I am so torn on this one. On the one hand, I read the first half in one sitting. On the other, the second hand was kind of hard to follow.

This is a multi-pov story, and this didn't really work well for me. I adored Azul and the Emissary of Death's storyline, but I wish the book had just stuck with them. I loved the necromancy magic, especially with how chaotic it is in Azul's hand. Plus the push and pull between a necromancer and the religious fool who is her complete opposite but there's a romance brewing there ... it was so entertaining. Meanwhile, the additional storylines with the infant twin and Nereida and the witch--it was too confusing and I still don't understand the significance of much of it.

The narrator also really ruined this book for me. I am deeply sorry to say it but this person is officially my least favourite narrator ever. Her voice annoys me so deeply and it shaded how I listened to this book. But there was also the issue of there being multiple POVs, male and female, but they were all voiced by the same person, which made it super confusing to follow.

I might read the sequel but it will require a re-read of this first.

thank you so much for the approval- i cannot wait to dive in, this is one of my most anticipated reads of the year! i will be sure to leave a review on GR/retailers to come! 💞

I wanted to love it, but I only sort of enjoyed it.

It was kind of hard to follow, and took a lot of focus to really get into the world building. When I finally understood some of what was going on, then I enjoyed it a little more, but it was still not my favorite.

The characters and plot were really interesting and it was pretty easy to connect to. While the book didn't end up hitting all the points I wanted it to with the whole necromancy magic plot and the connection of sisterhood and their dependency on each other. That was kind of upsetting, but at least some was pretty good.

Maria Z. Medina spins an excellent romantasy tale with MISTRESS OF BONES. The plot is both light and sorrowful and entirely different, and all the better for it.

2.25⭐

LIKED:
- The deities and their rule over only specific areas of this world was really interesting. To my understanding, their religions basically overruled any sort of monarchy (that’s being reductive, but still) and that’s always a bit of lore of a story that I find fascinating, especially when they are gods fabricated specifically for whatever story they’re in.
- Azul’s love for her sister against all odds was my favorite part of the story (and frankly the only thing that really compelled me to the plot). I did really want her to be able to succeed in getting her sister back even if what she was doing and how she was doing it was fraught with questionability.
- Variability in necromancy and how necromancy can be weaponized of regulated was intriguing.
- This cover is so absolutely breathtaking, the colors, the composition, the mirroring of the main imagery. It’s truly so captivating and this artist has done an immaculate job. The title is also pretty illustrative of what the book entails, especially with the emphasis on bones.

LAMENTED:
- I do not understand why the chapters and timeline were formulated in the way they were. Why were we sent back in time, like, a few hours earlier at the start of a chapter only to be shot back to the present only a few paragraphs later? And then there would be even more drastic jumps that didn’t seem to add much besides confusion. It was also too many POV shifts without it feeling that any besides Azul had any truly lasting impact (in my opinion).
- There were large swaths to the story where just…nothing happened. I did not feel like the stakes matched the pacing and it made it really difficult to get through the story. If I were not reading an ARC with the expectation of an honest review, I would have DNF-ed due to lack of motivation.
- Unfortunately, I did not care about any of these characters, Azul included. I found a lot of their decisions, or lack thereof, quite frustrating. I didn’t know what a lot of their character motivations and/or goals were within the story besides Azul and maybe Nereida. And even when I did, they felt really flimsy.
- There were word/dialogue choices especially later on in the book that felt really anachronistic in some of their more modern leanings (one that stuck out to me, was a character going “oh damn”. That’s not to say that fantastical characters can’t say “oh damn”, but the way it was utilized felt very modern).
- There is not nearly enough necromancy for a book so centered around it. It is just kind of a fleeting thought most of the time. In the same vein, there is discussion about the gods, but it feels very flippant (especially when the idea of there being more deities than just the Lords Life and Death was broached later on). Azul is supposed to be acting in direct affront to the Lord Death, and that never feels like it has any actual consequences besides Enjul initially going after her (again reductive, but still).
- Lastly, the romance (not that it was necessarily a major draw for the book) was extremely subpar. Even if not a romance, I didn’t get why Azul even cared about Enjul to begin with, even platonically. It needed to be pushed farther in some emotional direction, because I just did not care.

LONGED FOR:
- More endearing characters
- More stakes
- Less jarring time jumps

Will I read the next one? : Of this series? No. From this author? Probably not, but we’ll see.
*Thank you to SMP & NetGalley for providing this ARC!

DNF at about 50%

I was so excited about this read, since if it had a necromancer in it you best believe ill be picking it up! But unfortunately the execution just wasn't there. The beginning didn't hook me, so the entire time I just felt disconnected from the characters. Unfortunately just not for me.

Mistress of Bones is a sweeping, epic YA with some of the coolest world building I've encountered in awhile. Definitely looking forward to the author's next!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

Necromancer Azul del Arroyo only wants one thing: to steal her sister back from Death by reclaiming her sister’s bones. But the Emissary of the Lord Death will do anything to stop her—no matter how alluring he finds her…

I wanted to love this book. The premise is so unique and full of promise—necromancy, sisterly devotion, a mysterious emissary of Death? Yes, please! The world-building was solid, and I genuinely liked the characters. But despite all that, I had a hard time staying engaged with the story.

I listened to the audiobook while reading (which usually helps me stay focused), but I still found myself struggling to get through it. There were definitely moments I enjoyed, and elements that stood out, but overall, it just didn’t quite click for me. The audiobook was well done and the narrator’s did a good job.

Not a bad book by any means—just one that didn’t fully capture me the way I’d hoped. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I don’t want to say that I couldn’t wait for this book to end but I kind of couldn’t want for this book to end.

The multiple time lines was extremely confusing both because of the multiple POVs as because each chapter contained multiple timelines.

The world building was not well explained. There are large chunks of information dumping and it still doesn’t fully make sense with other factors described.

Lastly, there is really no romance. That’s fine but the story is not really described well in the time line. I thought this was going to be an enemies to lovers romance about a necromancer and it really wasn’t. Necromancy is such a minor element in the story.

I wouldn’t continue this if it becomes a series and I likely would not give this author another try any time soon.

⭐️⭐️

3.25 stars
This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and I was left disappointed. It took me a month and a half to read it.
The world building was good and the magic system was really interesting. I enjoyed seeing how bringing bones back to life played out, how it worked, and what happened to the creatures themselves. My main complaint is that there were too many points of view and time jumps. It made it hard to keep the timeline straight and remember who was who. There were too many subplots that distracted from the main storyline.
I didn't like any of the romance aspects, even though they were minimally present. The story would've been better without them being a consideration. Azul and Enjul had such a power imbalance, it was kind of gross that they started to be attracted to each other.
The story started off slow, and then got interesting around 60% with crazy plot twists that were done well and unexpected. I got really into the story at the point and was excited to see how it all played out. Then at 85% it lost its momentum and started jumping all over the place trying to catch the reader up with what had been happening elsewhere. So many points were left unanswered at the end. Nereida made it seem like she wanted her brother back, because she told him he would come back, and then it wasn't him. We don't know what is going to happen with the witch and de Gracia. It seems like it is being set up for a sequel, but I don't think the story is strong enough for that.
I think some restructuring of the storyline progression would make this better, because it had a lot of potential. The concept is interesting and Azul is a great main character. She is strong and has lots of resolve and focus. She was definitely the best part of the story, and I enjoyed seeing her growth and not willing to be walked over.

I really enjoyed the reveal and that it was set up just enough to pick up on but not glaringly obvious. I also enjoyed Azul's character. It was a little hard to keep track of who was who at first. I also wish we'd spent more time with the Emissary even though he was a little delusional. My biggest complaint is that I wish the book had been longer, there was so much build up but everything came together and resolved rather quickly compared to all the setup.

The first chapter had me intrigued, then we kept flipping back to the past which really took me out of the story.
The premise had a lot of potential but it just wasn't working for me.
DNF 14%
arc provided by Netgalley

This one was not for me, it was a bit confusing and didn't peak my interest. I think this story was just not for me.

Unfortunately, this book has broken my streak of correctly guessing plot twists, and I'm trying not to be mad about it because it was definitely guessable in hindsight.


Mistress of Bones has an extremely interesting concept: the gods gave up their bodies to become land for the mortals, but now that the mortals are stealing the remains of those bodies, the gods want to intervene. The worldbuilding was definitely what drew me to this book; one of my favorite microtropes is gods walking among mortals or being directly involved in their lives. And I did like the worldbuilding in this novel, but sometimes it wasn't executed well (it's never clear exactly what the "Anchors" are in terms of visual imagery), and I think the story would've benefited from a map and/or a dramatis personae. I really needed a dramatis personae given how many characters are involved and how many of them disappear for chapters and are easily forgotten.

Azul's sister is a walking corpse, and Azul is the only thing keeping her alive. When Azul's sister suddenly dies again, Azul is prevented from bringing her back by the Emissary of Death. He proposes a deal: she will help him find the other necromancer causing issues around the world, and in exchange, she will be allowed to raise her sister from the dead once more. As much as I liked the idea for this story, I think there were some issues in the execution. Almost every chapter has a past and a present section, which can make it difficult to keep track of the timelines, especially because the past sections don't occur in chronological order either. I think these sections might've worked better as simple flashbacks, but as it stands, they break up the flow of the plot. The second half of the story was definitely more interesting than the first. It takes about 40% or so to establish the stakes, goals, and direction of the plot. I liked the twists toward the end, and I think this book introduces some interesting premises for a sequel, but the pacing was a bit inconsistent, and I think it took too long to get into the main action of the storyline.

I also struggled to connect to the characters, and looking at other reviews, this seems to be a common issue. Azul is fine as a protagonist - I've read about the necromancer sister trope a handful of times, and it's one of my favorites - but she's very impulsive, and it took almost 80% of the book before I was truly rooting for her. Enjul was very intriguing, but he wasn't in half the chapters, and we only spent a handful of pages in his POV, so his internal motivations are a bit vague at times, and I think he just needed more page time. Nereida was interesting too, but suffered the same issue as Enjul, whereas Count de Anvi was similar to Azul in that he had a lot of page time, but I found him pretty boring and didn't completely understand his relevance to the main plot. There were a lot of other random characters, none of which I paid too much attention to because half of them disappeared after a few chapters, but that proved to be my downfall when I missed the main plot twist.

Mistress of Bones is a YA fantasy featuring minimal romance, an interesting cast of characters, complex and unique worldbuilding, and a mystery plot with hints of court intrigue. I would recommend it to fans of Tara Sim's City of Dusk.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the free e-ARC!

3.25/5

The premise of Mistress of Bones had me so intrigued, but the pacing and plot left a lot to be desired. So bummed!

Mistress of Bones is an impressive debut, but I am not completely sold on it. I really enjoyed the writing style, which reminded me of somewhat Leigh Bardugo, so I am very interested to see Medina improve. The pacing and the plot however: there was so much going on that it felt like nothing was going on, and it became a very anticlimactic story overall. For the characters I would say I am invested in them, but not connected. We got MANY points of views, mainly Azul's, but they came at random and constantly shifted timelines.

I think this series (I am assuming it's a series with that epilogue) has a lot of potential to grow, and I will be ordering it for my library, but I just wish this first book had been a bit simpler.

Just finished reading this and part of me loves this concept so much because I've been playing the Dragon Age games!! The necromancy, ancient secrets, and a gothic scenery give this book such a unique touch, as well as moments of tension that do frame the development of the story very well. Even though I felt as the pacing was a bit slow at times, the world-building and aspects of dark fantasy did wrap me into every chapter.

3.5 stars rounded up.

This story has one of the most unique plots and premise that I have read in a long-time. Azul del Arroyo can bring people back from the dead--so long as she has their bones. When she travels with her beloved sister, Isadora, to the land of Lord Death, the sister she once brought back to life is once again claimed by death when reaching the shores. But no bones mark the place where Isadora ceased to exist, and Azul is desperate to return home to her sister's bones and raise her once more. But Death does not like when what is his, is taken. When Lord Death's Emmisary Virel Enjul, is sent to investigate the mysterious death and suspects that Azul is the source of the strange scene blemishing his Lord's land. Enjul is determined to keep Azul away from bones, to stop her from using her gifts, and to stop any others that may defy the will of his Gods.


I wish I could give this a higher rating, but the story struggled from time shifts that were at variable intervals, and POVs that did not align with any particular time or place related to the current action (that I could perceive). The opening is heavy from info dumping of names and surnames that eventually matter to the story. But, the overwhelming amount of telling during the opening makes it hard to discern which characters matter and *when*. The overall plot is comprised of the weaving together of different times and perspectives that ultimately time back and build on the opening of the story. It was a well thought out fantasy, with an intriguing world and set of characters, a half blink of romance, and much more focus on family and friendships. I plan to read the second book as the last third of the story did push me to wanting to know how our myriad cast of characters moves forward from where we leave them.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. While the premise sounded incredibly interesting and unique, the execution wasn’t my favourite. The pacing and the multiple time periods became confusing and challenging to read at times. Overall, the characters, world building and storyline just ended up falling flat for me.

Azul de Arroyo discovered an ability to bring back the dead at a young age, starting with animals, and eventually her fourteen year old sister who died from an illness. When Azul and Isadora travel to a new place, that is imbued with the presence of Lord Death, Azul loses her sister again. Azul is determined to bring Isadora back, but she is confronted by one of Lord Death's Emmisaries who is out to stop her at all costs. Now Azul is caught up in a world she wasn't expecting and facing betrayals and secrets, as well as conflicted feelings for Lord Death's Emmisary, Enjul.

Mistress of Bones is the first book in a fantasy duology. The premise of the book really grabbed my interest with the combination of a young necromancer, the acts of the gods, a faceless witch, and romance. I really enjoyed the different agendas that all of the characters had, and it kept the story interesting. The court politics and scheming also brought great tension to the story.

I didn't find myself as invested in Azul's character, as much as other female characters in fantasy books, but I loved the power that she possessed and that she just wanted to be able to use it to bring back her loved one. And I think one of the reasons I had a harder time with this story, was because I felt like I didn't connect with any of the characters. There seemed to be too many and too much going on, that left me feeling like I just wasn't getting enough depth from the story. The romance between Azul and Enjul seemed to start out with the promise of a great slow burn, and then just fizzled, leaving me disappointed in their relationship. There also seemed to be a lot of side plots that didn't add anything to the main story for me, and there were too many unanswered questions with the world building by the time I reached the cliffhanger at the end of the book.

I think Mistress of Bones has a great underlying storyline and could definitely appeal to readers who enjoy multiple POV/timeline fantasy, with magic, gods, romance, questionable characters, and secrets and betrayals.