When the author announced this book, I was immediately intrigued. Sapphic rivals to lovers, in a fantasy no less! I also enjoyed the music aspect of it. Sofi and the Bone Song was a gorgeous tale of the joy that comes out of loving your art, not suffering for it.

Her entire life, Sofi has been practicing and training to become the apprentice of her father, who is a Musik. When her father is finally called to take an apprentice, Sofi is ready to step up. However, at auditions, Lara performs perfectly, despite never having played the lute before. She is awarded the apprenticeship, but Sofi is convinced that she used magic in her music, which is illegal. When Sofi’s father suddenly dies, she attempts to uncover Lara’s magic under the guise of training her. Over time, though, the two of them grow closer and learn the true price of good art, as well as learning about the secrets Sofi’s father kept from her.

Sofi’s character arc was very poignant. She’s spent her entire life adhering to her father’s rigid schedule in order to become a better musician. When she doesn’t get the apprenticeship and her father dies, she no longer knows how to live her life. Without music, who is she? Over time, however, Lara helps her realize that she doesn’t need to suffer for good art; rather, her genuine love and passion can inspire her and drive her to enjoy something she’s held herself back from.

The worldbuilding was interesting. Magic is readily available through the use of Papers, which allow people to cast simple spells like lighting a fire or putting on a glamour. Music is considered to be pure; only the five Musiks are allowed to compose and perform original works and cannot use magic. The country is closed off from the rest of the world due to their use of magic and exists in an eternal winter. The Musiks are the only ones allowed to leave the country and only take one apprentice in their lives, which is why the apprenticeship is so prestigious.

I thought the romance was cute. Sofi initially hates Lara because she unknowingly stole her apprenticeship and because Sofi is convinced she used magic to do so. As they spend more time together though, she can’t help but be endeared by Lara’s joyful and caring personality. I liked how both of them encouraged the other one to grow, with Sofi teaching Lara more about music and Lara showing Sofi that you can make good art out of love and not suffering.

Overall, Sofi and the Bone Song was a beautiful story of magic and music and how love can inspire both. I liked the characters, especially the protagonist’s journey. You should look into Sofi and the Bone Song if you’re searching for a standalone fantasy story about music and/or you enjoyed the author’s debut book!

Sofi and the Bone Song
by Adrienne Tooley

SOFI & THE BONE SONG is a standalone fantasy about a young musician whose plan for her future falls apart when another girl wins the title she’s been training her whole life for. It’s got magic, music, taverns, an endless winter, sapphic romance, and an exploration and dismantling of the idea that people should suffer for their art.

This book was received from the Author, and Publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Adrienne Tooley’s newest release is a lush and musical YA fantasy

Sofi life long dream is to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a Musik. In the Kingdom of Aell, there are only five musicians in the whole country who hold a special license to preform and write original songs.

Never ending winter, the Kingdom of Aell, is blanked with snow and ice. Sofi has stringently dedicated her life to music and her goal to finally becoming a Musik like her father is abruptly halted when she is usurped by an unknown beautiful girl named Lara. That dream comes shattering to a halt, and her long countless hours of practicing has not resulted in the outcome she wished for.

Struggling with this epic loss and reeling in her father’s passing, she seeks to prove that Lara on the day of competition used illegal magic. Sofi steps up, and offers to accompany Lara on her tour and write her songs. Hoping to catch Laura and prove to herself and everyone else that she is not forthright. Sofi will allow Lara to take the credit in exchange Lara will make her her own apprentice. As the two girls spend more time together a close and budding relationship flourishes.

A coming of age emotional journey, readers will be given glimpse of Sofia’s past and see that it was completely taken up by intense training and she had no real childhood to speak of. She will come to turns what her father had been secretly holding from her, along with who her mother was.

Adrienne Tooley, has written a beautiful, vivid and established world with fully fleshed out characters, along with a exceptional magical system. A budding sapphic romance that was lovely. The magic and political world system was easy to follow.
This book deals with a very realistic ongoing topic, and I found it was depicted in a thoughtful, emotional way.

A YA fantasy that has substance, with a clear message, one of self love, and excepting who you are. To forge a new path when the one you thought you wanted is redirected.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Childrens Publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title before publishing!

This book was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The premise is fun and unique: Sofi lives in a land of endless winter, where magic has been touted as dangerous yet necessary to saving their land. In order to forge new relationships with the surrounding kingdoms after a massive and magic field mishap that led to destruction and injury during the ruling of the last king, Sofi’s kingdom has put fourth Musik’s. These musicians will work solely to perfect their craft without magic, with hopes that their art will bring the kingdoms together. Sofi, the daughter of a current Musik, has trained and dreamed all her life of filling her fathers shoes, only to find herself usurped by a beautiful girl with a startling and unnatural-seeming talent, so much so that is.. almost like magic.

There were definitely a lot of high points to this book. Adrienne Tooley is undoubtedly an artful writer, as her prose was flowing and beautiful and poignant. She absolutely transports you to the world of her story. The romantic bits are similarly wonderful & touching. Sofi and Lara are both very realistic characters with flaws of their own, and you know undoubtedly what they are caring most about.

The story, for me, left a bit to be desired. The plot was a little flimsy, and I often found myself thinking “Sofi could very obviously solve this problem with a relatively simple thing.” It felt like she made decisions out of a dramatized sense of importance, and it really felt like a lot of purposeful moving along of the plot without much critical thought. It also felt like we spent a lot of time… walking around, and doing nothing. The real “problem” of the story isn’t even revealed til over halfway through the book, at which point there is a nice, witchy payoff. But it still left me wanting in a big way.

This being said, there is certainly a place out there for this fantasy. It is in no way an epic, action and magic filled fantasy, it’s more of a cozy, picturesque and romantic, witchy fantasy. The romance and prose really did stand out as the highest points. I can see someone getting enough pleasure out of that to enjoy this, it might just not be for me. I am ultimately rating this 3.5 stars.

*Thank you to S&S, Adrienne Tooley and Netgalley for providing me with an E-ARC of "Sofi and the Bone Song" in exchange for an honest review *

This was everything!! Sapphic fantasy? Check! Music used as magic? Check! Witty banter? Check! The cover is gorgeous as well!

Sofi has been training all her life to replace her father as Musik, but when beautiful, untrained Lara wins the role instead, she suspects there may be illegal magic involved.

A long while ago I read about the Polgár sisters, a trio of Hungarian chess prodigies who were very carefully reared by their father to eat, sleep, and breath chess. I found myself simultaneously fascinated and horrified at this single-minded cultivation of genius, because it sounded like a terrible thing to do to children, robbing them of a way of their childhoods.

As I read this book, I wondered if the author had also read about them, because the relationship between Sofi and her father is this precisely, only taken to extremes. After suffering for her art all her life, physically and emotionally harming herself to heighten her talent, Sofi is horrified to lose the apprenticeship to Lara, but she can’t help but admire her as well.

There’s the romance between Lara and Sofi, and a mystery around magic as well, but what really stood out to me in this standalone fantasy is the themes of creation and suffering. As a writer myself (… no comment on my talent, of course) I was really interested in how Sofi approached her composing, and there is a lot of commentary on the love of creation, and how one needn’t despair for it to be worthwhile, a lesson Sofi slowly learns. The author is a musician herself, and her knowledge of the field clearly came through in the book.

Of course there were flaws. I thought the world-building was a touch convoluted, with the different kinds of magic, the endless winter, the closed borders of the country and the Musiks as ambassadors. I wish we could have gotten to know Lara better, and I thought Sofi’s unlearning of her father’s teachings progressed in unrealistic leaps and bounds. She is a character who would be served well by therapy!

So why five stars? Quite simply, though this is a fantasy, I felt that the focus was on Sofi’s emotional journey as a musician and a girl, and that I thought was handled incredibly well. I felt myself struck to the quick over and over again emotionally as Sofi reevaluates her relationship with music, though she loves it all the while. As a person who loves her own creative outlet, it struck a chord with me, and I feel that it will similarly strike a chord with many readers.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Music, magic, and secrets.This story is set in a world where magic and music are two separate things and there are only a few musicians (five) who are licensed t compose and perform original songs. In this kingdom, there is endless winter and magic is accessible to all except there is one rule that forbids magic from being part of music. Sofi’s father is one of the five muscians in the country who is a Musik, and she has trained all her life, given up everything, suffered, just to be the next Musik. Except all that goes down the drawn when during the audition a stranger appears suddenly, a beautiful girl named Lara who doesn’t even know how to plate a lute or what she is doing suddenly performs for the audition and enchants everyone. Sofi senses something is off, there is zero possibility Lara did it without magic. Lara has stolen everything from Sofi, and that very night her father dies leaving Sofi a single letter apologizing but never telling her for what. The next day Lara shows up at Sofi’s door to be her father’s apprentice but Sofi strikes up a deal since Lara has no clue what she is doing and she can’t even compose a song. In order to secure her position Lara has to go on a tour and compose and sing her own original music, Sofi offers to write her the songs and let her take the credit in exchange Lara will make her her own apprentice and let Sofi become a music all the while Sofi will be watching Lara to discover if she is a witch and what magic she did. But the more time they spend on the journey the more Sofi begins to question her own family and the way her father raised her, the way he stripped her of being and forced her to normalize suffering for her art. Sofi and Lara begin to see each other for who they truly are and what music means to both of them. But the more Sofi uncovers about her father’s secrets, who her mother truly was, and what Sofi is, and what potential she has and the power locked away in her she will begin to question everything she has ever been taught and what her future means to her. This was part sapphic romance, part music journey, part magic and dark family secrets. While I wasn’t as invested in the romance between Sofi and Lara, I just couldn’t believe the chemistry or believe that they would actually work as a couple, I did enjoy seeing Sofi grow as a person. I particularly enjoyed Sofi seeing the abuse her father put her through for what it was, it wasn’t training to make her a better musician, it wasn’t out of love, it was out of fear, it was out of cowardice, and what he did to her as a child, and continued to do to her and force her to normalize was unacceptable and I am proud of her for being able to see it and understanding that there is more , that there is something else for her and a different way to live. Its a story about someone who loves music and the sacrifices she is willing to make, and about survival and strength and reclaiming something for yourself.

*Thanks Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing, Margaret K. McElderry Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I requested Sofi and the Bone Song because it's described as a sapphic rivals YA fantasy. This book has a map, so I already knew I would love it. This book was queer, it was fantastical, and it was musical. I read it in one sitting, it flowed so well. It's told between the present and flashbacks to Sofi's past, where we get insight into why she is who she is now. Sofi lives in a world where only five musicians called Musik get to write and sing. Her father is one and looking for an apprentice. She's trained her whole life to be it, but a girl named Lara whose never even played before shows up out of nowhere and takes her future. To make matters worse, her father dies that night. Sofi suspects she has something to do it, and follows her as she travels the kingdom making her introductions as the new Musik. Along the way they just might catch feelings for each other. Also, the kingdom has been in an endless winter for years. That gave me Frozen meets This Coven Won't Break Vibes. I also loved the songs in this book, they were beautiful. Would recommend if you're looking for a sapphic fantasy read!
Tw for emotional abuse, manipulation, blackmail, self-harm, etc.

A beautiful story of healing hurts and righting wrongs, SOFI AND THE BONE SONG is a sapphic tale of music and growing beyond the shadows of one's parents.

I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I requested this book but it definitely delivered a super cute romance story with many *many* heavy topics, such as toxic relationships with our families, how we can also be toxic, what it means to be a musician, and how healing is a long process. It's a story about love and fear and I really enjoyed it!

While there were parts of this book I really enjoyed, overall the story felt both rushed and slow. The romance between the two characters wasn’t particularly believable, though I did love the growth from Sofi throughout. Real rating: 2.5/5 stars

This book is definitely going to be in my Top 10 for 2022 list! Adrienne has solidified being an auto-buy author for me. The story is such a unique concept, with complex characters and "enemies-to-lovers."

Incredible!! The world created for Sofi and the Bone Song was so unique and interesting, touching upon music and magic, as well as love and abuse in ways that made it difficult to put down. Sofi is so likable in her self-centered grumpiness, endearing despite--or perhaps because of--having no practice with being a human person. Genuinely and whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy, sapphic love stories, or great tales of people rising above the hardships of their environment to make beautiful art in the darkest and coldest of times.

Tooley really knows how to write two girls on a journey well! While this one felt more like Anastasia over Studio Ghibli due to the setting, it still highly resonated with me. I loved the dedication to music, the interesting dynamics between characters, and the plot twist at the end. A great read!

I’m so thankful I got an arc of this because I am so enamored with this book. All the talk of music and love and magic was amazing and lovely and just great. I loved the characters and the world building, everything was just so well done and yeah. I definitely recommend reading this once it comes out!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

While I did find portions of this book a little predictable, that didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the story. I loved how the music was woven into pretty much every facet, and I also loved the magic system.. The romance was also super cute, of course. I am ALWAYS here for some sapphic fantasy romance.

I really need to go back and read the author’a first book now! It definitely got bumped up a couple spaces on my TBR.

Thank you, Margaret K. McElderry Books, for allowing me to read Sofi and the Bone Song early!

I am so sorry to say I did not particularly like or dislike this book. It fell in the middle of the road for me and that is why I am giving it three stars on here, but I will not be rating it on Goodreads. It had a mix of aspects I enjoyed and parts I didn't, which balanced each other out and made the reading, I dare say, flavorless...

That said, I would still very much recommend it to students (and I will pick up Tooley's debut to see if I like that one better)!