The Bone Way delivers as a breezy fantasy romance, though a few issues prevent it from meeting its full potential. The novella, which can easily be read in a day, tells the tale of Teagan, who follows after her wife, Cress, to the Shadow Realm in search of a cure for Teagan's magical illness. For such a short book, Underhill provides ample character development and relationship growth between Teagan and Cress, and it's certainly a breath of fresh air to see a happy sapphic romance where no one dies and a main cast of characters made up exclusively of women (the only man is mentioned in passing in a story told by one character to another).

However, at certain points the writing delves into "telling" rather than "showing," and while I understand that any fantasy book is going to need a bit of exposition, it goes overboard at times; common uses of contractions like "it'd" read a bit strangely as well. Also, this may be nitpicking but I'm really not sure as to why the book is called The Bone Way - "the bone way" is just one part of the journey from the mortal realm to the Shadow Realm, and though it is the site of the final confrontation between the leads and the villain, I can't discern any major thematic significance of this location in the Shadow Realm in particular.

Overall, The Bone Way could be stronger, but as is it's a cute, light fantasy read.

I was excited to read this book, but sadly i got disappointed. It wasn’t a bad read, but I personally didn’t really enjoy it:/
It feels like you got put right in the middle of a story and i actually checked if i wasn’t accidentally reading a second book without knowing. However, it’s a standalone.
I didnt like how the story was constructed and it was very rushed.
I also couldn’t connect to the characters. At least, the relationship was cute and i liked the different kind of monsters.
(thank u netgalley for the e-arc!)

Thank you to Nyx Publishing for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Bone Way by Holly J. Underhill is a reimagining of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. (If you’re looking for a strict retelling of the story, this story is not a direct translation of the myth.) This story follows the journey of Teagan and her quest to the Shadow Realm to find her wife, Cressidae. The main character’s journey is lush with descriptions of the Shadow Realm and the hiccups along the way as she faces the horrors that cross her path. The story is an endearing sapphic tale, showcasing what the two strong women will do to have love prevail.

This novella, though short and totaling only a bit over one hundred pages, checked a lot of very important boxes for me. The descriptions of the environment fully transport you right into the journey with the main character. There were parts of the story that truly enchanted me with how lush the descriptions were. As a reader, being able to immerse yourself in the environment is important, as the story itself loses its charm if there is nothing there to support it. It wasn’t too dialogue heavy, but at the same time, the story didn’t rely solely on descriptions, either. The balance made it feel as if the story had a very natural flow and kept me wanting to pick up the book to continue to read.

While the story was somewhat straightforward as it was a short novella, the enchanting telling of that story itself made the story charming. There were parts of the story that allowed the reader to get a glimpse of flashbacks to add to the emotions and build up of certain events, which created a very lighthearted atmosphere at some points. As I continued to read these flashbacks, I often was hoping for more of these moments. With such a short novella, it is understandable that there was not, as the story needed to continue to progress.

The build up to the villain felt fulfilling, though a bit underwhelming as I started to finish the story. Granted, there was not much time to build up and then get a detailed resolution, so for what it was, I was happy with it. Every piece of the story felt as if it had purpose, which made the novella flow nicely. There weren’t many scenes that felt wasted to me, as each moment was pivotal to how the book would flow and would eventually resolve.

Overall, I enjoyed The Bone Way, and I would definitely recommend this to any of my friends that are interested in a reimagining of this type of myth or any fantasy lovers alike. The relationships between the characters, the descriptions, and the whimsical environment were absolutely lovely and well developed despite the short length. I definitely will be keeping my eye out for more stories by Holly J. Underhill, and I hope to see more stories like this in the future!

If you’re interested in The Bone Way, it releases June 26th, 2021! I highly recommend this to any and all of my friends and I hope you all give this lovely story a chance.

I was given an ARC by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I really loved the premise of the story, but I really hated the writing. The story felt rushed and I didn't feel like I got to know either Teagan or Cress until like midway through the story. The book was only about 225 pages and I felt like it could have been longer and that would have given it more time for the plot to develop. I entered the story and I was pretty confused within the first couple of pages because it felt like I'd been dumped into a story in the middle of it and it expected me to catch up. It also threw a lot of terms at me and didn't really ever come back to them? There were a lot of monsters with names that showed up like once and then were never mentioned again. I really liked Cress and Teagan's relationship once we got to learn more about it and see them interact but I never felt like I got enough of it. This was the first queer fantasy books that I've ever read that didn't focus on developing the romance as a part of the plot. Here, they're married, so there's no courtship or anything - it's devotion to someone you love already. I really loved this aspect of the story. I think overall what annoyed me the most was that the whole thing just felt so rushed. It could have been a lot better if the author had just delved more into the emotions and took more time to explain things rather than push the story along so fast. I loved watching Cress and Teagan interact but we didn't even get that until literally 3/4 of the way through the story. It felt like Teagan was going on a quest and we didn't even really know why. I certainly don't feel like I would have known why Cress left to go on the quest unless I'd read the summary of the book. 2 stars for the married gays. Overall not fantastic but short enough that you could just read it for the gays and move on.

I just reviewed The Bone Way by Holly J. Underhill. #TheBoneWay #NetGalley

Unfortunately this book was a no from me. I really enjoyed the setting but I couldn't care less about the characters.

I'm torn between giving this 2 or 3 stars.. This was pretty much just ok but i recommend if you're looking for something to kill time and liked the premise..

trigger warning
<spoiler> being orphaned, grief, terminal illness </spoiler>

When Teagan wakes up, her wife, Cress, is missing. She knows exactly where the love of her life went - and why.

This novella is a retelling of Orpheus and Eurydipice, you know, the musician who went to the underworld to get his love back, and sang so beautifully Hades was swayed. But he didn't manage to fulfill the conditions of the deal, and never left the realm of death.

We have a world in which everybody could be a witch. Most people have basic abilities, and since Teagan's mother was a witch by profession, she was apprentices and learned the same skills. Another thing that seems to be accepted in this world is homosexuality.
I repeat: We have a fantasy novel with queer protagonists and their sexuality is not what forms the plot! Yes, sure, those stories need to be talked about, but I face queerphobia and discrimination most days, so it's nice to have a break from it.

I liked this one, and will look out for further works by the same author.
The arc was provided by the publisher.

3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Nyx Publishing for sending me an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts!

Oh, to be a lesbian witch, living in a small cottage in the lush forest with my two cats with my beautiful, artistic, brilliant wife, who also happens to be a witch. Yes, I might be dying of some black magic poison, but I feel like this is a fair trade.

The Bone Way was one of my most anticipated releases of the year ever since it first got announced. First of all, I'm (obviously) always a sucker for sapphic books, even more so if they're reimagining old fairytales and myths. In this case, the story is inspired by that of Eurydice and Orpheus, which is one of my favorite Greek myths. Secondly, look at that cover. Just... take a second and soak in its beauty. Now that is art. Lastly, Nyx Publishing's last release stole my heart and breath away, so I had incredibly high hopes for this. I'm sorry to report that those hopes were not entirely met, but that's probably also my own fault for hyping this up a little too much in my own mind.

The concept of The Bone Way was rather simple, but nonetheless amazing: split into two parts, with the first one describing the perilous journey through a dark realm, paralleling the underworld, and the second one trying to escape said plane of existence again. I really enjoyed the dynamic between the two main characters, I adored their established relationship, and I think their motivators and internal conflicts worked incredibly well.
That being said, I think the execution suffered under the books' length at times. I think that this could easily been a full novel, and I would have loved to see some of the ideas be developed a little more. This affected pretty much every area of the book for me: the pacing felt a little too quick, the conflict was resolved too easily some of the times, characters lack depth and nuance that would have greatly benefitted them. Due to these issues, the book did feel a little surface-level to me: I really wish it had delved deeper into the story, the backstory, and the interpersonal relationships as well as the (subversion) of the mythology. This had so much potential to become one of my favorite books, but it sadly just couldn't deliver for me personally.

Still, I think The Bone Way is a nice, moody read that I recommend you pick up if you're interested in it.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Nyx Publishing for the ARC! 4 stars out of 5 stars, a cute sapphic read.

A queer near-fairytale retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, it's undoubtably soft, and reassuring-- look, these two love each other. It truly shows in every sentence and paragraph, in every story. The snakebite is given new skin, as is Orpheus's inability to pay attention to his wife-- and it is so, so very gay and soft. I enjoyed the story, found the relationship sweet and true, and I liked the character growth we were able to see for both.

However, it felt incredibly white. In my read, I noticed were only two canonical characters of color, and neither had a name (admittedly, only about five other characters had names, and these were characters who were there for one line). I feel as if slipping more names into the book might have helped it feel more grounded, especially with the importance of an unknown name being relearned.

It took me about all of 3 seconds to add this to my tbr when I a) saw the cover and b) read this it is a sapphic retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth.

I enjoyed my time reading this novella. It was entertaining, emotional, whimsical and beautiful from the first page to the last. It's set in a Ghibli-esqu world where steam trains and airships travel, but soft cottages, gardens and fluffy cats are always around the corner. Howl's Moving Castle aesthetics all the way. Even the Shadow Land (the underworld land where our characters travel) has it's own set of darker whimsy that shines through.

This book is about a married couple, Teagan and Cressidae. I feel like the less you know about the plot and the circumstances of the characters, the better. The backstories slowly unveil themselves in a quite beautiful way, so I think that going into this book fairly blind is best.

Because this is a novella, this did not have as much depth as I would have liked. Some of Underhill's writing also clashed a bit with my personal taste, but that is just a personal preference. Overall, I enjoyed my time reading this tale of whimsy, love and family, and I would definitely recommend picking it up if you are interested!

The Bone Way was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021, so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed by it. This objectively sucks, because it’s not actually a bad book. In fact, it’s really sweet, and if I were more open to interpretation rather than the sapphic Hadestown I’d for some reason been expecting, then I’d probably really like it.

I think most of the issues I have could be solved with some editing, which I’m sure will happen as I read an ARC. The writing felt a bit childish at times, and the dialogue somewhat unrealistic. For the most part, it was very atmospheric and well done, but there would be little points in scenes where my brow would furrow and I would be like, huh? Also, the amount of times Teagan tripping was used as a plot device was kind of hilarious, and I can’t decide if it’s in a good way or not.

Mostly, I think I was let down by the fact that this isn’t really a retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice so much as it’s loosely inspired by it. This is not an Orpheus and Eurydice retelling, and because that’s what I was expecting, I was surprised by the route that it took. It’s not that it was bad, it’s just that it is not at all what I was expecting, especially since I was kind of looking forward to crying over it fhkjahkjf.

All in all: definitely a good, well-written and worthwhile read, but *not* an Orpheus and Eurydice retelling :/.

3 stars ~ ★★★

When I read: "sapphic retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice" I was prepared to love this book. And frankly, I did.

I found myself loving the story -- rather than just the romance -- for the first time in forever. It had a quick, fluffy-feeling plot, and was overall enjoyable.

Where my problems lie with this book is that though the plot was fun, it felt too-fluffy. Every issue was solved rather quickly -- though that comes with the territory of a short story -- so the storyline seemed to plateau. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the angst. Teagan really does love her wife, and I loved reading every sad, dark thought in her head.

There wasn't much actual romance in this book, but a few comfort scenes towards the end. I find that many people looking for LGBT books want a heavy, self-indulgent romance, but this wasn't that. It was honestly refreshing, as someone whose read a lot of bad romance novels recently.

All in all, this is a quick, enjoyable book that helped me pass the time. Road-trip coming up? Something like this would be great to download and read for a few hours. But if you're looking for something with more substance, try something else.

Thank you to NetGalley and Nyx Publishing for this eARC. It releases on the 26th of June 2021.

The Bone Way is a sapphic retelling of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, and I found it a very quick and calm read. The story progressed at a good pace and the world was easy enough to understand and keep up with.
I found the dealing with grief and love very interesting and a beautiful perspective on a very heavy topic. The reason I didn't rate it higher was I thought that the mythos was very surface level and I just felt as if only got the barest hint of the true story. I wanted more, more character development, more world building and more description. I understand it was a novella, but I still feel like it could have had more meat on its bones.
Overall I give this 3 stars, a quick and interesting twist on a Greek retelling. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys cute sapphic romance.

Thanks to publisher for providing an ARC in exchange of an honest review.

A sapphic Orpheus and Eurydice retelling or the story about a woman who's dying and the wife who went to the princess of death to save her from it.

This was a very short and sweet novella to read. It's very straightforward and easy to follow, the world was described in a way that made it easy to imagine you were alongside the characters and the contrast between the different places in the realm of death wrapped up this world very pleasantly. More than that though, this is the story about a woman who's dying and has to live through what could have been... All the dreams she had and the opportunities she lost, the love that has surrounded her throughout her life. It's a story about a woman that's realizing that she has to live for herself and reach for her dreams. It's also about the love her wife has for her and vice-versa, the beauty and easiness of their relationship and how they clicked from the very first moment.

The reason why I didn't give it a higher rating is because it could have been more. I felt like the plot of the book, while interesting in how it explores grief, failed to be compelling. Aside from that, the characters weren't all that interesting either. It's just a good and calm story that you can read quickly with a beautiful sapphic relationship.

The Bone Way follows Teagan as she travels through the Shadow Realm and fights to reunite with her wife Cressidae, and the many difficulties she faces on the way in a reimagining of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth.
The Shadow Realm is a truly terrifying idea of a place which is full of horrific creatures and trials, with so many nods to classic mythology and I would love more stories set in that setting. However, the real strength of this book for me was the portrayal of the f/f relationship and how casual and effortless that representation felt. Although the characters are under great stress for the majority of the story, we’re given flashbacks of their life beforehand and how they met, which is a beautifully cute story (especially with the addition of their cats), as well as their familial relationships that also allow us to see how supportive their families are and the diversity of family dynamics.
I truly loved this and look forward to reading more from Holly J Underhill, and Nyx Publishing.

Though it radiates more of a fairy-tale feel than mimicking the mannerisms of myth - I'd rethink marketing it as a retelling - The Bone Way is no less mesmerizing for it; Teagan and Cress's soft, supportive marriage, the shadow realm's many terrifying monsters, and a smattering of thoughtful musings on our struggles with mortality are all satisfyingly wrapped up in Underhill's wonderfully whimsical writing and the smooth, immersive world-building that walks you through Wystira and beyond. The Bone Way balances being short and intense, sometimes sappy and intermittently bittersweet with strong sentiments and the warm familiarity of the bond between these star-crossed women (any time Teagan mentions 'her wife' satiates like a sip of fine wine/breath of fresh air), and being swept into the flow of intertwining timelines of this mystical bubble bath of a book is an A+ way to spend a spare afternoon.

Thank you to NetGalley and Nyx Publishing for kindly passing on this ARC! 💫

A queer inspired story based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, need I say more? This is my second Holly J. Underhill book, her first one being a story inspired by Dracula’s Brides... and she’s done it again folks. THIS WAS SO GOOD! I absolutely adored this story about two people who will face death for one another. Teagan and Cressidae are married and love each other, and take risks for one another because the thought of life without the other is unacceptable. Follow them on their journey of facing the Princess of the Shadow Realm... and hoping that they make it out alive.

*Thanks Netgalley and Nyx Publishing for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

this novella started out with a very clear objective which i appreciated and it made it easier to follow along with the plot. the writing was very beautiful which made the novella even more fulfilling. i enjoyed how the timelines of past and present were mixed to both show how teagan tried to get cress back and their past together such as how they first met. overall the bone way is a heartfelt story of two women doing everything they can for eachother set under the guise of an orpheus and eurydice inspired story. its also very refreshing to see a f/f story have a happy ending