Power plays, epic journeys, high sea adventures, bloody sword battles, magical creatures, bones, and romance all weave together to form a grabbing read.

Ash is a scribe, a job she loves. Her only wish is that she'd finally be promoted. Her goal seems small compared to her best friend's, who just happens to be the heir to the throne...if he could finally call forth his phantom and control it. To assist in this, he's sent across the see to a training ground with a small entourage, and Ash is assigned to be the recorder. But as their journey begins, the problems mount. Not only do they have to hide the Heir's identity thanks to the growing tensions between nations, but every step of their planned journey falls apart. With a seafaring guide seemingly being the answer to their prayers, they might have a chance to make it to the training grounds. But they have completely underestimated how many want to see the Heir dead at any price.

This starts with a prologue, which sets the tone and lays a bit of world building before the tale shoots off. From there, we meet Ash, a talented and engaged scribe, who's looked down upon due to her non-savant status (lack of a phantom or creature with a talent, which can be called forward as needed). But her strong sense of self-worth keeps her from being a victim, which was refreshing and inspiring. There are quite a few other characters, some of which gain more depth than others, but each has their own pull and shine. The chapters slide through various points of view, giving the importance and depth where it needs to be as the intrigue and secrets weave and grow.

Intrigue and agendas twist and turn as more and more comes to light. While there's political plays at home to launch the story, the journey uncovers the scheming of nations beyond...and even more beyond those. Ash also runs across ancient hints of secrets, which barely starts to unfold even as the first novel ends. As if this weren't enough, there are also personal agendas, which weave through the layers, oblivious to other strings beyond. It's hard to predict much on that end, which is wonderful, especially since it leaves so much for the series to explore. Other ends, however, are more predictable. Especially on Ash's end, but this is laid out well enough that it still works...and hints that there are also twists to come. Her last moments in this read hit with more of a quick blast then could have been, and I'm hoping the second book sweeps it up right to make it work. Which it really might pull off and more.

Toss in the bloody battle scenes, fighters who swirl with swords and relish in the dangerous game, hints of magic, golden friendships, and romance...maybe a tad too much flirty romance...and it's an action packed read with barely any breath to spare. Fans of adventure and intrigue with fantasy, realm wars, and more are going to enjoy this one quite a bit.

This story was captivating from the start! Go now and pick up this book because if you do.....I promise you will immerse yourself in the world like I did.

This story follows Ash...A scribe who is settling for what she has been told she is destined to be. Her best friend Marcus is heir to the thrown. The journey they take is dangerous but needs to be done. Will they survive it or will they perish for their duty to the kingdom.

Oh man this book was good. The "phantoms" that the savants raise from the ground were so different than anything that I have ever read. I would call them more of a familiar but I loved it all the same. The adventure, treachery and romance was wonderful and I loved every second of it. A. K. Wilder has another hit on her hands and this world is addictive. Go check out this High Fantasy and fall in love like I did. I give this amazing book 5 stars!!!!

It took me a while to post my review for this book because it took me a long time to finish reading and processing.

Every time I went back to read I thought perhaps the more I bread it might get better, sadly the first half of the book just dragged and by that time I was ready to give up. However, I persevered and finished.

The book is not one I would myself recommend. The characters were good, the plot was good, but to much time was spent on events that could have been handled in one of two chapters.

Two stars from me. So sorry.

Thank you to NetGalley, Entangled Teen publishing, and the author for granting me a copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.

Incredibly fast-moving and fantastic read. Elements of Aquaman, The Little Mermaid, and every fantasy you've ever loved showed up in this review for me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free copy.

This book was fantastic!

There was a lot of world building to begin with, which was absolutely necessary due to the massive size of this world (it feels huge and well developed!).

Ash is a fantastic main character. She is strong and brave, and she stands by her decisions. I love that she is the only one in the group that swears consistently- the sounds of them made me laugh. I love the dynamic that she has with Kaylin. They make a fantastic duo.

Marcus's character development was interesting, but I still found him to be unlikeable. He has subconscious prejudices against Ash that made me feel uncomfortable and worrisome about their friendship, especially after the big reveal at the end.

I think the plot is super interesting and well thought out, especially the way that everything links together. Some minor things are pointed out earlier in the story and it all clicks in the end.

I really enjoyed this book and I am very excited to read the next one!

I found the ideas of "Phantoms" interesting but wished that it was described more in depth. The characters all felt too similar to me and I did end up forming too much of a bond with any of them. The twist at the end was very cool though and I look forward to book 2.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I loved this book. I love the magic system and how you get a break down you can understand. It have great friendships and characters that are well developed. I cannot wait for book 2. This was a great fantasy read that I could not put down.

Thank you to Entangled Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a mix between the Airbender and Shadow & Bones, and I really like it. The world with the phantom is really intriguing. My favorite characters were Ash and Kaylin. Ash is kind and she loves learning and books (I see myself in her). Much is happening around her and the addition of the cliffhanger at the end makes me look forward to her character development. Kaylin is charming and intriguing. He helps them in their quest, but there is still a lot of mystery around him. I love his chemistry with Ash. The way he calls her «Lass», it’s cute. I hope he won’t betray her. The war is at their door and I’m already stressed about the future.

The book is not perfect. I find the action is too fast. There is also a lack of information about the specialty of the phantom unless you go to the glossary at the end, but it’s only written in the description of the characters.

Note: The Cover and the map are really beautiful.

You can find in this book:
Royalty
Quest
Mystery and secret
Magic
Friendship

This was a fabulous debut YA epic fantasy adventure! The worldbuilding was top notch, a vast fantastical world that we've only just been introduced to. I'm super curious and excited to see even more of the inner depths explored in coming novels.

I was glad this book ended when it did cause I was about to throw my kindle because I was so pissed!
This book was okay to me mainly because the main big things that happened I knew would happen.
I already knew right away that Ash had been lied to her whole life about what she was, and when Marcus left for Aku I knew that his brother was going to do what he did.
The only things I about this story I loved was the magic system. I found I liked the Phantom and how it was a bit like you would read about shifters. And I loved Kaylin he was the only thing to save this book for me. The other characters were just okay. That being said I mostly likely won't be picking up the next book in this series.

I found it hard to get into at first, but then I couldn’t put it down. It’s such an interesting fantasy world.

I am not quite sure what I was expecting from this book so I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed it!
It was slow to begin, but I really enjoyed the pace once the group arrived for their training.

The magic system and world building was really interesting and I loved all of the plot twists that constantly left me guessing. THAT CLIFFHANGER! I cannot wait for book 2!

I really enjoyed reading this book at times there were moments that I had to re-read a section in order to properly understand what was going on but otherwise it was a great read overall.

DNF @ 20%

When this book initially came out I thought the concept of the fantastical elements was quite intriguing. I think what ended up in me putting the book down was both the writing style (which read a little young to me) and the characters that didn't seem to have a lot of depth to them. I usually push through with fantasy to try and see if there's an element in it that captures my attention and can pull me all the way through. It was not the case with this book, but hopefully, other readers maybe from a younger audience would find more interest in this book.

It was hard for me to get into the flow of the book but over time I got into it and I loved hoe the Savants all had familiars called Phantoms. Each had their own way of working with their phantoms and how Marcus struggled with his was almost funny to me.
I love all the amazing world building and character arcs. The love interests, I was all on board for. I'm excited to see where the adventure goes in the next book.

I did not finish this book. I tried to read it but I won’t be finishing it. I won’t be rating this book.

This book is very tropey (which I love!), but overall I wish we had a little more in-depth exploration of a few characters (Ash and Marcus, mainly). This book is definitely geared to the younger end of the YA audience, and I think that may have been where some of my preferences with this books didn't align--which is okay! It's one of those things that you risk on NG where you have to give a review on a book, when normally you'd just not review it because of, well, personal preference, lol, and not anything to do with the author's execution.

Thanks so much to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the eARC!

It’s been such a long time coming to finally read and finish this🥲 It was an enjoyable tale but, for some reason, I was really so hungover whatever I just finished reading. After the umpteenth time, I finally restarted reading it and I don’t know why I waited so long to get into it again 🤣

It’s a strong 4-star read for me that’s got great characters, a strong foundation for the world building and a tale woven together that felt so much like an adventure. I can’t wait to read the sequel and see how things go😍

Crown of Bones by AK Wilder (⭐⭐)

I received this advanced readers' copy of Crown of Bones from NetGalley and the publisher, Entangled Teen, for free so that I could read it and provide an honest review. It was published in January 2021, and unfortunately it took me a long time to get to it, and even longer to read once I started.

Even though I received this book for free, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read and review it, I have to be honest. And unfortunately, this book really pained me to read. I've read many YA novels, and it seemed like this one was just a collection of poorly-executed tropes. Love triangle, tick. Female main character who seems plain but is actually very special, tick. Mysterious sexy love interest boy, tick. Quest where everything goes wrong, tick. Unfortunately I predicted almost every aspect of this book, despite how interesting I'd found so many of its concepts.

The idea of the phantoms is brilliant - I've never read a book with that kind of world building before. The concept of the crown of bones didn't seem fully realised, and nor did the "major plot" unravelled by Ash at about 75% of the way through.

I didn't find myself attached to any of the characters, which was partially due to the way they were written. First person, present tense, with alternating perspectives every chapter or two, doesn't really help you to get stuck into a character's personality or internal monologue. It felt like most of their emotions were told rather than shown, and any internal monologue made me go "Would they actually really think this?"

Ultimately I saw some potential in the concepts, and the very well-thought-out world that AK Wilder has created, but I really struggled to connect with the plot or the characters. Particularly with the characters - that's fatal for one of these books, for me. For a fantasy book to truly shine, it needs to shine past the expectations of its genre and its worldbuilding capacity. The author can put millions of hours into making the setting and the background interesting, but if the basic story and the characters aren't compelling, it'll make for a bit of a disappointment.

I was so excited for this book but once I actually started I found that this read closer to an adult fantasy than a young adult one. I felt that the story was trying to do too much all at once. It was a blend of fantasy, magic, high-seas, and romance. I wished that I would have loved it but sadly that just didn't happen. I loved the idea of the phantoms, that is magic that was very new and that I hadn't seen before. The dual POV just didn't work for me. It felt like I was pulled out of the story every time it changed.