I was very excited to read this book because the premise of it sounded amazing! I think the idea was really strong, it just could have had more to it. The book was very short, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing except that I feel that if it was longer, it could have been much better. I found that I didn’t get too attached to any of the characters because there wasn’t enough time to. It is very difficult to fit a whole plot, good world building and well developed characters into such a short book. I think there could have been more about the character’s relationship together, although we did get little snippets it wasn’t really enough to make me fall in love with them and root for them. I also feel that maybe the author could have added more world building, because although there was some it definitely didn’t give a clear picture of the setting. I did enjoy reading this book, it just feels a little underdeveloped.

Overall it was a pretty good book, though there are some problems with it for me, I would likely recommend it to others but I'd be selective of whom I'd recommend it to.

The Bone Way is an excellent Orpheus and Eurydice LGBTQ retelling! I love everything about this book and I fully intend to buy it in the future. It's written in a really great direct way with enough world building to keep you interested. The Bone Way is amazing!

<i>Thank you to Netgalley and Xpresso Book Tours for the eARC. </i>

Sapphic witches going to the ends of the earth to save and protect each other from near-certain death? count me IN.

I enjoyed this overall. Teagan was a very strong voice of a character and I was rooting for her the entire time to find her love and happiness. But I think the story was predictable in its ending and I had hoped for a bit of a bigger showdown. I also wish this had been a bit longer to explore more the backstory of the antagonist, the world-building, lore behind all of it as well as the romance. Yes, there were flashbacks to show us a bit of how Teagan and Cress fell in love, but not enough to truly make my heart beat fast and root for them, to make me feel like they truly were this epic love story that can outlast death itself. In the end, I was left with a lot of question marks especially about the Princess and her motivations. It's a good, quick read and I would recommend it to anyone looking for something like that but the epic myth retelling I was expecting sadly fell a bit short.

I’m sorry – a sapphic retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice? Do you mean… everything I’ve ever dreamed of?

The Bone Way is an absolutely gorgeous little book (and I mean little – it’s a novella which clocks in at about an hour of reading time). It’s written so dreamily and whimsically that I really felt like I was being told a myth or folk tale which had been around since time immemorial, which is such a glorious stylistic choice for this story.

The Bone Way tells the story of Teagan and Cressidae, who are married (every time I read the words “her wife” a little part of my heart glowed, I swear). Cressidae has gone into the Shadow Realm to make a deal with the Shadow Princess, to save Teagan’s life. Teagan follows her on her dangerous journey.

I loved reading this book, I really did. It was sweet and dangerous and exciting and enchanting. My only gripe is that I genuinely think the story would have benefitted from being a full-size novel. I know novellas are their own thing, I do, but when telling a fantasy story as rich as this, having the breathing room to do extended world-building and character development can do wonders to fully immerse the reader.

Don’t get me wrong – I was immersed! I couldn’t put it down. But I think some of the concepts and plotlines Holly Underhill introduced could have really shone were they given the time and space. I loved the way she fleshed out the characters in flashbacks – about 95% of the story is spent in the Shadow Realm, so there’s really no other way to understand Teagan and Cressidae’s relationship, or the Shadow Princess’ whole deal, other than through flashback chapters and tale-telling. I enjoyed these sections a lot and thought they added much to the story without detracting from the main storyline in any way. But, truly, the Shadow Princess’ story alone could be a whole book (maybe a prequel?). Teagan and Cressidae’s relationship could have benefitted from more attention (apart from the flashbacks, they’re angry at each other for most of the book). Maybe I’m just being greedy, but I just wanted more. More world-building, more character development, more romance, more danger.

Despite that, though, I loved this book. It's quick and delightful and I was rooting for Teagan and Cressidae the entire time, and was sad for them, and anxious for them, and happy for them, and just generally too emotionally invested, which to me is always a good sign. I love Teagan and Cressidae’s devotion to one another, even to their own detriment. I love Underhill’s fresh take on this classic myth. And, of course, I love that it’s a sapphic retelling. Holly J. Underhill, if you’re reading this: please write sapphic retellings of all the myths. I would give my soul to the Shadow Princess for them, for real.

Thank you to Nyx Publishing and to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.

When starting this I didn't realize how short it would be. I feel like this book could have really benefited from being longer. Because of the length, what was supposed to take days in the story felt like each part resolved too quickly and easily. Also, while flashbacks are not my favorite, I didn't hate the way the story alternated between Teagan and Cress's life and the Shadow Princess, while progressing the story in parts each time. I felt like, despite their arguments, Teagan and Cress really loved each other, even though I would have liked to have spent more time with them actually together in the present time working out their issues.
There were many parts about this story I liked. I liked the idea, and the way things were described was beautiful, but if the book would have been longer I think we could have explored it all a lot more.

I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in a quick fantasy read. I would happily read more by this author and in this world.

This is a Eurydice and Orpheus retelling, but with a sapphic twist, and the idea of this novella was extremely appealing to me. It was short, quick, and promised magic, shadow realms, and monsters. But, I just didn't feel anything for these characters. Maybe it was the short length or the fact that they were separated through most of it, but I just didn't hurt for them. I simply feel like there wasn't enough room to develop characters, story, and attachment in 100 pages.

What really ruined the story for me was the Shadow Princess. She was made out to be this huge thing, and then they simply asked her what they wanted and she shrugged her shoulders and said "sure". There was all this buildup for nothing.

I enjoyed the first half of this novella way more than the second half. Perhaps fantasy novellas just aren't for me. Overall, this was just okay.

“The world had let her history become legend and tall tales and superstitions. If no one believed her to be real, they would not attempt to follow in her footsteps.”

The Bone way is a sapphic retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, where Teagan gets bitten by a creature from the Shadow Realm and Cress decide to visit the Princess of Shadow to ask to save the life of her wife.
The story deals with the present of Teagan, struggling to surviving the Shadow Realm path to reach the Princess, and the past of the two young lovers, their first meeting and their love.

The book is short and catching, but there are some parts that I fear were not fully developed, as for example the relationship between the two main characters. Reading this I felt like the author tried to tell me about their love and relationship more than showing me why the loved each other. I really liked the story behind the Princess and to be honest I was surprised from her story and her Realm.

Generally, this is a book I would recommend, but it’s not my all-time favorite: I see a great potential of the author but I will read more from her.
If you want a short book dealing with a LBTQ+ retelling, this book can be ideal for you.
Thank you Netgalley for providing a free copy of the book in exchange of an honest review!

Following Teagan and Cress in this wonderful novella inspired by the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, Underhill most definitely captures the attention through the trials that Teagan has to go through in order to find her wife Cress. This was a wonderful novella, very reminiscent of the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus except for the slight lack of worldbuilding. Underhill intrigues the reader with the spells and the magic system but there isn't much to go off of to hold that attention even longer. The Trip to said Shadow Princess that Teagan takes is the most interesting part and the sapphic romance element between Teagan and Cress is there but it isn't passionate enough to convince the reader that the women would go to certain death for each other. Overall a solid novella, would have liked for it to be a bit longer to have the magic and romance explored a bit more.
**Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-ARC of this novella. All opinions are my own**

I really enjoyed this novella and it was a great sapphic retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. I do feel that the story fell a little victim to the novella format itself - namely, so much was crammed into such a short time, whilst reading I was simultaneously impressed at how much the author was cramming into so few pages, but also feeling that there was too much to take in during such a short-form story. I do feel that this would be even better if it were a novel or even longer novella - there is so much world-building potential and delving even deeper into the characters.

The writing style is really good and clear, although the flashbacks were a bit tricky to keep track of until all the story threads came together in the final third of the book and it all makes sense. I feel this novella would be even better with multiple rereads - this first read I was trying to keep track of characters and places!

Thank you to Nyx Publishing for sending me an ARC via NetGalley!

This was a nice fast read. I love retellings, although I am not so familiar with Eurydice and Orpheus’ tale, maybe I have to learn more about them to understand better this book.
I noticed that Im drifting away from YA nowadays, and I need more/something else to grab my attention. I like that this was a bit different from these days Young Adult books, not as long and heavy, not the same cliché as always, and that it was a f/f relationship. It had a different vibe that I liked. The cover is also beautiful, well done!

I was expecting this book to be a full-length novel, not a novella, and that one is on me. I should have looked more into the details of the book before requesting an ARC. I am not usually a fan of too short fantasy stories because the world-building, character development, and even the plot suffer from the fact that everything is fitted into 100 pages. Sadly, the fact that the story is only 100 pages does affect my appreciation of it and my rating since I find it quite underwhelming.

I know that I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if it had been longer. The premise is very interesting, the ideas are there, the characters are not bad, but there is no world-building or real character development, and the romance and the plot are not the best execution-wise. It is a very loose retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Because this is a novella, we don’t really get a chance to know and get attached to the characters at all, so I didn’t really care what happened to Teagan and Cress. All we know is that they are married, that Teagan’s mother died a few years ago, and that Teagan studied to become a healer, that is actually how she met Cress. Now, Cress left without Teagan on a mission into the Shadow Realm that is very dangerous, and Teagan is racing to find her wife before it’s too late. Other pieces of information about them are given as the story progresses, but in the end, we still don’t know much about them.

Another problem that I had is the number of flashbacks in a story that is so short. I am not a fan of flashbacks in stories, to begin with, and considering the length of the novella, I just didn’t enjoy the result. Half of the story is in the past, thanks to the flashbacks, and we discover how Teagan and Cress met, and what pushed them to enter the Shadow Realm. The other half is in the present, as Teagan is racing on The Bone Way to try to find Cress before she gets killed. I just feel that not enough time was spent on either storyline, and there is no real world-building here. Again, this issue would have been solved with more pages to develop the whole story.

The romance between Cress and Teagan is shown mostly through the flashbacks: how they met and what their life together looked like. I was expecting an epic love story, but instead, I read a lot about them arguing, and how Teagan was rushing to save Cress, but I didn’t feel their intense feelings. Their “great” love story was told to us, but not shown, and not developed enough for me to feel anything about it.

Overall, this is an okay/good novella, but do keep in mind before you start reading it that it is a novella and not a full-length novel. I can’t really say that I recommend this story because it was overall underwhelming, and the ending didn’t really satisfy me, but if you really enjoy sapphic retellings and/or are a big fan of mythology, then you might actually enjoy it more than I did.

Firstly, I have to say that the story is a lot of fun: I really enjoyed the modern twist on an old Greek myth, and I am always here for messy sapphics who are quite literally willing to die for each other. I also really liked that this book was happy just to retell this story as a queer one - Teagan and Cressidae are treated like any other couple, and there are plenty of small nods towards other queer identities in the world they inhabit. I had though this might be a more explicitly subversive retelling that tackled some of the various assumptions about gender and sexuality in the original myths, but getting to enjoy a plain, queer reimagining with no homophobia felt somewhat subversive in its own right. I also really liked the relationship dynamics at play, and how neither Teagan or Cressidae are at fault for the breakdown of their relationship (not a spoiler, it takes place before the first chapter), but are both required to confront how they communicate what they need from each other.

Having said all that, this was not a memorable story for me, because it tried to do too much in too few pages, and felt stretched paper-thin as a result. The world-building is flimsy; almost non-existent aside from some basic descriptions of the locations they visit. Obstacles were overcome in mere moments in order to get through the entireity of the plot, and there simply wasn't enough suspense or sense of genuine challenges for the characters. And while I really liked the relationship dynamic, the flashback scenes felt very insta-lovely as we sped through their early time together, while the resolution of their relationship woes felt rushed.

I'd definitely check out more from Underhill, and hope they expand to a longer format, because all the ideas were there, they just lacked the space to give the characters breathing room and do the story justice.

The strongest thing I can say about this book is that it was okay. The idea was good, execution mildly disappointing. It was definitely creative, but the writing style bored me to tears at some points. It felt underdeveloped and dragged out at the same time. The development of the story was interesting, but the development of the characters felt too on the nose.

3.5 stars. 5 stars for that cover though.

Another novella with that problem of - I wanted/needed more. It's difficult to throw flashbacks into a novella because the story itself then is inevitably not meaty enough, because there's simply not time for it. This led to the problem of too much telling instead of showing. If this Sapphic Orpheus/Eurydice retelling had been fully fleshed out into a novel, I could see this being a potential five stars.

The relationship was sweet but difficult to buy into their passion for each other and why they would risk their lives for each other when we weren't given enough time to really be ingratiated. The journey into the underworld was interesting and creepy but not dark enough with a lack of attention to detail, and what detail was given left me wanting for more (I want to learn more about the monsters!). The princess was intriguing but again, I was left wanting to know more about her and how/why she got to wear she was.

Still - I read this one in one sitting and enjoyed what I got. Recommended to anyone with a penchant for mythological retellings.

Thank you Nyx Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC!

2.5 stars

I saw the cover and the synopsis that said f/f retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice and immediately wanted to read The Bone Way. I like that this is a novella, the story moves and wraps up smoothly. The worldbuilding, setting and the creatures were crafted smartly. Teagan and Cress's already established relationship was sweet, though I wish we'd gotten more of their interactions during the flashbacks. It did fall short for me. Nothing really stood out in particular, I found myself wanting the Shadow Princess to be given more depth, the worldbuilding to be explored more and the ending was underwhelming.

Thank you Nyx Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC!

The Bone Way ended up being a bit disappointing. The cover art is amazing and the blurb was what sold me initially to pick this one up. I personally felt that the set up of the book was what threw it off the most. Maybe the flashbacks could've been combined to a chapter at the beginning to make the reader care more. In a full length novel it might have been okay. I did love the witchy vibes, but in the end I didn't care enough and the characters were a bit too flat for my tastes.
I almost feel like that this would've made a good comic or fairytale graphic novel instead of a novella.
I would try other works from the author in the future.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Nyx Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was immediately drawn in when I saw the terms Greek retelling, LGBTQIA+ & SFF mentioned in the book description. Plus look at that cover. Honestly, it’s stunning!

First of all, even though it was a 3 star read, I really mostly had a good time with this book.
It showed some serious potential in terms of plot, the world and the characters. But in the end it all fell a little short for me. It might because it being a novella or just because of the choices the author took with the delivery of the story.

“But she hadn’t been raised to turn away from someone in need, no matter how afraid for herself she might be.”

In this book you follow Teagan on her quest to rescue her wife Cressidae. She went to the shadow realm, to find a way to save her spouse from a lethal poisoning. The story is loosely inspired by the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. It’s centered around the journey through the shadow realm and the romance between Teagan and Cress.

“Teagan felt the magic all around her, the energy from spells that crackled through the noise, the scent of harmona in the air.”

I think the strongest part of this novel is it’s atmosphere. You felt really immersed in the struggles the protagonist faced in the different parts of the “Underworld”. Especially the mental toll they took on Teagan.
I also really liked the stark contrast between the happy, protected world the couple came from and the cruel shadow realm.

“The dead were always starving, waiting for those fool enough to get past them without protection.”

One of the things I struggled most with were the flashbacks. I felt like they didn’t add too much to the story. They also made the already low page count just feel too short. I feel like starting the novel with a prologue instead, would have made me invested from the start and made me care about the characters more.

I actually liked the characters but they lacked a bit of polish. I had the same problem with the romance. An already established relationship is an interesting concept for a romance story, but you still need time to get to care about the two lovers. There was a lot of telling and not too much showing of the affection between Teagan and Cress. Like I said earlier, if the relationship was established in the prologue the quest would have had more gravitas as well. The “throwing into action” kind of start to a story has to be done just right in my opinion. I had the exact problem with R.A. Salvatores “Homeland” aswell. I just didn’t care about what happened just yet.

I also felt like the writing seemed a little fanfiction-esque. But if you’re not bothered by a more juvenile writing style, you probably won’t have an issue with it. I sometimes felt it was too much.

I can still warmly recommend this if you like a quick atmospheric read and don’t expect a close retelling of the original material.

So this took me a while because I had to re-read it, due to not realizing that this was a retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice with a Sapphic twist, amongst others. I was actually going to just stop reading it because the story starts so bleakly, with Teagan (who is the Orpheus character, I think) right smack dap in the middle of her journey through this world's version of Hades, The Shadow Kingdom. I wasn't connecting the bleakness with the original, so I was constantly thinking of how sad and dreary everything was - even the flashbacks were bitter sweet.

Aside from picking apart what the story beats matched with the original groupings of the story (I found out there's a lot, but most people use Virgil's version in their retellings because it is so darn sad), I was constantly wanting to know more. There's so much world in this little novella that I wanted to keep finding out about, but because of the length of the book, it laser focused on Teagan and Cressidae. They're two powerful witches who were tragically separated after Cressidae disappears one day in the search to cure Teagan's terminal disease. We find out later that Teagan saved Cressidae's life, but was injured in the process. The injury was cursed, and Teagan as been dying ever since. Through their world's old stories, Cressidae thinks she found the cure and went questing after it but didn't tell Teagan who was more resigned to her fate.

It's a bit messy with the events of their past being told in flashbacks along with the current, terrible adventure. I would have liked to have been given some of that backstory closer to the beginning of the book, since most of the more relevant bits are explained near the middle of the book. It would have helped break up the utter helplessness that was prevalent in the beginning. What, with one lover dying and running after the other, whom we don't know the exact fate of until later? Whole lotta sadness to throw at people.

The Orpheus and Eurydice story often gets really good retellings like with Mulan Rouge, and Hadestown. I'd say this is a solid retelling and a pretty creative one at that. Cressidae has a ton of agency as Eurydice, but, she also has a little of Orpheus in her, too. Teagan has characteristics of both, as well (see what I mean, picking apart the story?). It's really interesting, and certainly deserves a larger page count. But alas, it is not to be, and instead you get a lot of story crammed into a small space with not enough room to breathe.

If you want a sapphic retelling of Eurydice and Orpheus. If you want a story that can be a bit creepy and really emotional. If you want a fantasy world with understandable and good world-building. if you want a quick read. If you want a great love story that defies death. Then this book is for you.
It's easy and quick to read. The characters are so great, even the villains, like you, understand them. I've read this book in one day, and now I just want to re-read it. It was the perfect book to end pride month.