<b>**Thanks to the author and netgalley for the advanced copy of this book. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.** </b>

It’s DNF for me ~ i can’t put my finger on why I couldn’t finish the novel. Especially as I picked it based on the synopsis.

After burning Maggie's hometown is destroyed by fire including her family except for her little sister, Ella. They move to a town where they hope to find a home. The local nuns take in Ella while Maggie must find a job. Alvar Castilla, gives Maggie a job as a hostess at the saloon he owns. She becomes a friend with a showgirl who has a generous heart. She flirts with a heroic cowboy while at the same time avoids a "villain."

This novel is in an exciting fantasy world. This world was long ago filled with mythical creatures. The Apaches consider their bones as sacred relics. A talented practioner can work magic with one of these relics. As this fascinating story ended, I wanted it not to. I would love to read another novel in this fantastic world!

This is a different kind of fantasy novel. Instead of going back to the lands of castles, knights, and mages, we go to a sort wild west frontier world. The ancient mythological creatures all existed and have now gone extinct, but their magic was captured in the relics and bones they left behind. People who can harness the magic trapped in these relics are highly sought after, and it gives them a lot of powerful abilities.

Maggie falls into the dangerous world of relics when her family is killed in a relic-spawned fire. Her life takes some really crazy turns from working in a traditional wild west saloon to living in the local mansion on the whim of the owner. He promises to teach how to harness the power of the relics, but of course, we have to have a bad guy, and he's it. He has a lot of ulterior motives. I was so happy to see that Maggie caught on to them so quickly. She's a smart girl, and seeing that play out without her blindly going along was quite refreshing.

The big drawback of this was that it ends like a series - but there's nothing more out there. The ending was really a bit of a letdown. While there's a lot that's wrapped up, there's promises made and more things to go do and figure out.

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book**

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.
Thanks to Entangled Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review Relic by Renee Collins! The story begins when three siblings run from a fire and only two survive with the help of an Apache. Maggie and Ella survive, but their brother Jeb does not. Now it's up to Maggie to raise Ella on her own. Maggie waitresses at the local saloon and restaurant. She meets Landon and his two friends there. At first, Maggie trusts no one, but she soon sees that Landon, Bobby and Adelaide are true friends. The fires continue to be started in different towns and the communities are blaming the Apache people. Maggie isn't so sure about this because her Apache friend saved her and Ella from the fire. I love the western setting within this fantasy story and the broad group of characters keeps the story interesting. The characters are all very dynamic and surprises keep coming. 5 stars for this imaginative and original story.

This has been on my TBR for quite some time, mostly because umm I love the cover so honestly when I was given a chance to review it for Entangled I jumped onboard with zero hesitation.


Maggie and her siblings notice a fire in the town, and their parents just so happen to be at the town. So she makes the choice for them to run, however as the fire spreads they find themselves trapped until Maggie notices an Apache watching them. She recognizes him for her time at school and he helps them escape except her brother is not able to get rescued.


After staying at her old school for awhile Maggie goes to the town of Burning Mesa to find a job, she runs into an important man trying to escape the clutches of a rather nasty man and he offers her a job at the local saloon. Soon she makes friends with Adelaide and starts falling for a rather handsome cowboy named Landon.


But then another town burns and her Apache friend Yahn is arrested she sets out to prove his innocence. Then when Ella is injured and she runs to Alvar for help because of all the relics he owns she suddenly finds herself stuck at his house and he teaches her about relics. It turns out that Maggie has the talent to use the relics.



As she gets draw deeper and deeper into the mystery of the relics and more towns are burning Maggie begins to wonder if she will be able to find out who is burning the towns and will she be able to save Yahn and possibly Burning Mesa when the time comes?



This was a totally interesting twist on a western. Relics being exactly what you might think they are bones of powerful creatures like dragons or goblins, or unicorns and they each do different things. Like goblin relics allow you to be invisible and unicorns heal totally cool twist. I loved every minute of it even though Maggie was a bit flaky at times. Landon was great and Yahn was swoon worthy and not in the book enough.

This book was very different from what I normally read, I liked it, I just had trouble following it at first...I am hoping that there is a sequel so you can see what happens next