Jurassic Park meets The DaVinci Code with a touch of dragons. That's a pretty accurate description of The Bone Wars. The book is an easy read and combines facts and fiction in an entertaining way. The characters were a bit cliché, but honestly, I didn't mind. The only "downside" was that it felt like the book ended too abruptly. I know it's the first book in The Pirates of Montana series, but this part could have been wrapped up a bit more.

I got this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was like if Jurassic Park, The Da Vinci Code, and National Treasure all smushed together to create… whatever this was.

That sounds like it would be great, but this missed the mark for me. The plot was so clever and unique, but the writing style just really pulled me out of it.

This would be a really great read for a reader on the younger side of the YA demographic. The tone was juvenile and I felt a little like my intelligence as a reader was being underestimated.

The character relationships in the novel also felt incredibly forced and disingenuous. Overall, not a fan of this one.

Thank you to Inkshares and NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

As a lifelong dinosaur lover, I had to request this book. I wish I liked it more than I did. It took me a bit to get into it and felt the characters were a little stereotypical. I think I would have preferred if we stuck only to Molly's POV. I do appreciate the level of detail and information the author gives about dinosaurs and archeology in general. It very much feels like we are on the hot and dirty dig site along with the characters. This will probably do the best with a dinosaur loving audience.

I just finished The Bone Wars by Erin S. Evan and this is my review.


Molly Wilder is spending the summer digging for fossils in Montana. When the team she is interning for finds what appears to be the fossil of a dragon, the team can’t believe that is what it is.
Within less than 12 hours everything has been stolen and a package arriving just after, which triggers the team to go hunting for the reason why someone would have managed to preplan the theft with such little time.
The hunt takes Molly, Derek famed fossil hunter and Dr Sean Oliphant on a trip to England and other parts of Europe as they hunt for more information on their “monster” and why someone is fighting so hard to keep it all hidden.
I am not going to lie… I couldn’t remember what this book was about when I started and about a chapter in which I got so excited I finished it in 4 hours. I literally ignored everything to read.

The book is centered around multiple points of view which I wasn’t a fan of, especially as it didn’t indicate who’s POV it was at the top of the chapter. I did like all the POV characters though which helped take the sting out. Personally I would add at the beginning of each chapter who it is as I was a little confused a couple of times.

The storyline was so good!! The idea that there is a secret organization keeping the knowledge that dragons may have roamed the earth during the time of dinosaurs was so thrilling! The wild ride the team goes on hunting down clues that other dragon type fossils had been found over the years and how another group was trying to uncover the information about it too so they could tell the world… GENIUS!! Even if you are not a fan of dinosaurs, you won’t help being drawn in by this book. It’s well written, the mystery is well put together and the constant change in location will keep you entertained from start to finish. I had to go and make sure that this book was being set up for a series and thankfully it is! I have not had enough of Derek just yet!!

Definitely got me hooked and I definitely cannot wait for book 2!! Now it is listed as a YA and I personally think YA shouldn’t have adult POVs so it loses half a star for that.
4 stars! Like I said, it was just the confusing POV that lost another half a star otherwise this was a home run for me. If you enjoy books that straddle multiple genres then you should give it a try!!

Thank you Inkshares and @netgalley for my review copy

#thebonewars #YAreview #bookinfluencer

Overall the story here has good “bones”, haha, but the delivery of it was a bit of a struggle to get through, especially at first, as the intro chapters have a lot of info dumping about dinosaurs, which I felt got in the way of the story getting started. If I hadn’t promised a review on this, I would have stopped reading out of the gate.

Things did eventually pick up and I loved the dragon hints and drops from Molly, even though her character and the things that seemingly just happened to her was a bit far fetched.

While I loved the idea behind this one, it felt like there was a lot of telling vs. showing. I struggled with the shifting point of views from all of the characters in each chapter, which were told in first person, because it was hard to remember who was who. The voices were similar for each. And even though told in first person, I felt like I never really got to know any of the characters. Things were surface level.

More than likely won’t be continuing with the series here, but glad I gave this one a shot beyond the instant urge to put it down! There’s potential and hopefully the books get better as the series progresses.

This book was so good! I really enjoyed my time reading it! I think every little kid dreams of digging up dinosaurs, so being able to live that a little bit in this book was so much fun.

This book intrigued me from the start. At first you think it is a book about archaeological digs and some intrigue surrounding the relationships of the main characters but then…
Molly is on a summer dig as an intern & finds a dinosaur skeleton that doesn’t look ‘right’. She believes she has found the skeleton of a dragon but is considered ridiculous since ‘dragons are just a myth’. However when sinister characters take an active interest in acquiring their dragon skeleton it is obvious that this is no ordinary discovery. Can Molly, & her colleagues, get the evidence they need before it is ‘stolen’ and destroyed.
It is time to find out if dragons are real!

I thought the premise of The Bone Wars sounded interesting, like a teen Indiana Jones story but with dinosaur bones and a female protagonist.

Unfortunately, whatever potential the premise had was soon mired in problems with the execution.

For one, this book is listed with a reading age of 12 to 16 years and categorized as YA. However, it breaks a cardinal rule of YA fiction very early on. YA fiction has YA protagonists, and I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve read a contemporary YA book that had any POV sections from an adult perspective. And when it happens, it’s sparing. Often, it’s as little as one chapter and only to present absolutely crucial information that couldn’t be revealed any other way.

That’s not the case here. There are several chapters from an adult character’s POV. These also aren’t New Adult territory characters, either. The youngest is a grad student, who, based on their studies, must be approximately 25.

Including multiple adult perspectives connects with a formatting issue that had a significant impact on my reading experience. All chapters are written in 1st person. Since the book was billed as YA, I wasn’t expecting adult POVs, and since there was only one teen in the story, the early transition to an adult’s POV was unexpected. The review copy didn’t put the POV character’s name under the chapter title, so there was no structural indication of a POV change. And the text didn’t clarify whose POV we were in for several paragraphs, which had me confused and I had to go back and re-read sections.

Now, after the first abrupt POV change, I was aware of the possibility of more, so I wasn’t surprised when new perspectives were added, but I still had to figure out whose POV was being presented and reorient myself with who was saying or thinking what after a handful of paragraphs.

This is a rookie mistake for an author, but it is something that should have been addressed in a developmental edit. Using 1st person for multiple perspectives is risky, but it’s also risky to add more POV characters than you need. Every POV character should have a satisfying growth arc, and there should be a critical reason to show things from their perspective. I don’t think most of these POV perspectives were necessary and I think they detracted from the plot instead of enhancing the story and adding depth. One of the adult POVs isn’t even first introduced until 24%.

Even when teens are in what’s perceived to be an adult environment, it’s problematic to have a teen drinking alcohol over a hazing ritual conducted by an adult. And drinking alcohol wasn’t part of the ritual, the teen chose to do that during the hazing. (Another thing I found problematic: adults hazing a teenager.) If this was a story about a teen dealing with trauma or peer pressure, I might view this element differently. However, given the nature of the work environment and the protagonist’s age, her supervisor was almost certainly responsible for her. It’s illegal for anyone else to supply minors under 21 with alcohol in Montana and this scene made me view all the primary characters negatively. It also sets a terrible example for teen readers.

It may seem unfair for a reviewer to criticize a review copy’s formatting, but the formatting issues in this file caused more confusion while reading than just figuring out the POV character. One example: two characters had dialogue mushed together in one paragraph, and the transition wasn’t apparent (because of missing punctuation) so the dialogue didn’t make sense.

Another basic rookie mistake is having two characters named Derek and Dean, who are part of the initial core group. It’s always best to vary the starting letters to prevent name confusion as much as possible. The info dumping is a far more serious mistake. Filling the early chapters with info dump makes them read much like they’re written by someone who loves the subject so much, they just can’t help blurting out reams of information, a lot of which isn’t crucial for readers to know to follow the plot and character arcs. The info dump sections from Molly and Derek Farnsworth’s POVs sounded similar, failing to utilize first person narrative to distinguish between the characters and establish their voice, and the content starts to feel repetitive.

The letter inserts were also problematic for me. They didn’t always read like they were authored by someone from the period referenced with the date. And again, they insert adult narrative into a YA.

The info dump and letters also slowed the action at the start while, in my opinion, providing minimal information actually relevant to character arcs or plot.

There are several times when the author uses grins or other expressions or actions as dialogue tags. Example: “… frankly I’d clean you all to the bone,” Farnsworth grinned. People don’t grin words. They say them. Occasionally, they whisper or shout them. Correct presentation would be: “… frankly I’d clean you all to the bone.” Farnsworth grinned.

The editor should have caught that.

If you’re someone who balks at references to characters letting out breaths they didn’t know they were holding, you’ll want to skip this book.

There are also continuity issues. One example involves them driving to the site. Molly and Farnsworth are in his truck, while Oliphant and the others are in Sarah’s vehicle, with Oliphant narrating. Oliphant’s group gets out of their vehicle. There’s no mention of Derek’s truck reaching them or stopping by them, but Molly rushes past Oliphant. Given the scene (which I won’t elaborate on to avoid spoilers) I would expect every adult to be very aware of their surroundings, including vehicles close by. If the scene had been from a teen’s POV, it would be somewhat believable that they wouldn’t have been diligently checking mirrors and sky for the authorities; however, from an adult POV, it was baffling that either the vehicle wasn’t there but Molly magically appeared, or Oliphant wasn’t paying any attention to his surroundings.

This book was a hot mess, and the concept and writing weren’t enough to get me to overlook the mistakes present. I can’t recommend it, especially when factoring in the hazing and underage drinking instigated by adults. 2 stars.

Listen.

This was everything I wanted. Erin S. Evan promised and delivered on all points. That's all I should have to say, but there's more.

The premise had me hooked, and based on the cover, title, and blurb, I knew I had to read this book ASAP (whether it was an eARC or I bought my own copy). Once I got into it, the POVs were slightly confusing, and there were many, but I am also not a huge fan of POV switches and prefer a book to come from one POV. For the target audience, Molly will be their new obsession and favorite character. I loved her, and I know that if I was a teen again, this book would be my everything.

I’d like to thank NetGalley, Inkshares, and Erin S. Evan for the eARC!

This book was not at all what I expected and I'm here for it. The premise is fascinating, the characters engaging and it has a lot of heart. This is a fun sci-fi adventure novel and it's well-paced. One of my only issues with it is that I think there are too many POVs, I think it would have been fine with just Molly's, maybe one more. As it was it just switched too often for me.

I would 100% read more in this world and think it's a fantastic setup.

If you want a quick read full of adventure, a bit of mystery and dinosaurs, then this is for you!
15-year-old me probably would’ve loved this, now that I’m a bit older I didn’t enjoy it as much but that’s totally fine since I’m not the target demographic anymore.
Reading about Molly was really nice, as she was very strong, determined and full of life.
This book is a nice and quick summer read, for when you want something fun for in between.
Although if you aren’t that interested in dinosaurs and palaeontology this might not be for you, as the info gets a bit dry sometimes.
(My rating is more a 3.5 stars than 3)

Thanks to Netgalley and Inkshares for the eARC in exchange for an honest review

First of all, this is probably closer to 3.5 stars? It, as a book, is really just a fun summer read. It feels like a blend of Dan Brown, National Treasures, and the whole "history mysteries" thriller genre. Was it thought provoking? Not really. Was it a compulsively easy and enjoyable read, that I'm glad I sat down with and basically functioned as brain candy? Absolutely! Also, to be honest I hate how Dan Brown novels write women, so having a book in that vein, focused on dragons(!) and which WASN'T weird about women was a treat for me. Overall, a good time!!

This is for sure YA
15 years ago, I would've loved this. Molly would've been a fave. Me now, a little bored. But again, not the target demographic

I really enjoyed this novel! As the childhood dinosaur girl of my family, this book evoked a lot of childhood memories. I found it very easy to relate to Molly because she has such a vigor for life and the field of paleontology. She is a strong, determined person. Overall I enjoyed all of the characters.

This book is for someone who enjoys adventures, dinosaurs, and a good mystery. This is also for someone who is willing to believe the unbelievable.

This book took me all over the world: from Montana to England to Germany and Italy! I feel like a globe trotter. I also feel like I learned a lot from this book. The facts were written in a way where I had fun reading as much as I did learning.

I'm excited for this series and have recommended it to the teen librarian at my library to order it!

The Bone Wars by Erin S. Evan is for anyone who ever sat and poured over books about dinosaurs, who dug into sand or dirt hoping to find a fossil, who thought archaeology was the coolest subject. It is a love story to those people in the form of a suspenseful adventure. Plus, there might be dragons.

The unfortunate thing is that I think The Bone Wars will not appeal to anyone who has no interest in dinosaurs or paleontology. For one, it tends to read like a textbook at times. Ms. Evan fills much of the novel with dinosaur or paleontology minutiae. I know she does so to ensure readers understand what paleontologists do and how they work, but it detracts from the story. There is a difference between ensuring readers understand enough to appreciate what is happening versus over-educating your readers to the detriment of the story, a line Ms. Evan crosses once too often.

Another nitpicky issue I have with The Bone Wars is the book synopsis from the publisher. It makes it seems like we will be bouncing back and forth across timelines and that there is a connection between the three. Except there are no three timelines. There aren't even two timelines. Everything happens in the present; the only thing we see of the past is through letters beginning each chapter. The book's synopsis makes it seem like a more complicated story than it is, and the fact that it is not is disappointing.

Then there is the issue I have with a sixteen-year-old leading three experts in their field around the globe in a bone hunt. Even if the sixteen-year-old is a prodigy, the parent in me struggles with this idea and its execution. Molly is not a prodigy. She is simply a girl obsessed with becoming a paleontologist who happens to be with the right people at the wrong time.

Despite all that, I thought The Bone Wars was nerdy goodness. I was one of those kids who wanted to be a paleontologist, and my son's obsession with dinosaurs made other kids' obsessions pale in comparison. I also think dinosaurs and dinosaur bones bring out the kid in all of us as we marvel at these giant creatures who were alive millions of years ago. So, I enjoyed running around with Molly, Derek, Sean, and others. I had fun picturing each dinosaur mentioned and thoroughly appreciated the idea posited that dragons did exist once upon a time. I don't think I enjoyed it enough to continue the series, but it was a fun, nerdy reading experience.

“Over time, those bones were slowly replaced with minerals. Petrified into immortality. Transformed into the real treasure. A treasure that was often hiding in plain sight, and could be overlooked if you didn’t know what you were looking for. It was the kind of treasure that people kill for. Fossils.”

The Bone Wars by Erin Evan
Publication Date: April 11, 2023


QUICK SUMMARY 🖊️
A sixteen year old intern working in the Badlands of Montana uncovers a strange fossil that no one has ever seen before.

FINAL THOUGHTS 💭
Thank you to @NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book started out promising enough, not that interesting but I felt like it could be good… but that’s where it ended for me. I was so bored I didn’t even retain anything from this book, was it good? Was it bad? Boring was more the word than anything.

The Bone Wars: Book Review | Author: Erin S. Evan

This book is resurrecting my childhood fascination with 🐉 &🦕🦖!
Dinosaurs! Dragons! Palaeontology! Natural History! Rogue Fossil Hunters! Fossil Pirates! Secret Societies! — this book has everything–and I’m here for it.

<<While the hunt was thrilling, for me, it was really about something else. Something deeper. For me, it was the endgame of finding that new, revolutionary fossil. An ancient truth hidden right under our feet.>>

I whipped through this book very quickly. It was an engaging and fun romp as the characters began their adventure in Montana, then flew to the UK, Germany, Italy, and ultimately Japan. It was a good choice for Evan to switch character perspectives so that the story was told from multiple points of view–it helped present a fuller picture, and better allowed for misdirection and/or misunderstandings between characters (and the reader) to play out.

<<Dracosauria.
Draco was Latin for dragon, and Sauria was derived from the Greek word sours, for lizard or reptile. Dragon Lizard. Kind of superfluous, but the name repetition did evoke a visual of primordial terror.>>

I absolutely loved all of the global dragon mythology and folklore that was expertly weaved into the established timelines of palaeography’s study of natural history. Geomythology and Comparative Mythology are fascinating subjects on their own, let alone tied into palaeontology as has been done here. Additionally, I especially enjoyed Evan’s way of highlighting the oft over-looked, but equally significant, contributions of women.

<<Paleo could be a difficult place. Undergrad, grad school. Post-grad, finding a steady job. There weren’t a lot of jobs in this field. Money could be very tight, and competition for funds cutthroat. And Jurassic Park and its sequels created a lot of interest in this field. There were a lot of new, hungry players. Many of these new palaeontologists were willing to do whatever it took to make their name in the field.>>

Evan clearly portrayed some important aspects of academia:
- How thoroughly academics and scientists require good solid evidence, rather than circumstantial fragments in order to solidly demonstrate any addition to or deviation from established theories or timelines.
- The cut-throat competitive nature of academia–intellectual theft and plagiarism are common occurrences, unfortunately.
- That inter-disciplinary and inter-global collaboration yields a far richer, a more diverse and inclusive, and a much more holistic picture, rather than a closed and single-minded pursuit of a theory, belief, or agenda which serves only a small minority of people.

I’m looking forward to continuing to read the Pirates of Montana series when the next book is released.

I’d like to thank NetGalley, Inkshares, and Erin S. Evan for providing access to an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The premise of this book sounded very intriguing, but when I started reading it I quickly realised that this book just wasn't for me.

It was alright, but it was very academical. There was a lot of paleontology and dinosaur terms used that I didn't know and I didn't feel like all of it got explained enough for someone new to this subject.

However if you are into paleontology and dinosaurs this would probably be a really great book for you. I think it was written very well and the characters were convincing.

Molly has always looked down at the soil and collected rocks and more. Her father was proud of her and take her into adults party bragging about her digging in the oks. The adults don’t understand. However this the beginning of a professional life looking for fossils. When Molly discovers on her internship an unknown fossil. world turns upside down. The famous fossil-hunter Derek Farnsworth
Or renowned paleontologist Dr. Sean Oliphant can place it in a recognized dinosaur family. Why? What is so unusual about it? When the fossil is stolen, Molly and the other go on a world wide search for it. It is full of adventures for them. Will they find it?

The author has written a marvelous novel to read. You learn about dinosaurs and some history. It is a fun story and a thriller. I loved reading about Molly as I found her to be a fascinating character. Just thought I would let you be aware that this is the volume of “The pirates of Montana.” I’m looking forward to the next book!

“No carnivorous dinosaur, even a T-rex, ever had teeth like this. At least no carnivore I’d ever heard of. And I think this is even bigger than a T-rex. And its bones were as black as night.”

The Bone Wars follows 16-year-old Molly, Ph.D. student Sarah, fossil hunter Derek Farnsworth, and paleontologist Dr. Sean Oliphant as they work together to unravel a scientific mystery. During her summer internship in the heart of the Montana badlands, Molly stumbles upon a gigantic fossil tucked away in a cave. No one on the dig has seen anything like it—Molly has discovered a new species. Shortly after the discovery, the fossil is stolen. When an anonymous note signed “S.V.” arrives at Derek’s warehouse with photos of historical paleontologists holding fossils that look exactly like the one that was stolen, the team realizes they might have uncovered a secret that is centuries in the making.

As a person who has loved dinosaur stories like Jurassic Park and Land Before Time my whole life, I was super excited to pick this novel up. I recommend The Bone Wars specifically to anyone who is intrigued by dinosaurs and wants to learn more about them. It is very clear that Evans is an expert in the field of geology and paleontology. At least 50% of this book was filled with vivid descriptions of fossils and the scientific classifications of different dinosaurs and other creatures that lived during this time period. While this definitely makes the novel very science-heavy, that is great for readers who are interested in learning more about this field of study. I know I was stopping every other page to look up dinosaur images and fossils on Google so I could visualize Evans’ descriptions even better. If you are just looking for a mystery or an adventure and you don’t have the patience for a lot of scientific descriptions, then this may not be the story for you. However, if you’re obsessed with dinosaurs and want to learn more about them while enjoying a fast-paced story, this would be a perfect read to pick up.