Azul de Arroyo can bring back the dead, whether it's animals or 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. On top of that, she has conflicted feelings for Lord Death's Emmisary Enjul.

This is the first book in a fantasy duology. The characters all had different agendas, and the court intrigue kept most of them on their toes. Religion and the role of god in the lives of people is a central question, as well as the lengths people will go to for love. The large cast of characters and side plots means that it was difficult at times to keep track of where people were or what was going on. It was harder to connect to characters, and the romance between Azul and Enjul didn't have a convincing relationship. There are multiple POV's and a shifting timeline, which adds to some of the confusion I had while reading it.

I wanted so badly to fall in love with Mistress of Bones. Necromancy, gods, a grieving sister, a deadly island, and a magic system rooted in bones and sacrifice, this book had a premise that absolutely screamed my name. It promised high stakes, dark fantasy, lush worldbuilding, and emotionally complex characters. And in many ways, it delivered. The prose is gorgeously atmospheric, the worldbuilding creative and haunting, and the themes of sisterhood, death, and defying divine powers were exactly what I crave in fantasy, but the execution left me struggling — and often, frustrated.

The story constantly shifted between multiple timelines and POVs, and rather than deepening my immersion, these jumps pulled me out of the story again and again. Every time I put the book down, it felt like I had to fight my way back in. I'd have to flip back to figure out where I was, whose perspective I was reading, and how it all tied together. That disjointed structure made it really difficult to form emotional connections with the characters — especially Azul, who I wanted to root for. For someone who reads for character first, this was a big hurdle.

The "days earlier" chapters in particular broke the momentum, and I think the book would've benefited from establishing those relationships before everything fell apart. That emotional groundwork was missing, and it left some of the deaths and plot reveals feeling hollow instead of heartbreaking.

I also think the book was juggling too many perspectives too soon. With so many voices and so little grounding, it became hard to invest in any one storyline. Azul, who should’ve anchored the story, often felt emotionally immature and hard to pin down. Nereida was one of the more compelling characters, but we didn’t see nearly enough of her. And while the concept of bone magic was undeniably cool and the Spanish-inspired mythos refreshing, the lack of clarity and cohesion kept me from truly appreciating it (which is fully my fault, I could’ve done a bit of research to have a better understanding).

There were glimmers of brilliance — scenes that gave me chills, ideas that I’ll remember, moments where I saw the story's potential shine through. And despite my overall disconnect, I’m still curious to see where the sequel might take things. Maybe this is a duology that makes more sense in hindsight.

At the end of the day, reading is subjective. This one didn’t quite land for me, but I can absolutely see it working for readers who enjoy nonlinear narratives, don't mind some confusion, and are drawn to rich, eerie fantasy. I’m still open to trying more from this author in the future.

DNF 30%

I just couldn't get into this one. I couldn't point to a specific problem, but every time I picked it up and tried to read, my brain would just drift to something else. The writing seemed ok, the characters were so-so, but it just didn't do it for me.

I really wanted to be interested in this book - but I just didn't really care. I kept reading because of it being a NG book, but life is short and that isn't enough of a reason to continue to read a book I have no interest in.

“An epic, multi-POV debut fantasy perfect for fans of The Bone Shard Daughter and Six of Crows, where a necromancer trying to resurrect her sister gets embroiled in bigger, world-ending plans instead.”

I kind of went into this book blind, knowing nothing really about it except that the cover was really cool and it was about necromancy. While I wanted a little more from the story, overall I really enjoyed it. And I really enjoyed the romance between the two main characters.
Considering this is a debut book by the author I am excited to see what else she comes up with in the future!

A very special Thank You to NetGalley, Wednesday Books, and the author for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Mistress of Bones is an ambitious, multi-POV fantasy that blends necromancy, political intrigue, and god-level stakes into a dark, atmospheric debut. The premise is instantly gripping—Azul del Arroyo’s quest to reclaim her sister’s bones from Death himself is both personal and epic, and Medina builds a vivid world where bones hold power and the gods’ sacrifices still shape the land. The lore, with its bone-bound continents and dream-selling witches, is imaginative and layered, offering readers plenty to sink into.

However, the story’s scope can sometimes work against it. With multiple POVs, shifting alliances, and a sprawling cast, it’s easy to feel unmoored, especially in the early chapters. Some character arcs are compelling—Azul’s grief-driven determination and the tension with the Emissary of Death stand out—but others feel underdeveloped or overshadowed by the sheer volume of plot threads. The pacing can also be uneven, alternating between breathless, action-heavy moments and slower, more meandering passages that diffuse the tension.

Despite these drawbacks, Medina’s prose is rich and evocative, and when the narrative focuses on its core emotional beats, it shines. The themes of love, loss, and defiance against divine authority are potent, and the ending sets the stage for a high-stakes continuation. Mistress of Bones may not fully realize its grand ambitions in this first installment, but it offers enough intrigue, worldbuilding depth, and flashes of emotional resonance to entice readers back for the second half of the duology.

Wow, this was such a surprise? I honestly think this book is being done a disservice by being marketed as romantasy, because it's really a dark, gothic, political fantasy with necromancy at its core.

This book was like a twisted revenge story. Where you might read a character seeking revenge on their sister's killer, this book took it a step further by introducing a necromancer seeking revenge on death itself. Of course, the god of death isn't going to let a young girl take something that's rightfully his, so he sends his emissary to hunt her and escort her back to his realm for punishment. I absolutely loved this premise and could not put this book down.

Mistress of Bones has some of the best world-building I've seen in a YA fantasy. The world is rich with religion, politics, and culture. The conventions of the world are consistent in a way that makes it feel lived-in and immersive. There's a heavy focus on religion as the people in the world worship different gods, and the gods almost have an all-encompassing power here, even above monarchy and nobility. There's very much a mythical, mystical, ancient lore vibe to the whole world that was such a breath of fresh air.

I don't even have to mention how unique and genuinely cool it is that the world was built on top of the gods' bones? Over an endless void? C'mon. It's not just for appearances either, it matters to the story. Each region has differing opinions on the bones (called Anchor), how it should be used and respected. Some cultures proudly mine and display their Anchor as a sign of wealth, while other cultures think it's disrespectful to even touch it. So in-depth and totally not what I was expecting from a YA fantasy.

The book heavily focuses on the political machinations of the world, and if you're a fan of court politics, the intrigue here is no joke. Every character is motivated by their own goals and schemes, and the author plays with perspective shifting in a fresh way by moving fluidly through different moments in time to paint a full picture of how everything is colliding. It creates a cat-and-mouse, snowball effect vibe that's truly addicting to read.

My one complaint is that the characters, while they felt nuanced and morally ambiguous, lacked personality. They all tended to blend into one another, which made it more difficult to keep track of the differing perspectives and time jumps. While it's easy to understand their motivations and personalities on an intellectual level, there was a lack of emotion from each character that made the hard-hitting scenes not so hard-hitting.

That being said, this complaint is minor because the world-building and political intrigue really buoyed this story. While I didn't feel fully connected to the characters, I was happy to go along with them to discover more about the world and the people in it. The build-up and tidal wave of the ending was an exhilarating experience, and I'm kinda kicking myself for reading this so early because now I have to wait for the next one.

This wasn’t what I was expecting. There are several POVs, and at first the characters don’t seem to fit together at all. Then, by the end, they’e connected, but there are also some time jumps that are inconsistent and scattered throughout the story. In the same chapter, it will be something like “nine months earlier” and then switch to the present. And a couple chapters later, something like “a year and a half earlier” and then back to the present. The world was also pretty confusing to me for the whole first half.

I didn’t feel like Azul was a character we could connect with. She had no ambition or drive other than bringing her sister back to life; she was obsessed. I liked Enjul, even though he was staunch in his beliefs and immovable, but I felt like there was more to him. The Witch seemed like a pointless character with no motive other than to cause chaos.

There’s basically a cliffhanger, and I’m not sure I’ll be reading the next one, although it got more interesting by the end.

This book had a lot going for it. Necromancy, Death gods, Azul doing whatever necessary to bring her sister back from the dead, and the Emmisary of Lord Death, who was an intriguing and confusing character.
All of these things worked for me. The atmosphere was great, and I thought Azul and Enjul especially had a lot of potential. However, there are a lot of POV's and timeline shifts that took me out of the story, and had me wondering how these were fit within what was currently going on. I don't think I ever figured some of them out. It also made me feel a bit lost within the story. So pay attention to the chapter headers that tell you whose POV you're in,
Overall, though, I am intrigued by what was going on within the story. Mostly with Azul and Enjul. And a couple of the side characters. We get a couple of good twists towards the end, one I knew was coming, but the other was a surprise, and I am very interested to know where the story is going to go from here.

After reading other reviews of this book and the first chapter, I just know I will not like this book. Thank you to St Martins Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

This book made me mentally check out as soon as I had trouble pronouncing any of the names or locations. There was definitely potential with the whole gods and, bringing people back to life aspect and there's also a decent mystery/twist that you don't see coming. If you have the brain capacity to power through the world building, you'd definitely enjoy this more than I did.

The premise of this absolutely had me so excited for this book; it was admittedly not up to what I had imagined, and I feel like this is a wonderful idea with not as wonderful of an execution! The main character was a bit uninteresting, and I wasn't very invested in the storyline.

Mistress of Bones had all the makings of a story I should have adored—dark magic, tangled family secrets, and a haunting premise that hinted at grief and legacy. Unfortunately, the execution left me feeling more detached than intrigued.

The structure was the biggest hurdle. The constant time jumps and "X days earlier" chapters kept pulling me out of the story rather than deepening it. Instead of adding layers, they muddled the emotional momentum and made it harder to connect with what was happening now. I think I would’ve cared more—felt more—if the story had started with the relationships and built toward the fallout.

I also struggled to connect with the characters. Azul is supposed to be 19, but often read much younger, and while I was curious about Nereida, she felt more like a background shadow than a fully realized person. With so many POVs and not enough grounding early on, I never found myself rooting for anyone in particular. That emotional buy-in just never came, which made the stakes feel low even when the plot said otherwise.

There were moments of promise here—the atmosphere is eerie in the right ways, and there’s a distinct voice trying to emerge from the fog. But ultimately, the pacing dragged, and I kept finding excuses to do other things instead of picking the book back up.

This one wasn’t for me, but I hope others find the magic in it I was hoping for. 2.5/5 stars

The idea for this book was really enticing---I was excited to see how this grand premise played out. Unfortunately, while the premise was great, the execution was not. I think this book would have benefitted from a more explosive beginning, as I just didn't feel hooked by the beginning of this book. This was also an instance where the shifting POVs (past and present, and too many characters) just destroyed any immersion I had in the story. The characters felt really young for who this book was aimed at, the plot was disjointed/the POVs didn't really work, and the pacing therefore just felt messy.
Overall, a great idea for a book but lackluster execution. I would like to read something else from this author in the future, because this could have just been a fluke and the next work from Medina might be great.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 out of 5 stars)
Mistress of Bones is one of those books that has all the right ingredients- a unique necromancy-based magic system, gods who meddle (or don’t) in mortal lives, a beautifully eerie island setting, and a heroine willing to challenge death itself. It should have been a knockout for me. And while I admired a lot of what it was trying to do, the execution didn’t quite stick the landing.

Azul is a grieving sister with a dangerous mission, and her arc had so much potential. Her interactions with characters like Nereida and Enjul were emotionally charged and full of tension, and the bone magic tied to grief and sacrifice was haunting and original. The Spanish-inspired mythology added a rich layer to the worldbuilding, and I genuinely appreciated the care put into the atmosphere and lore.

That said, the constant POV and timeline shifts made it hard to stay grounded in the story. Just as I’d start getting invested in one thread, I’d be thrown into another, sometimes without enough context to make the transition smooth. As a character-driven reader, that made it tough to fully connect. Some side plots (like Emire De Anvi’s) felt like they took forever to pay off, or got lost entirely in the shuffle.

Still, there’s a lot of promise here. The ideas are gorgeous, and I’m hoping book two brings more clarity and emotional payoff. If you like dark fantasy with big themes about death, divinity, and sacrifice- and don’t mind a nonlinear structure, this might be worth a try. I’m cautiously optimistic for what comes next.

A big thank you o NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | Wednesday Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I was really looking forward to this one — and I feel my expectations might have slightly ruined this book for me. It is also important to note that I read the synopsis back on Eldeweiss, where it didn’t yet mention it’s a multi-pov, so that did throw me off a loop for bit. Not to mention that the book is not only multi-pov, but they also follow multiple plot lines that entwine very little.
That is I believe the book’s biggest issue - it is too messy. The author loves to jump back in time (from two hours to literal years), but many of those jumps and the contents of the flashbacks were completely unnecessary and only caused confusion. There are little characters here who do not get a pov piece, and about 80% of them have a name that starts with “De” making it hard to keep track of who is who.
But for the sake of organisation, the book follows two main plotlines: Azul and her quest to raise her sister from the dead and of the Count De Anvi, who is trying to navigate the cuthroat politics of the court, while being more of a pawn than a real player. And it is to the real detriment to the book that this was this was not communicated better by the promotion. Unfortunately I enjoyed the latter storyline more than the Azul one, I cared very little for the love interest, the Emissary of Death Enjul. I didn’t find him and his calling the main character abomination and refusing to think of her as human particularly compelling, didn’t feel the supposed forbidden attraction those two were supposed to have. He also spends most of the book sitting on his ass and brooding, and then is like “I knew about everything all along”
And then there is the ending… which makes the entirety of the 336 pages a waste of time as we end up in the exact same spot that we started with only slight improvements I won’t spoil to you, but it looks like to read what this book was supposed to be, you actually have to wait for the sequel.
The author has created a super interesting world with intriguing world building and politics and has even introduced some compelling characters. I only wish she set out to write a book, rather than one long prologue where everything is set up and nothing is resolved.

I am going to say 3.5⭐️ on this one (rounded up for NetGalley of course).

The premise was so good and sounded promising. I’m obsessed with the cover art and character art. Azul is a necromancer who can raise the dead using bones. She and the God of Death become tied up in a shared mission. Overall I just didn’t feel super drawn into the story. I had both the ALC and a digital arc. The audiobook narration is well done and enjoyable. I found myself needing to switch to the kindle edition though to better track the timeline switches and POVs.

This book had good writing, but the story just left me wanting a bit more.

Thank you to Wednesday Books for the e-arc and the author for the ALC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 4/5
I received an ARC for my honest opinion

At first, I wasn’t sure if I would like this book, and since I received the audio, I thought I might like it a little more if I followed along, and I am so happy that I didn’t DNF this book because it was so interesting. I love that the author draws you into this rich world-building, with court politics, gods and people always trying to use others to further their own gains. The pace of the book was a little slow at first for me but then it picked up and didn’t slow down. I love that I got to understand the characters and you will see character development throughout the book but mainly at the end and all while we got to understand where the plot was going, and the who, what and why it is happening.

I thought that this book would be a romantasy, but really in my eyes it wasn’t, and I know that a few others have said the same thing. However, let me tell you this is an amazing fantasy book with a small amount of romance in it. I loved that all the characters were well written and had depth for each of them. The banter between the characters had me laughing and you see that two characters, even with their differences and opinions, have chemistry but the banter and the who can get away with what had me smiling. You will see characters that have interweaving plots going with the main plot and I thought the author did a great job with handling all the different stories that all center around Azul. Flashbacks in the story helped me to understand why each character was reflecting on the choices and reasons that brought them to the point in their life. I won’t lie and say that a few times I did great, a little confused on what was going on, but I just read the page again and it helped me to get my spot right back on track. I loved the twists and turns that the plot took and at times I thought that I had it all down then to have it switched up on me.

The audio was narrated by Ana Osorio, and I thought she did a fantastic job bringing these characters to life and helping the reader to understand the rich depth of this book. I can’t wait to read the next book or even the audio of it.

I want to thank NetGalley and SMP for the opportunity to review this book.

Necromancers, emissaries of Death, political maneuverings... all of these are elements that draw me into a story. Mistress of Bones has them all in spades. And yet, at the end of this first book of a duology, I came away feeling as if I hardly knew any of the characters beyond their basic motivation (if even that, in some cases). There are far more questions than answers at the end (as cliffhangers tend to have), which is not necessarily a negative thing. In this case, however, so little seemed answered that I left the story feeling more chaotic than I did while in the middle of it.

Azul is a young woman that grew up in a land built on the bones of Gods. All of the lands were, and many of those lands mined the soil for Anchor (remnants of the Gods that gave their lives for humans). Azul is also a young woman with the power to raise the dead. Which is a skill that can lead one to gain many a "friend," and far more enemies. Chief among her enemies is the Emissary to the Lord Death, who is hell bent on learning more about Azul's ability and how he can return death to its' rightful place. Upon an unfortunate incident upon arriving to Valanje, Azul and the Emissary engage in dueling paths back to Sancia, to more questions, more motives, and more secrets.

Told in multiple POVs, with a fair amount of hopping back and forth in the timeline, the story quickly felt muddled. It was a bit difficult to latch onto any one character. And while the land and the backstory of the Gods and Anchor and politics was interesting, we spent more time being told events by people, and not immersed in the world. Which is a bit of a shame because the world and the premise have so much promise and seemed the most interesting thing of all to me.

There is a lot here for fans of intrigue and death and the games that Gods and humans play. But there this one felt as if it could have been so much more. I do not always vote for more books, but so much was packed into this one, that instead of a duology this may have have been better as a trilogy, to give the world and the story and the characters more time to breathe and inhabit the page.

Love the aspect of the FMC being a necromancer, as well as the unique magic system. A bit of difficulty with the back and forth timeline made this a 3 star instead of a 4 star for me. I feel this had the potential to be a higher star if the POVs were easier to figure out.