I'm happy to have gotten an ARC for this book from NetGalley and Nyx Publishing, I really enjoyed it! The book will be out

First, let me say this: I love the cover art.

The conflict, plot, and characters were all interesting and kept me wanting to read! It wasn't super long, so I was able to read it practically in one sitting. I enjoyed the conflict and world building especially! The ending was so sweet and cute, I loved it.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable read and I'm thankful I was allowed to read it before it's published!

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

I was initially interested in this after seeing that it's a (loose) retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice. It's not an exactly retelling, but there are some nods to that story that I found entertaining! This is very easy and quick to read. We have two timelines here with the present and flashbacks/folklore type elements. I do think this would have worked better for me if we moved through the story linearly, but I wasn't terribly bothered by this.

I really liked the Bone Way itself, as well as the general description of this Underworld with a vengeful shadow princess. There were some really great ideas here with the different areas along the way. They were all cool, and I liked the variety of locations, creatures, and threats to face. However, the conflict was solved too easily for my taste. I think I would have preferred for this to be a full length novel instead of a novella to really develop this relationship between the characters and to have higher stakes.

Teagan, the main character, was enjoyable overall. We really get to explore the idea of what happens when someone you love is diagnosed with a fatal disease and how to handle it, especially when it comes to what that person wants. I thought this was done very well, and I respected Teagan's decisions. Cress, Teagan's wife, was a bit more aloof for me. I don't think I really got the best feel for her (or at least not as much as I maybe wanted). I did like their relationship overall!

I enjoyed my time with this and would recommend it to those looking for a very readable, lighter type of fantasy!

My video review can be seen on my channel (around minutes 10:40-12:56 of this video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIPv6jb9mCM

"Please don't ask me to let you go."

This was a short book, BUT the romance between Taegan and Cress was beautifull!

It showed how they loved each other, and still pushed the other to persue their dreams. AND THEY HAVE ACTUAL CONVERSATIONS!! Most times in books we see the miscommunication and it gets so annoying so this was perfetct.

I would've liked even more the book if it had more pages, felt some parts missing, but I get that the story is mainly focusing on the main character Taegan, dealing with death (her mother's and hers). Great book! Excited to see, and definetly will be keeping up with, Holly J. Underhill next books.

Thank you NetGalley and Nyx Publishing for this advanced copy, note that all opinion given in this review is my own.

I've said this in a couple of reviews before, but I love Greek mythology. Like a lot. Any book about Greek mythology or a retelling of Greek mythology will immediately have me interested.
So when I read that The Bone Way is a sapphic retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, I was instantly on board.

Before I go into the review itself though, I want to point out the fact, that The Bone Way is a novella of 162 pages, so it's relatively short. Because this is also my main complaint.

I also have never read the original story of Orpheus and Eurydice. I know of them and I know some details, but I couldn't really say if this was an accurate retelling.

In general, I really liked the writing style and the fact, that the book was written both in the present and in retrospective chapters. It also was fast-paced and a quick read, but then again, it isn't even 200 pages long so...

But, and this is my main complaint, I think that this book would have really benefitted from being a longer novel and not just a novella. I liked Teagan and Cressidae, but I would have wished that they would have been more fleshed out. The characters, the romance and the overall story would have been so much better and could have been a lot more palpable if it had been a longer book with more time for world building and character exploration. As it is, it just feels a little too flat to me and I would have liked to read more and to get to know these characters better.

But besides of that it was an entertaining and well written novella.

I so, so badly wanted to enjoy this. I mean, a WLW retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice?? That is definitely in my wheelhouse.

Teagan is in grave danger. A magical poison is slowly killing her, and the only possible cure seems to lie through the Bone Way in the Shadow Princess’ realm. Cress, Teagan’s wife is determined to save her, even if it means taking the perilous journey alone. When Teagan finds out she has gone, she too sets out to the Shadow Realm in an attempt to save both herself and Cress.

Sadly, I was more in love with the concept of this book than the execution. For starters, I was really disappointed in the retelling aspect. Orpheus and Eurydice is such a heartbreaking and tragic tale, and the whole point is that Orpheus knows if he looks back at his love, she will not make it out of the underworld alive (at least in the version I am familiar with). But, because he loves her so much, he can’t help but steal a glance. In this version, the two must make it back without touching each other for 3 days. Which, like, okay, but why is that so hard?? Maybe it’s just because I’m used to long distance relationships. But I feel like a big part of the story’s meaning was lost with that change, and the way it was incorporated at the end (I know that's vague, but I'm trying not to spoil anything).

The best word I can think of to describe the writing itself is “jarring”. Everything about it just felt really disjointed, especially for the first half. It was almost like someone took a full length novel, and then cut out whole paragraphs, transitions, and background information. What background was provided was often in reverse, which made many events confusing at first.

The main point of the story, obviously, was Cress and Teagan’s love for each other. However the characters didn't extend much beyond that purpose. I would have loved to see more of their personalities, as they pretty much just seemed like carbon copies of each other. Two stubborn and talented witches, each determined to throw themselves in front of death repeatedly for the other. That’s all I really knew about them by the end.

Nor did I enjoy the story of the Shadow Princess. There was so much promise in her realm, in the Bone Way itself, and in her origin story. I wanted some haunting tale of adventure and love. But it was all very bland. I didn’t get lost in the world building. I didn’t enjoy the typical “she wanted power and it turned her evil”. And I didn’t buy the ending, either.

Overall it gets points for the initial idea, and the good sapphic rep. But I really wished the story had been executed better.

Actual rating: 2.5/5
Pacing: slow
Intended audience: YA
Content warnings: death of a loved one

So much yes! I was pleasantly surprised by this sapphic fantasy novella. I knew nothing about Orpheus before starting this book, and after reading an Orpheus synopsis, I’d say that this is an extremely loose retelling and is very much its own thing.

I adored the pre-established partnership at the center of the story. Though Teagan and Cress are already wives at the start, we do get some flashbacks to the beginning of their relationship, which I thought were well done. I loved Teagan, her soft heart and her insecurities and her regrets and her formidable love for her wife. I loved Cress, her hard-headedness and thirst for knowledge and her determination to save her wife at whatever the cost. Though other reviewers have said that a longer book would have done more justice to the characters, what we did get worked perfectly for me. I can’t really explain it, but I felt the love between these two and ached for them to be together against the odds.

Aside from the main couple, I found this book engaging and well-written. The writing is readable and doesn’t use that stilted language that I vehemently dislike in fantasy books. And for such a short story, there’s also enough world building to make it easy for me to picture the world. This is one of the most vibrant, picturesque books I’ve read in a while, which I think speaks to the quality of the writing. The plot is also solid and it was hard to predict where the story was going — there was never a dull moment for me!

In short, I loved this novella and am looking forward to more from Holly J. Underhill!

content warnings: death of a parent (past), guilt, poisoning (from animal bite)

I received an ARC from Nyx Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Gracias NetGalley por enviarme una copia de este libro a cambio de una reseña honesta.

LESBIANAS, VIVAN LAS LESBIANAS, voy a comenzar diciendo que al fin pude encontrar un libro donde no se replique la conducta hetero en una relación lesbica, que ambas sean brujas les da mil puntos más.

Me enamoré de la relación de Cress y Teagan, incluso me enamoré de Cress antes de conocerla. La historia es bella, las narraciones buenas, posiblemente uno de mis mejores descubrimientos del año, amo aquí <3

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley
Wow just wow. It had alot going on for such a short book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This wasn't what I was expecting for a sapphic Orpheus and Eurydice retelling, and that is definitely my fault and not the author's.

The second half of this book is heaps better than the first; the addition of characters Teagan actually gets to converse with helps the narrative, as opposed to her just ruminating on the same thoughts which got boring at times. I also liked the concept of the world: this hybrid of magical elements and technology, I just feel as though it was wasted on this story. The novella isn't long enough to expand the world the way I needed it to.

As for the characters, I didn't really get attached to either of them, nor was I really rooting for them. A lot of the time I found myself confused by their motivations, and that was, I think, the main issue I had with them. Also, the ending is underwhelming and frankly terrible.

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!

This is 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3.

I was really expecting to like this a lot more than I actually ended up doing. There were a number of things that went wrong for me, but the first and foremost is definitely the length, or rather the inefficient use of the length of the book.

This book is really short, honestly it's more a prequel novella length more than a book. Which is what caused most of the problems in this book. I felt like we were just thrown into the story with no warning, no knowledge of what was going on, and information was introduced mostly as an afterthought, or at least it felt like it. The knowledge that Teagan was part of the reason Cressidae disappeared felt like an afterthought, and while that writing style with slowly revealing information is amazing, it did not work for this because of its very short length.

I would have liked more setup for the book rather than the superfast plot we were thrown into, which brings me to my next point: this really reads like it's a spinoff novella of a series, the kind of story where from the main series, there would be like a scene where the characters would go, 'oh you remember when I rescued you from the Shadow Princess? those were good times.' and they would never explain completely what happened, and this novella would be our explanation.

That is what this felt like. Like our world was already explored, our characters already given back stories and character arcs, and this would be a short exploration of what seemed like a passing detail in the main series. Which is why I feel this has definite scope for expansion.

I feel like the author could now go on and write a good series in this world, which I would love to read if it were ever written, and I would love for Cressidae and Teagan to be at least side characters, if not the main ones themselves.

Which brings me to my next point: the characters themselves were not very well developed somehow, I could never really get them, and some of the scenes really felt like we were robbed of content, like the reunion. I don't know, I wanted some kind of excitement, some feeling of love and happiness, but it was such a subdued affair that I ended up feeling underwhelmed.

Which brings me to my next point (I love how I'm doing this, sorry if this is irritating though): the Shadow Princess was such an underwhelming character, if not an underwhelming villain. She was so comic book villain-y, and when I say comic book I don't mean comic books, I mean comically underwhelming. I could never take her seriously, and all her threats would make me either laugh or look at her with incredulity at her immaturity. I wanted more development from the Shadow Princess, more insight into why she became the way she did, and preferably from her own POV rather than the villain monologue we got.

I also had a few issues with the writing of the romance in general, it felt very immature to me for some reason, and I used the words 'a newly starting out fanfic writer' in my status updates, and I mean them. I don't want to be too negative, but the wording felt like it was very cringey in places, and never really immersed me into the romance or made me swoon even a bit.

The timeline for this threw me off a lot. I never got the feeling that this whole book took more than two days at most to cover, but canonically this took like a week. All the action scenes, while nicely written, could have been a bit longer and more explored, and somehow just more feeling-invoking? I don't know how exactly to say this, but I just didn't feel it.

On the whole, while an intriguing read, I didn't completely love this, and felt like its full potential wasn't reached. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a short escape into a beautiful world, with an established romance, and badass leads.

<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!