Amazing, this book was so beautiful. I did not expect the direction that it went and really enjoyed every part of the story. I also loved that the author included members of the LGBTQ+ into the story and no backlash to their love choices.

A cozy Young Adult fantasy, perfect for a winter read, with music and song.

This is my first book in adult reading memory that is about music and magic! Sofi is the daughter of the one of the Musiks of the kingdom and she has been training all her life with her lute to one day take her father’s place as a Musik in the king’s court. Her training has been strict and unforgiving and in many ways, Sofi herself has turned to suffering, thinking it makes her craft better.

We started with Sofi, the young girl, who had a purpose, a goal in mind, a career. But then she didn’t get it. A journey around the kingdom with the girl who took her revered spot meant confronting her upbringing, beliefs and biases.

This book gave me lot to reflect on: from what it means to do rigorous practice, face existential crisis and deal with broken dreams.

3.75 stars rounding up

This is a slow fantasy with a beautiful world that holds magic in the paper but keeps the power of music separate. With a winter that has lasted 17 years and no end in sight, Musiks are the only folks permitted to go beyond the Country gates. Sofi has strived and worked to become her father's apprentice, but when her dreams are stolen, and world-altering truths rock her world, she will have to find the strength to work through these trials.

This was talked up to be a LOT more sapphic than it was, and that disappointed me that there was barely any. He focused on Sofi learning through her abusive upbringing and fighting her prejudices. It was a good fantasy!

DNF: although Sofi and the Bone Song seemed incredibly interesting, it just didn't catch my attention and i had to DNF.

I really enjoyed this one! I love a music-based magic system, and really enjoyed the direction the author took with it. The characters were well fleshed out and really brought this story to life. All in all, a very enjoyable read!

DNF @ 66%

I‘ve been forcing myself to read this and it has been a slog to get through. Nothing is happening and the characters are so dry. Not the book for me!

A retelling of one of the nineteenth century’s queerest poems, Tori Bovalino’s new novel Not Good for Maidens (June 2022) is a fast-paced paranormal adventure-thriller that quickly became one of my favourite books of the year.



The novel adapts and retells Christina Rossetti’s famous Victorian poem, “Goblin Market” (1862). Not Good for Maidens follows Lou, the teenage daughter of a family of women who are intimately familiar with the twisted and dangerous corridors of the goblin market. Although her mother and her aunt have done their best to shield Lou from their haunted past, history inevitably repeats itself when Lou’s teenage aunt Neela is kidnapped and taken to the market. Although Lou has only read about the manipulative offerings of fruit and treasure, she knows how tempting the goblin market can be before it turns deadly. But Lou quickly realizes that she is the only one who can save Neela by learning the spells, songs, and tricks that will allow her to outsmart the goblins, enter the market, and retrieve Neela safely. Safely, that is, if Lou can manage to pull her out before the market disappears for the year and Neela is lost forever.



In short, this book was fabulous. If you’ve read and loved Rossetti’s original poem, then this retelling seems as though it’s been a long time coming. Bovalino balances the nuances of the poem with her own original narrative, crafting a literary world that is both fantastical and deeply rooted in the bonds between women. The text highlights and explores the power of female friendship and queerness, and I loved the way the novel seamlessly wove a history and a fantasy world around the goblin market.



Even if you have yet to read Rossetti’s work, this book will appeal. The world and the writing are immersive, with a lot of vivid detail. The characters are unique and develop alongside the supernatural world, and Bovalino’s rich descriptions really bring the goblin market to life. I loved that this novel highlighted the queerness of the original poem by centering queer lives in the narrative and by representing queer identities in nearly every character. This was such a refreshing take that thoroughly impressed me.



I can’t recommend Not Good for Maidens enough as the perfect read for fans of queer paranormal fiction. It promises to be one of the most talked about queer novels of the summer.

Review goes up at the Lesbrary June 13th.

If Sofi and the Bone Song were a song, it would be the kind of song you could listen to on repeat forever and ever. This book was honestly such a breath of fresh air, there was nothing about it I didn’t like. The plot was good and well written, the pacing was fantastic, I loved the magic system, and Sofi was such a compelling main character. I also love the way the chapters were structured into the six days(if you’ve read it you’ll understand) the sapphic romance was so cute and sweet, and Sofi was a total lesbian disaster, which I loved. I too, panic around pretty women. Plus the romance was rivals to lovers? Except the rivalry was totally one sided, I don’t think Lara thought of Sofi as her rival, but Sofi absolutely did. Overall, I have literally nothing negative to say about this book, I adored it. 5/5 stars

A world where only Musiks have the ability to play instruments, Sofi dreams of becoming her fathers’s apprentice and finally playing his coveted lute. She’s trained her entire life for this, but when death unexpectedly claims her father, and his newly crowned apprentice doesn’t have a clue what she’s supposed to do, Sofi finds herself in a whirlwind of trying to find the cause of her father’s death, learn more about her mother and desperately doing her best to not let her feelings get in the way.

I was absolutely shocked when I was approved for an advanced copy of Sofi and the Bone Song and for good reason. I read this in just two sittings, pulled into the world by the first few pages. Adrienne Tooley has such a distinct writing style, which added to the mystery and characters in such a way that I didn’t want to put the book down. Magic, music and fantasy books are some of my favourite things, and this book combined them into such a lovely package.

One thing that I did find to take away from the magical elements was the use of modern names for things. There were a few parts in which the characters use tarps or other similar things that sort of broke the rhythm of the book. Other than that I loved Sofi and the Bone Song and gave it a 4.5 star rating.

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and the author for an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I don't know how to feel about this book. Part of me wants to say that it wasn't bad or is at least middle-ground, but a slightly larger part of me acknowledges that there wasn't really anything about this book that stood out to me or that I particularly enjoyed.

If anything, what comes through the most in this review are all on the negative side rather than the positive.

Let's get into the details.


__________________________________


WRITING:

I have no comments or complaints about the writing as I found it easy to get through. The one thing I want to say is that I liked how the flashbacks had a grey page instead of the standard white.


PLOT:

The synopsis for the book pretty much tells you all you need to know about the setup for the plot, so I will skip past that and go straight to when the journey starts. The set-up happens rather quickly, and what happens next is about 100 pages of travelling and performing and...not much else. Once the pace did kick up a bit I, unfortunately, found my interest waning.

It took a bit until secrets started unravelling, and I am not entirely convinced that it was done in the best way. Parts of the mystery were hinted at throughout the book, so when they were eventually revealed I wasn't very surprised or astounded by the development. I also simply wasn't a fan of how Sofi dealt with what she was uncovered either as it then caused her to make some very poor decisions that she shouldn't have come out cleanly from.

One huge missed opportunity for this book came in right at the end, but I won't go too much into detail about it in case it contains spoilers. At the end of the book, there was a very good message that was brought forth but, the issue with that is that said message wasn't focused on throughout the book. I think it would have made for a very good core theme for the book if it was implemented earlier on. It wasn't though, which was a shame.


WORLD-BUILDING:

First of all, this book has a gorgeous map which is always a huge bonus. But moving on, the world-building in this book was not overly complex but was suited for a standalone novel. I'll start by talking about the Guild.

In this world, there is a Guild where Musiks, a form of musician, conduct their profession through. As a Musik, they are required to travel through the land composing songs and performing to the masses before retiring and passing their knowledge and title to an apprentice. I liked the idea of a Guild for music, but I don't think the idea was pushed to its full potential.

Another issue I had involving Musiks, was that it didn't seem logical to me that Musiks were able to just compose and flawlessly perform an entire epic, consisting of both instrumental and vocals, in a very short period of time. Composing a song with 10+ verses is one thing, but being able to memorize it perfectly even if they are a prodigy was rather far-fetched.

Moving on, the magic system in this world comes in two different forms. The most common form would be through the use of Papers. Papers, as the name suggests, are magic-infused papers that grant the user a finite ability depending on what was written on said paper. At first, I thought it was a bit of an odd magic system, but it is interesting how magic was used as a commodity. I do wish though that it was covered a lot more in the book than it was.

The other half of the magic system comes in the form of actual witches, who are able to use magic without the use of Papers. Witches took more of a backseat in this, and I wished they were covered just a bit more so we could learn more about them.

One thing that did confuse me a bit regarding the magic system, was how magic and Papers were viewed by the general people. The use of magic was prohibited in the Guild, and witches kept themselves scarce, but Papers were commonly used so there wasn't a clear explanation on whether or not it was safe to use magic openly.


CHARACTERS:

The characters were the biggest flaw in this book for me as I either didn't like the character or felt like they were a bit dull.

Starting with Sofi, I knew that I probably wasn't going to like her when warning signs were flashing at me right from the beginning. When we are initially getting to know her, someone mentioned that they have heard rumours about her temper, which was a very bad sign for me. Her temper ended up being the least of my worries, sadly, because Sofi was overall a self-centered person with a superiority complex.

Sofi's personality and mentality were all due to her father, who somehow managed to be even worse than her. He, to put it lightly, was manipulative and was not winning the father of the year award any time soon. Despite knowing how his views and teachings shaped her, she was still really hard to put up with as she didn't undergo a lot of growth in this. It was a struggle having to read about her not realizing the extent of the damage her father's brainwashing did to her.

Moving on, let's talk about Lara, the apprenticeship stealer and Sofi's love interest. I had no issues with Lara's personality, but something was missing from her character development as she felt like a bit of a hollow shell. She didn't have a lot of presence even though she was the deuteragonist, and I wasn't convinced that she felt like a fully actualized person.

As for Sofi and Lara's relationship, it was...okay? It developed at a decent pace, despite the fact that Sofi went from being immediately enamoured with Lara, to reluctantly sticking with her. However, they didn't really get to know each other much aside from through music. Also, I didn't like that the entire time they were getting closer, Sofi was lying to her and had a hidden agenda. In all honesty, I thought that Lara should have just walked away from Sofi because she was not good company.

On the last note, one topic I wanted to briefly talk about was Jakko, a character that was pushed to the side and was largely forgotten. Jakko is introduced as Sofi's best friend and was studying under her father alongside her. In the beginning, however, Jakko ends up leaving for unknown reasons, and I thought it was just a huge missed opportunity because he could have made for an interesting character if he wasn't introduced and then thrown to the side immediately.


CONCLUDING THOUGHTS:

Books that incorporate music and magic are always interesting to me, but the promise this book could have had was overshadowed by unlikable characters and poor decisions.

If you are also intrigued by this book because of the musical element, I would suggest you give We are the Song (another upcoming book), or any anime/manga with music as well.

This was also suggested for fans of An Enchantment of Ravens, but I would completely ignore that because it really isn't similar (at all). If you wanted to pick this up because you enjoyed that book, I would suggest A Forgery of Roses instead.

Thank you, NetGalley, Margaret K. McElderry Books, and Simon & Schuster Canada for allowing me to review this book.

I really liked this! I had already lobved this author's first book so it was no surprise this one was to my taste as well. I hadn't read fantasy in a while so it was nice to get back into it with this book, as it wasn't high fantasy or anything too complex. The romance was super cute too, and most of the characters likable. I would recommend if you're looking for a ya sapphic read!

After a few months of reading mostly romance, I was ready to jump back into fantasy and this book was an incredible first dive back into the genre! It’s full of beautiful imagery and emotion, as well as sweet sapphic representation.

The characters are complex and imperfect in the best way. The development is stunning and deep, just like the story itself.

As a musical theatre nerd, I loved the fact that music is so special and important in this world. Not to mention the gorgeous lyrics that we get from the characters. Sofi’s songs especially were beautiful and I loved reading them- it was like poetry even though I’m sure Sofi would hate that comparison lol.

The world-building wasn’t too intense or dense so it was really easy to slip into this world with Sofi and the other musicians. I read the book over the course of 2 days and I completely devoured it because I didn’t want to put the book down!

Overall, this fantasy is full of music, mystery, secrets, and love. I highly highly recommend this one! It was fun to read, sometimes heartbreaking, but in the end it’s a charming read!

Sofi and the Bone Song was so magical and was such a cozy read. I was reading it while it was snowing out and it was perfect! The writing and the lyrics of the songs were STUNNING. I loved both characters so much, Lara and Sofi. This book had the grumpy/sunshine trope which I love. It’s also sapphic rivals to lovers. Sofi was an interesting character and most of the time, my heart broke for her. Throughout the book, the way she’s dealing with emotional abuse and trying to overcome it made me just want to give her a big hug.

Sofi and the Bone Song by Adrienne Tooley follows Sofi. Her father is a Musik, one of five musicians allowed to compose and perform original songs. Anti-magic laws are in place to be sure that music remains untouched by magic and remains a true art. Sofi has trained to take over her father’s role ever since she was a child. She prides herself in her perfect playing of the lute. When the day of the audition comes, Sofi is faced with some unexpected competition in Lara, who has never before played the lute. Lara seemingly magically enchants the judges and wins the title. When Sofi’s father dies later that day, she is determined to prove Lara is using magic in her performances. Sofi and Lara consequently spend a lot more time together, and Sofi begins to doubt her assumptions. Sofi still wants to win back the title she trained for, but secrets from her past and her feelings for Lara keep getting in the way.

I really liked how this book dealt with the idea that the artist must suffer for the art. The magic system was also very interesting.