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Currently feeling like this is landing between 3.5-4 stars.

Just going to start with the phrase that I thought of first when I finished this. “That was so frickin weird.” Lol
This story is a bit of a wild card, which definitely kept me on my toes. I enjoyed the beginning where there was time at the cabin to really get to know the characters. The girl, Art, was so wonderfully colorful and cracked me up on many occasions. But there was something that didn’t quite connect, like it was too many themes battling against each other. There wasn’t the symbiosis of Cerulean Sea that I loved so much. At times I was utterly engrossed and loving the story, and then others my mind would wander and I’d have to go back and reread an entire page.

I will say I adored how it ended and while this wasn’t a perfect fit for me, I’m sure a lot of people will love it. I also think with some tweaking and editing this could make a really fantastic sci-fi movie!

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Another fantastic novel from TJ Klune! I know this is a novel from his back catalog of self-published novels, but I am glad it was picked up and given the proper release treatment to reach many new fans and old fans alike! It was hard to put down and I am glad I got a chance to read it.

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This is the strongest yet that I have seen from Kline. While he sticks to his preferred themes of found family and protect the unusual child, this loses the coziness of his previous work in favor of something more authentic and raw. While it is the most action forward plot to date, the heart of this story is the excellent character work and the story of three lost souls who find their way when they find each other.

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A supernatural young girl and her two protectors travel across the country on an action packed adventure to get her back to her home.

The subject of grief and how we move on from grief is prevalent in this book. Watching how the characters journey from painful traumas to slowly healing and opening up to love again is heartwarming and hopeful. I loved the trust and support that developed between the three main characters as they created a new family unit.

I wasn’t wild about the “Heaven’s Gate” type religious cult scenes. They seemed out of place and unnecessary. But overall I loved this story.

I can always count on TJ Klune to introduce some odd unusual characters who end up being some of the most beloved and memorable people I’d love to meet.

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Another homerun for Klune. I've recommended his stories to so many people and I'll do this one as well. My students love his stories and they're nearly always school appropriate.

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The Bones Beneath My Skin
 
4.5/5 stars
🌶️🌶️.5/5 for spice
 
The Bones Beneath My Skin is the newest novel by TJ Klune. Once again, he did not disappoint!

A typical TJ Klune novel feels like being wrapped in a warm hug, full of giggles and life lessons. This novel felt like that – but like you were being hugged and chased at the same time. In addition to the cozy characters and charming anecdotes, this book also had a heavy dose of sci-fi and mystery elements. This book is kept me guessing and intrigued in the storyline the entire time. It was wonderful and unexpected blend of genres.

This novel follows Nate Cartwright who is a lost soul in life - he has lost his family, his job, and is looking for direction. Instead he finds Alex and Artemis Darth Vader… a grumpy over protective man and a child who is extremely peculiar. Nate then finds himself in the middle of a situation where he must put his trust in people he doesn’t know, while making impossible choices. Oh, and fight his growing attraction for someone he has no business liking.

My only critique of this novel is that I would have loved to see more development of the main romantic relationship in the novel. Due to [spoiler], the two main characters do not get to spend a lot of time together and I would have loved to have seen that!

Overall, I’ll be thinking about these characters and this story for a long, long time. This is a perfect introduction to the Sci-Fi genre, or if you’re just looking to switch up your romance reads, it is an amazing blend of both genres.

Read for:
 
- Grumpy sunshine
- Found family
- LGBTQ+ elements
-Fantasy / Sci-Fi Elements


Thank you to NetGalley, Tor Books, and TJ Klune for providing me with an ARC of this book. The expected (re)publication of this book is February 4th, 2025.

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Wow!

This book was unlike anything I have previously read from TJ Klune. and I mean that in the best way. The Bomes Beneath My Skin delivered everything I have grown to expect from this author- found family, romance, and wonderful storytelling. I would describe this book as more of scifi and even thriller like as opposed to fantasy. If you enjoy Stranger Things, I believe you will love Art- Artmenis Darth Vader. She reminded me of Eleven! This is best described as a supernatural suspense that was fast paced.

Set in the 1990s, I was taken on a nostalgic journey full of adventure and heart. The romance is a detail and is not the driving force of this book. The heart of it is the found family as well as healing and navigating grief and loss. Art, Alex and Nate- I had such a great time reading your story. These characters will stay with me for quite some time.

Just another example of why TJ Klune is an auto buy author for me.

Thank you so much to TOR Publishing, Netgalley and TJ Klune for this ARC ahead of its re-release!

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TJ Klune knows how to write. His characters are well rounded, surprising, tragic, and hopeful all at the same time. I went into this book blindly and I'm so glad I did.

The premise is our main character, Nate, is dealing with loss. Loss of his job, loss of his parents, loss of his identity. So he goes to a mountain cabin deep within Oregon to lick his wounds and find his purpose in life. Imagine his surprise when he arrives and a man with a small girl are already there.

What follows is a tragic, heartbreaking tale filled with humorous moments, love, and ultimately hope. I loved how each character evolved and how the story unfolded. Beautiful story and the ending made me smile.

Bravo Mr. Klune. Can't wait to read your next one!

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When TJ Klune has the chance to emotionally ruin me, consider myself ruined.

Nate has hit rock bottom, or at least he thought he did when he lost his job and his estranged parents died. Only it turns out things can and do get worse when he finds the remote cabin his mother left him to be occupied by a little girl calling herself Artemis Darth Vader and a very menacing grown man named Alex. And Alex has a gun. Now it's rock bottom!

Only it's not. It's the start of a wild, deeply weird, highly emotional interior and exterior journey for all three of these people. The circumstances are wild. All are required to bust out of their comfort zones and take unprecedented leaps of faith. Honestly for the first third of the book, readers are about as in the dark as Nate is. It's clear that Alex and Art are hiding something, and even when they offer up explanations they don't quite add up. But my curiosity beat out my passing frustrations (something I suppose Nate and I have in common), and in the end I spent two days in a row staying up WAY past my bedtime because I was completely invested in this strange little trio full of love and bacon. This is starkly different from the other Klune books I've read, and if I had to pick I would say it most closely resembles In the Lives of Puppets (except not at all). In this way, Klune's writing reminds me of Fredrick Backman's - he's an author with a signature voice, yet every story is uniquely singular.

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This book was everything that I needed it to be. I was rooting for Art from the first page that we met her: the way she described love & what it means to be human was just chef’s kiss. This was such an insightful and delightful read - it was my first TJ Klune book but I know it won’t be my last. The characters were all very likeable and there were some laugh out loud moments that were both funny and touching at the same time. I’m also obsessed with the way the book ended - especially the final words; it felt so fitting and just a “duh” way to end the novel. Again, exactly what I wanted. 5/5 star read for me!

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This paranormal MM romance will have you wishing for a grumpy ex-military man of your own.

This reminded me a bit of "To Be Taught If Fortunate" by Becky Chambers, if there was a helicopter crash in it.

I loved every bit of this book. Our main character Nate, is going through a mid-life crisis. His parents have recently died, he was fired from his job and is escaping to his family's remote cabin for a reset. When he gets there he finds a man with a gun and a curious ten year old girl who is so much more than she seems.

This book is a non-stop adventure, while also being tender and loving. I love how Nate is trying to navigate the things that are going on around him, while also trying to unravel the trauma from his past.

We have found family in the best way. Our 10-year-old Art provides the comic relief. And Alex, our grump ex-military soldier makes us work for his love and attention in a way that felt so authentic and real.

Also, this is my first TJ Klune book with an explicit love scene and I LOVED IT. Give us more books with this please TJ.

Read this if you love
🌟Bacon
🌟Found family
🌟Road trips
🌟Scary military car chases
🌟Humvees thrown into helicopters
🌟Tender MM romance
🌟Devastating first kiss

Thank you to TOR and NetGalley for the ARC.

Read this book while road tripping across the US, eating bacon and looking at the stars.

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If I could give this book more than five stars, I would. TJ Klune has a way of cracking open your soul and just creating this window that he pours his books into. That's how reading this book felt. It was a beautiful, hilarious, and heartbreaking story, and honestly it would be absolutely amazing if it were picked up by Studio Ghibli, because the visuals in this are so vivid and breathtaking that they need to be seen.

Nate has inherited a cabin from his parents. And a truck. And that's it. And his brother doesn't care that he wasn't at the funeral because they basically all disowned him when they found out he was gay. Ok. Well then. That's a bit close to home these days, isn't it? Finding Alex and Art is the best thing that's ever happened to him, even if it's not that way at first. Everything else that comes next is crazy and bizarre, and leads them on the adventure of their lives.

I appreciate so, so very much the fact that Klune puts his heart out there with his work, and writes romance that is true and beautiful. It's not just about physical stuff. The forming of bonds between characters and creating the found family is something that I've never seen another author do so well. To be human is to love, to be heartbroken, to hope in the face of certain doom while trying desperately to survive. Do your soul a favor and pick this one up. I'll just be over here with my new soul window open and ready for whatever magnificent weirdness TJ Klune writes next.

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There is something so recognizable about this author's writing that even if you had censored his name from every page, it would still be obvious. I'll leave that upto each reader as to whether or not that's a good thing but in this case it's merely an observation. And thankfully the level of Klune-ness was about.. half of what he is capable of; by which I mean you won't find the extremes of Tales of Verania-level absurdity in this standalone. And it might even be a little toned down from Cerulean Chronicles -- mostly because there's only one precocious otherworldly child to deal with. So it's really a great entry level Klune book to pick up.. especially because it is a standalone.

What also makes this somewhat unique is that this is more of an action-style thrill ride than anything I've experienced before by the author. And those on the ride with you are a terse ex-Marine now current-bodyguard protecting a not-terse precocious and curious ten year old girl who is definitely not your average ten year old and the reluctant accomplice they, well, hold hostage and then sorta but not really kidnap. But all for good reasons. Mostly in order to evade the shadowy government who is chasing said ex-Marine and not-so-average ten year old.

Along the way there are mysteries and revelations and found family and conspiracies and cults and romance and more.

I will say that our POV, the reluctant accomplice, wasn't my favourite character. Artemis, the little girl, really is the star of the show and everything, and everyone, around her is mostly momentum to keep the plot going. But by the time we are nearing the end, and we have ironed out the kinks of the dynamic between all three of these characters, and some have softened up, some have chilled out, well. It's just really lovely. But most of my enjoyment of this one really was more from the story itself than the characters.

I'll admit I did start to lose a little bit of traction around, like, the halfway mark, but Klune brought it home in a big way and I ended up crying. Big surprise, I know, I am a sap. But this gave me a lot of warm and fuzzies and there were some long observational monologues that really did hit hard -- not quite Green Creek level monologing but I guess he was getting warmed up for those. It did though make me nostalgic for said aforementioned series, and not just because it was name dropped!, and the way I felt reading those books. Because I have to say the more recent Klunes haven't been doing it for me. And maybe the reason this did, too, is because it's a rerelease. Or maybe it was just the right time.

If you're already a fan, I won't need to convince you to pick this one up. But for everyone else, especially those who've had good and meh experiences, I think this could end up on the side of good for more people than not. It certainly did for me.

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No one writes characters that worm their way into your heart like T. J. Klune's characters, even when those characters aren't even human. He has a magical way of making even the most fantastical situations seem normal, and creating a world in which humans and nonhumans develop loving, caring relationships. The Bones Beneath My Skin is no exception, and Alex, Nathan and Art will live in my soul for eternity.

This book has a lot more action in it than other books by this author; he actually describes it as an action movie in book form in the author's notes. There is also a fairly explicit MM love scene in it, so readers should be aware if that sort of thing bothers them. If, however, you love reading about found families, healthy loving relationships, and especially if you appreciate a little humor along with a road trip, this is definitely worth the time. For me, it was an unputdownable joyfest that will be one of my top reads of the year, I'm sure.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Books for the digital ARC of The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J.Klune. The opinions in this review are my own.

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Thank you to TOR and TJ Klune for a gifted ARC!

After falling in love with “The House in the Cerulean Sea” and “Under the Whispering Door,” I will read anything TJ Klune writes. So I was beyond ecstatic when I found out he was re-releasing this sci-fi action novel with Stranger Things vibes.

🦴What did you love the most?

The serious tone sets this book apart from Klune's other works. It brings major sci-fi thriller energy with just a touch of romance—perfect for the plot and overall vibe.

Also, the Stranger Things feels totally delivered! I was hooked when Nate arrived at the cabin and met Alex and Artemis. And Artemis using spaghetti western references in every single sentence? Pure gold. 🤠🍝

🦴What to expect:

❤️Light, LGBTQ+ romance elements

🚀Sci-fi action

🕵️‍♂️Secret government agencies

😱Cults with eerie vibes

🦴How was the pace?
Fast-paced with gripping reveals.

🔥Steam level: Open-door scenes

🦴How was the romance?
Not primarily a romance, but there's definite tension between the two MMCs.

🦴Do you recommend this book?
If you love found family tropes, you'll adore Artemis, Alex, and Nate. I may have shed a tear or two—classic Klune with heartfelt, sappy moments near the end. Overall, I loved it and am thrilled he re-released it!

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The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune is a beautifully raw and emotionally gripping story that blends sci-fi, found family, and deep human connection in a way that lingers long after the last page. With Klune’s signature warmth and wit, the novel follows an ex-journalist, a mysterious girl with unimaginable power, and the man protecting her, weaving a tale of love, sacrifice, and what it truly means to belong. The character dynamics are heartfelt and compelling, and the prose is both poignant and immersive. Klune masterfully balances tension, tenderness, and moments of quiet beauty, making this an unforgettable and deeply moving read.

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4.5 ⭐️

This book was such a good read! I had such a hard time putting it down. I’ve been in a reading slump for the past year and this pulled me right out of it.

The relationship between Artemis and Alex was beautiful - add Nate in there and you have such a powerful dynamic. At the beginning of the story, I had such a hard time guessing where it was leading - I kept thinking she was going to be a robot/AI that became smart.

One thing I didn’t like is that the author sometimes tells you something is coming right before it happens which I found took away from the suspense.

Overall, great read and I HIGHLY recommend it!!

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The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J. Klune
Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫
4.5 (rounded up due to the rule of halves!)


T.J. Klune has a way of writing stories that highlight the depth of human spirit, connection etc…
Found family is one of my favorite tropes and this one hits hard. ❤️

This tale has two MMC’s, Nate and Alex, and the FMC Artemis Darth Vader. (You’ll have to read the novel to understand 😂) Nate and Alex are complete polar opposites and Art (Artemis,) is the magnet that pulls them together. She is the glue of the dynamic and the dynamic is beautiful. Art is written so, so well. She is infinitely wise and philosophical yet quirky and unintentionally hilarious.

There is just enough science fiction to classify this as a Sci-Fi novel but that doesn’t negatively impact the story and it is most definitely a romance. The environment and adventure are so vivid and enable the reader to feel like they are right there on this road trip with them. The real bones ( 😉) of this novel is the character development and relationships. T.J. really touches on human emotion, compassion and acceptance. I wouldn’t really say the first half of this book are slow but the second half is where the pacing really picks up. I was run through a gambit of emotions and along the journey I realized I was going to have my heart broken. Yes, this book brought tears to my eyes and had me to the point where I didn’t want to finish because I knew I was about to be destroyed.

If you’re looking for a sci-fi (lightly,) romance that plays either your emotions and has you deeply pondering the depth that human that are possible, this is the novel for you.
I’m forever a fan of T.J. Klune.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

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Part "Stranger Things," part "The Last of Us," and ALL of TJ Klune's ability to squeeze my heart, this book is a delightful departure from his most recent novels. Or maybe I should say that his most recent novels are the departure since this one was originally published in 2018! Either way, I'm so glad "The Bones Beneath our Skin" is getting the rerelease it deserves. A big thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the ARC!

Featuring sci-fi action, a high-stakes road trip, the sweetest chosen family, and a heartfelt queer romance, this story asks us to think on what really makes us human. Love, acceptance, bravery, grief, and heartbreak all make an appearance. Oh, and BACON! Lots of bacon!! As I was reading this book, I told my husband, "It feels like going home." Because that's what TJ Klune books are to me...a safe space that's familiar, loving, and always kind.

I fell hard for Alex, Nate, and Artemis Darth Vader (best name ever BTW). Their witty banter and loyalty had me from the start. I felt all the feels watching them open their hearts towards each other as they became a family. My only nit is that some scenes, especially around the 70% mark, felt longer than they needed to be. The rest of the book is very fast-paced in comparison. But that also meant I spent more time with the delightful characters, so it's a small nit!

If you're down for an adventure that will make you laugh, cry, and consider the ways we're all very much alike even though we may come from different places, then THIS is the book for you!

A note...this novel features more adult content compared to, say, the Cerulean Sea Chronicles. I only bring it up in case those are the TJ Klune books you're familiar with! I'm here for all of the adult vibes, but could see the depictions of violence, strong language, or spicy bits catching certain readers off-guard ❤️

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Yup, it's definitely a weird one as Klune puts it in his author's note at the end of the book which is a republication after he hit it out of the park with Cerulean.

Nate is traveling to a cabin in the woods as a last ditch effort to figure out things after his parents die and leave the cabin to him. Except when he gets there, it's already inhabited and he's thrown into an awkward situation with a young girl (Artemis Darth Vader) and her person (protector, relative, companion, question mark) Alex. The situation is definitely... different. The girl has powers or abilities and there's some cultish activities. Who is looking for them? Or are they looking for someone?

It's all a pile of mystery to unravel as the story goes on focused on the interactions of these individuals. It's curious and I don't know how to feel about it.

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