Clea was an F BI investigator and Empath. Dave was Clea’s mentor, friend, and only father figure Clea had ever known. When Clea got to the Mid Borough Feed & Seed- Dave’s store. There was a sense of wrongness. Clea felt if anyone had hurt Dave they were toast. Dave whispered Clea’s name but she did hear him and found him covered in blood from dozens of cuts slashed his legs, his arms. His torso and face. Then Dave told her he was a guardian her guardian. Dave told her to take the Storybook , green cover, she had bit. Then Clea found the book. Dave must have been in his twenties when he took Clea on as his project. Clea never knew why. He was a merry man. His tattoos fascinated Clea. He made up stories about his tattoos to entertain a kid starved for attention. Dave read to Clea for hours. Bernadette was Clea’s foster mother.
I didn’t care for this story. There was just too much going on I just was into the book about 10 percent and didn’t know what was going on. I couldn’t get into the writing style and finally gave up. I’m sure someone will have more patience than me and love this book.

Chest of Bone by Vicki Stiefel was a wild ride. Stiefel has created a very complex world, and my gut tells me that Chest of Bone is only giving us a small peek.

I will say, the first quarter of the book requires you to really pay attention, and at times seems to be a little chaotic. Hang in there because once Stiefel has the stage set, you are off the races for the rest of the book!

I loved Clea. She was strong and smart. I loved she knitted while interrogating. I also respected her strong sense of loyalty. She didn't trust easily, but she understood loyalty and family, even if it was the family you made. WHERE can I get a Larrimer? I wanted one of my own as soon as we met him, but dragon dude is just what Clea needs as she looks for the chest and avenge her mentor's death.

I am looking forward to seeing where Clea, Lulu and Larrimer go from here. You will want to explore more of Stiefel's characters and worlds, and I have the feeling she's just getting started!

I didn't seem to enjoy this book as much as everybody else that has read this book so far. The writing was really strange, not bad, just strange. And that made it really difficult for me to fall into this book the way I would have liked.

I also think I was expecting a different kind of story. From the synopsis, I was expecting more of a fantasy element than there was. It took a minute for that part of the plot to really show up. It was mostly a murder mystery. And while I don't mind that kind of story, I actually like those kinds of books. I just prefer to know that is the kind of book I'm reading before hand.

There was also a lot about this book that was rather cookie cutter in my opinion. The base of the plot of this book wasn't really that unique. "Protagonist thinks they are a mostly normal human; until they suffer a loss/tragedy and learn they are more than they thought they were. Their guardian/parent/mentor kept the secret they were different from them for unknown reasons. MC goes on a journey to find out why the secret was kept and what happened to their mentor/guardian/parent. Shenanigans ensue."

It's all been done before, many times. And I have read books where this plot was also done better.

It's not a bad book by any means, it just wasn't' what I was expecting, and I think that hurt my perception of it.

I liked it!
I found the story to be exciting, action packed and tense. Really the first few pages just grabbed you and you were just holding on for dear life. Then, the story kind of faltered. You knew what had to happen, but it took several unnecessary chapters to come to fruition. Clea was fantastic as the lead, but I was wishing she discovered more about her magic--since there are 5 boxes, and 1 has been found, then there are 4 more books. James was also fantastic, but I got a little tired of the stone face--i knew they were 'mates' from the start, i thought that could have been stepped up a little. It would have been nice to delve a little bit more into Tommy's background, we did get an inkling of the darkness in him during a memory with Cleo, and it would also have been nice to find out who this mysterious Tanya was. Bernadette, who was an integral part to the story, was also glossed over. We figured out she was Fae, from Clea's interaction with Charles, and then she died....There was a huge buildup to the facedown with Tommy which was a little disappointing.
Overall, I read the book quite fast, it was a great book, but could have been shorter and had the same impact, or the length could have been kept with a little more in depth into the interesting characters that kept popping up. Who is the Union, Tava, what's up with Bob????

You have to be patient with this one, took 3 days to get to 20% but once you make it it's worth it. This one sneaks up on you, the first 28% made me crazy way to much going on, all happening at once. It is a crazy, convoluted, WTF kind of book because, she throws everything in here and I do mean everything. But you end up caring about the characters and their relationships, and by the end I was eager for the next book. So don't let the unique writing style scare you off, take a breath and keep going it's worth it.