An adventurous tale, The Bone Spindle is a Sleeping Beauty retelling that I adored so much. It follows Fi, a cursed historian, and Shane, a girl warrior from the north with a secret past, as they travel to find a sleeping prince and break a curse that sunk an entire kingdom. The comparison with Indiana Jones is very spot on, as I felt I was in one of the movies the whole time, finding hidden magical objects and uncovering secrets. The pacing was good and kept you engaged throughout the whole book, though in a moment it did dragged a bit. The two relationships in the book, even though they were very different one from the other, had my whole heart and I cannot wait to see how it develops in the sequel. I’m also very interested in seeing how the magic system develops with the witches. Overall it is a great YA fantasy debut with high stakes, adventure and sweet romance that will leave you wishing the sequel is already out.

**Thank you to Penguin/Razorbill, the author, and NetGalley for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review. This book was released on January 11, 2022.**

Two quick notes before we dive into the actual substance of the review. First, yes, I did technically receive an eARC of this book, but because I was approved for the book *after* the publication date, I checked out a physical copy from my library because I do the majority of my reading (for work and reviewing) on my laptop and my eyes are *tired all the time.*

Second, huge, HUGE warning for giant spiders within the last hundred pages or so. I feel like I never see warnings for things like that, and I’m sure that there are people out there just like me who would really appreciate knowing there are, once again, massive spiders in a book and that it’s gonna make your head itch for a solid hour.

Now, the review!

Fi, a cursed treasure hunter who hasn’t seen her parents in over a year, joins up with Shane, an ax-wielding girl with her own secrets about her past, for a score in a long-lost ruin... and that’s when Fi pricks her finger on the legendary Bone Spindle that sent the prince Briar Rose to sleep a hundred years ago and led to the ruin of Andar. Now connected to Briar himself, Fi and Shane travel into the lost kingdom and its Forest of Thorns to wake the prince, but Fi isn’t going to fall in love if she can help it.

There are so many great elements woven into this book, and of course I love the world created here and all the detail surrounding Witches and Andar in particular. The explanations of all the different magical orders in the kingdom, the different mediums Witches use for their magic—it’s all very cool, and I know that if I were younger I would probably be making up my own Order to be a part of. I also loved how Andar is simultaneously this lost kingdom and yet also still very alive, because its inhabitants (well, in the castle) aren’t dead, just sleeping. I feel like I won’t do the best job of articulating it here, but it’s a very interesting take on the historical and archaeological aspects of treasure hunting in a fantasy world that is deeply rooted in a fairy tale, which is something I have *always* wanted to read! The characters were a lot of fun, fleshed out through flashbacks, and while the pace feels a bit slow for how much is happening, you never have to wait long for the next trap to be sprung.

Leslie Vedder’s debut is a fun play on the most intriguing elements of adventure films and fairy tales, and I am very excited to see what is to come in the sequel, THE SEVERED THREAD!

For a debut novel, especially in the fantasy genre there is a lot to live up to. Fi is a treasure hunter living under a curse and searching for a way to break it when she cuts her finger on a bone spindle, setting her on another path to fulfill a prophecy to free the "sleeping prince". Kind of a twist on Sleeping Beauty.
Shane is a warrior for hire, who teams up with Fi while she is running from her birthright. She is the chosen heir to a kingdom but ran away because her arranged marriage wasn't going to be true love leaving her twin brother to inherit as ruler and her "bride".
Most of the book is Fi & Shane trying to get to where the "sleeping prince" is. They are chased by witch hunters, ex partners, new potential love interests and visits by visions of the sleeping prince, Briar Rose.

I really enjoyed this book. You think you know the story but there so much more going on and I can't wait until the next installment comes out.

I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect going into The Bone Spindle. But this was an absolutely delightful gender-swapped retelling of Sleeping Beauty that also had nods to a few other fairytales and featured strong Indiana Jones elements (as a side note: yes to all of the female treasure hunters, I would like to see more of this in the future).

Fi and Shane were fantastic heroines, and I enjoyed every second of their journey from enemies to best friends. The two of them were such a delight together. Vedder did a great job with balancing their character development with the constant action. And the action was truly non-stop. This is not a book to start right before bed because there’s never a good point to put it down.

One of my main problems with the Sleeping Beauty archetype is that they instantly fall in love with their savior. This book neatly sidesteps that, giving Briar his own agency while also showing the slow development of the relationship between him and Fi. So truly an A+ for handling that aspect well. There is a bit of insta-love with one of the other characters, but it does seem somewhat in character for that person so it didn’t bother me too much.

Overall, I wished there were more treasure hunting portions because those sections of the book were amazing. But I did enjoy this one, and absolutely loved the ending. I’ll definitely be picking up the next book in the series!

A gender bent sleeping beauty is such a great take on the tale. I am a sucker for retellings.

I will say thay I loved the concept of this book but it fell a little flat at times. Especially since the pacing was all over the place. There was a giant info dump at the beginning which I pushed through in hopes that I would just absorb it eventually.


I loved the representation in this book. It always makes my heart happy to see queer characters done well in young adult books. Also the characters themselves were quite fun and fully fleshed out.

Was this my favorite book? No. Would I recommend it? Definitely.

The highlight of this read was def the characters. I think the pacing of this book was not as strong and also the world building was not as clear and it was confusing to follow. But i really did loved the Rep in this read. It also remidned of reading 3 dark crowns cause the only male was the victim that needed to be saved. I also really loved the vast elemtns of a fairy tale. This story tried to do alot and i think it suffered to much to focus on some specic elements that I liked. But really fun read and willd def read the sequel!

The Bone Spindle is a mixture of Indiana Jones and a gender-bent sleeping beauty - which had me all kinds of excited and did not disappoint at all! The story was fun and fast-paced, with simpler writing which was nice since it let you focus more on getting completely lost in the adventure of the story.

I was hesitant to go into this book because I'm not normally a fan of fantasy, but let me tell you. This book really entertained me! I liked the quest, the elements of fairy tale, the different romances. The characters were all interesting and complex. Thinking that I wouldn't love this, I didn't intend to keep an eye out for book 2 in the series, but since I really enjoyed it, I need 2023 to come sooner please! I recommend this book for people who like YA adventure stories with female badasses, people who like a complicated romance plot, and people who are cool with a little magic, prophecy, and fate.

I really, really, really wanted to love this book--sapphic Indiana Jones meets Sleeping Beauty? Sign me UP! Unfortunately, I couldn't get into it. On a purely personal level, it was higher fantasy than I was anticipating, with high fantasy naming conventions and lore beyond what I could handle at the moment (no fault of the author, purely personal preference!). For the right reader, this would be awesome. It just didn't do it for me, and I'm very sad about it!

Magic. Retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Indians Jones treasure hunting. Sign me up. I didn’t know anything else but that and I knew I needed to dive in. Add in sapphic main character and witty characters made it even better!
Fi is a bookish treasure hunter trying to figure out a way to break a curse that was put upon her. Shane is a warrior in her own right but also is running from the pressure of her birthright. Fi and Shane team up and stumble upon the bone spindle that briar Rose pricked his finger on which caused the havoc to the realm and caused witches to go into hiding.
It’s a great debut with fun characters (loved Briar!) and exciting adventure. Looking forward to book 2.

The Bone Spindle is a fun, fast-paced reimagining of Sleeping Beauty mixed with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and/or Indiana Jones. Fi is a smart, bookish treasure hunter who teams up with Shane, a girl warrior who has given up a kingdom in order to live on her own terms. Briar Rose is a prince under a sleeping curse. When Fi pricks her finger on a bone spindle while treasure hunting, she unknowingly ties her future to Briar's future. Fi and Shane set off together on an adventure to rescue the sleeping prince.

The adventure unfolds through alternating POV, switching from Fi to Shane, and occasionally Briar as storyteller. We learn more about the sleeping curse and Briar's kingdom, the Great Witches, a curse that Fi is running from, and the heartaches that have pushed Fi and Shane together as partners and friends. Shane meets a female love interest as Fi starts to fall for the prince, even against her own best judgement. As they try to save the prince, they are pursued by witch hunters and challenged with obstacles (natural and those controlled by dark magic).

I loved that the prince was the sleeping beauty, and that he was still able to be a part of the story through magic. I also loved that Fi and Shane become loyal friends, even though they are so different (and their banter is so funny and entertaining). From a librarian's perspective, I kept thinking that because of the fast-paced action/adventure element, I would recommend the book to some of my students who don't love to read. However, I think some of them would be put off by all the romance in the book.

Overall, and even with these reservations, I enjoyed this book. I will definitely read the next book to find out what happens to these characters.

Thank you to Penguin Group and netgalley for the arc, so I could provide this honest review.

The Bone Spindle is an excellent re-telling of the classic fairytale Sleeping Beauty. with a little gender-bending and axe-wielding girls thrown in. In this version, Fi is the person exploring the country side when she finds Briar Rose, the prince of the land who was put under a sleeping curse. Fi love riddles, puzzles and investigating ruins. It is while she's doing that that she finds and classically pricks her finger on a bone spindle. She is stuck with the spirit of Briar Rose until she can break the 100 years old curse on his kingdom. Shane is a tough warrior woman who likes nothing better than a good brawl or a pretty girl. Fi must rely on Shane's help to break the curse. Along the way they run into witch hunters, evil exes and a mysterious witch who has her eye on Shane. All this comes together to make a fun, fast and irreverent gender-bending retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Young adults will love this, especially fans of Holly Black, Leigh Bardugo and Sarah Maas. I thank Net Galley for the opportunity to read an ARC. I look forward to reading more from Leslie Vedder.

This book was so fun and I will be impatiently awaiting book 2.

There were many things to love about this book: the banter, Shane and Red, Fi and Briar, giving the sleeping Prince an active role in the story. But what I loved most was how delightfully queer it was. This was not a world riddled with heteronormativity or homophobia, everyone just is exactly who they are.

The very premise of The Bone Spindle was enough for me to read this book: Sleeping Beauty meets Indiana Jones. Even better, it’s a genderbent retelling of the classic fairy tale with the added bonus of a queer love story. Really, what more could you ask for?

I love genderbent stories, not least because they often puts women in the driver’s seat where they’d once been passengers. Fi is the action hero we all deserve, only made stronger by the friendship that develops between her and Shane. There’s no doubt in my mind that these two women could save the world.

It would’ve been easy for the author to swap the characters’ genders and simply allow Fi to save Briar and be the hero. Instead, Vedder bestows upon him an agency that the original Briar Rose was never offered in her tale. And there’s something truly magical about that.

As the story surges forward, we learn about the kingdom’s history and the system of magic that rules it. There are as many edge-of-your-seat action-packed moments as there are quiet exchanges between tenuous allies under the moonlit sky. This world feels bigger than this story alone, and I can’t wait to explore more of it.

Thank you so much to Penguin Young Readers and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Seriously what could be better than an Indiana Jones-esque, gender-swapped retelling of Sleeping Beauty? As if that isn't enough to draw you in, the magic system that the author built in this was so much fun to read about, and the characters were entertaining from beginning to end.

That being said, while I liked reading this a lot, there were several things that stopped me from truly loving this book. It does tend to read on the younger side of YA, and I feel like a lot of the events that occurred might have benefitted from aging the characters up slightly. It was hard to put much stock into the characters' previous relationships and experience when they were only supposed to be...sixteen? Seventeen? In addition to that, the story (in my opinion) suffered from the use of the trope in which the main characters withhold information from each other "for their own good", when so many conflicts would have easily been avoided had they simply asked for help.

I like The Bone Spindle, and I enjoyed Leslie Vedder's writing, and I look forward to the sequel to this that will hopefully be coming sooner rather than later. I would love to see Fi, Shane, and Briar's story continue in further books. I gave this a 3.75 out of 5 stars!

Thank you Penguin Teen Canada for sending me an eARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

I loved this one! It was exciting, action-packed, magical, and so much fun to read. I liked following the characters on their journey, and seeing their relationship change and grow was really nice.
I thought the pacing was really good, and the action was balanced well against slower moments. I also thought the pacing of the relationship between Fi and Briar was realistic and it felt well developed. Their relationship was amazing to read about, and I’m excited for what the next book has in store for them.
The characters were fantastic. Filore (Fi) is one of our main characters, and she is one who pricks her finger in a spindle and is destined to break the sleeping curse on Briar and fall in love with him (according to him). Unluckily for Briar, Fi doesn’t believe in love anymore thanks to her jerk of an ex, but she is stuck with the spirit of Briar popping up while she journeys to where he sleeps in a tower. Both Fi and Briar were really interesting characters.
Shane is a warrior and a treasure hunter. She and Fi partner up to find and explore old ruins that leads to them journeying to Andar together. I liked Shane’s character a lot, and I liked her partnership with Fi. I also liked the character of Red. I thought Shane and Red were interesting together.
I liked the characters together and following their journey was a lot of fun. The writing style was easy to follow, and I liked the world that the author created. I was really invested in the character’s and whether or not they would break the curse.

Such a fun, action-packed twist on a beloved fairytale classic. I loved Fi, Shane, and Briar—but especially Fi and Shane; fantastic narrators with such rich backstories and motivations. All of the characters in this world were great, actually, and I am super eager for the next book in this series. I love what the author has set up here and am excited to keep reading. I do wish that we’d gotten a bit more closure at the end, but I recognize that the author was also trying to set it up for the next book.

I’ve made it to 50% and simply cannot keep going. This story really seems to have way too much going on at once, unfortunately. It’s a great idea, but it’s so jumbled and all over the place and really just needs some fine-tuning.

If I ever find myself on an adventure, I hope it’s with Fi and Shane. They may both come with their own issues, but they’re loyalty and empathy make for the best traveling companions. The Bone Spindle is a take on the sleeping beauty fairy tale, with a newly imagined and well built world of magic for the characters to inhabit. This is clearly the first installment in a series and I can’t wait to see what the next books bring.

I thought I was going to love this because I love everything with this plot line but the book took way too long to get to the action and I thought it was a slow burn...was not.