keep the characters straight.

The King of Bone and Ashes takes place in New Orleans and has that magical New Orleans feel. The story is essentially about betrayal, love, loss involving two covens (families of witches). While a few parts seemed to move a bit slow I did enjoy getting to know both families of witches and the history they shared. I'll definitely be continuing with the series. The glossary of characters at the end was a nice touch as well. ARC provided by Netgalley & the publisher for an honest review.

There is drama, pageantry, voodoo, family legends, patron spirits, loa, and grimoires full of forbidden magic, and a tenacious house spirit who loves to bake cookies and tend after children. The intention feels like it was to bring these remaining daughters of a powerful new orleans coven together as magic dies in a dramatic fashion to either save it or kill it. Good intentions. Just didn't come together. None of the characters really felt connected to their magic, nor was it described in a way that was very engrossing. I love witch books. I love New Orleans witches. I really wanted to like this book more than I did. Great title. Great cover. Great potential.

Review to follow

This is, at its heart, a family drama centring around a coven of witches in the Deep South. Throw in a dash of magic, the bogeyman and the harvesting of dead witches and you've got yourself a good novel.

I enjoyed the three main protagonists, but especially Alice. We first find Alice locked away in an asylum for witches, haunted by the death of her brother by Babau Jean. She's a complex character, who's a little reserved at first, and although it takes a while to warm to her, I found myself enjoying her story the most. I liked the dynamic relationship she has with her siblings in particular, and I felt she had the most character development throughout the novel. Her interactions with Evangeline and Lisette too, and the complex interweaving of their history together was connected well (if a little convoluted).

The story itself is relatively slow to start as the author sets the scene, and we're introduced to these woman. The plot twists get progressively darker and more horror orientated as it progresses too, which I wasn't expecting, but actually came to appreciate as it added another dimension to the story. It was more than your average 'urban fantasy', and helped keep me interested enough to continue reading.

The story could be difficult to keep track of at times though, as it jumps timelines and has various points of view, which did affect the flow of the story. I can see a lot of people will struggle with the initial pace of this, but I'm glad I persisted with it.

An interesting take on the urban fantasy novel that would appeal to those looking for witches with a little extra bite.