Great book, love this author and how they can keep my attention to the end! The plot is well developed, characters are believable and they obviously paid attention to detail to make the story worth your time to read.

My rating is 3.5 / 5 Stars.

The main character Sage is thrust into a world of mythological beings and fairy tales in this fun urban fantasy.

I'm stuck on my opinion about this one. I enjoyed it. I read into the late hours of the night, but at the same time, I didn't think it was fantastic. I can only describe it as an addictive story. I just kept reading and I can only theories that it was because of the plot. The concept was not new, but the plot was exciting and had me coming back for more.

There were some funny moments. Most of them born out of extremely awkward encounters. Like Sage angrily saying something about being a virgin just to find a bunch of 'royals' standing directly behind her.
I highlighted one quote that I thought was hilarious (no offense):
"You don't have even the simplest grasp of history or literature. What sort of education did you get?"
"An American one."

Sage is funny in an awkward "I don't know what I'm doing" way. When realistic dreams start terrifying her, she realizes there is much more happening around her than she realized. Few people will tell her what is happening and the world around her is confusing. The way the story started had me doing a double-take. Our main character is homeless, waiting for leftover food outside a diner. Sexy right? I knew that there had to be an aspect of romance in it. I mean, what paranormal, urban fantasy have you read with no romance? But I did not expect that beginning.
So when Sage gets a little drunk at a party and weird things start to happen, like she burns a man and an iron collar is put on her, she is pretty confused. The confusion only gets worse in the first few chapters. No one explains anything to her and it frustrated me to no end.
I appreciated Sage's sassiness. She is stubborn and defiant. However, her character irritated me a lot. Being thrust into a new world is definitely confusing but she is confused and she fights her integration for most of the book and I just wanted to shout at her to get over it.

The other character, Faelan, is a handsome Irish man. He is stoic and stubborn and basically similar to most characters we would expect to find in this kind of book. He has an interesting story and it was fun to put the puzzle pieces of his past together.

Then we have the Dark Prince, Kieran. The character who I would have loved to see so much more of. In my opinion, he is the most interesting out of everyone and he was genuinely the only character I loved. I'm a sucker for the morally grey, broody, 'she's mine', secretly good under all the bad characters. So Kieran was my weak spot. He has a great part to play in the story.

There was one other character that I LOVED. Lailoken is the eccentric, completely crazy, really clever old man who lives in the middle of the forest in a tree. As I said, he is crazy but his crazy is actually just his clever mind working to tell everyone what they need to know. But of course, they don't listen to wise old crazy man because what would he know?

There was a lot of mythological influence and I really loved that about this story. I think overall the only thing that bought this story down for me were all the characters except Kieran and Lailoken. Which is disappointing since characters are always my favorite part of a story. The plot was brilliantly done, executed well and full of just the right amount of tension. There was a sort of dual narrative as we follow Sage in the present and we see her older sister in the past. Sometimes the past would drag and slow down the pace unnecessarily. However, I did enjoy some of the moments we got to glimpse from the past.

The ending was fantastic. I didn't love most of the characters but the ending left me wanting to read the sequel simply because it alluded to the fact that we are going to get A LOT more Kieran time in book 2.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a very fast reader for me as it is one of those books where you keep turning the pages late into the night to find out what’s going to happen. I definitely recommend this one.

A completely different genre from my usual reads. I enjoyed the story very much. I liked Sage and her brave actions.
I loved delving into the fantasy world and am looking forward to the next installment.

Thanks to Netgalley and Rachel Marks for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book was an interesting take on the fae. Sage learns she is fae and then everything happens very fast. They have a presentation ceremony to show her off to the community the first night adn then she has only three days to decide which God’s faction that she wants to join. I really loved the flashbacks. Sage has a connection to a family member in the past. It reminded me a little of Wintersong. There are definite evil goblin king vibes. A beautiful girl, trapped into marriage with a monster. Then, against all odds, they fall in love. This love story, told in flashbacks, was my favorite part of the whole book.

I also really enjoyed the different kids of fae. There were different houses, who followed different Gods. Each house had it’s own sets of magical strengths and affinities. I wanted to learn more about what Gods each house followed and why and what their power types were.

I wasn’t crazy about the magical hierarchy. Some magical creatures, like nixies, were thought of as lesser than the children of Gods and Goddesses. When one of these lesser fae were injured or died, it was thought of as no great loss.

All in all, this book surprised me. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did. I’m going to keep an eye out for the sequel. I want to find out more about the historical connection Sage has and how that is affecting her now.

I’d sought out Fire and Bone after having read a previous book by Rachael Marks: Darkness Brutal. For those who enjoy fantasy, folklore, paranormal or young adult novels, this is the book for you. Rachael has a way with words and her descriptive writing puts the reader into the scene as if watching a movie. Fire and Bone takes the reader along with Sage, who is initially confused, wary and resistant to the hidden world of demigods, pixies, selkies and more with emphasis on the creatures from Irish folklore. I do enjoy a bit of Irish Folklore/Celtic mythology (Song of the Sea, etc).
At first, I wasn’t sure what to think of this story. I don’t typically enjoy the fantasy genre. But the characters she introduced were engaging, some likable, others…not so much. A perfect mix. I initially took to Faelan with his no-nonsense attitude. And after reading 3/4s of the way through or so the action really picked up. I can tell when this happens because though I’m typically a slow reader, my reading speed increased and before I realized it, I was at the end.
While I might have said I’m “Team Faelen”, by the end I realized that nah…I’m more like “Team Keiran”. Gosh, what does that say about me? LOL I wholeheartedly agreed with his take on Sage’s choice. So I expect great things from this character in the next book.
You got that, Rachael?! 🙂
If you like fantasy, vampires, fairies, selkies and sooo many other creatures, you’ll enjoy it. Or if you like a good action fantasy young adult novel (that’s a mouthful) you’ll want to snatch up a copy. The story comes complete with a love triangle and plenty of teen angst (it’s a requirement for YA, ok??) with very little adulting. You do not want to miss this book. Sit by the fire and make s’mores. It’s perfect for summer reading.

I LOVED this book. It is a new, unique, exciting young adult novel. Sage is a homeless teen just wanting her freedom. Just after her 18th birthday, she is pulled from the world she has known into one that contain creatures from fairy tales. She is forced to make choices she never thought she would have to make, and take on responsibilities that she never imagined. Then to make things more complicated, there is Faelon; a hunter that is georgous and an amazing kisser.

I wanted to love this, and for the more part I did, but I struggled with the heroine at times. While I loved the plot and setting, and even the characters, I felt the main character managed to get herself into trouble more often than necessary. Maybe it was just me, but I felt like she should have been able to think her way out of danger at least some of the time, no? Anyway I loved the Celtic lore enough to keep reading, and ended up really enjoying the story.

I received a copy from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review!

What I say: Confession time: I've been meaning to write this review for ages *hangs head in shame* so before I'm sent to blogger jail I thought it was about time I posted this...

An unexpected invitation turns Sage from homeless teen to key player *ahem* pawn in a supernatural war. Sage went from the care system to finding herself living on the streets. It's a huge surprise to discover that supernatural beings are real and that she's the daughter of a Celtic Goddess.

As the daughter of a deity, Sage is expected to join a house. Think Hogwarts houses meets Divergent factions. The different houses scheme and manipulate to get their way. I loved all the backstabbing and drama. Sage has trouble trying to find her way without allowing herself to be manipulated by pretty much everyone. She discovers that it's really difficult to fight fate...

I loved the Celtic mythology Marks seamlessly incorporates into the story. It was a joy to read about the druid politics and supernatural hierarchy.

The romance: triangle warning!!! Keiran, the Raven King - oh the drama!

The action really picks up as the story progresses then builds to a crescendo with one heck of a cliffy ending.

3.5 Stars in my Sky!

This book was full of mystery, action, romance, and magic and I could never put it down! The story was full of betrayal and destiny and the deeper I went into the book the more answers I needed to find. My favorite thing though was the many different types of characters that were mixed into this magical underground world.

The book was told from two seperate people and always kept the book interesting. Sage is a very powerful and unique new addition to the realm of demigods, and Faelan is a character you can’t easily understand as he hates getting close to any of the demigods and prefers to be alone alot of the time. Getting to know the characters was cool because each was complicated and you didnt know which characters to trust as this world of demigods and mythical creatures is filled with evil intentions.

I am a total geek for anything Celtic, so this book was totally up my alley! I savored it from the beginning until the very exciting end! Anytime I come across an author who can successfully disguise a retelling of a god/goddess anecdote in modern times, I go completely fangirl and buy up all their work! Well done Rachel Marks! You have earned a lifetime fan and I totally look forward to reading all of your other novels!
On just a normally crappy day of dumpster diving for her own survival, LA street rat Sage has a chance encounter of the preordained kind! Talk about having your world turned upside down! Sage discovers that there are beings called Otherworlders and that she has been living lie. Not only is she one of them herself, but she is descendant of a Celtic Goddess.
Sage soon finds that everyone is vying for her join their houses and are not below bestowing hefty gifts upon her to reach that end! She must decide where she belongs and who to trust because each of the 5 houses could potentially make the right fit for her.
Fire and Bone is like a fantastic grown-up version of Percy Jackson and I was elated to read it! Rachel Marks set up the perfect new realm to explore with just enough romance to bind it all together! She clearly did her research into the mythological aspects of the book and laid out the base story in perfect clarity by the mid-way mark of the book.
I absolutely adore a book that has witty banter, sarcasm in spades, and can make me literally laugh out loud! This book delivered a check for each of those statements!
Sage only wants to find a safe place for and Ziggy. I loved that she questioned everything and everyone’s motives when her reality changed. I hate when books have MC’s making “insta” connections and all is happy and well. Through the betrayals and bumbling her way through an unknown world, Sage keeps her fire within and does not accept defeat! She is my new favorite MC!
Faelan and Sage’s relationship, I use that term loosely, reminds me of Rose and Dimitri from Vampire Academy. He is older (way older in Faelin’s case), wiser, and has more field experience. Sage gets under his skin and as much as they want to deny it, there are sparks flying! I cannot wait to see where their relationship goes in book 2!
Even if the book did not end with a huge Cliff Hanger (AHH!! Are you kidding me!!!???) I would still be down to read the next installment of this series because it is going somewhere fast! In the meantime, I am going to devour all of the Dark Cycle series and hope that states my thirst until we see what book 2 has in store!

4. I thought this was an interesting twist on mythology. I love mythology stories but it is very seldom Celtic myths and legends. Sage was an interesting character to me, I enjoyed reading along with her as she discovers more about herself and who she really is. Follow as she discovers the world of the known and the unknown. Thank you for allowing me to read this and write about it.

FIRE AND BONE is a refreshing addition to the Urban Fantasy genre. Greek and Roman mythology have been way over done, Norse mythology is starting to get to that point, but there are so few stories about Celtic mythology out there. FIRE AND BONE does a great job weaving the Celtic mythos into an excellent story.

I love diving into new series, but I’m always wary of the dreaded info dump. There weren’t any in FIRE AND BONE! Rachel Marks has created a rich world and great characters all built around Celtic mythos without having pages and pages of info dumps. All the information about the world is provided beautifully and seamlessly.

My biggest complaint with FIRE AND BONE is the love triangle. Not a fan of love triangle stories in the slightest. However, the synopsis made it very clear there was a love triangle so I knew what I was getting into and didn’t let that get in the way of a great story. Sage also handles the love triangle well. She doesn't spend every waking moment moping over which boy to chose. She worries about her real problems, while any relationship is clearly secondary. The end of FIRE AND BONE had a great plot twist, but it’s going to make the love triangle even worse for the future books in the Otherborn series.

FIRE AND BONE is an amazing book that I highly recommend. I listened to the whole book in a day and I wish I could already move on to the next book in the Otherborn series. The mix of Celtic mythology and a beautifully built world with great characters were definitely spawn a great series.

The concept of the book sounded interesting and a little unusual but I never developed a great interest in it. The characters seemed a little one-dimensional and bland. I think perhaps the book is better suited to a younger reader.
My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved the idea of this from the very beginning. Sara was a fun and interesting character and the use of a lesser known mythology like the Irish gods was brilliant. This will be a definite reread for me!

A truly great urban fantasy, with just the right mix of thrills, excitement, adventure, suspense, laughs and even a bit of romance. I love the spunky attitude of its lead character

- - Received copy through NetGalley - -
L

I haven’t seen Gossip Girl but have read snippets of the Percy Jackson series and have thoroughly enjoyed the world, so this one intrigued me. However, it wasn’t quite what I had envisaged. For starters, the romance features more than I had expected from reading the blurb – and as the story wore on, I realised there was the dreaded love triangle. I am not a fan of this dynamic, but I will say that Marks manages to make it seem a lot less sleazy than is often the case, as the extra character’s involvement is far more to do with what happened in the distant past.

It did take me a while to fully bond with Sage as she is continually plagued with visions and dreams which have the effect of swamping her rather chippy character, after she works through the clueless phase when she is struggling to work out exactly what is happening to her. There is a dark, tragic underbelly to this story that the blurb hasn’t highlighted and it isn’t our hapless protagonist navigating the social shark-tank of demi-god high society that I had envisaged – but the desperate story of a maddened Celtic queen who slays her king that eventually snagged me.

Given I was expecting something quite different – was what I got sufficiently engrossing to hook me anyway? Oh yes. There are some surprising plot twists in this story, particularly towards the end where the pace picks up and the stakes become a lot higher which had me reading into the early hours to discover what happened.

Be warned though – while a couple of the story elements are sorted out, this book ends on an almighty cliff-hanger. I’m hoping, therefore, that the second book is due to be released without too much delay as I would really like to know what happens next to Sage.
8/10

I’m a humongous fan of urban fantasy, but I’ve found a lot of young adult UF lacking. There’s only so many Twilight clones a person can read, you know? Luckily, this was a refreshing new entry, based on the Celtic pantheon with an interesting magic system.

“No one looks at me with openness or even curiosity; it’s all cunning and manipulation. I recognize it immediately, the all-too- familiar search for a weakness.
In the foster homes, a lot of the adults or older kids would look at me that way: What can I get out of you? What can you give to me?
I was a means to an end, a monthly check, a possible hit, a potential lay. Never just Sage.
And here I am again, a thing.”


I liked Sage. While she was street-smart and cynical, she also had a deep kind streak and a general unwillingness to take any BS from anyone, freaky Celtic demigod or not. I liked how down-to-earth she was, and how she coped with basically finding out that her whole life was a lie, with a bit of humor. She does have a bit of that “most special ever!!!” thing going on, but since Sage is so level-headed, it comes across more of another problem for her to deal with and another thing that sets her apart.

And, of course, what’s UF without a bit of romance? There’s a secondary romance threaded through the latter half of the book that quite lovely, and it’s not til the very end that we find out how Sage and the couple in her dreams are tied together. Sage’s romance triangle, unfortunately, didn’t work as well for me. While I liked one of the love interests, and the other came to grow on me, I didn’t feel either particularly understood Sage – it felt more like her romantic options were the guys she was stuck with rather than ones who actually deserved her. I did, however, appreciate that there was no insta-love, but rather the relationships that develop are more slow-burn.

“’I mean, she’s an alfar, for Danu’s sake, right?’ she asks me, as if I know what she’s talking about. ‘Who wants to suck face with a girl that tastes like a kale cleanse? I don’t know how Faelan did it all those years. Blech.’
I start to wonder if I’ve really entered a world of gods and goddesses or a live broadcast of TMZ.”


The secondary characters were fun. Though Aelia got seriously annoying at times, I got a serious kick out of a spoiled Valley Girl druid priestess. I wished there was more of Ziggy, since the little we did see I liked. The world building was excellent. I liked the idea of the various houses based on the different Celtic gods and goddesses descended from the goddess Danu, and the way the different castes of magic worked. Because Sage is the daughter of Brighid, she starts out at the house of Brighid. But, in a few short weeks, she’ll be able to choose to swear allegiance to any of the five houses.

Overall, I enjoyed this book a ton, and I’m looking forward to the next in the series! While the story doesn’t end on a cliff-hanger, there’s enough plot threads left hanging and new information that promise for a very exciting next book. Highly recommended if you’re looking for some YA urban fantasy!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I gave it 3.5 stars

Although it took me a little bit to get into the story, FIRE AND BONE ended up being entertaining.

I almost gave up on FIRE AND BONE when I first started reading, but decided to keep going. I ended up enjoying the world, the mythology and the characters. Sage had a lot of mystery to her. She doesn't know much about herself and we learn about it along with her. I will admit that a lot of things were confusing until more was explained—which could be frustrating—but I' glad I stuck with it.

I can't say the romance was my favorite part of FIRE AND BONE. It isn't heavy on romance, but the romance that does take place happens to be a triangle. Ugh a triangle. As with most triangles, I like one and don't care for the other.

With slow reveals, interesting characters and a unique storyline, FIRE AND BONE was a great start to a new urban fantasy series.

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Sage had always had a thing for fires. Ziggy and Sage had known each other three months and were homeless on the streets of LA. Star was the daughter of the owner of Granola Grounds when ever she worked she put the food that was to be tossed in a resealable bag and often added things like water for Ziggy and Sage. Tonight there was a party Star was going to and she talked the girls into going. Sage had agreed as she was promised a shower and it had been awhile since she had one and Ziggy agreed for food. Sage had taken to the streets rather than be in a group transition home. Her last social worker had labeled Sage as difficult to place. Sage had run away from her last foster home as she wasn’t going to be anyone punching bag anymore. Sage felt she was broken maybe because at age ten she was taken from her mother for good. She had been in numerous foster homes and went to her head because there sneers and fists could be ignored. Sage liked to read. She had become the master of conflict avoidance Her default mode was leave if things got tense. Sage made it on her own now. Once at the house the party was to be at Sage asked Star about the shower and she told her where to go to take one. Sage got some clean clothes from a drawer and fell to sleep. When Sage wakes up three guys are staring at her and the Star comes in and makes them leave and gives Sage a drink. It turned out the drink was drugged and when Sage comes out she is drawn to ben and touches his arm and her touch burns him.Sage learns she is a demigoddess and her mother was the goddess of fire. Faelon- who is a grumpy hunter- comes for Sage and becomes her protector and mentor. Faelon takes her a magical city under the streets of LA. Sage learns she must choose one out of five houses . The houses are each based on one of the elements,- and she must serve one.The houses will do almost do anything for Sage to serve them. There is also Keiran who is dark.dangerous and mysterious. There is now a love triangle with Faelon, Sage , and Keiran.
I enjoyed this book. I liked the plot and rapid pace. I liked how the characters interacted with each other. This was confusing at times especially at first but I wanted to know what happened to Sage as she got her powers and everything else so kept reading. I laughed at times while reading this book. I didn’t really care for the going back and forth in the book but that is usual for me. I especially loved the twists in this book. This had a little of everything: a hidden magical city under LA. spells, magic, five houses, pixies, demigods, druids, goddesses, vampires,intrigue, some romance, powers, and so much more. I loved the characters and the twists and turns of this story and I recommend.