Twenty-five years ago, a group of five warriors risked their lives to fight to overcome the corrupt bone maker named Eklor to protect the country of Vos. Defeating his army of animal bone constructs came at a heavy price—only four of the victors survived. Now, they have to come together again to fight for their country against the sinister force they failed to vanquish in the past. With higher stakes and deadlier magic to face, will the once-famous heroes be able to come out on top?

The Bone Maker is a book that asks the question: "What happens to heroes after their story ends?" and answers it in a beautiful, dark, and poignant way. Durst explores this narrative by putting the doubts, fears, and uncertainties of the characters at the forefront of the story. The cast in this book are older now, have their own internal struggles, and find it hard to fall back in with each other like they once did; especially when Vos doesn't seem to think it needs a group of heroes. The author made each character conflicted and morally grey, yet easy for the reader to connect with which made them all the more realistic.

Durst has created an amazing entry in the standalone fantasy genre that is not only a magic-filled adventure but also a story about the nature of evil, relearning forgiveness and how one picks up the pieces of their life and puts it back together again.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Bone Maker is a stand-alone fantasy with a setup that vaguely resembles that of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn meets Gideon the Ninth, resulting in something that is delightfully unique. And considering I did not have the best first impression of Sarah Beth Durst’s work (a poorly executed romance/sex element in The Queen of Blood was an instant turnoff), I am glad I gave Durat another chance, as she truly shines here.

Older protagonists have become rare in modern fantasy, with a few notable exceptions, so I found it fascinating to follow a cast of characters who had had their days of youthful glory in their past. And the fact that Kreya, who the blurb openly declares has a likely grim story arc ahead of her? Durst is able to get the reader invested in her character, while also posing key questions through Kreya’s inner monologue, about what separates heroes and villains.

The supporting cast is also pretty interesting, and each of the rest of the band has unique talents related to bone making. I will say that not all are fleshed out in equal measure, with the focus being on Kreya, Zera, and a few others. However, given it is a stand-alone novel, I can see why some of these choices were made.

This was an enjoyable read, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy.

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone fantasy that I got from NetGalley to review.

Story (5/5): It was fun to read about heroes that are later in life and I really loved the bone magic throughout. There was a lot of wonderful adventure here and this was an excellent twist on the typical vanquishing ultimate evil type of storyline.

Characters (5/5): The characters are a big part of what makes this story amazing. The story focuses around five heroic warriors but initially mainly follows Kreya. Kreya lives in an isolated tower with her dead husband and bone creations. All the characters are intriguing and easy to engage with. I really enjoyed reading about them and watching them grow and change even though they were older and had already been through a lot.

Setting (5/5): I absolutely adored this world driven by bone magic. The setting itself is fairly typical fantasy, but the bone magic drives most of the world and adds a really intriguing aspect to the story.

Writing Style (5/5): As with all of Durst’s books this was very easy to read and the writing flowed well. There is excellent description throughout, the story was well paced, I really enjoyed the characters and the magic system. I loved that this was more of a classic fantasy adventure story but with a little twist. I love adventure fantasy but I feel like not a lot of good adventure fantasy is being written right now; this story was perfect for me!

My Summary (5/5): Overall I really loved this. I had high expectations for this story and they were all met. This is a great balance of fast-paced adventure, wonderful characters, an interesting magic system, and a classic “evil vs good” fantasy storyline with a bit of a twist. I loved it! Durst continues to be a must-pick-up author for me and I am so excited to see what she writes next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for the ARC of The Bone Maker
I received the ARC in exchange for an honest review

This is my first book by Sarah Beth Durst. I was super intrigued by the synopsis when I read "a band of aging warriors have a second chance to defeat dark magic and avenge a haunting loss" and I really did like that it was a fantasy book with middle-aged characters instead of the norm super young characters. It was also a very creative concept from a "magical abilities" standpoint.

What I didn't like was that almost the whole book I was waiting for something to happen, waiting to learn more about the world, waiting to like it, waiting to be surprised.

So, by the end, I just went away from it with a meh feeling. I would have liked to know more about how does the outside world feel about this group of bone makers? What is the government of this world? etc. I also feel like the characters didn't so much learn from the past mistakes they were still easily gullible in some of the plot points and predictable in some of their reactions. The ending could have been fleshed out a bit more as well.

It wasn't terrible but it wasn't amazing either. Just meh for me.

Sarah Beth Durst has always been a bit of a hit or miss author for me. When she’s on her game, I really love her books. But there are others of her titles that have really not worked for me. So I never quite know which one I’m going to get when I pick up a new book by her. But this one, with its interesting premise and its focus on an older woman as its heroine, sounded like something that would be right up my alley!

What was a day of triumph to the nation was a day of horror to Kreya. While she and her four companions were successful in the heroic mission they set out upon, to take down the viscous bone maker Eklor, Kreya lost her husband in the process. Now, years later, Kreya is living as a recluse, desperately working forbidden magic to buy just one more day with her lost love. When she seeks out a method to work this magic on a more long-term basis, she discovers horrors that she thought were long ago settled. Now she and the others must grapple with the reality that their story may not actually be finished, and they’re not sure they can win this time.

This book checked two boxes of interest for me. Recently, I’ve really been enjoying stories that look at the “after” of heroic tales. Veronica Roth’s “Chosen” was one of my favorite reads last year and dealt with this very topic. While both that book and this one essentially present the same story, that the first “ending” wasn’t really the end at all but simply a pause on everything, they each tackle the topic of what life is like for these heroes in what they think is the end. While this book is mostly Kreysa’s story, Durst also offeres insights into the other heroes who fought alongside her. Through them all, we see the various methods each is using to handle an entire lifetime after such a momentous start. You save the world in your twenties…then what? Not only is the resulting PTSD and trauma something that must be carried afterwards, but the sense that one’s biggest moment in life is already behind one has to play with the mind. I really like the variety we see between the heroes and how they are all coping, nor not coping, with these challenges.

The second point of interest is its focus on an adult heroine. The book never specifies Kreya’s or her friends’ age, but we know their fight happened 25 years ago and that Kreya was married at the time. It’s like that she’s in her late forties or older. It’s always refreshing to read a book that focuses on older characters. By necessity, their lives look very different than the young adult heroes and heroines we so often see. Instead of new love, it’s often an established relationship or a second love. Instead of the challenges of coming into one’s power for the first time, it’s managing a life that has already contained a multitude of defining moments. Kreya and her friends have lived a quarter of a century’s worth of life since their grand adventure. During that time they’ve built lives and come to terms with the events of their youth. They also have to face these new challenges as the people they are now, not the people they were when they first fought their foe. There are both new strengths and challenges that come with taking up the mantle of heroism again later in life.

I specifically enjoyed the established romance between Kreya and her husband. We see all the strengths that have been built into it over the years of loving the same person. But there are also some unique challenges that come along with this. Specifically, of course, the fact that one member of the marriage has been dead on and off for the last 25 years…but it also speaks to the way that relationships grow and change alongside the individuals in them.

The only ding I have against the book is that the world-building and magic system are kind of simplistic and lack detail and depth. There are some cool monsters that live in a particular forest, some magically-operated cable cars, and a few other things. But none of them are described very fully or really made to feel like they are part of a fully-realized world. However, it was also clear that the focus of the book was meant to be largely about its characters, so while the world wasn’t very complex, I wasn’t necessarily feeling that it was lacking while I was reading. Fans of Durst’s work are sure to enjoy this, and fantasy lovers who prefer a more mature hero and stories focused on the “after” of the heroic journey should definitely check it out!

Rating 9: A very enjoyable, fast read that highlights the fact that no hero’s journey is every really over.

(Link will go live March 3)

Twenty-five years ago, they were known as the great Heroes of Vos. Together, all five stood against an army of unnatural constructs and their maker, the evil Eklor. Together, they fought, and one of them fell.

Now, the Heroes have broken apart, all going their own ways. Kreya, the leader, lost everything when her husband fell on the plains. Now, she dedicates every spare moment to reading through Eklor’s research, trying to find a way to resurrect her husband, to bring back some of the life they used to have before he died. Kreya knows that for him to live, she has to give up part of her own life, but the sacrifice doesn’t matter. She’s willing to do it. But when she begins to seek out more components for her spell, she learns that Vos may still be under threat, and the heroes might have to come back and save it once again. The only problem is, not only is one of them dead, but the others have spent so much time apart, they’ve changed and grown into different people. Can the five heroes come together and save their country, again?

I received an advanced reading copy of The Bone Maker in exchange for an honest review.

By now, the name Sarah Beth Durst should be familiar to you, if you’ve been following my blog for a while. Sarah Beth Durst is the author of several fantasy novels, and I’ve read quite a few at them at this point, and reviewed them all on this blog. She wrote the Queens of Renthia series, the standalone Race the Sands, and now, The Bone Maker. I was excited when I heard about the adult fantasy novel The Bone Maker, since I’ve grown to be quite a fan of Durst’s, so I was incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to read an advanced reading copy of it! So, what did I think?

First of all, I absolutely loved the concept of all the events of The Bone Maker taking place about twenty-five years after Kreya and her gang defeated the big bad. So many novels talk about the moments where the heroes first come together, when they face insurmountable odds, and manage to defeat evil, potentially losing some of them along the way. But I almost never come across a book that talks about the heroes after they’ve survived. After all, the heroes are mostly young when they first go up against the bad guy, and they still have so much life ahead of them. What happens after is the question that Durst is seeking to answer in this novel, and it really delivers.

We have everything here: the one who refuses to move on from what’s happened, trying to return. We have the one who’s capitalized on their reputation as a hero. We have one who quite literally died during the last battle. We have one who’s gone insane. And we have one who’s moved on and now lives a quiet life, nice and content. I won’t go into too much detail on who was who, but I appreciated seeing all of these reactions to some very intense past trauma, and how the events from so long ago continue to influence their lives, even the lives of the more well-adjusted ones. But, I especially loved seeing how the others, the less well-adjusted, were trying to fit into a world they hadn’t been sure they could save.

Each character here stands out to me. Kreya, of course, is our main character. She will do absolutely anything to bring Jantt, her husband, back to life, even if it means breaking laws of nature and society both. I really identified with Kreya, actually. Everything she did, it made sense, and I felt for every one of her losses, and got excited at her victories. I loved her as a main character, and I especially loved her relationship with Zera, who I actually also sort of consider a main character. She doesn’t get as much of a limelight as Kreya, but she gets several chapters from her POV, and she managed to straddle the line between cockiness and hilarity, while also able to stand up to the friend who abandoned her in the midst of battle. I just love these two women, guys.

The other characters were also all amazing. They were strong in so many different ways, and I loved seeing as they worked to put themselves back together, bit by bit, all the while knowing that their world needed them to save it, again.

In fact, I’d call the characters here the star of the book. That’s not to say that the world and plot aren’t great. I’m also a huge fan of the magic system that Durst created here. Using bones to make magic? So delightfully macabre but cool! As for other elements of the world, I appreciated the dangers of it in certain sections, and they certainly helped highlight the tension in some areas, but they soon sort of faded into the background.

And I guess here is where I should get into the plot. The book was exciting! Very much so! I read the last third of the book in a single sitting; I couldn’t put it down! I guess I just felt a bit confused sometimes over where the plot was going. I kept expecting the plot to go one way, and then it went another. That’s not a bad thing! I liked that it kept me guessing, I just wish that it had felt more like a single plot than two to three different storylines, each with its own act. I actually think the book could have been expanded to a series, now that I think about the storylines of each act, but I’m definitely grateful that it’s a standalone because I don’t really have time to add another series to my list. I guess I should also mention that I’ll basically read anything Durst writes, so adding more books to that already-long list just makes my life harder (but probably more fun)!

I’d recommend this book to fantasy fans, especially those who wonder “what happens next?” when the heroes walk off the battlefield, having miraculously survived the fight against the enemy. This book is a fantastic answer to what happens to them, and a great adventure for any reader.

The Bone Maker will be released on March 9. You can pre-order your copy from Harper Voyager at this link.

The Bone Maker
A Novel
by Sarah Beth Durst
Avon and Harper Voyager
You Are Auto-Approved
Harper Voyager
General Fiction (Adult) | Sci Fi & Fantasy
Pub Date 09 Mar 2021 | Archive Date 04 May 2021

If you like thrillers you will really enjoy this book. I don't usually read Sci-Fi and Fantasy but this was an excellent read. Thanks to Avon and Harper Voyager as well as Netgalley for this ARC.

4 star

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher I was able to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
***
You know, I was looking at my reading history from last year, and this is probably going to sound repetitive coming from me when it comes to talking about Sarah Beth Durst, but is it too early to call my favorite book of the year, even if I’m only two months into the new year?
Seriously.
The Bone Maker is so, so good. I thought I loved the authors last book a lot, Race the Sands, (and I did, I loved the heck out of that book) but she keeps raising the bar on fabulous stand alone fantasy novels.
***
The story follows five friends, twenty-five years after they destroyed the evil of their time... or did they?
Kreya lost her husband at the final battle, where her and four friends confronted Eklor. Since then she has shut herself up looking for a way to resurrect her husband, a cost to herself that she is willing to make so long as she has him with her again, but the knowledge she has gained comes from the enemy she took down and it is forbidden for a reason.
As she works to finalize the resurrection of her husband though she comes across evidence that the evil they fought all those years ago may not be as destroyed as they thought it was and a new evil may be at hand. Is it time for a new, young generation of heroes to finish what they started or is it their duty to see through what they started?
***
It’s a story about costs, sacrifice, and knowing when one needs to keep going and when one needs to stop. It’s a story about balance and trying to both find it and stick to it. It’s a story about friendship, love, and fighting for the ones you love so they can have a better tomorrow, even if you may not get to see it with them. It’s about how your story does not stop at “the end”, but keeps going until you really do reach your end.
***
This story is so, so good. Can’t wait for it to be released so I can start putting copies into hands of fellow readers.

BONE MAGIC. WOMEN. STANDALONE.

If any of those don't pull you into wanting to read this story, then that's your loss. I love the approach Sarah Beth Durst took with this story. I'm a sucker for anything bone magic.

Read this!

This was a book that had some twists and turns in it for sure. The story seemed sort of streamlined but was well written without an overload of detail. The characters felt human and likable for the most part. They were flawed like most people but kept on trying to find ways to be better and to keep trying to live no matter the problems they faced. The story seems to take place in one country or land. Not much detail about any of this world but seemed focused on the characters mostly and what they are doing in the story. There three types of bone magic and they could have been explained more but for me I think I got a decent understanding of how and what they were. The various creatures and animals were different and interesting I thought. Would be happy if she ever wrote another book in this world. Some people will definitely like this book I think and the author has written another good book that she can be proud of now.

THE BONE MAKER asks what happens after the heroic actions, the adulation, and the fame and after the story should be ended. Five people defeated an evil bone maker named Eklor twenty-five years earlier and then went their separate ways.

Jentt, who was the thief, died during the battle leaving his wife Kreya who was the group's leader bereft but determined to get her husband back. Zera returned to the seat of power and used her talents as a bone wizard to become rich but not happy. Marso was the bone reader. He couldn't deal with his visions after the battles were over and is now struggling to live. Stren was the warrior who managed to build a new life with a wife and children after the battle was over.

Kreya was a bone maker who could use bone to animate the inanimate. Since the battle, she has been studying books about the bone makers art because she was determined to find a way to make her husband live again. She needs bones and her blood to work her spell. But bones are not easy to come by. In fact, there is a major taboo in the society about bones which causes all who die to be burned to ash.

Kreya knows one possible source of bones - the battlefield where they defeated Eklor. But she needs help to get there. She tracks down Zera to make some of the talismans she needs if she is going to get the bones to reanimate her beloved Jentt. But Zera and Kreya discover something horrible on the battlefield. Eklor is still alive and still making the monsters that almost gave him victory in the last battle.

They need to get their original group back together to convince the leader of the Guild the Eklor is back and that new heroes need to be found to defeat him again. Only there are major problems with this plan...

I loved the storytelling. The worldbuilding was intriguing and the characters well-rounded. I liked the mythology. I liked Kreya's willingness to pay any cost to get her husband back even it it meant defying every taboo and breaking any law. There was a lot of philosophy in this story about the costs of choices and the consequences of them.

Fans of intriguing fantasy about what happens after "the end" will enjoy this thought-provoking story.

4.5 of 5 stars

The Bone Maker is the sort of book you don’t see too often, in that it features an “aftermath” story. That is, the battle of epic proportions has already happened. The good guys prevailed, while the evil villain was vanquished forever. Everyone rejoiced and went home happy.

Or did they? Twenty-five years ago, a renegade bone maker named Eklor used his corrupted magic to raise an army of monsters against the realm. Five heroes, led by their leader Kreya, managed to defeat him but at a great cost. Only four of them came out alive, and the fallen was none other than Kreya’s beloved husband Jentt. As the rest of the world celebrated the survivors, celebrated their victory, Kreya retreated into solitude with her grief.

But what no one knew was that Kreya had a plan, one that could destroy her if she was discovered. For Jentt’s body had not been burned according to tradition, which was designed to prevent human bones from being collected and worked by magic. Any bone maker caught doing so would be committing the highest crime of their order, but that was exactly what Kreya had in mind. Before his death, Eklor had developed a method using human bone to resurrect the dead, and unbeknownst to all, Kreya had stolen away his grimoire and perfected the spell. All this time, she had kept Jentt’s body with the goal of one day bringing him back to life.

Still, human bones being so difficult to come by, she had never been truly successful, bringing him back for only days at a time. For the spell to last, she will need a large store of bones, and there is only one like that in existence—the very battlefield where Eklor was defeated all those years before. Problem was, getting there will be dangerous, not to mention an unforgivable violation of the law. For her to have any chance to succeed, Kreya will need help. But after so long, will any of her old comrades still heed her call, especially once they find out what she’s been up to?

Not too many authors can pull off a story like this, but I was confident that if anyone could, it would be Sarah Beth Durst. I’ve been a huge fan since The Queen of Blood, and once again she has shown me why I adore her work. One of the reasons why The Bone Maker works so well is its concept. Sure, the beginning of the book may have a “postscript” feel of sorts, but once readers are introduced to Kreya and her current dilemma, we are quickly made to care about her new purpose. For even though the great battle against Eklor happened a quarter of a century ago, the tale unfolding now is a more personal one. After all, we don’t often get stories about what the heroes get up to after the final showdown, but Durst explores a possible outcome that is not so glorious, where the winners don’t all get to live happily ever after.

Another reason why I think this story has legs is the way it flowed, almost like a great season of a TV show, in an episodic fashion. Once a conflict was resolved, another one would swiftly arise and continue the momentum of the plot. Past and present ultimately came together, filling in the gaps of the last twenty-five years and beyond, including world-building details and specifics related to the fascinating bone-based magic system. Gradually, it was revealed that maybe things hadn’t ended the way our heroes thought at all.

Of course, I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the characters. A middle-aged widow, Kreya isn’t your exactly your typical epic fantasy heroine, though writing unconventional albeit ferociously strong and well-developed female protagonists happens to be Durst’s forte. Case in point, I didn’t always agree with Kreya’s motivations and actions, but I could understand where they came from, thanks to the incredible layers of nuance woven into her character. Along the way, we also got to meet her old team, in a process that was very reminiscent of Kings of the Wyld. While each member had moved on, achieving various levels of success and stability (or lack thereof), all of them were affected by the war in some way. As far as “old gang getting back together” stories go, this one wasn’t anything too different, but the unique backgrounds and personalities of all those involved kept things fresh and interesting.

I know that I say this about pretty much all of the author’s books, but you really must read The Bone Maker to experience the wonder and surprises for yourself. Sarah Beth Durst has managed to pull off a challenging narrative by putting her characters first, building a riveting story around their lives while imbuing past and the present with the weight of history and complex magic. Truly, I never wanted this journey to end.

Spoiler free review! This book is simply amazing. I enjoyed the suspense throughout the book and the way the author really brings out the characters. If you like thrillers, I would definitely recommend this book!

Received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 4.25 stars!

The Bone Maker follows Kreya, the protagonist who can craft and wield bone magic. Not only that, she became a legendary hero 25 years ago at a great and treacherous battle that came with a terrible cost. Now, she has to get her team back together to stop a rising evil...

Really loved the bone magic in this, it felt unique and awesome, though it made me hunger for more detail. The worldbuilding was lacking, it was more focused on the plot rather than the background.

The characters were OK, but I really didn't like Amurra, a wife of one of the characters. I thought she fell into the damsel in distress & generic worrywart wife trope. They're not *bad* tropes per se, but it was offputting to me when everyone else felt different.

Zera is a drama queen (annoying sometimes), Marso was sweet, Jentt had no personality beyond "thief", Kreya x Jentt had no chemistry (lack of conversations between them, alone), and Stran was my favorite. I kept picturing him as Dwayne Johnson, ha. Kreya, the protagonist, was actually my least favorite. I actually preferred her in the beginning when she was all alone and treating her creations like friends, but when she's with her human friends, she gets pretty bossy and dull.

The action scenes were perfectly written, I legit have no complaint there! It just felt like there wasn't enough action scenes and too many 'slow' scenes that dragged on. Lots of dialogue but not always meaningful didn't help with the pacing either. I do love how the characters worked well together and felt like a team, I think there just needed to be some extra scenes to help flesh each character out. Stran and Marso were perfectly fine though.

I hope there's a prequel book written and the characters get a chance to flesh out more, it'd be even cooler if the book was about their time learning about bone magic! We could see them develop their teamwork in the process. Still, an entertaining read despite my 948592 complaints, whoops.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

In this world, bones are power. They are read to tell the future, harnessed to infuse talismans with powers, and used to bring life to constructs. However 25 years ago, after a bone worker used human bones to murder thousands the use of human remains has been outlawed. Few break the rules as it is seen as a slight against nature, leading to neighbors burning neighbors to avoid evil. When the heroes who brought down this evil bone worker see signs that the necromancer has returned can they convince the world of his return or will the heightened fear leave the world defenseless? And what lengths will these heroes go through to be united with others they thought lost?

This story had it's ups and downs for me. There were large portions that felt overly drawn out, but then action sequences that were perfectly paced. The reintroduction of the heroes to each other takes half the book, this the story not really picking up until halfway through. If the beginning had been shortened to about a third of what it was, this would have easily been a 4/4.5 star read for me, but I almost gave up on it multiple times. Once the story actually begins, it's a great take and had me drawn in. I had a hard time continuing reading though as I was dreading the thought of it dragging again. Thankfully, this dragging never returned and I was able to enjoy the rest of this tale.

Overall, the characters are solid, they just take too long to come together. I recommend this story to anyone 16+ who is willing to power through the slow burn beginning. If you pick this up, let me know which bone specialty you think you'd have. I would love to be able to create the talismans.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When I first read the blurb for this book, I was beyond excited to read it. Sarah Beth Durst is a new author for me, so I had no prior knowledge of her previous work, despite having a few of her books on my TBR shelf for years.

The premise of The Bone Maker was very cool, and I can’t compare it to any other book I’ve read. I thought the idea was original and unique, and I really appreciated that. Unfortunately, that’s really the only thing I loved about The Bone Maker.

The characters and world overall were lacking for me. The characters have been friends and fought beside each other for a long time, but the banter and conversations had between the core characters didn’t reflect that. There wasn’t a standout character or relationship for me, so I found myself not really invested in any one character more than the other.
There was also a TON of dialogue in this, way more than necessary. Usually that wouldn’t be a bad thing, but this was borderline too much a lot of the time, and I felt it definitely took away from some of the more intense moments.

The world building could have and should have been broadened a lot more. There weren’t enough descriptive details, and I found it very hard to picture what was happening at times. I wanted to know more about the past and what happened 25 years ago, but I was left feeling like we were missing key details or stories from the past.

I also never felt like any character was ever “truly” in danger, and the main conflict of the book was not nearly as epic as it should have been. I was hoping for more tension or problems in any sense to arise, but it just never did.

Overall I’m pretty disappointed I didn’t love this more, and it just didn’t meet my expectations. There was a lot of potential with this, so I’m sad to see this fall short of that. I’m glad this is a standalone and the ending ended the way it did, because I probably wouldn't read the sequel if there was one.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC

I absolutely loved this book! It is the story of what happens after the heroes save the world.

We follow our heroes 25 years after their heroic act that saved the world and ended a brutal war.

I love following older protagonists, and I especially love how morally grey every character is! We really get to see how far is too far to save someone you love. What are lines that you won't cross, and what lines will you?

I also really loved the fact that I ended up empathizing with the villain in this story! to me, that makes a GREAT villain.

We get to see an exploration of grief and trauma and PTSD. We see the heroes so many years later, and it isn't hard to imagine they could be any of the heroes from any of our favorite stories.

This was a fantastic standalone, it wrapped up beautifully and the ending was beautiful and perfect!

Now though, I want the prequel. I want their young story and I want to see how we got here!

I would like to start off by thanking Harper Voyager for sending me over a beautiful finished copy of The Bone Maker for review.

I will admit that when I requested this book I went in without knowing much about the story. The cover was the first thing that caught my attention, and then the fact that it was a standalone fantasy story sealed the deal for me. The only thing I knew was that Sarah Beth Durst was known for creating AWESOME atmosphere in her books, and this book was no exception. I think that the atmosphere in this book was one of the shining points for me. It takes place in this dark fantasy world within the mountains, where there are tiers within the mountains and tons of cliffs. It adds that extra bit of danger when it comes to exploring the world. The second thing that REALLY made this book stand out to me is the characters. I absolutely loved our entire band of heroes. There's something about a group of middle-aged ex heroes having to band together and save the world again that I absolutely love. I felt like I knew every character so well and was in the story with them.

My only downfall with this book is that the pacing just kind of felt all over the place and kept me putting down the book and picking it up. A lot of that could be because I am personally a more plot driven reader, and this is such a character driven book. There was a lot of time spent just sitting with the characters, and less time spent when they were actually out on their adventure.

Ultimately I ended up giving this book a 4⭐️ and it will definitely be a standalone that I will recommend often. I think if you were a fan of Foundryside, Kings of the Wyld, or The Bone Shard Daughter, then this is definitely one to pick up!

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Bone Maker took me a while to get into. Mostly because that I was doing so many things before I actually found something completely interesting that sucked me in. It didn't take long but once it happened, well, I couldn't put the book down.

In it, you will meet so many amazing characters. I absolutely loved the bantering that happened throughout the book. It just made me smile and fall in love with them all so much easier. Then there's the betrayal.. which wasn't that shocking but I was expecting more groveling in some places. Luckily, these two were fooled twice (or something) and finally opened their eyes to what was happening.

All I can say.. is it's about damn time.

In the end, this book so good and in a weird way it's a bit bittersweet for me that this is a standalone. Yeah, I know, it is weird because I just fall so in love with books that I would expect another one to be made. Then to find out that nothing will.. well, it's just sad. I guess I will learn to deal with it all and find another book to fall in love with.

I received an ARC of this title from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Bone Maker is a well written and fast paced adult fantasy novel that falls in that wonderful adult/ya crossover space. The setting was especially unique, filled with really interesting monsters and an intricate magic system I had never seen before.

The dark fantasy element was great and provided a wonderful overtone to the book. I just wished that we had been able to get to know a few of our other characters a bit better before the end. It almost left me wishing for a sequel or a series just so I could explore them a bit more. Overall, I recommend this book to fantasy lovers intrigued by fast-paced adventure and intricate world building.