I have found that I am not really into necromancy so my rating is based on my enjoyment of the book rather than the books writing style and plot. I feel the author did an amazing job at weaving this story but it just wasn't a book I was interested in.

DNF

I wanted to love this one. It sounded promising, the marketing convinced me, and the synopsis interested me since I love necromancy in fantasy novels. But everything about this just fell short.

The writing style confused me, to say the least. There were all these different descriptions without actually explaining what the place and/or thing really was, the scenes kept changing from past to present in an unclear way, and I honestly just didn't care for the characters.

It took me 8 days to get 15% in. That is very abnormal for me, but I couldn't for the life of me become engaged.

I hope others love this one more than me though!

I was so excited for this title but I struggled to get through it. It felt like there were too many characters and the time shifts felt excessive and disruptive to the story flow. I assumed the MC would use her powers far more than she did and it felt like she was just going in circles for the entire book. Although it was a cool idea the story the story had poor implementation. Not for me. 2.5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc

DNF @ 50% 7/16/25

I'm trying to stop pushing through nonsense for the sake of an arc. Unfortunately this didnt work for me at any point of the story. I've been anticipating this one for a few months after seeing the cover so it hurts that we finally get a necromancer story and it's borderline unreadable.

- dialogue was choppy and repetitive

- multiple povs that made no sense to the core arc the story was attempting to follow. Almost all of the characters with a pov apart from the fmc Azul were unnecessary and did nothing but confuse the story further. Calling this a multi pov epic and comparing it to Six of Crows is not only incorrect but misleading.

- time jumps that went every direction but sideways and had no rhyme or reason. One chapter will be 9 years ago with a present day follow up, the next will be a different pov "some years ago", the next will be 9 months ago, the following 3 days later. Like what is the timeline here?

-I can't speak on the romance aspect since it hadn't occurred at the point in which I stopped, but if it's between the characters I think, I can tell it wouldn't have made sense.

I think this book needs more than a few more passes of editing before published and it's sort of crazy that it's coming out in 3 weeks in this state. It's almost unreadable and the part of it that I was able to follow didn't make much sense. I would be willing to read this if the flow of the story was better but right now it's a no from me.

I received an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Wednesday Books!

I think this book has a very interesting premise and had my excitement building when I first started but unfortunately the execution was muddled with the amount of character povs which made it really difficult to form any sort of connection with the characters. If you’re looking for plot focused fantasy, this might be a book worth exploring but I was expecting more romance based off the synopsis and was disappointed when there was not much delivery on this front.

2.5 stars

I'm... confused.

The premise of this book was so good, I honestly believed I would love this. A girl who can resurrect dead bodies, and the Emissary of the Lord of Death who would do anything to stop her? Sign me up! Then, I started reading it and found it super boring. I lost count of the times I zoned out while reading, even removing any and all distractions.

I'm honestly confused where it went wrong. The magic system is intriguing, the synopsis caught my eye. What, then? Was it the ample cast of POVs? I'm usually drawn to those. Was it the too-long inner monologues? I tend to prefer monologues to dialogue-driven books. As bad as it sounds, I think the reasons wound up being the writing, which was flat and did not elicit a single feeling in me; the main character, who I did not believe for a second was 19; and the pace, it was too fast and too slow at the same time. And while I generally enjoy a big cast of POVs, I was very confused by some of them. Nereida was by far the most interesting character, but she was barely in the book. The Count? I still don't understand his role.

So many plot twists didn't hit as hard as they should have, because I simply didn't care about the story to find them as impactful as they intended. In all honesty, I wouldn't be able to explain the plot to a stranger, and I don't know whether that's because the author did a bad job at illustrating it, or it's due to being distracted the whole time.

While the magic system is fascinating, however it's not enough to make me rate Mistress of Bones more than 2.5 stars. I'm very upset by this, because it had all the cards to be an enthralling read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Wednesday Books for an advanced copy.

I have to be honest. This book just wasn’t for me. It had so much potential but the multiple POVs and time jumps just made it muddled and hard to follow. The story felt like it got lost. I immersively read this book with the audiobook and still felt bored. I just couldn’t get into it. The audiobook was narrated by and I struggled with the voicing of Azul the main character. For some reason it felt like she sounded like a child and Azul is supposed to be 19. I’m sure people will love this book I just couldn’t get into it.

Love the rich, authorial tone. Azul is a thoroughly endearing necromancer, and the whole world feels immediately complex and expansive. This and the multiple timelines within each chapter invite the reader to pay close attention to every detail, and I enjoyed the intrigue built through this experience. However at nearly half-way in, I'm still not sure what is driving the story, beyond immediate circumstances. I'll have to return to this story another time and see if I can follow it more easily with fresh eyes.

DNF at 50%.

I loved the premise of this but not the execution. The word "purview" being used more than once in the first chapter was what tipped me off that this might not be for me but I dnfed because it just did not improve for me.

This book surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. It’s very action packed with lots of secrets and betrayals happening. The magic system felt new and centers with necromancy magic. I loved how loyal Azul was to her sister and the whole quest she goes on is centered around that loyalty and love. Really hope there’s going to be a book 2.

1.5 ⭐️

DNF @ 45% ~

Yeah I tried to get through this one but it was impossible. This books synopsis makes it seem really promising but it did not deliver. I couldn’t stand how every single chapter started with a flashback ??? Like I understand the purpose but it was to the extremeeeee. Also hated every single character in this book LOL.

Thank you to NetGalley and SMP for sending me a free copy of this book to review!!

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC.

1.5 stars

I really wanted to love Mistress of Bones, as the premise seemed really intriguing. The taglines comparing it to Bone Shard Daughter had piqued my interest (never mind that I have issues with that series for other reasons) as well as the necromancy. Maria Medina's prose is quite lyrical and I felt it had promise from the start. However, my opinion of Mistress of Bones quickly soured.

From the get-go we are introduced to the main way the story is told: flashbacks in every single chapter. This is fine every now and then to help establish the plot as well as the world, but every. single. chapter. started with a flashback with seemingly irrelevant characters that did not link back to the present story at all until the last 10% of the novel. Not only that but they were disconcerting and constantly mucked up the flow of the original story, I never had time to immerse myself in the present, but had to focus instead on lackluster worldbuilding that honestly made me a little grossed out with how many characters were pining after others seemingly on their appearance alone.

Granted the tags do advertise Mistress of Bones as a romance but it's really not. Instead the romance was half baked at best, but primarily the romance appeared to be infatuation that led to some really not okay actions aka buying drugs to keep you dreaming about someone that a character danced with only once. That's not romantic, that's just creepy and primarily should be left to teenagers not grown ass men.

Our main character Azul, also had a half baked romance that had her following in love with someone that she a) barely knew even though she spent most of the book in their company, b) felt kind of gross how it ended up in the end of the story as it technically became necrophilia in a way, and c) just didn't work out for me despite the fact that our character was 19 because d) for some reason Azul felt like she was written to be 13 years old. Despite reassurances of her age, Azul felt way more naive than any 19 year old had any right to be though I do appreciate her inability to play the game that 30 year old men involved her in. Personality wise, she was raised in too much of a sheltered environment to handle the politics of the city.

Another thing that irked me about Mistress of Bones was how little I cared for the story. Due to the unnecessary flashbacks, the plot went all over the place and felt either rushed or like it came out of nowhere due to the lack of foreshadowing and finesse that Medina was unable to employ in the novel. I kept wondering what was the point of the story and characters tagging along with Azul as nothing was ever explained in a satisfactory way. Following that, Medina bit off more than they could chew with the unnecessary amount of POVs. Mistress of Bones could have had a much more solid foundation if we only followed one perspective, had a few flashbacks interspersed as intermissions between parts, and if more time was spent on showing not telling. Like I said earlier, Medina's prose is excellent, however they seem to not understand what constitutes a story beyond pretty words.

Nothing flowed smoothly in Mistress of Bones. Towards the end of the novel when the big reveals were happening, I couldn't care less. Azul's relationships were barely explored and she seemed to be too trusting of people she just met. I also felt that Azul's understanding of not only the world and her power felt too low level for her age. As I said before, she felt like she was written as a 13 year old which would have matched her depth of knowledge. For that alone I spent most of my time rolling my eyes at the convenience of her stupidity allowing things to pass under her nose. This led to a very unsatisfying reveal due to the lackluster foundation. The thing that gets me is that someone still thought this hot mess was worth publishing in its current state, when Medina needs to sit down and get some tutoring or lessons or SOMETHING in how to write a plot that doesn't meander like it does and to just focus on one thing at a time.

i want to start off by saying, i only read 80% of this book before i finally just gave up. i really struggled with this and for some reason found it very disjointed and confusing. it didn’t seem to flow well at all for me. i was very excited for this based off of the description, but the execution was a total fail in my opinion. it was just messy and i kept having to go back and reread because i was confused.

This was such a cool premise for a book, but it just didn’t deliver like I had hoped.

Brace yourself for a lot of info dumping and a slower pace. To me the romance was lackluster and superficial with more of a physical appreciation than true attraction. It’s definitely a slow burn. I found myself slogging through the multiple POVs and timeline changes and it left me more confused than anything most of the time. This book pulled me in so many directions and I think more time spent editing and streamlining the story a little more would have done wonders for it.

That being said, I did find the world and magic system to be really cool even if it wasn’t executed as well as I had hoped. I think necromancer storylines are awesome and I love when it’s the character is from a more inconspicuous background that comes with the world changing powers. And when it’s the FMC who’s got the powers? Yes, please! The concept of the gods and how they oversee things was also really interesting. I also liked the sisterhood aspect and how devoted Azul was to her sister and bringing her back and the concept of how Azul used bones to do so was really cool. The action and fight scenes were fun too.

Overall this book was okay, but I think another round of edits could’ve truly made it shine as it truly is a unique concept that just needed a little reorganizing and polishing.

DNF around 30%. I think the premise is super unique and definitely piqued my interest. Unfortunately, it the execution ended up not necessarily being my cup of tea. I think there is definitely an audience out there for this and the author had very strong bones for this story. If Mistress of Bones sounds like something you'd enjoy or you also find the story to have potential, definitely give it a try!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, NetGalley, and the author for sending me an early copy.

thank you NetGalley for the ARC!
Sadly, I DNF'd this at 30%. The premise was good, I just couldn't get into it.
The info dumping and multiple point of views / going back and forth in time made it had to really immerse myself in the story.

Mistress of Bones
by Maria Z. Medina
YA Fantasy
NetGalley eARC
Pub Date: Aug 5, 2025
St. Martin's Press/Wednesday Books
Ages: 14+

Upon stepping onto a new land, Azul's sister crumbled into dust. Determined to bring her back again, Azul will do anything to get back to the city where her bones lie.

It is the Emissary of the Lord Death's duty to stop her, to capture her, and to study her.

Thinking she'd escaped him, she searches for her sister's bones, taking refuge in her brother's home. A nobleman, her mother (a surrogate mother), birthed for that family.

The Emissary caught up with her. Discovering that someone else was waking the dead, she agrees to help find the person.


This was an okay story, but it wasn't as action-packed or attention-grabbing as I was hoping. The world was interesting, as was Azul's gift (power). But in a way, I thought the Emissary was more interesting than Azul. He was a very well-developed character for.... spoiler... Azul's character was also developed, but something was missing, what, I don't know. I do know that some of the rambling could have been taken out.

As for the ending... I wasn't expecting … spoiler, but I was expecting... spoiler and spoiler...

There is violence, (no, not swashbuckling) and a touch of romance, but it didn't even get that far so I think this is suitable for readers fourteen and older.

The book cover is cool, though it makes it seem as if there's more to the book, and that's the same with the title. Yes, bones come into play, but I don't feel that it matches her character. Maybe the title of the next book will better suit her character, which I may read.

A low...

3 Stars

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, at 40% in, I'm going to DNF. The premise sounded amazing, a necromancer trying to bring her sister back from the dead? Sign me up! Unfortunately, the execution just isn't going well at all. We don't really get a lot of character development from any of the characters in the book so far. With the sister, you would think that there would be more background laid out for her to form a connection, making you really want to root for Azul to accomplish her task. However, not much is provided. The story is also drawn out with different POVs, bouncing around past to present, which do not come together well. I found my mind starting to wander while reading this. I think it definitely could do with a thorough editing to keep the reader more engaged.

Thanks to NetGalley & St. Martin’s Press for the arc!

**2.5 stars** Sadly, this was another case of interesting premise, but mediocre execution. There were many times I wanted to DNF, but I pushed through—not because it was terrible, but because it had just enough to keep me going.

We follow Azul del Arroyo, a female necromancer seeking to retrieve her late sister’s bones from Death in order to revive her. However, her unethical plan is interrupted by the emissary of Lord Death. After a brief encounter, the two find themselves entangled in unusual circumstances alongside a count, a faceless witch, and a long-lost brother. As they spend more time together, the emissary develops a reluctant attraction to Azul, all while the fate of the land hangs by a thread. With secrets revealed and traitors emerging, the two must work together to save humanity.

Starting with the good things, I really liked the writing style. Story had a rich setting and the prose fit perfectly with the book’s dark, atmospheric vibe. I enjoyed the budding attraction between Azul and the emissary and that basically became the only thing I rooted for in this entire book. I had to push through the beginning because I was bored to tears but since the story is told in multi-POV, things finally picked up once three of the characters’ storylines converged—around the 52% mark.

That said, the story was often hard to follow. Aside from Azul and the emissary, it was difficult to discern what each character's main objective was. One POV in particular was especially boring. As a visual reader, I found the writing hard to imagine clearly—the tone felt quite flat and monotone. There were also time jumps that didn’t add much and felt largely unnecessary. While this book is the first in a duology, it wraps up so cleanly that it reads more like a standalone.

I really wanted to like this especially because the cover is beautiful but sadly it was a disappointing read.

Had to dnf this one. Such promise too but then it turned into a slog that I couldn’t bring myself to get through. Way too many characters introduced without enough back story. If there could have been more character building with the world building, maybe it would have let me get more in. Really sad because the accidental necromancer angle was actually really cool.