A very interesting sleeping beauty retelling with wolf shifters ruling the world.

This is very different than my usual reads, and I really enjoyed it. Calla was able to explore their idea of gender with the help of Ora.

Tropes:

Found family
Who did this to you?

whole book is a whirl wind of adventure and self discovery. After being raised In secret and in the shadows of her twin sister and being her protector, she finds out her mate is her sister’s betrothed, and a witch attacking the wedding which sent her to run off after the witch. After meeting new friend who help her travel across the country to get her sister’s curse broken. The whole story is very detailed and a little spicy, and she learns who she wants to be on the way to save her sister all while finally being honest with her true mate.

⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!!!

❥ 𝐹𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑀𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠
❥ 𝑊𝑜𝑙𝑓 𝑆ℎ𝑖𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠
❥ 𝑁𝑜𝑛-𝐵𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
❥ 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙

Let me start off by saying this book hit every mark that it was supposed to. It was fine. Just ‘fine’ though. There was nothing new here except that the main characters were wolves. It felt very ‘copy and paste’ from every other romantasy i’ve read recently.

The twins, Calla and Briar, are hidden away for twenty years after a sorceress, Sawyn, kills their parents. Sawyn needs all of the heirs to the throne dead so there wouldn’t be any other legitimate claims for the throne, and search’s for Briar, not knowing Calla even exists. Briar is forced into an arranged marriage with a neighboring kingdoms prince (that Calla is childhood friends with) to hopefully get her homeland back one day. The sorceress comes back to lay a sleeping curse on another unassuming victim. Calla then leaves on a journey to break the curse and get her kingdom back.

And this is where it lost me. The angst between Calla and her new found mate felt so tedious I started skimming through their parts. They had supposedly been friends since childhood and I felt none of it. They didn’t act like best friends or childhood friends at all. Which sucked because I love that.

I didn’t love any of the characters. There was one character that I at least liked and that was Ora. Ora was really cool, I liked their vibes. They felt very fresh and new as i’ve never read about another character quite like them. Other than Ora though? NOPE. I forgot most of their names immediately after reading them.

I’m actually really upset I didn’t like it more. I can’t even exactly pinpoint why I didn’t like it. It’s written well, it has THE tropes, a little spice and the antagonist seemed very formidable. The whole middle of the book just felt so boring that i found myself WASHING DISHES instead of reading. It just missed it for me which is very unfortunate, but maybe this book will check all of the boxes for someone else!

A beautiful romantasy sleeping beauty retelling with wolves and fated mates. A great story with good world-building and a journey of self discovery.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC!

4.0 ⭐️

This Sleeping Beauty with a twist, wolf fantasy is everything I am looking for in a book. The main character, Calla, goes through a beautiful journey of self- discovery and gender exploration for the first time when they must save their twin sister. On Calla's journey they discover their found family in an unlikely place. With the help of their fated mate they break all stereotypes of who the pack thinks they should be. Grae may be one of my new favorite book boyfriends. He is so supportive and the spice scenes are fire. If all of these tropes appeal to you then I highly recommend this book.

I read this ARC for honest feedback

This book was action-packed. I really enjoyed the story, and cannot wait for more Calla and Grae.

If you enjoy fantasy books, this is definitely a read for you. Wolves, fairies, sorceresses, it has it all. There's also some spicy love scenes as well, making it a well rounded story. I look forward to more from this author.

A River of Golden Bones is probably one of the best fated-mates novels I’ve read, to date.

This is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, only the FMC is not the “sleeping beauty.” Our FMC is Calla, her twin Briar is the sleeping beauty of this tale. Oh! How or where to even begin a proper review??

There is so much going on and so many layers to this novel. It will be near impossible to review without spoilers. This tale has many tropes, fated-mates, touch her and die, found family, to name a few and there is LGBTQ+ heavily represented as well. Calla is the FMC and she is such an incredibly strong heroine, not just physically but mentally and emotionally too. Grae is the MMC and he is the perfect mate to Calla. They’ve known each other since they were small pups. Calla and her twin Briar were rescued from their mothers deathbed, saved by a faery as their mothers dying wish. The faery raised them in secret, for twenty years. The plan was for Briar, The Crimson Princess, to marry Prince Grae and after the marriage, the world would find out that there was a secret twin. They would take the throne of their land, Olmdere. That was the plan….

But plans change.

This is such an adventurous tale, with beautifully written main characters. Fated-mates and while that theme is apparent in this novel, it is not the main focus.(I love that about this book!) We watch Calla and Grae grow both as individuals and in their relationship together. The cast of support characters is long but they are also written spectacularly and they really bring this story to life. There is mystery and folklore, magic systems, werewolves, shifting and pack life. There is pain and suffering, heartbreak, grieving and also healing. There are multiple relationships and there is a love story to rival all love stories. There is also plenty of action and mystical creatures and sorceresses to be slain. The found family trope is strong in this book and I was here for all of it.

This first novel has created the perfect set up for a sequel. I will definitely be watching for the next installment as I am fully invested and am ready for the war with Damrienn. Ugh! This was such a great novel!!

I received an advanced reader copy and am leaving my review voluntarily.

If Mulford writes it, I will read it. I am LOVING the Five Crowns of Okrith series so when I heard about this I knew it needed to be on my TBR. Thank god it is because damn, I enjoyed this book immensely.

This was a really fresh take on a sleeping beauty retelling with so many twists, some that I expected and some that I did not. Calla, our main character, has grown up in her twin sisters shadow. Grae surprised me, I liked him a lot and his fierce loyalty was something I loved.

I don't want to give too much away but if you like Fated Mates, childhood friends to lovers, wolf shifters, diverse cast of side characters and spicy romantacy then this book is for you. I highly recommend it and will be itching for the next book!

Shifter romance retelling of sleeping beauty with all the fantasy romance tropes...and I liked it.

Mulford crafts a beautiful story of finding home in your people, crafting you identity, and fighting for something beyond ones-self. My FAVORITE part of this book was Calla's self-discovery and the queer representation. For all of us who thought we had to like pink because we were girls or thought we couldn't play touch football with the boys at recess because we weren't one of them, we have a mirror in Calla and a friend in Grae.

My only critique that took me out of the book, beside the use of the word wanton (it was only like 4 times but that seems at least 3 too many), was that acts of internalized misogyny, prejudice, and homophobia were only obvious, never subtle. By the end of the book, I just wanted to read anything else but a monologue battle about equality between the villain and protagonist. It really lacked the nuisance of internalized prejudice since all the protagonists were open-minded and all the villains were closed-minded. I would've loved to see more than just one protagonist deal with these internal struggles.

While it was good, I just didn't root for Calla enough to be interested in reading the next book, but if you enjoy fantasy romance with shifters and LGBTQIA+ rep, highly recommend!

A fresh take on Sleeping Beauty with good lgbtq+ representation and a well developed fantasy world. Fans of fantasy romance novels and friends to lovers will greatly enjoy this book!

This story was beautiful. There was lgbtq+ representation, one of the side characters uses sign language! This Is a wonderful romantasy with wolf shifters and has sleeping beauty vibes. (With a twist 😊) I can't wait to see where this series goes. 😍

This was my first introduction to AK Mulford in any capacity and I’m going to say this right now, on record: worth the hype.

A big part of this book is self-discovery and breaking from a traditional structure that no longer fits the vision for your life, a thing I feel a lot of people can empathize with these days. That makes this somewhat harder to judge as the change seemed minimal, but it’s also a huge thing that people go through every single day. This helped me understand a little more coming from a voice unlike my own but also honestly the same. The bravery that it takes to live your truth is nothing to joke about, especially when breaking away from a regimented structure as Calla and Grae do here.

The villains were villainous, and the love felt very real. The adventure and experiences of the characters along with the changing internal and external beliefs held therein kept the pace of this. Do I think the acceptance of ones own identity should have happened quicker? Sure. But these things happen when they happen.

Also I LOVED the travelling musicians. The entire feeling of family and home and acceptance was very much THERE—Mulford’s writing made them feel like real people, a real found family. It was such a warm feeling for me as a reader. I loved every moment of it. This book is absolutely packed with feeling, adventure, and beautiful scenery. Villainous villains, brave heroes inside and out, and true desire for change and sanctuary, and a people willing to fight to make those a reality for all.

Thank you to Netgalley, AK Mulford, and Avon Harper Voyager for the advanced copy in exchange for this review.

Ok, I'm going to start this off by saying I have never been a super big shifter romance reader or fated mates reader. HOWEVER, if A.K. Mulford writes it, I'm now 100% completely sold on it after this book.

The story started right in the middle of the action and the pacing continued to be phenomenal for the entire book. I feel like this is such a hard balance to strike in high fantasy, and yet I've never been disappointed with the way that this author is able to strike that balance. I love when. I feel like I'm experiencing the story along with the characters & she delivers this kind of experience with A River of Golden Bones.

We start with a fairy tale like story with all the Sleeping Beauty vibes (I'm going to be honest, I called the big bad Maleficent for awhile when explaining the story to my husband before remembering her name). But then the story unfolds into a fast-paced, heartbreaking adventurous tale with a found family I want to be a part of.

I loved everything about this story, especially the moments in the wagon w/ all of their traveling musician friends (it really gave off Hobbit vibes in the BEST way). I will say that at first I was thrown off by the Fated Mates/Insta Love of the beginning of the book and I was worried I was just not going to like this romance and just stay for the story itself (which is FINE but I love my stories with a huge side of romance which AK is amazing at doing), but I stayed with the book and it took barely any time at all to win me over, even though the love interest Grae did have to work for it because I was MAD at him for awhile in the beginning.

For anyone who is a fan of AK Mulford, romantasy, Sleeping Beauty or just a good adventurous fantasy, this is the book for you and I can not wait to read the second one!

Thank you to NetGalley & Harper Voyager for this ARC to review! :)

A River of Golden Bones (The Golden Court #1)
By A.K. Mulford

Spoiler free ARC review

I really liked this book! I haven’t read a lot of friends-to-lovers romance fantasy books and this book was a fun read. Plus this story is a twist on sleeping beauty and I loved every second of it.

It has a diverse group of characters which was really refreshing to read. The fated mates and found family trope is some of my favorites and if you love them too you’ll enjoy this book! The side characters weren’t an after thought and added a lot to the story! This story has humor, tension, spice, action, romance, and diverse characters 10/10

Can’t wait to read more in this series 🖤🐺

Thank you NetGalley and Avon & Harper Voyager for the ARC!

Overall this book was an easy, quick and enjoyable read. I love the focus on having a main protagonist struggling to self-identify in a very binary world. So often the question of identity comes into play with sexuality and this was a refreshing dialogue into how identity is an intersection of self.

Two main notes on overall thematic progression. Firstly, Briar needs more of a platform. Her entire role is essentially a foil, and yet she is part of Calla's identity crisis. We get maybe three sentences of who Briar really is. In order to develop Calla's mental state, we need to see more interaction between the twins and a deeper look into what life was like for Briar outside of Calla's commentary around her wardrobe. This will also help to better outline the expectations of a royal female/non-binary within the Wolves pack.

However, the BIGGEST plot hole is around this concept of pack mentality. Briar and Calla are raised, essentially, in isolation, with a fairy as their main parental role model. Over 60% of the story is Calla struggling to break free of the pack mentality and question the status quo around predefined gender roles, species prejudice (human/wolves) and non-binary romance. Calla has NEVER lived within the confines of a pack hierarchy. They have only learned about them secondhand...from a fairy. Veilla has never experienced being in a wolf household, nor under a Wolf Monarch. In all honesty, this is a huge miss for the author.

In an effort to clean this up, there needs to be something added. Either we need to see more exposure to a wolves household while they're biding their time in Allesdale or Calla needs to spend more than a night in the kingdom of the Silver Wolves. I won't diminish the abysmal treatment they receive at the hands of King Nero, but they don't really have time to chafe at non-existent restrictions. If can even be a closer examination of Hector, Sadie and the rest. We need to read it on the page how Calla has experienced or witnessed the dynamics under this constricting lifestyle before it makes sense for them to rage about it for the majority of the story.

AK Mulford offers a wonderful varation of the ever growing romantasy book. This is a perfect read to explore one's relationship with their own gender identification while seeing healthy acceptance of being true to one self. Endearing found family, and perfect for those who dreamed of being a wolf growing up.

a river of golden bones is a lgbtq+ sleeping beauty retelling that starts with twin siblings: one living in secret while the other is in line for the throne. the magical storyline of sibling rivalry reminded me of twin crowns!

with vindictive sorcerers and wolf shifters, the story keeps you fascinated until the very end. just beware of calla and grae’s insta-love because their relationship develops so quickly.

i love that calla, the main character, is genderfluid and we get to see them come to terms with how they really feel. it’s so refreshing to read about a non-binary main character.

for romantasy fans that are looking for werewolves and the fated mate trope, this fast-paced story is for you!

I've heard such great things about this, so I was thrilled to get an early look via NetGalley (thank you Harper Voyager!). And I see why buzz is building. Mulford is a wonderful writer, adding such a fresh twist on the classic Sleeping Beauty fairytale, complete with hidden twins and weres. Plus I'm an absolute sucker for friends-to-lovers. Grae has my heart completely.

The last quarter of the novel felt a bit rushed to me, and the spice (which I usually love!) did seem oddly paced given how YA the voice is originally, so rounding down to 4 stars. But I'm excited and eager for book #2!!

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book early in exchange for my honest review. I think this book was pretty good! There was some drama, sloooooooow burn, and a decent plot to the book. This did not end in a plot twist or really an ending where I would truly expect another book to come from it. It left other avenues to be led down, but also clean enough of an ending that it would be a decent standalone in my opinion. I would recommend this book to friends who like shifter books and also has LGBTQ+ representation if you are interested in that. I love when books are about twins and when you have love interests that aren't push overs to each other just because they are in love or fated mates, etc. I believe you should still have an identity and be able to support each others differences in addition to the things they agree upon. That is something that this book does well. I would realistically give this 3.5 stars but since I can’t do that on here I would give it 4 stars because I do think I would recommend it to people I know would enjoy it and did enjoy it myself. Again thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for making access to this title possible!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. (via Netgalley)

Actual review close to 3.5 stars. I loved that there was LGBTQ+ representation with the characters. However, the beginning was a bit confusing to start and had instalove which kind of set the tone for the rest of the story me. I'd much rather see a relationship develop can be done, even with fated mates. The language used in the spice scenes was a little weird lol.